Garden

In my new class, Food, we are learning about plant ecology and the differences between plant nutrients. I studied and learned many new things such as the ecology of what makes a successful garden. During the course, I was tasked to watch Ron Finley’s TED Talk about gardening and beautifying South Central through the process of gardening. I found this to be eye opening about gardening and very impactful on myself.  I was later tasked in creating my own garden. I am also proud of the way my design turned out.

Since I live in an apartment building and in an urban area, Los Angeles, it would a bit difficult to plant a garden. Fortunately, there is a garden right in front my apartment building. My garden will be 7 feet by 3 feet, approximately 21 square feet. By referring to the dimensions, I can now see that this size will be suitable for my 10 plants to be grown there. Much of the plants' growth and life depends on nutrients. In class, I found that plants need 16 different nutrients in order to survive. The three most important nutrients are Nitrogen, Potassium, and Phosphorus. I think that by judging visually I found it to be healthy because it contained a healthy water supply and contained life. I do want to be sure so I decided to do a soil test, testing the three main nutrients, Potassium, Nitrogen, and Phosphorus.  

 As I was testing the soil, I found that the purpose of this test was to understand the amount of fertilizer or any additional nutrients that are needed to adequately grow the plants. I found from my soil test that my soil contains a PH of 6, high phosphorus level, very high level of nitrogen, and a medium level of potassium. Based on these results, I will need approximately 0.42 pounds of soft rock phosphorus and 0.10 pounds of F2260 sulfate of potash. I also will not need to supplement my soil's nitrogen level.  This fixture will enable my plants to grow and have enough nutrients to survive.  

The plants that I chose to grow are the following: broccoli, black beans, tomatoes, carrots, celery, snow peas, spinach, melon, radish, and strawberries. I have also chosen snow peas because they are a nitrogen fixer and the soil can radically benefit from it. It will also improve the soil's condition. Below is my sketch of my garden. 

 

  A.R. (2017) Garden 

I have meticulously thought and placed each plant in a single area for a reason. The reason is because I wanted to plant the crops so that they form a communalism. According to the Companion Planting Resource, they are mostly companion plants and do well together. All things considered, I found this combination to be an excellent one. Snow peas and black beans do well together. Radish and peas are placed near each other because they improve flavor and growth. Spinach and strawberries are placed near each other because they do well together. The tomatoes are placed near celery because It improves growth. The tomato provides the right amount of shade for spinach and the broccoli is kept away from the tomato because it is not a good companion.  

In conclusion, I learned many things such as how plants interact with each other and garden features that are necessary to have a healthy sustainable garden. Due to my circumstances, I am not able to implement my garden, but hopefully one day I will.  

Citation:

Urban Farmer. "Vegetable Companion Planting." Urban Farmer, 2017, www.ufseeds.com/learning/companion-planting.