Red flag 3/30

How much time did you spend on your project?
4-5 Hours
What did you do that was hands on?
I did some work on clearing out the new space for my new compost pile.
What research did you do?
I did some research on my seeds and will do more this weekend. I am going to try to finish all the research for all of my seeds. I attended a presentation given by Cornell cooperative extension on compost.
Did you meet with your mentor? What did you talk about?
Yes. We talked about getting all my research and planning done so I have some thing to show since the garden will be put together very late.
Do you have at least 3 journal entries? Do they include planning, recording activities, and reflecting?
Yes. They have one hands on but will be more research based this week.
Were you in class on this week? Did you have and use your journal?
Yes. I had it and I wrote a really good response to the conversation we had. I need to put it in my blog.
Do you think your fulfillment of WISE requirements was Inadequate? Adequate? Good? Excellent? Explain.
Good. I need more hours but I think the research I do this weekend will help to boost my time spent.
What are your plans for week?
-Research
-Work on new compost pile

Composting Presentation

The Green Team has been hosting some presentation on being a teenager and energy and environmentally conscious. Today the presentation was on composting and I was excited to see what they had to offer.
The presentation was interesting and they did a demonstration on lasagna layering compost (the process of alternating dry, brown matter and "green" nitrogen rich material like food scraps) and why compost is important for us to do.
Although it was interesting it was quite basic and I knew a lot of the stuff from AP Environmental Science and from already having a compost. However, they described some methods of composting that I had never heard of, such as stealth composting.
I took notes of which I am going to try and upload a scan. If that can't be done I'll type up the important parts.
Overall I think what this presentation did was kind of plant the seed of what this project will lead me too. I have recently got extremely excited about composting. Because of the nature of this project it has led me to spending a lot of time working with compost and the science of it. I think I will become a "hard-core" composter because of this whole experience.

Tomatoes

-Tomatoes grow in a very large manner and will sprawl if they are not contained.
-Tomatoes have a very weak stem and must be supported by a stake or cage in order to let them grow effectively and keep the tomatoes clean.
-Determinate and Indeterminate varieties. Indeterminate will grow indefinitely until frost causes them to die. Determinate will stop after first fruit and generally don't need staking.
-Staked tomatoes take less maintenence and have fewer losses due to rot and temperature fluxuations.
-Must be planted when night temperature won't fall below 54 degrees.
-They need a lot of sun but do not like to be too hot.
-Plants need a lot of room to grow, they like their space.
-They need lots of water but not so much that there is remaining water.
-Many pests. Aphids, Tomato Caterpillars, cutworms, fruit fly, flea beetle, colorado potato beetle and white flies are the largest threat.

Little, Brenda. The Encyclopedia of Vegetable Gardening. Sandy, UT: Silverleaf, 2006. Print.

Seeds

My new design for my seedlings is working really well! The water is being held in the space more readily and the seeds seem to be growing faster despite the recent drop in temperatures.
My tomatoes had their first sprout and have grown to have 3 seedlings sprout up. I can't wait for more to sprout up. Hopefully the sun and weather will begin to cooperate and they will be able to grow outside soon.

New Compost Pile

The ground is still frozen so I couldn't do any digging yet but I got a lot of the ivy cleared to expose the area I am going to build in.

Dilmun Hill Organic Student Garden

"Projects." CUAES. Cornell University, 2010. Web. 25 Mar. 2011. http://www.cuaes.cornell.edu/cals/cuaes/ag-operations/dilmun-hill/projects.cfm.

I was driving around today and noticed for the first time the Dilmun Hill Student Farm. So I did some research.

I found out that it is a student run farm that gives an opportunity to students, staff, and community members to work with an organic farm and learn many new sustainable agricultural practices. They have yearly events which everyone is allowed to participate in. Their largest project has been their Market Garden which has been the primary focus of the group since it was started in 1996. The market garden is approximately 1.5 acres in size. The garden is run under sustainable practices and uses cornell compost. All of the food produced goes to various selling venues but some is given to food banks as well as compensation for volunteer workers.

