DASHIELL’S GARDEN

PROFILE

I want to work at the garden because: I believe that working here will provide me with some great work experience and some good practice working with other people.

Two of my personal goals for working at the Dallas Youth Garden this summer are:

  1. I would like to get much better at gardening.

  2. I would also like to work on my social skills.

Two things I hope to learn from working at the Dallas Youth Garden are:

  1. I would like to better manage my time, as it is an issue i have had in the past.

  2. I would also like to better learn how to work independently, as that is a very important part of having a job.

I think my biggest challenge will be: Managing deadlines.

My favorite vegetable or fruit is: Carrots.

I hope to contribute this to the garden this year: A bit of muscle and hopefully a little morale.

 GARDEN PLAN

Vegetables and Flowers Planted (list in order):

  1. Marigolds

  2. Tomatoes

  3. Carrots

  4. Onions

  5. Cabbage

  6. Zucchini

  7. Dill

  8. Crookneck Squash

  9. Marigolds

  10. Yellow Squash

  11. Lettuce

  12. Pumpkins

  13. Peppers

  14. Beets

  15. Beans

  16. Butternut Squash

Rows of vegetables planted: 14

Number of different kinds of vegetables planted: 14

Planned Garden Yield:

Planned Biggest Producer:

Changes in my plan during planting: Had to replace a plant with another, as it didn’t end up making it

GARDEN LOG

  • May 1-3: May 1st I was unable to attend due to a track meet, however on the 3rd I helped prepare the garden for the summer.

  • May 4-10: May 7th I attended a meeting to plan out my garden, and I continued making these plans on the 8th. On the 10th I assisted with the clean up of the Master Gardener plant sale.

  • May 11-17: May 13th I began planting getting 2-3 rows done, I arrived early as I had track practice in addition to the garden. I did a similar thing on the 15th, arriving early and planting 2-3 rows. On the 17th I attended the zoom meeting as the weather made working much harder.

  • May 18-24: May 20th, I planted 2-3 rows, and the same goes for May 22nd. May 24th however, I planted 4-5 rows, which set me on track to finish my garden much earlier than I had anticipated.

  • May 25-31: May 27th, I planted 2-3 rows, May 29th, I finished my garden, and May 31st, I got my sign in the my plot and started weeding.

  • June 1-7: June 3rd, I watered and weeded, June 5th, I did the same, June 7th, I helped lay down straw.

  • June 8-14: June 10th, I watered and weeded, found a few bugs but nothing too interesting, June 12th, I watered and weeded, no new bugs, June 14th, I helped lay straw by delivering it in wheelbarrows.

  • June 15-21: June 17th, I watered and weeded, found a bug or two, June 19th, I was there for the optional day, June 21st, Helped with laying straw by loading and moving wheelbarrows.

  • June 22-28: June 24th, I watered and weeded as usual, nothing of note, June 26th, I was absent, June 28th, Finished laying straw down (Yay!).

  • June 29-July 5: July 1st, I watered and weeded, found a few bugs, July 3rd, I was unfortunately sick and could not show up, July 5th.

  • July 6-12: July 8th, I watered and weeded as usual, July 10th, I watered and made a lot of progress weeding, July 12th, Pretty average, but Minions really helped with productivity.

  • July 13-19: July 15th, Average day, picked some squash and weeded a little, July 17th, I watered and weeded, standard fare, July 19th, I help move bark dust to make a path between two parts of the garden.

  • July 20-26: Both the 22nd and 24th were rather unremarkable, however I focused on weeding the flowering plants in order to prevent the further spread of weeds. On the 26th I helped finish spreading mulch in between the rows.

  • July 27- August 2: July 29th, I focused (much like the week prior) on weeding the flowering weeds as a preventative measure. However, on the 31st these weeds were mostly gone, so I turned my attention to the plants that seemed to be struggling and gave them some extra care. On August 2nd, I attended and assisted with the open house.

  • August 3 - 9: August 5th, I watered and weeded, I picked a lot of tomatoes. August 7th, I watered and picked a few squash, however I did not get too many, as my squash were slowing down their production. August 9th, I went through standard maintenance, and had a poor squash harvest.

