How Gardening Benefits Children | Garden Style (710)

How gardening is opening doors for children, plus inspiring colors for your outdoor furniture. It's all coming up next. I'm Allen Smith. Welcome to today's show. You know, when I was a kid, we had a big vegetable garden, and I always loved to get out and plant things with my brothers and sisters. And then when the food began to come in, my mom would prepare it, and we'd sit at the dinner table and talk about what we'd grown. But you know, I find today that most kids don't grow up on a farm. They live in urban areas, so they don't have an opportunity to get their hands in the soil and grow something and make that connection between the soil and the food they eat. However, I am encouraged that across the country, there are certain schools that are actually bringing the garden into the classroom. Now, sometimes it's as simple as doing a lesson on why trees change color or starting seedlings to learn how plants grow. But every opportunity young people get to connect with the natural world around them is a step in the right direction, as far as I'm concerned. I recently visited a school for developmentally disabled children to see how they're using an on-campus garden greenhouse not only as a teaching tool, but as a way to instill confidence and life skills. We'll stop in, and who knows, this program might inspire you to start one like this in your own community. We're also gonna take a look at some of these yard sale finds. Just take a look at this table I recently had powder coated. What a transformation. And now I'm going to repaint this chair and bench. Now, a little later in the show, we're gonna choose some colors, so stick around. This picturesque garden is more than something beautiful to look at. It's a teaching tool and a stepping stone on the road to building self-confidence in children. Welcome to the ACCESS School in Little Rock, Arkansas, where they specialize in helping prepared children with developmental disabilities. Recently, I had a chance to visit with Tammy Simmons, one of the school founders. Tammy, it's always a pleasure to come to ACCESS and see all the changes you guys have made since my last visit, and I'm just knocked out by what's going on here. Well, thank you. We look forward to your visits. Now, this school is dedicated to helping students with learning disabilities. You're right, and you know, when you hear the word disability, some people don't really know what that means. And in ACCESS, it may just mean you can't read. You know, you're at a certain level, and you haven't learned to read, so you can benefit from our specific learning approaches, and then for some, it's a physical disability. So that's why individualizing is real important, and that's one of the things we're able to do with the garden, is individualize the approach that we use to teach them. When did this idea of a garden really begin to germinate? We started about a year ago, and they've just, as gardens do, they've grown, and we've grown, and we've learned a lot, and our students have just done a great job. I have to applaud the way you all have managed to create something for every child to do, no matter their skill set or no matter their age. Well, you know, gardens lend themselves to that just so perfectly. Well, these disciplines do mesh. I mean, when you really get in there and look at it, you can see that there is some beautiful dovetailing that can go on. Absolutely. You know, what we've seen with our garden project is the self-esteem, and the kids who are so proud of what they've done, and you'll watch the parents pick them up in the afternoons, and they just have to stroll through the garden and show their parents what they've done, and when their grandparents are in for holidays, they bring them over. So it's that pride that's important for everyone. What's the most inspiring component of this program for you? The smiles on the kids' faces when they know they're successful. What is your answer? Eighty-one. Very good. All right, let's look at another problem. And the parents who get to watch their students in an environment that typical people would be in as well and really excel. You know, they worked at our sales, and they were the salesmen. You know, they were counting the change, and they were helping people to the cars with their products. And they got to say, I agree with this. So what kind of gardening is going on today? Well, actually, Norma's in the greenhouse with some students. You ought to check out what they're doing. I'll do it. Good to see you. Yeah, thank you. Bye-bye. Okay, hold it right there. Before we meet Norma and find out about the gardening program, let's take a quick break. And don't forget, we're gonna have some fun with paint a little later, so stay with us. Welcome back. Just before the break, we were talking with Tammy Simmons about the ACCESS School in Little Rock, Arkansas. Now, let's step into the greenhouse and see what Norma Simmons and the kids are up to. Hey, Norma. Well, hi, Allen. This looks great. Hey, everybody. Hi, Norm. How are you? You are busy, busy, busy. The greenhouse looks fantastic. Well, thank you. We've got some different stages of growth here. We're getting ready for fall. Well, now, Norma, you produce, or the school and the entire team produce several crops of flowers a year that you guys sell and use the proceeds to help better the school. Oh, yes. We have a sale in October for the fall. We have one at Valentine's Day, and then we have two in the spring. The kids actually grow the plants, some of them from seed