Episode 2705

- [Announcer] Behind every Pick Tennessee's product's logo is a real Tennessee farmer. Pick Tennessee products has helped people find those local farmers, food and fun for over 30 years. The flower lady of Gallatin is one busy gardener. From city buildings to historic sites, she's the face of this community's commitment to the beautification of public spaces. Plus, we visit a first generation family farm growing Christmas trees and naturally grown blueberries. Stay tuned. First, there aren't many that could keep up with this gardener's dedication.

- Beautification happens in small towns across America, where landscapes in cities and towns is really an important thing and here in Gallatin, Tennessee, much of that is left up to one person. The flower lady, Alecia Wellbern. How did the flower lady come to be?

- Well, I had joined Keep Gallatin Beautiful. We had gone to Southeastern Conference in Gatlinburg, seen all of their beautiful baskets.

- [Troy] Right.

- [Alecia] My director said well, I know your motto, just do it, so we put together eight baskets, presented them to City Hall and from then on it has grown to 150.

- [Troy] Right, so it started out really with you as a volunteer effort.

- [Alecia] Yeah, as a volunteer.

- [Troy] And the city embraced what you had done, the council, mayors, all of that and this has actually now grown into a job for you.

- [Alecia] Yes, the past two years I'm actually working with the city helping them and putting flowers everywhere.

- [Troy] Everywhere. So we're standing in front of the public works building right now here in Gallatin. And you've done some plantings here. You've also done the front of the Farmer's Market. So one of the things that you pride yourself on and have really become kind of known for is this meadow style of gardening, where you're doing this from seed, it's very low maintenance water wise, requires very little mulch. Why does that appeal to you?

- [Alecia] It's relaxed.

- [Troy] It's relaxed and you do a lot of this from seed.

- Yes, and a few perennials, but the annuals, the bi-annuals just make it pop. When we look at this bed right here when these start waning so much if I get enough seed, then I will pull these plants, come in with zinnias, cosmos, even amaranth, sunflowers, and these will carry on until fall.

- [Troy] But all from seed.

- All from seed.

- [Troy] Yeah.

- [Alecia] You just don't have to spend a ton of money to do this.

- [Troy] So heat loving, drought tolerant things and you just broadcast the seed and let nature takes its course.

- [Alecia] Sure do.

- [Troy] Yeah. Now one other thing that you've done that I think is particularly interesting is an old lot and we won't call it an abandoned lot because it's really not abandoned, it is owned by somebody, but it's just an empty lot like we see in so many downtown areas where something was there, that something is gone, a new building hasn't been built and it was just grown up in.

- [Alecia] Weeds.

- [Troy] Weeds.

- [Alecia] And trash.

- [Troy] Yeah, Johnson grass.

- [Alecia] I just came in and sprayed it, took out my gooseneck hoe, got out the rubble, the bricks and seeded it.

- Worked your magic.

- Yeah.

- Handfuls of seeds.

- Yeah.

- And again just letting nature take its course. Let the rain fall, let the seeds come up. It really is quite an amazing thing that has happened in that spot. It's gone just from really being kind of derelict to a place of beauty that people walk by every day and you're expanding on it.

- [Alecia] Yes, it's gonna take a couple of seasons for the, you know, the weeds to go away. The Mayor in the past year has a pollinator initiative wanting more city gardens to have pollinator flowers to bring in the pollinators.

- [Troy] Yeah, bees, butterflies.

- Bring them back because we, you know, the monarch initiative. I'm planning more milkweed, butterfly weed in all of the gardens and we're trying to educate the homeowners and we've been having lecture series at several of the different city gardens.

- [Troy] Well, that's fantastic. So, it's really an extremely low maintenance way of gardening. The landscape around City Hall is a little bit different and there's a reason for that.

- [Alecia] Well, because the monuments are there and they were put there for the bicentennial and it's to dress up the monuments so you've got to keep it proportioned so that style, things are in row like cookie cutter.