A nice thing about this site is the provide garden reports which include their pest control, soil reports, irrigation tactics and lots of information that could be very useful to me while i work through my garden.
I was really excited to find this great place. It is still pretty early and it didn't look too active when I pulled over for a second but hopefully I can go back in a week or two and talk to the people there. They seemed very welcoming of visitors so I can't wait to see what they have available.

Lettuce

-Romans used lettuce as a sedative
-sow early in spring, lettuce is hardy and frost resistant
-well worked soil with good drainage and water retention
-thinning is important because crowding will cause the plant to bolt
-evenly moist but not soggy
-cut worms, slugs, and snails

Red Flag 3/23

How much time did you spend on your project?
4-5 Hours
What did you do that was hands-on?
Tore out all the bricks that were in the plot for my garden. I built a new "green house" for my seedlings.
What research did you do?
I have to finish seedling research this weekend.
Did you meet with your mentor? What did you talk about?
Yes. We talked about doing more research and journaling as well as going out and spending more time doing activities to further the project.
Do you have at least 3 journal entries? Do they include planning, recording activities, and reflecting?
Yes, but I have to do some research entries later this weekend.
Were you in class on this week? Did you have and use your journal?
Yes. It was nice to have since we talked about so much.
Do you think your fulfillment of WISE requirements was Inadequate? Adequate? Good? Excellent? Explain.
Adequate. I need to spend more time on my project and learning from my project, but I am coming along.
What are your plans for next week?
-Turn my compost fully
-Build a new compost pile
-Finish research for seeds

Class notes 3/22

We were handed a sheet on writing proposals for getting money from the school in order to help pay for some of the expenses that our projects may entail. I think personally I will not need money because mostly everything I need (i.e. seeds) has already been payed for and most everything is based on the earth now.

We also talked about how other people are blogging and what tactics are helpful to learning from yours and your peers blogs. We found that everyone finds pictures, audio, research, and being well organized are very helpful to keeping an interesting and useful journal.

We did some more show and tell. Chesna is doing an Italian cooking project and shared some pictures of the pasta she has made, one of which looks extremely difficult. Chelsea talked about her jewelry project and showed us a ring that she made which took her 5 hours to make.

Goals for this week

My goals for this week are:
- Fully turn my compost
- Do more research
- Begin to build or finish a new compost pile ( This will be the new compost pile I mentioned earlier. The current pile will turn into just yard waste.)

Hopefuls and New design

I found these flowers spread across the entire yard of one of my friends house and I fell in love with the way they look. I don't know what they are yet and neither does my mom but I am going to do some research and ask some of my gardening resources to see if any of them know what they are. They look like bulb flowers so I may have to plant them this year but I won't get to see them till next year.

Here they are:


I also added a new cover to my seedling pan. The plastic will act as a green house and will help to keep more moisture in as well as intensify the sunlight to help the plants grow! It looks kind of makeshift, but hey, that's exactly what it is!

The real work

Today, my mom and I tore out the bricks that were in the space where I plan to plant my garden. It only took an hour and a half or so and it was a really nice time to get spend time with my mom and getting work done. We also figured out that we are going to start a new compost pile and we are going to use the bricks we removed to build the walls for a container for the compost. The cool thing about this compost is we are going to keep it strictly food scraps and we are going to have our two neighbors contribute to the pile. I hope that we can get that built by next week so it can get a move on.

Red Flag 3/17

Things to think about when journaling:
- try to keep things multi-media, add pictures or video
- don't be afraid to add anything
- make sure that class entries involve how it related to your project or how the assignment/ class has made you think about your project
- write everything down no matter how small, get the thoughts down

Seedlings

Two days ago I saw the first sign of sprouting in my lettuce seeds. And now I have at least ten sprouts in the lettuce seeds. Lettuce reproduces rather quickly so I am not surprised that it is the first one up. I hope that some of the others show up soon. It was very exciting to see them popping up. I think this is kind of a turning point in my project. The snow is all melted and my seeds have sprouted so it seems that we are moving forward very quickly!

