Know To Grow!

In our first unit Food, our first action project was about "planting" our own garden from all the earlier information we have learned. We learned about how plants grow, what makes up good and bad companions, biodiversity, and the iterations of organisms.

GA, My Plantation, 2017 

The value I had for gardening and just another living organism has changed over time in this unit. I learned the rules and skills you need to carry to grow a garden. I also learned the several different ways to grow plants rather it be inorganic or organic. The place I choose to place 10 plants was in my backyard. On the right side, there is a fence which may help out when the crops start to sprout it will use a leverage for growth. The plants will grow in a column like station knowing that is the previous space my family uses for growing other crops which made it idealistic to place. The space measured out 3 square by 6 square with a total of 18 ft squared. Next, I placed 3 Tupperware which measured as h=6 in and l= 4.5 w= 5 with a total of 120 in cube each. The plants I decided to grow was cucumbers, parsnip, peas, potatoes, pumpkin, beans, celery, corn, radish, and dill. If I was to grow the peas and potatoes next to each other instead far apart it will cause a bad companion and cause a relation of competition knowing they will fight for survival such as sunlight, nutrients, and space.

My nitrogen levels were at a medium level which means I would have to apply a moderate amount of fish meal to my soil. I chose fish meal because it was a light enhancement. The meal is 4 lbs per 100 sq ft. I first had to calculate my square footage. My nitrogen turned out 1.38 and as for my potassium, it was 307 as it did not need any further calculations and as for phosphorus, it turned out to 2.78.

In this unit, we also read a book called One Straw Revolution and a reflection on Fukuoka practices of farming and how they differ from the norm of agriculture. Fukuoka practiced natural farming which included no pesticides, herbicides, mechanical plowing, and chemical fertilizer. Comparing this to my garden I can say I will not need to do most of these things knowing I have such a small space and using too much can drown the plants into a lot of absorbent of unnecessary chemicals which means I will use his practices on natural farming by leaving it to nature.

Overall I can say this unit Really opened my eyes to find out how fragile everything really is and how easy it is for organisms to develop unbalanced. I also learned That everything on this Earth has a purpose in life in a way that we help each other out to grow and keep surviving as a balanced community similar to what Fukuoka has stated