In five years, we’ve been able to grow our community and partnerships to continue our work with BIPOC youth and families throughout our city. We are also excited that we are able to continue growing summer vegetables in the greenhouse. We are also super excited that we have the opportunity to expand into another school in our community.
The mission of Easton Banks Learning & Life Center is to provide high quality early childhood education and youth development programs that help promote and encourage children to achieve their fullest academic potential.
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Hi everyone one Eric here welcome back to our Channel we’re so glad that you’re here for another video before we get started thank you to our latest subscriber for joining our Channel make sure you guys say hello in the comment section if you have not subscribed yet
Please make sure to subscribe like this video comment share and do not forget to click the notification Bell to be notified of when we drop new videos which is every single week in today’s video we’re going to be providing a quick update on the Garden on our project great program
The things that have just transpired over these past few weeks and our plans for 2024 all right so we’re going to just start on this side of the garden right now and as you see a lot of the produce that we have over here for plants are getting
Bigger our hope is that we can protect them enough to where to where we can Harvest them after a lot of these freezing temperatures that we have coming up this week we will be doing another Harvest and of the collared greens unfortunately we don’t have any snap
Peas I just think it was just too cold for them to actually produce flowers and keep the flowers all the way until they actually produce the snap peas so we’ll just put once the cold comes and I’m sure it’ll kill back the snap peas we’ll put onions in their
Place we’re also going to harvest some kale that we have mixed in here and swiss chard and carrots I did want to show you guys the carrots because again I forgot what um variety these were but they’ve been doing so well look at that isn’t that beautiful gorgeous we’re
Going to stick her back in give her another ho but um we have more carrots in the greenhouse and behind me in our he culture raised bed that the students built themselves need to order this in but we’re going to be harvesting these carrots with the other things that will
Be harvesting like the deal switch chard um and let’s go to the other side real quick we’re waiting to harvest our last subway cabbage it still has sometimes to get a little little bit firer but it’s on its way so that is the seavoy Cabbage
As you can see it’s a little bit smaller than the last one in the previous video that we posted to our Channel but we have regular cabbage there two of them and they are getting bigger slowly but surely we just fertilized all of the plants today with
Both both with um fish fertilizer and pelleted fertilizer as you can see in that little pocket right there but all of the cabbages are really producing heads and our goal right now is just to protect them throughout these next few weeks since we’re getting colder and colder with the
Temperatures that’s our main go and our onions and garlic are popping up as you can see there and we’re going to do our best to protect everything else but if everything else dies that’s not covered then it’s okay but we’re going to do our best to make sure everything gets past these
Temperatures and that’s the update for this side of the garden all right we’re going to be going into the greenhouse there are a lot of things in the greenhouse that need to be done and that um have already been done sort of kind of like we started the process on
Some of the some of the tasks but you know how it goes you get a little behind I’ll say so right here something has happened to the outlets I’m thinking of the farm stands I’m thinking I’m not quite sure um as of now I have to get in
Contact with the the school’s engineer to see like what’s happening because neither Farm Stand is turning on this one where the plants are that you see it was on last week but today I have not heard it and something told me to just come in here and check and I looked and
I just stood for a few seconds because it turns on every 15 minutes so during the day it turns on every 15 minutes and so I’ve been here for almost an hour and I have not heard it at all so that’s really a bummer and so I’ve
Had to turn it not turn it on but I’ve had to water it from the top so I’ve had to take the lid off and pour water in there and just multiple times and now the bottom Basin is full of water and so it’s just it’s a lot we still have to
Show you guys guys the video of how we overwinter our Peppers we haven’t done it yet we do apologize but we we’ll we’ll be getting onto that this week and posting it for you guys so you guys can know for next um fall you still have tomatoes growing in
Here as you can see they’re getting bigger and this one is starting to turn its color as well as this one down down here we have new flowers coming in beautiful and we finally were able to get the back window closed all the way the back window panel and it’s now
Warmer inside the greenhouse which is why we are able to still grow tomatoes as you see there and oh I didn’t even check on the squash I totally forgot to show you guys this I’m glad I remembered but our little baby squash here is growing look at that I do believe
This is a Patty pan squash that’s you would call it this is our first squash of this kind ever and how funny is it that it’s growing in the greenhouse during the winter like that is so cool so we’re going to do our best to keep this alive
And then we have another little baby one coming in right there so cute so we’re going to do our best to grow squash throughout the winter fingers crossed that we are able to do that moving over here we have more squash that want it to pop up so we kept
