My humble garden.

Welcome to virtual school!  Our food class, like all other classes at GCE, is online due to the stay-at-home guidelines across Illinois.  Digitally, though, we have been able to connect on Zoom for our daily classes, where we have learned about healthy soil and nutrients.  We read a book titled "One Straw Revolution" and we watched a movie called Dirt!.  Although it prompted some thinking about what makes for a healthy gardening ecosystem.

With that in mind, it was time to create our own garden!  We received some soil and seeds -- our GCE 'Lab Kits" arrived in the mail -- and with that I could plant a small garden container.  First, though, I had to test the soil for primary macrnutrients using soil capsules (also received in the GCE lab kit).  I created a soil solution and dropped my capsule in.  Notice the orange color of the water after the soil test capsule was dissolved in the water -- this indicates a high level of potassium in the soil.  That's good -- it's vital for plant health in my garden!


With the soil tested, I planted a small plastic tray with the soil and seeds.  Each tray is roughly a rectangular box with dimensions of 1.5 inches by 1.5 inches on top, and 3.5 inches tall.  That means the area of the surface is A = L x W = 1.5^2 = 2.25 square inches.  The volume of the entire tray is V = L x W x H = 1.5 x 1.5 x 3.5 = 7.875 cubic inches.  Since my tray has 8 boxes, that's a total of 7.875 x 8 = 55 cubic inches of soil!
















This is a nice start to a garden, but if I had more time, I would want to create a larger garden with more plants.  I'm inspired by the urban gardener Ron Finley who sees gardening as a tool for education and empowerment.  Or, as he says, "plant some ****".  Ok, not language for your grandma, but it's inspiring!

As you can see in my above sketch, I have a mix of herbs that are perfect for use in cooking.  In the middle are beans, since they are pretty hearty plants and I'm not a great gardener!  And beans are valuable because they 'fix' nitrogen -- they bring nitrogen into the soil from the air.  For a garden container, I found an old sled that doesn't get much use anymore.  If I drill a couple holes in the bottom, it will make a perfect, shallow garden container.  Maybe it needs a coat of paint -- that's a bright orange color!

Overall, this was fun to think about gardening -- but especially fun to create a small planting.  I'm not much of a gardener -- but I hope mine will sprout.  Maybe that will continue to inspire me to grow my own garden!







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