Red Flag 3/11

How much time did you spend on your project?
About two hours.
What did you do that was hands-on?
I havent done it yet but now that the snow has melted I am going to go out and finish turning my compost pile.
What research did you do?
I started looking into other Cornell Cooperative Extension classes since my previous one fell through. I haven't found one that I like yet.
Did you meet with your mentor? What did you talk about?
Yes. We talked about continuing to set goals for myself and making sure that I stick to those goals.
Do you have at least 3 journal entries? Do they include planning, recording activities, and reflecting?
No, but I plan to do some more journaling as well as finishing any unfished journals that I have in my journal.
Were you in class on this week? Did you have and use your journal?
Yes. Yes.
Do you think your fulfillment of WISE requirements was Inadequate? Adequate? Good? Excellent? Explain.
Inadequate. I didn't do much work but I have a lot of loose ends to tie up that I plan on doing this weekend.
What are your plans for next week?
-Turn my compost fully
-Continue Taking care of my seedlings
-do more concise research on my seeds

Bummer

I just went on the Cornell Cooperative Extension website to check the location of the Home Food production panel and found out that registration, a fee, and some previous gardening experience are prerequisites of taking this, although I did not know it was, class. It was more hands on than I had originally known. It is my fault that I over looked that detail and I am kind of upset about it. I am not worried though. They have events nearly every day so I will be able to find another one to attend.

Mentor meeting 3/8

I met with Ms. Amodeo today. We talked about how last week went and how effective it was for me to make specific goals for myself to accomplish during the week. I got all three of my planned goals finished and was ready to move on to the next thing. Now that my seeds are planted there is little left to do in my hands for a couple days except water them. Ms. Amodeo and I talked about making sure that i do some more research which I find to be really helpful for learning about each individual plant and what it needs.

Turning Compost

Yesterday I went out and started to turn my compost. I had to clear a bunch of snow off but got to it pretty quickly. I had never really looked at our compost pile but to my surprise it is doing extremely well. The sign of good compost is that it looks and smells like regular dirt, and that is what my compost pile is! I ran in to a little problem. The bottom half of the pile was frozen and I couldn't break through it. So I am going to have to wait until it warms up a bit in order to fully turn the entire pile.

Compost Worries

Due to the snow I am a little worried about turning my compost. Although turning is necessary, adding too much water can harm the microorganisms. I guess that I will turn it anyways because it is such a small amount of water for such a large pile. I feel as though, it shouldn't harm it in the long run, seeing as water will seep through or evaporate. However, only time will tell.

Planting and CCE Gardening

The seeds are in their little starting egg cartons, in the window sill, and watered. So hopefully they will begin to grow. I did only one or two seeds per cell so this is kind of an experiment to see how they will do. The only worry I have right now is that the cold from the window causing a problem for the plants. I have other plants in the house near a window and they seem to do fine, but I will have to wait and see. Once those get started I might move them to a larger pot until it starts to warm up and the garden gets ready.
I was pretty busy this week so I did not attend a Cornell Cooperative Extension Gardening meeting like I thought. However, it turns out there is a discussion panel that is focusing on Home food production. This fits what I am doing so perfectly and I am very excited to listen to what some specialists in the area have to offer about home gardening.

Red Flag Post 3/4

How much time did you spend on your project?
2 Hours
What did you do that was hands-on?
I didn't really do anything that was hands-on, this past week was more research related.
What research did you do?
I did a lot of research on spinach and cucumbers. This helped my to gain insight into each plant I am growing.
Did you meet with your mentor? What did you talk about?
Yes, We talked about setting some goals for myself to accomplish before I met with her next week. We also talked about me doing more research which did happen later in the week.
Do you have at least 3 journal entries? Do they include planning, recording activities, and reflecting?
Yes, They are mostly reflecting and research. I didn't have any activities because I didn't do anything really hands on.
Were you in class on this week? Did you have and use your journal?
Yes. Yes.
Do you think your fulfillment of WISE requirements was Inadequate? Adequate? Good? Excellent? Explain.
Adequate. I didn't do a lot of hands-on but in my mentor meeting I got really motivated and set myself some goals which I think will be helpful.
What are your plans for next week?
-Turn my compost
-Plant all my seeds
-Look into Cornell Cooperative Extension Gardening classes

Mentor Meeting 3/1

I met with Ms. Amodeo this week and she helped me to kind of lay down some goals for myself to complete.
- Turn my compost
- Plant all of my seeds
- Look into events at Cornell Co-operative Extension

I have a pretty busy weekend but I am going to try and fit all of these things in.