- Yeah, a little more formal because City Hall's a little more formal place and you do have the monuments and so different styles for different places that are suitable. We mentioned the hanging baskets. Now we started with eight hanging baskets.

- They were in the cocoa baskets. Now these are in plastic baskets and they have 36 holes and then there's room for six at the top.

- [Troy] Okay.

- [Alecia] We have a nursery that grows then out for us and they were just put out a couple of days ago and we have three to four young guys, usually in school that will keep, you know they're watered daily, sometimes twice daily and then after they start getting a little leggy, I have to go around and you know prune the bottoms of them off and just really keep an eye on them.

- [Troy] Right and really keep an eye, and I'm sure they have to be fed occasionally also.

- [Alecia] Every week.

- [Troy] How have you seen your efforts serve as inspiration for other business owners and citizens in the downtown area.

- Well, Derryberry Heat and Air just received a beautification award. They have gone above and beyond making their property look good. Several, you know, the further down on Northwater used to be called the bad side of town and it's not anymore. There's so many improvements to the buildings, the beautification, more trash cans, more ash trays, less trash.

- [Troy] Yeah, so everybody's taking a sense of pride now.

- Yeah.

- [Troy] And a lot because of your efforts.

- And they're happy to see me tooling down, you know, in my car.

- [Troy] Yeah, in your cart coming down the street, here comes the flower lady.

- Yeah, they're actually happy.

- So what are the future plans for the flower lady and the city of Gallatin? More beds, more expansion? Are you taking on more responsibility.

- Well, the Franklin House over there, we'll be putting in a garden, possibly a rain garden.

- Okay.

- And then at Rosemont a cutting garden and it may have to be a rain garden because of several gutters-

- [Troy] That empty out into that area.

- [Alecia] Have to be addressed.

- [Troy] So certain times of the year will be wet and other times dry, yeah.

- And then there's my gardens.

- Right, yeah, this is your day job and when you get home there are your own gardens to take care of. So, well, I think it's such an important lesson that you're teaching and that the city is teaching in the way that they've embraced what you're doing.

- [Alecia] It's definitely a labor of love.

- We're on a farm this morning. Not a hay farm, not a vegetable farm, or corn farm. We are at a Christmas Tree Farm. Erin's Tree Farm and I'm happy to be talking to Gary Hamm. He and his wife Linda have received an award. And I'm going to put this up here Gary and you tell me about you winning this.

- This award was for the best management practices here in the state of Tennessee. And what it is it's about sustainable practices that one might use on the farm and of course we're on the Christmas Tree Farm, which is a portion of the forestry aspect of what we do on our farm. And we're 244 acres and the majority of our farm is forested. The open land which was mostly tobacco and hayfields was basically ravaged. We have not put any chemicals on our farm since planting these Christmas trees. We've corrected issues of erosion on our farm by adding a pond or two, different areas. Many of the sustainable practices have included as I mentioned before bat boxes to bring those type of animals and provide homes for them. We're in a conservation reserve program, we're in the CSP programs here in the state of Tennessee and we also like to educate.

- [Annette] You have a cash crop of Christmas trees and blueberries. Let's start here.

- Okay. Well, this is a white pine and they take one shearing per year.

- Uh-huh, well what about-

- Eastern white pine.

- I see some new growth happening on this one now. When it comes time for cutting that would not be this color, would it? It would be more all of the same color.

- That's correct. This portion of the tree is hardened off and this was some sporadic new growth that continued. Once we have sheared the tree, you'll see the new growth starts right here. That's getting ready for next year. So this tree has been sheared during the warmest times which is right at June.

- Okay.

- And that's the shearing for this particular tree.

- And what do you use to shear that with?

- There's various pieces of equipment, but most of the time we have a hired crew come in and they use what looks like to be giant bread knives. They're 36 inches long, they have an 18-inch handle and an 18-inch blade.

- Serrated.