It in containers and if they are able to produce they’re able to produce if not it’s okay I do have to bring um the ne oil because these Pac choy Harbor so many of these little gats and so I just need to I really need to bring the ne oil and spray the
Plants but we have mustard greens here as you can see they are doing great they are doing really really great we’ll be harvesting along with all the other plants next week so we’ll grab some mustard green leaves for our next family and then we have more P Choy on the
Other side of the Garden which I’m going to show you that we’ll Harvest we’ll keep these in the pots and keep them growing for a few more weeks before we Harvest we have more carrots like I was telling you guys in here those won’t be harvested until uh probably February of next year
So we’ll just keep them in here keep them growing keep them fertilized and then we have our own onions that we started here and they have gotten so huge so quickly these will be transplanted probably in another two weeks we’ll give them another two weeks and then we’ll
Just empty out this entire container and put them out in the garden we actually had these onions growing in these little pots here but we needed them to get bigger and so we just put soil in this tray here and so we just put soil in this tray
And put the onions in here and we have fertilized them and hopefully they get greener and get bigger over the next few weeks the reason why you always see me run my hand over the plants is to help them build their uh resilience against any wind or
Any Wildlife that may come in brushed by them so by you rubbing your hands O A bug I think we have white fliers on no plants but by you rubbing your hands over your plants you’re allowing them to build up that um the resilience needed
To be out in the open air so when wind comes and it’s a strong wind they don’t get bent over cuz you know how you put out your early plants your early transplants and they get beat up by the wind that’s because they haven’t uh built up that resilience so if you can
Always if you have the time always run your hand over your plants gently not hitting them just a gent gentle uh caress or if you have a like a a house fan that you don’t use anymore you can use a house fan but make sure you have it on its
Lowest uh setting so it doesn’t again beat up your plants that’s all of the plants for right now but let me show you one more thing look at these I think these are cauliflower or cabbage it could be either or but these were seeds that had dropped
About 2 years ago and look at them they they have sprouted and we have just let them grow like again if a plant wants to grow we will let it grow and also we had to Dunt our garlic here because some it got wet somehow I’m
Not sure how it got wet but it built up me do and we had to throw away a lot of the garlic clothes so all of these garded clothes are going to find a new home very very soon we just have to figure out where all right you guys
Let’s go to the last area of the garden and you already know what area I’m going to it’s the area that I’ve been talking about constantly here in our Channel about the updates that will be coming to this area um it’s just taking us a little bit long to
Actually get this part of the garden to where we need it to be Forest spring and summer but it’s the area where we had our six rows you can’t really tell because it’s a lot of the pine needles have fallen but we will be continuing to till this
Area we do have a machine tiller inside uh the shed but I I need to work on how to one how to turn it on to does it even work so I’ll have to do that in the coming weeks but in the meantime I’m going to be using a hand Tiller that we
Have at least on the rows because they aren’t as what’s the word as firm like they’re tillable but the actual paths that we want to till as well those I can’t do that by hand it’s a little hard I also need to transplant we have br broccoli here growing here last
Spring and now it wants to um come back so I may I need to transplant that somewhere else then we have a little cabbage here you see that little cabbage plant there and then we have I thought we were able to get everything over from here we
Have a lissim over here thyme another kale two kale plants two onions three onions I literally thought we removed everything okay well oh we got parsley over here that’s crazy I thought this road was clear of all produce of all vegetables because that’s what we had the students do
Before we started tilling but there are still plants over here I see bees hopefully there are no nest of bees in the ground so I don’t get Stuned um I’m just looking right now make sure there aren’t any you know other plants that need to be removed it seems like those are the only ones I see another onion okay mental note this is my reminder you guys are watching my reminder so if I forget please if I
Posted another video about the same thing please remind me that you made a note Eric okay but yeah we’re going to be tilling everything over here this will be our squat our Three Sisters patch along along with different Wildlife flowers Georgia Wildlife flowers because we want to tap
Into the the indigenous flowering plants that Georgia has to offer so we’re we also want to the reason we want to tap into that is to have another extension to show the students that you can grow indigenous plants which will benefit the indigenous insects that live in our area
So we’re going to be doing that so we really have to get this area together um I’m thinking so if you watch our last video which was our what was it oh our seed haul our free seed haul that we the seeds we got from Baker Creek there were about three four squash
Plants well split three four squash seed packets varieties that we got and we want to grow them over here so this is a very large area to do a large pumpkin pack along with the green beans and the corn it’s it’s it’s a large enough area to
