Cory Gaines I like to grow things. I want to try a variety of things as time goes by, but right now I split my time fairly evenly between growing food and xeric plants that attract pollinators and birds. I like to think of myself as pretty experienced with plants. I have grown garlic for years but only bought seed cloves once, I have propagated things by cuttings, I know how to pollinate sweet corn, cucumbers and squash by hand, I've done delicate surgery on pumpkin vines to excise grubs, you name it. Taking a job at a school out on the Eastern Plains with an ag department changed my mind on that pretty quick, however. It didnât take long to see I knew pitifully little about plants and farming on a commercial scale. Some of this was my upbringing: I grew up in Delta surrounded by orchards, but we moved to Denver when I was young (and oil shale failed). Some of it is just plain ignorance. Food comes from the store and if you donât ever talk to producers, usually your knowledge ends there. Â