and some of them from cuttings, and so that they do all the processes. Now, this program is a program that kids of all ages can participate in here at ACCESS School, isn't it? That's right. We start with the kindergarten program and go clear through the vocational age, through 21. What are some of the lessons you think the kids learn from this process, other than the obvious lessons of growing something? Well, I think the main thing here is that it teaches them self-esteem. It teaches them responsibility for doing a job well done. It teaches them cooperation with their fellow workers. The same skills that it takes to do this type of job follows through regardless of whatever they do in all walks of life. Well, Norma, thank you so much for taking the time to show me what's going on here. It's very inspiring. Well, thank you. Keep up the good work. Take a look at this coleus called Granny Smith. You see, it's the same color as the frame of the window. Now, what makes this box so successful is there's a good ratio of bloom to foliage. But then here's a sweet potato vine that's a bronze color called Miss Caroline. Some of the bloomers include this outrageous lantana called Red Spread, along with this little bat-faced kufia. As you can see, all these red bloomers echo the color of the red window muntins. Now, one thing to keep in mind with a planting like this is that you've got two exuberant growers here, the coleus and the sweet potato vine. And if you're not careful, these can become thugs. So you may wanna come in and prune back the coleus and the sweet potato vine. You can see, it's actually even beginning to cover up this wonderful little Angelina sedum and this variegated vinca minor. The main thing to do is just have some fun. Paint your house an exuberant color and then echo that color with the plantings around it. Hey, if you want color, I've got color. Just take a look at this dazzling array of paint chips I'm considering for an easy makeover for these garage sale finds. We'll follow their progress right after this. Now, before we leave this Color Corner segment, here's a plant I just have to share. Snowstorm Giant Snowflake Suterra. You see, this is an improved variety that retains its flowers even after being drought stressed because it's the lack of water, not high temperatures, that cause it to stop flowering. And since Suterras are very slow to wilt, you may not realize they're thirsty. The new Snowstorm Giant Snowflake maintains buds under dry conditions, so it's back in flower within days rather than weeks. Now, this is where designing exterior spaces gets really fun. I'm trying to pick out just the right color for these vintage pieces of lawn furniture I picked up at a sale. Now, I'm looking for inspiration from fabrics, flowers, as well as foliage. You see, I had this table, which is powder coated with a sort of creamy white done several weeks ago, and I think it looks great. Do you know about powder coating? It's really fascinating. And if you hate to repaint, like I do, then it's a good solution for metal items. And the results will just take a look, smooth and even, and it will last a long, long time. For outdoor furnishings, it's a real time saver. I have to say, I'm very impressed with what Phillip Webb and his guys did at Little Rock Powder Coating and Finish. This thing looks new. Now, when I take the chair and the bench over, with the powder coating process, it'll only work on the metal part. What he's gonna do is he's gonna sandblast the old paint off both the wood and the metal. Kind of hate to see the flaking paint go, but this is an opportunity to have a little fun with these, right? So I can pick out some wild and wacky colors, and boy, I've got some here. I mean, and these names are incredible, like this one called Ambitious Amber, this one called Lovable. You have to wonder, where does the paint company come up with these names? Well, Sherry Thompson of Sherwin-Williams knows. Coming up with names for over a thousand colors is really an interesting process. One of the fun stories that I like to tell as far as a color name is a color we call Relentless Olive. And for those of us that remember the 70s, we can relate to this. This is that olive green, the harvest golds, and the rust of the 70s that we hoped would go away just never went away. This is that relentless olive green that just keeps coming back year after year, therefore the name Relentless Olive. We really pull from personal experiences, our travel experiences, trends, and pop culture. We'll come up with names that are literal in their meaning, but also have to have some emotion or inspiration tied back to them. For instance, if we had a color that was a light beige or a light brown, although those are literal in their meaning, they're not really inspirational, don't really evoke a response. You take those same colors, and now you call them bagel or latte, it instantly conjures up an image of warmth and coziness and relaxation. All right, now it's time for viewer mail. And what we have today is a letter from a viewer who's just moved to Seattle. And they write, Dear Alan, it seems like the old poem is right about April showers, but what about those May flowers? I'm new to Seattle, and this has been a really wet spring. Is it going to ruin my chance for any blooms? Well, you have to realize in Seattle, they can get up to 36 inches a year in rainfall and 9 inches of snow. But if you think about a classic spring flower, such as the tulip, well, those will continue flowering despite the wet weather. We visited the tulip fields in Holland