- Serrated and when we go around the tree, we're going around with two knives like this and we're walking around the tree like so. So what you're doing is you're constantly keeping the shape of the tree in a cone and that's what gives the Christmas trees its shape.

- Yeah.

- Trees that grow in the wild of course are all competing for the sunlight and for the nutrients so their branches might go anywhere.

- [Annette] This is a beautiful tree Gary, what is it?

- [Gary] This is a Virginia pine. This is the native species and it comes across our particular zone, planting zone. So from the Virginias all the way out through Tennessee, southern Kentucky, northern Georgia, northern Alabama.

- [Annette] So if it were growing in the wild, again it wouldn't have this pyramid shape, so it would be distinguished how, how would you tell?

- Well, you can tell a lot by its color. It has a very light green and sometimes yellowish cast.

- [Annette] Uh-huh.

- But it also has a very distinct smell and you'll think that at times when you rub your hand in it and then smell it, you might feel that you're in a Florida orange orchard. It has almost a citrus kind of smell which is much more prevalent during the Christmas tree season.

- I smell that. Okay, well this is a beautifully shaped tree and I actually see a culprit over here. With all these needled evergreens, what do you do with old Mr. Bagworm?

- [Gary] Well, when we see them and at the right time of the year we grab them off and.

- [Annette] Pluck it.

- [Gary] Yeah, we pluck it and we just squeeze it.

- He's already been done away with.

- Right, so he's out, so he's out, but usually you get them at the right time of the year and the bagworm is in there.

- That's what I do, too. Squeeze 'em.

- Squeeze 'em and get rid of them.

- Squeeze the life out of 'em. Well, this is beautiful. Okay now, this is the second variety of trees you have here.

- And this tree, and that is sheared twice a year, so it was just recently sheared again. They are such prolific growers. So a tree this size is half the age of the tree that we looked at previously, so they really grow quickly.

- [Annette] This, then, could be an example of people could plant this in their yards here in Tennessee, right here in lower Montgomery County.

- [Gary] Yes.

- And it would make an excellent, because it's native and it's fast growing is the key word there, people are always wanting to cover things so this would be a good tree.

- Yes.

- Okay, all right, now, the third variety. Tell me what it is.

- The third variety we have scotch pines.

- Okay, well, let's go find one.

- Okay, let's find a pretty one.

- [Annette] Okay.

- We have about 6-1/2 acres of Christmas trees planted and all in the variety that I mentioned, the eastern white pine, the Virginia pine and of course the Scotch pine right here.

- Now you also have what I would say sustainable trees because you ball burlap out some of them.

- Yes, we do. Some of our clients love to plant a tree and of course that can be a little tricky so that's education in itself.

- [Annette] It is?

- A balling burlap tree does not need to stay inside the house very long. It needs to be acclimated to come into the home.

- [Annette] Right.

- And it needs to be acclimated to come out to reduce shock.

- [Annette] It's tricky, it's tricky.

- And then be planted.

- Okay, so now there is a natural shedding of the needles on all of these trees. When does that take place?

- A lot of that is weather dependent, but it's mostly when new growth starts, so the new growth is coming, it's taking out the sunlight, it's dropping the older needles and as you can see the scotch pines are so dense. They're very short needled and sharp tree, similar to Frasiers, a lot of people like that. But of course in this tree you can tell it still has a lot of needles.

- [Annette] I call this bird nest in here.

- Oh, yes. And what we do with these, of course, once the tree is cut and going home with our customer, we of course blow them out, get rid of the needles. You want to make sure your tree is clean and you want to make sure your tree is very well watered. Once you cut a Christmas tree and you're taking it home, of course, it might be on the top of your vehicle or in the back of your truck, but the last thing you want to do before you bring it into the house and set it up is cut another quarter of an inch off the bottom of that tree. That tree once it's harvested already starts skinning over, so it gets hard on the bottom, which it doesn't allow it to accept water. And water and moisture is going to keep the foliage green and it's gonna keep the tree moist and that's gonna be for a very happy Christmas because of not only the color, but the safety aspect as well.