Have a lot of produce harvested just from those three varieties of plants um so what I’m thinking is what I’m thinking is once we get all of this tilled by February right that’s what that’s my goal get all of this tilled by February I can’t say February February we’re going to move
These the post we’re going to move out the way toot and use them for the Tomato trellises on the other side of the garden but as far as over here have like small patches of flowers sectioned out throughout this area while I have while having designated structures for the corn squash and beans
And I want to give the students an opportunity once this is all cleared of the debris and really tilled with the compost and fertilizer and all that give them the opportunity to design their their we’re not going to do rows per se but like the heels the Mounds like if
They want to do it in a pizza shape where they have like you know a circle and then one triangle is uh beans the and the rest of the pie is corner or squash you know things like that just to allow them to be creative in their gardening while they’re
Learning out here with us um and just to make it more not yeah make it more fun but also make it more of what they want so they will continue continue to take leadership and ownership of what they’re growing as you know once you gain ownership and you want to participate
And take care of anything that you’re doing whether you’re knitting um hiking learning how to swim learning how to perfect your ability to do cross country like anything that you’re taking up as a skill and a new hobby you take ownership of that and you not only do you learn leadership
But you also learn responsibility and accountability so that’s what we really want to focus with the students moving continuing to move forward is not only them learning how to Garden in the different ways you can garden cuz there’s no one way that you can garden you can Garden in so many
Different ways you can G in in buckets and tires and raised beds made out of wood made out of Center blocks like they did here in ground you could do it in the um different types of farm stands that we have in the greenhouse they have there all there are also Clay Farm
Stands that don’t acquire electricity you can you can garden anywhere on anything you can even Garden in a dead tree St like you can do so much with gardening and there are so many ways to grow food so we just want to be able to be a we just want to be
A uh springing platform for the students to jump into this wide ranging community of gardeners that are all across the world and so we hope to just be that for them we hope to have been that for you guys as well on this channel with all of the videos that
We’ve been pushing since 2019 2020 because it’s been a journey these past 5 years oh my God yeah it’s been 5 years and there’s so much growth that you can see in 5 years and it’s and again it’s crazy that in 5 years so much can can happen but it doesn’t feel like
So much time has passed it feels like we just started this program and just started making content for you guys um and also for us to just just to look back on and see our growth with the program and with the students that we’ve been able to work with the Community
Partners that we’ve been able to uh meet and network with and do great things in the community with the families we’ve supported it’s all been great and with the 5year celebration that we’ve been having over these past few weeks we have great news we are finally moving into a new
School we have built a new relationship with another school in our County um we won’t say the name yet because we still have to make plans we just have to cross our tees and da eyes and just make sure everything is in place so once the new school year 2024
2025 starts we’re set to go and we’re off running with everything that I’ve learned these past 5 years we are trying to trying our best to implement them with the new school and make sure that everything is a okay of course things will happen mishaps will happen we
Already know that that’s life but anything that can be mitigated we want to make sure that it is so that we have no pickups on our end once we start want to donate we would love to have your support if you want to share this video
We would love to have you share this video but you can donate by clicking the link Down Below in the description box it will take you to a platform called Georgia Gibbs where you can become a monthly donor being a monthly donor allows you to have direct insight into
The students the families and our inner workings as an organization so you will have more of an insight into how gardening Works how our youth development programs work and how you as a community member no matter where you are can support youth learning developing their skill sets and becoming a full-fledged
Useful and important part into building Community worldwide video guys that’s the updates and the plans for 2024 we are excited to start teaching even more youth which means that we have to really get prepared make sure to follow us on our socials at Tik Tock project grape and
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Partner with um and these will either be limited fund resources or free resources for you to take advantage of we share important updates on our programs on community events that we either are a part of or we host and just a lot of fun informative
Uh news that comes our way that we like to share with you guys okay thanks again for watching today today’s video we’re so happy that you continue to support us by your views guys we are at the last time I checked 272 uh subscribers you guys are becoming
Family that’s so great that you guys are here we our main goal with his channel is to continue to build community so we are thankful that you guys are here and support us make sure to share this video make sure to tag us wherever you share
It and we will see you guys later in the garden bye