many times, and I've noticed that a loose sandy soil and a coastal climate seem to be perfect for them. Well, that sort of sounds like Seattle, doesn't it? And some other plants you might consider are rhododendrons. They'll flower despite the fact that you seem to be getting rain all the time. Now, one thing that may help is keeping a journal. Just write down plants that you see that you like. If you're new to the area, you're gonna see a lot of new and interesting things. Visit garden centers or even public gardens. This will give you the confidence when it comes time to choose the plants for your new garden. Hope this helps, and I hope you stay dry. Happy gardening. Okay, we're off to a cooking school to learn about this dish, the recipe, right after the break. I don't know about you, but food is very important to me. And I have to say, I'm very encouraged by what I see happening across the country. More people are buying locally grown produce, and that produce so often is organically grown. Several years ago, I visited with the Duchess of Devonshire. And during the interview, I asked her what her favorite part of the garden was, and she told me that she loves her kitchen garden. There's nothing like stuff that you pick yourself at the time you want it, at the size you want it. Usually, they get too big, don't they, peas and beans? And then they're really only fit for animal food by the time you buy them in the shops. But if you can get your own at just the right size, it's nectar. It just makes sense that using fresh-from-the-garden ingredients is paramount for good chefs, and it's always refreshing to have an opportunity to meet people who are passionate about the ingredients they use to cook a meal. Here at the Viking Cooking School in Greenwood, Mississippi, everyone from professional chefs to your average Joe can take classes and learn about the latest techniques. Today, we're working on a beautifully composed avocado, grapefruit and spinach salad that we're garnishing with a little bit of prosciutto rolls. To begin with, we're going to start with our dressing ingredients. We've got a quarter of a cup of granulated sugar. That's going to help balance the acid in our grapefruit. Three tablespoons of red wine vinegar, a half a teaspoon of celery seed, a half teaspoon of dried mustard, a half teaspoon of paprika, three tablespoons of honey. This is going to help emulsify our dressing, and we're going to whisk in half a cup of canola oil or a grapeseed oil, any sort of neutral-flavored oil. As we finish drizzling in our oil, we're going to season our dressing with some salt and pepper, so just a couple of shots of sea salt, a couple of shots of black pepper, and a little bit of fresh lime juice to balance everything out. Just pop this in our juicer, give it a squeeze, a quick whisk, and our dressing's ready. We'll just set it aside as we continue assembling our ingredients. We're going to cut off the outer rind of our grapefruit, just as you would do for making ambrosia. Holding our grapefruit over a bowl, we're just going to follow the membranes around the sides of each segment and let them drop right into our bowl. You need a very sharp knife for this process. Once we've removed all of the segments from our grapefruit, we're just going to give this remaining core a nice squeeze to get out all of the grapefruit juice. We're going to remove our grapefruit segments to a different bowl and pour our remaining grapefruit juice over our avocado. We've sliced our avocado from the north pole to the south pole, removed the pit, then cut those segments, those two halves, into thirds. We're going to let them rest in our reserved grapefruit juice. This is going to help keep them from turning brown. We've got some baby spinach that's been washed and dried. It's really important for your greens to be nice and clean and dry so that the dressing will adhere to them and not slip right off of a wet green. So we're going to take our spinach, add them to a large mixing bowl, toss a little bit of our dressing with our greens here, and make a small little base of these dressed greens right on the bottom of our plate. Next, we're going to alternate slices of grapefruit and avocado right over the top of our greens. Ruby red and pink grapefruit make very colorful additions to this salad. Next, to form a centerpiece for our composed salad, we're going to make some prosciutto roses. Start by taking a nice thin slice of prosciutto, about an inch wide, and just begin rolling it lengthwise and pinching the end of it tightly as you go. It'll begin to form flower petals. You can add another piece if you need to, depending on what size of rosebud you would like. You're going to pinch the ends of it tightly to keep it secure. Give the top edges of your petals a little fold outward, and then place it right in the center of our salad. So what do you think of this color combination? I love the fabric, and one of these greens would be a perfect fit. I think I'm gonna go with it. I hope, in today's show, you've seen some colors that inspire you to get out there and have some fun in the garden, or put a fresh coat of paint on some of your lawn furniture. If you want more information on some of the color combinations in today's show, the Access School, or the recipe that you just saw, check out my website, that's pallonsmith.com. Until next time, from the garden, I'm Allen Smith. In this garden, I dream of a bed of flowers, bluebirds sing of the beauty all around us. And every time the sun comes out, I can't help but smile. Oh, no, I can't help but smile.