Beautiful Organic Garden

In the STEM course Food, we are studying plant ecology and looking at the importance of different plant nutrients. I watched a TED talk by Ron Finley where he discussed planting gardens in South Central Los Angeles because it was a food desert. Therefore he started planting gardens on sidewalks, his back yard and so on. That inspired me to come up with a garden so I can start planting. I would love to plant gardens all around Chicago if I had the chance and encourage other teams to do so too. It will totally benefit communities and the city not only beautifying it, but there will be organic food to eat.

My garden is going to be a raised-bed so that way it is easy to move and assemble, and I won’t disturb the ground. My garden’s dimensions are 48 inches in length, 48 inches in width, and 12 inches in height. I choose to size my garden this way so I can plant 10 different vegetables and fruits. On the side of the bed will be a water hose so that way every hour the plants will get watered. The raised-bed will be placed in my backyard because it gets the most sunlight and it will be accessible for my family and neighbors as well. My backyard is a good environment for gardening. There is a lot of animals and life. The soil that I collected had a l0t of life as well. There were bugs in the soil, the dirt was really soft and clay like. It was thick and the color was really dark. My dirt is really moist and I think that is because of the winter we had where it snowed so much and I think the soil still has a lot of moisture left over. In class I learned that plants need 16 nutrients to grow and survive. The 3 most important elements are Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium. I wanted to be sure that my soil was healthy so I did a soil test, testing the existing soil for those 3 elements and the pH.

Soil testing allows me to find out the makeup of the soil, and helps me determine the type and the amount of fertilizer needed for a good crop. From my soil test, I learned that my soil has a pH of 6.75 an adequate amount of phosphorus, between adequate and sufficient amount of potassium, and a deficient amount of nitrogen. A nitrogen deficiency stunts growth and causes yellow leave. Knowing this, I realized that I needed to buy 1.25 pounds of blood meal, and I needed 2.08 pounds of soft rock phosphate to increase the phosphorous levels.

 I will be planting garlic, squash, corn, soybeans, basil, tomatoes, cucumber, spinach beetroot, and strawberries. When I was choosing the plants that I wanted to grow, I wanted plants that helped each other, a mutual relationship. Garlic benefits cucumbers because it prevents bugs from eating cucumbers. Cucumbers are great to plant with corn and beans. The three plants like the same conditions: warmth, rich soil, and plenty of moisture. Corn is great to be planted with beans and squash. The corn provides a natural trellis for beans and squash to protect them and give them moisture. Basil can be planted with tomatoes to improve flavor and growth. Basil gets rid of flies and mosquitoes. Spinach gets along with strawberries because they give each other nutrients. Beets are good for adding minerals to the soil, and strawberries are also good to be planted with beans. I am adding soybeans because it is a nitrogen-fixer and it improves the conditions of the crop such as amino acids and protein. All of these plants have a soil preference pH between 5.5 and 7. This is how my garden will look like.

Created by JV "Beautiful Organic Garden" 2014*

In conclusion I think my garden will be a great success. The garden will be full of delicious organic and healthy vegetables. I learned so much from this one unit about soil and plants. I always thought that dirt did not matter and planting was so easy. However, they are both hard to take care of and very important to the Earth. I think if everybody learned more about dirt they will see the big picture and realize it will help our Earth.