Making It Grow Minutes

The side of the road flowers are making me pay more attention to soil types as I drive from St. Matthews to Sumter.

If you want a wildflower area in a place you can’t water, some of these sneezeweed cultivars would be perfect to use.

Like Rodney Dangerfield, some wildflowers can’t get a break.

Some native Crotalarias are the original larval food source for the ornate bella moth.

Amanda McNulty discusses crotalaria spectabilis, a yellow flower commonly known as rattlebox.

Black-eyed Susans, Rudbeckia hirta, are native biennial or perennial wildflowers with many cultivars grown by gardeners.

This summer it has been dominated by yellow flowers.

What are your "must haves" for tomato sandwiches?

Amanda McNulty shares her experiences making bacon mayo.

Hello, I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. In the winter time, cooking a frozen pizza is my easy go to supper. We have a gas stove, which adds heat to the kitchen, so I never turn it on in summer if I can help it. Hot weather suppers revolve around vegetable sandwiches, cucumber or tomato. White bread, peeled sliced cukes or maters, lots of mayonnaise. There’re lots of discussions about what kind of mayonnaise, all made more complicated by other concoctions similar looking to that white stuff in a jar, wildly different tastes. Most people I ask say they use what their momma’s used -- my mother didn’t even put mayonnaise in the refrigerator, maybe the acidity in the tomatoes saved us from potential food poisoning. Now I see recipes calling for – get ready for this --bacon mayonnaise. More on that to come.

Would you try potato chips on a tomato sandwich?

The chewing gum industry in North American exploded when chicle, the latex like substance from sapodilla trees, was introduced to America in the 1870s.

Resin from trees in the spruce genus was the source of the first commercial gum in our country, State of Maine Pure Spruce Gum.

Does your chewing gum lose its flavor on the bedpost overnight? Some people do save their gum but prefer not to stick on the bed post. Fortunately, you can find adorable gum parkers.

For thousands of years people have chewed gums that are extracts from trees.

Birthdays, anniversaries, various milestones – all reasons for getting together. When having fun time flies and that’s just what’s snuck up on Making It Grow, we’ve been on the air for thirty years.

When it comes to popcorn garlands, you would think you'd just string popcorn and that would be that. But with the internet, there's step-by-step directions

People like to put different toppings on their popcorn.

Popcorn isn't just one particular variety; apparently there are tons of different popcorns out there

The U. S. Department of Agriculture is not just a place for the latest and best research on crops, diseases, and insect pests. While looking for information on popcorn, I came across the site for popcorn on the USDA History Library.