- Okay, well, we've talked about keeping your trees healthy and now I'm gonna go visit with Linda to talk about keeping ourselves healthy with blueberries.

- Very good.

- [Annette] So let's talk about your beautiful world of blueberries.

- [Linda] Okay, I have several varieties over there that have been here for 25 years and they will last, if you take good care of them about 40 years.

- [Annette] Oh, my.

- [Linda] So, every year I get better at them as far as the pruning goes.

- [Annette] What do you spend your time doing as far as taking care of them?

- Well, in the winter time is when I do most of my pruning and then weed control is a biggie. I do that all year round. So because I don't use chemicals on here, so there's no Roundup down here. It's all right there. Pulling.

- You either weed eat and you do mulch.

- And I do mulching. I use a lot of cardboard down and then I use, the plants love acid so I will use pine needles and sawdust that's been mellowed out for a couple of years.

- [Annette] Not green.

- [Linda] Not green, right. And I like cow manure, but I will use horse manure, but again I put that up there and I cover it with black plastic to kill it. To kill all those things that don't die naturally.

- [Annette] That does take care of the weeds.

- [Linda] And then, so I lasagna it, layer it.

- [Annette] Familiar with that.

- [Linda] And this year I am trying some different ground covers just kind of going the end of the season when they're really inexpensive and seeing who works the best because I'm experimenting.

- [Annette] You're using herbs for a ground covering.

- [Linda] Mm-hmm, yes.

- That's interesting. We all like to extend our seasons with whatever.

- Right.

- 'Cause we're growers. This is a blueberry that you will perform like that?

- Right, the larger ones, the ones that have been here for several years, they come in during a four-week time period and then they're pretty well done. This will extend it out another two weeks. And my daughter promised me she would help take care of this extended time period, okay.

- [Annette] Well, but mama can do it, too.

- [Linda] Mama can do it, too, but she promised me she would help me.

- [Annette] And this variety is?

- [Linda] This is an Onslow, so it's gonna come at the end of the season, later on on the season so probably everything, I don't now if you've noticed it's been coming in a week or two or three earlier.

- [Annette] Yes, I did.

- So my plants generally come in, oh, just right before the Fourth of July. Now they're coming in mid-June and early June.

- The same varieties you've had for 25 years?

- Right, right, they're coming in two or three weeks early. So hopefully these will come in end of August.

- [Annette] I believe you have other sustainable things going on here on your farm.

- Right, I have honey bees and they help me, they increase my yield by about 30% and then the other thing we're going to be starting this winter is getting the fields ready for about two acres of a butterfly food crop with milkweed and other things that basically the monarchs love to eat. We'll have to till some of it, okay, and probably burn it off first.

- [Annette] Yeah, that's a good thing.

- Then do some discing and them put in winter rye. And then the winter rye, what we'll do, I caught this out at one of the classes I went to, and the winter rye will get about yea tall and then you just flatten it down, it dies at the end of the winter, so it becomes a nice natural ground cover and then you can put your seeds in and your plants in.

- [Annette] It's almost a mat, isn't it?

- [Linda] Yes, yes, we're still getting all the logistics.

- [Annette] The beginning stages.

- [Linda] From the agricultural folks. They'll help us through this, this is our first time doing this.

- [Annette] Isn't that wonderful?

- [Linda] Oh, they're a great asset.

- That is a good resource for anyone that lives in Tennessee where they have extensions. That's what our tax dollars go to to help fund helping our small farmers, our home gardeners and Linda I think that you and Gary definitely have earned your award for the state of Tennessee and your manageability of your farm.

- [Linda] Thank you very much.

- [Annette] Thank you for sharing this beautiful day with us.

- [Linda] All right, thank you Ann.