Cucumbers

Cucumbers are believed to have originated in Asia. They have very large leaves and either grow along the ground or can be trained to grow up a fence or trellis. Cucumbers are warm weather plants and prefer to be planted in mid spring long after the threat of frost has disappeared. This fact might mean that I may have to grow the plants inside for a while until the soil has a chance to warm up and ensure that the plants survive. It has a very short growing season and prefers to be in constant sunlight. Night temperatures around 60 are ideal for the survival of the plants. Cucumbers have both male and female flowers on the same vine, however, only the female flower will grow a fruit. They can have a very high yield if they have sufficient sunlight.
When being planted cucumbers like warm soil that is well drained. They also thrive with a lot of dead organic matter. This will be helpful to me as spinach thrives in compost as well. They also grow well next to beans which I plan to plant. The seedlings are very delicate and require that they be planted in inverted hills, like a downward cone, to avoid the roots being exposed if a heavy rain occurs. Multiple seeds should be planted in each hill in order to ensure that a few hearty seedlings start. Once there are a few seedlings they can be spread out in order to let each plant grow independently.
The cucumber is 95% water and therefore needs sufficient amounts of water to stay healthy. Large amounts of water can increase the impacts of soil compaction, so many people recommend mulching in order to ward off this problem.
Weeding is necessary in order to make sure that the cucumber plants are not out-competed. And when the cucumber is fully grown it is imperative that they be harvested because the plant does not begin growing new fruits if there is still a mature fruit attached to the plant.
Aphids and cucumber beetles present the largest pest problems. Aphids can be picked off where they have begun feeding. Cucumber beetles do not present a problem in feeding but they often carry a disease that causes the leaves of the plant to wilt and eventually the whole plant to die. Pesticides are often the most effective remedy. Luckily, due to there fast growing nature, it is okay lose a few of the cucumbers in order to remain organic.
Harvesting occurs about 2 and a half months after planting. Most of the fruit should be harvested in order to ensure the continued production of the whole plant.

Spinach

I decided I would do some research on each of my plants that I am going to plant in my garden.
It was first cultivated by Persians and brought over to Europe around 1100 A.D. It became very popular in many monastery garden all across Europe. Although spinach was popularized in America, due to it's use by Popeye, it has been found that spinach has far less, although still a large amount, of iron than was originally calculated.
Spinach is a plant that grows close to the ground in a tight rosette of dark green leaves. It comes in two varieties, however, New Zealand spinach is less well known, compared to its more commonly used counterpart which originated in Asia. Spinach is a relative of beets and swiss chard.
Ideally, spinach is planted in colder weather so it will be a good plant to begin early in the season. If it is two hot spinach tends to go to seed or begin to bolt. Good spinach weather is early in the spring or autumn and around 50-59 degrees. Many people will germinate their seeds in a wet paper towel placed in the refrigerator due to the fact that spinach, being a cold season plant, will not germinate above 86 degrees F. Spinach grows in seed clusters which means that I will have to split them once they sprout in order to make sure that they don't compete for nutrients. Uniformly watered plants are the best for spinach as well as well draining soil.
Aphids and Leafminers are the most common pests for spinach and require removal of eggs and aphids that already exist in order to ensure that hatches of aphids are kept under control. Many of the diseases that affect spinach are caused by aphids so controlling and reducing the aphid population will ensure healthy growth. Slugs are also a problem, especially for seedlings.
Harvesting of spinach can usually occur within 2-2 1/2 months after the time of planting if conditions are ideal.
Spinach has a very high Iron content and is therefore very helpful for those ailing of anemia, heart, and kidney problems. it is also very high in beta carotene and folic acid. As well as, rich in vitamins A and C.

Class 3/1

Class today was based on looking back on old wise students work and reflecting on how they went through the wise process. We also viewed a documentary that another student did. This documentary shows a very interesting relationship between two wise students as well as the relationship between a father and son. It really helped to give a view on the wise project and not that it is all about finishing your project but how this project causes you to grow as a person and find out what you are capable and not as capable in doing.