Sustainable Home Garden

Food is my last STEAM course in my freshmen year at GCE. For my first action project, I am creating an organic garden that will be planted in my backyard at home. Based on the location of my garden I had to change a few things due to that fact that I live in the city. My backyard gets a lot of sun so it is an ideal location for my garden. I will water my plants when it does not rain, but I will rely on nature to nurture my garden. I’ve learned in the first unit about plant nutrients, symbiotic relationships, plants, and types of gardening shown by Masanobu Fukuoka. I hope that my garden is going to turn out healthy and stable. I am not going to add any chemicals or pesticides to my garden because it can affect my plants and soil. I was super inspired by Ron Finley’s speech about expanding gardening in Los Angeles. Ron Finley plants vegetable gardens all around South Central L.A. He plants them in abandoned lots, traffic medians, along the curbs, etc. He does this for beauty and to offer some alternative to fast food in a community where "the drive-thrus are killing more people than the drive-bys." I agreed and took into consideration his ideas about making healthy food more accessible, as well as his views on using gardening for education and art. I felt like I had a personal connection with him as well. I grew up in the South Side of Chicago and I passed and saw poverty, and empty lots just abandoned. I watched over the years people turn these lots into grass fields and gardens. I live next to a huge community garden run by the locals of Woodlawn. I grew up gardening there and helping plant, and making the community a better place. After the garden grew I watched everyone in the community help each other more. I had a lot of fun making this garden design and I hope I can build it in the future.


For the garden I will plant in the backyard of my house, I plan to use raised garden beds. Using a raised garden bed allows me to add my own clean soil. The measurements of my raised garden bed will be 10 feet long, 1 foot tall, and 10 feet wide. To calculate the volume of my garden bed, which will help me know how much soil to fill it with, I then multiplied 10 x 1 x 10 to find the volume of my garden. The volume of my garden bed is 100 cubic feet.

The containers that I would use within my raised garden bed would be a liter soda bottle (cylinder), a rectangular box (rectangular-prism), and a cubed pot (cube). The dimensions of each container are fairly small. For the cylinder it was 12.25in. long and the radius was 4in. The volume for the cylinder was 153.94 cubic inches. My cube was 4in. and the volume of the cube was 64 cubic inches. The rectangular prism calculated to a volume of 144 cubic inches, as the length was 12in., the width was 6in., and the height was 2in.


In class I selected the plants for my garden, locating my favorite fruits and vegetables and their companions. I found out that strawberries have four companion plants. I chose to plant both strawberries and eggplants in my garden. Both of these plants have a companion plant in common, the Soybean. The four companion plants to Strawberries are Borage, Bush, Soybeans, and Caraway. I selected strawberries because they are one of my favorite foods. I chose eggplants because they have a very interesting shape and taste. The companion plants to eggplants are Soybeans, Marjoram, Peppers, and Potatoes. Both fruits and vegetables I chose contain a high vitamin count. The Soybeans I would plant are a type of nitrogen fixing plants, they help fix the nitrogen in the soil.

(PVU, Garden, 21 Apr. 2016)
For my soil test results, I concluded that I needed to add Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium. The solution I found was that for Nitrogen I would have to add 5 pounds of Blood Meal. I then concluded that I would need 3 pounds of Soft rock Phosphate for Phosphorus. Last but not least, I would need half a pound of Sulfate Potash for Potassium.
Test
Result
Parts per Million Equivalency Chart
pH
6.7

Phosphorus (P)
2
20
Potassium (K)
1
200
Nitrogen (N)
0
0
Nutrient
Product
Quantity
Nitrogen
Blood Meal
5 pounds per 100 square feet
Phosphorus
Soft Rock Phosphate
3 pounds per 100 square feet
Potassium
Sulfate of Potash
½ pound per 100 square feet
After taking all of this important information into consideration, I am now ready to start building my garden. I have collected all the research and measurements for my garden. I found out what my soil needs, what my pH level for the soil is, and I learned about and found symbiotic plants to put in my garden. I was inspired by a TED talk video, and now I am using the inspiration to make my own garden in my very own backyard.

Works Cited
"A Guerilla Gardener in South Central LA." Ron Finley:. TED. Web. 20 Apr. 2016.
“Luster Leaf Products. "Parts Per Million Chart." Products for Successful Gardening. Luster Leaf. Web. 20 Apr. 2016.
“Peaceful Valley Farm Supply. “Understanding Your Soil Analysis Report.” Peaceful Valley Farm Supply. N.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2016


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