Last Day

It was the last day of Urban Farming. Everything looks so great, I really didn't expect these fruitful results. The soil in our farms I think contributed a lot to making our crops so successful. From testing our  soil we found out it is 42% sand, 37% silt, and 20.6%clay. The PH of our soil is 7. We learned down at the farm about companion planting. For example One of the other groups planted onion next to their carrots so they would grow. Certain plants repel certain animals so that is part of the reason for this. This was a great class. Thank you Naima!

Urban farming

We have one class left of urban farming. I enjoyed this experience, it was fun, relaxing, and educational. I felt I learned a lot, I feel confident now that I could grow a pretty decent farm. I learned things I didn't know before like washing the tomato plants with soap to get rid of pests, to cut the bottom leaves and cut dead leaves off. I learned a lot about compost and soil like how to increase levels of phosphorus and carbon. The high point of this class the overall mellowness and consistency with growing the plants. I liked how everyday we had our jobs to make sure the plants would be healthy. I honestly can't think of any complaints I had. Urban farming is a great class and I am happy I took it!

6-7-11

The farm looks great! All of our crops are growing and healthy, even the raspberries have new growth. The tomatoes have aphids and white flies but we cleaned them off. I saw around 5 bees today. The temperature outside was 80.9 degrees Fahrenheit. The soil temp was 72.6 and the compost was 120 degrees Fahrenheit.

6-2-11

Today, we did a potassium tests on our sugar snap peas. We did one on the fertilized peas and one on the non-fertilized peas. We also took a PH test of the soil. The result was 7.0 which is good because last time the soil was 8.0. We added more coffee because coffee lowers the PH and that is our goal. All the plants look great except the raspberry because it is non existent- I think an animal ate it. It was very sunny and breezy out today with one spotting of a bee.

Homework 5/31

There are very specific directions in planting the "Three Sisters" garden. First, you have to select a space that gets a lot of sunshine. For the soil you have to create a mound. To plant corn, it requires to soak the corn overnight and once you plant them to plant 6 inches apart. You can plant the beans and squash a week after planting the corn. They have to be 6 inches away from the corn. The garden requires fertilizer so the crops flourish.

To care for french beans the most important thing is watering and weeding. Be sure to pinch out the growing tips. Every once in a while you can treat the beans to some tomato plant food and you're good to go.

5-31-11

The class is almost over with the crops looking great. The tomatoes have taken a complete 360. After putting on the dried blood the tomatoes have completely transformed. Today, we washed the tomato leaves with soap to get rid of the diseases. They are all tall and green instead of being shriveled and yellow from last week. Peas look good, they are starting to tangle so we need to train them to grow on the tee pee. The nasturtium and basil look nice. The raspberry died, I have no idea what happened there. The strawberries are good too but I'm not completely confident in them. We saw 3 bees today and its blazing hot! In the garden next door I planted climbing french beans, lazy housewife beans, and strawberry corn.