- All right, so you're out in your garden and you just realized that your seed packet said plant these seeds 6 inches apart. Now we all know, can guess about 6 inches, but I have a solution for you. What I've did is I've taken my favorite hoe and I've taken my tape measure and I've measured increments of 1 inch and a half inch on my hoe with a Sharpie. Now granted the Sharpie's only gonna last about a year or so from the mud and the water and the dirt, but it's an easy solution. You can throw this right down on the ground and measures and it'll get you where you gotta go.

- Well, square foot gardens are wonderful things to have just like any type of raised bed. They can be so easy. Watering is something we're always trying to figure out and Bren you've got this fantastic system that well, I'm not quite sure how it's put together, so please explain to me.

- [Bren] My friend Shirley here during the summers would be out here watering and it took forever. It's hot, so I kind of wanted to shorten that time that it takes to actually do a water. The second thing once I built it, I did a little research after I built it and I found out there's some other benefits like measuring the water, actually how much water are you putting on your beds. The general rule of thumb is an inch to an inch and a half of rain a week. Well, we don't always get that. But if you do the math, 1 inch deep on a 4 by 8 square foot raised bed is 20 gallons, five, 10, 15, 20.

- Aha.

- So this is an inch of water for the bed. It we already got a half an inch this week, then we just fill them up halfway. If we didn't get any rain, we can give them an inch of water. So that's the other thing, we can measure it. Also it's a little bit more efficient because there's very little evaporation now. There's just little individual holes in those feeder lines there and they almost inject the water right into the soil so there's very little on the surface. So most all of the water's going into the plants.

- [Julie] So you're really doing a form of drip water gardening.

- [Bren] Yeah, that's really what this is, it's really drip.

- We've got the plastic buckets that we all have.

- We've got them raised up. We need, you know, we need gravity, so I've got roughly 18 to 2 inches to 2 feet here. To the top of the water is closer to three which is really what you need, but this water pressure, these buckets are all tied together underneath. The hoses come up underneath the bottom. I've got a screen down to keep, you know, any particles from getting into the water system and plugging up all those holes. We fill them up the night before and actually all we have to do is fill up one and because they're all connected, they all fill up. We come and we turn this little hose here and water comes out.

- [Julie] Well, that is fantastic. Is water coming out of each of these at the same time?

- [Bren] Yep, they're all tied together. They're essentially one big thing and by the way, that's an important, water pressure is really kind of important for this to work because you want the water to come out all the way down to the end and you lose a little pressure along the way so you need to have all of this water, raise it up and it'll do the whole thing that we realized well, we got these other beds, so what can we do about that. So what we did was is this we put a hose on it and there's a connector right down here and I can unscrew that connector on this one and screw it into that one, or this one or that one over there and we can water any of these beds without having to move this big old thing around.

- From this particular location. Well, this is absolutely brilliant. I really, really like this. I guess a couple of tips for people. You can't just put any flimsy table for all this water to sit on. Water's pretty heavy.

- Eight pounds a gallon.

- All right.

- 20 gallons, that's 160 pounds.

- Okay, so you need a good sturdy base.

- Yeah, the other thing you need to worry about and we learned this from bitter experiences that once these buckets are empty, wind can blow them over. So we've got rocks in them right now, but eventually I'll tie them down some kind of way, but that's another project.

- Well, that makes a lot of sense and I guess the final thing is make sure if you fill it up, you need to go ahead and use that water within 48 hours so you're not just bringing in mosquitoes.

- That's a good point, that's a good point. We don't need the water if we got an inch of rain naturally. It we got a half an inch of rain, we could fill the buckets up halfway. But when we've got, once we've done the watering, we let these things drain out completely and that way we don't have problems with mosquitoes. The mosquito larvae's not gonna echo through a life cycle in one night and that's generally how long we have water in these things and then we're done.

- Wow, this is fantastic, I love it. It looks to me that it could even be incredibly useful for my garden that's far away from my rain barrel, certainly save me a few steps there to just turn it on and let it go, so, thank you so much for showing this to us and I know Shirley is very happy these days.

- Well, you're very much welcome.

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