  • August 10 - 16: August 12th, I did some watering and weeding, same as usual, and harvested a few tomatoes. August 14th, I watered and weeded, and check on my squash. August 16th, we had our cooking contest and Olivia & I won.

  • August 17 - 23: August 19th, I watered and weeded, and finally got my bean lattice installed. August 21st, I watered and weeded, and picked some squash, but not very much. August 23rd, I was absent.

  • August 24 - 30: August 26th, I watered and weeded, and harvested another big haul of tomatoes. August 28th, I watered and weeded, and picked a squash or two. August 30th, I was absent.

  • August 31 - September 6: September 2nd, I watered and helped fork peoples carrots up, as well as harvesting my own. September 4th, I ensured that all of my tomato plants were still bearing fruit along with watering my plants. September 6th, TBD.

Final Thoughts:


My favorite garden vegetable was: My Tomatoes
Because: They were my best growing produce and I enjoyed growing them.
I harvested _____ pounds of produce from my garden.
My favorite job was: Spreading straw and mulch.
My least favorite job was: Weeding.
I could have done better at: Keeping up with my website.
I did the best I could doing: Keeping my tomatoes properly watered.
The two things I learned most at the garden this year were:
1. Weeding needs a lot of attention if you want your plants to grow well.
2. Watering needs to be consistent otherwise Blossom End Rot will kill your harvests.

GARDEN PROJECTS

1.Project One

Question/Problem(s) Proposed: A Nejiri Kama (Weeding Sickle) that had been rototilled and rendered unusable.

Answer(s) I found: Reforge it into a new tool, via a smithing workshop, and donate back to the garden. I started by flattening out the blade, so that I could work with it with more ease. After straightening the blade, I took it too a grinder, in order to remove the layer of rust on the outside. In addition, I also gave it a bit of an edge and added two notches along the handle. I used these notches as the bounds for the handle, which I made by wrapping paracord along the length and pulling it tight. Finally, I added a layer of orange spray paint in order to prevent rusting in the future.

URL Reference:

Reference

2. Recipe

Name: Shredded Zucchini Salad

Vegetable Used: Zucchini

Ingredients: Zucchini, Olive Oil (I used some specialty stuff), Garlic Powder, Pepper, Onion powder, & Rosemary (Dried)

Steps to Make it: First, grate one medium zucchini into a bowl. Next, add two table spoons of olive oil, and a few shakes of all the powders. Once everything is in the bowl, make sure hands are thoroughly cleaned (Although that should already be the case while cooking) and mix together the spices, zucchini, and oil. Then, heat a pan on low heat, DO NOT add more olive oil, the amount added to the rest is more than enough. Once the pan is hot enough, add the mixture to the pan and fry for 20-30 seconds, stirring at a fair pace. Finally, return the now wilted mixture to the bowl and chill in the fridge until ready to eat.

Opinion: It was alright, however I believe that I fried the zucchini too long, as it had wilted so much that it became mushy. Additionally, the spice balance was off, but that is mostly up to personal preference. Probably like an 8/10.

3. Another Project

Question/Problem(s) Proposed: The Garden needs some training videos to simplify the integration process.

Answer(s) I found: Helping everybody by editing their videos as an extra layer of polish. I started by learning the basics of video editing (As previously I was not very well learned on the subject) and from there I just started. The hardest part was splicing the clips together, because getting them to sound natural took a lot of fine tuning. However, this experience has taught me a whole lot about video editing, and was also pretty fun. I think I might try to get better at video editing in the future, as it was something I took to pretty well.

URL Reference:

https://filmora.wondershare.net/brand.html?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=10454688371&gclid=CjwKCAjwwNbEBhBpEiwAFYLtGMKAxr505qWDHn-Z6AnoV0-b95z560a3E-xwpBgR81ou82wcwA8GcxoCQcQQAvD_BwE

MONTHLY GARDEN SUMMARY

May: Days Worked: 13 Days Off : 1 Extra Days Worked: N/A Days Late: 0 Total Produce(Pounds): N/A

June: Days Worked: 11 Days Off: 1 Extra Days Worked: 1 Days Late: 0 Total Produce(Pounds): N/A

July: Days Worked: 13 Days Off: 1 Extra Days Worked: N/A Days Late: 0 Total Produce(Pounds): 54.5

August: Days Worked: 11 Days Off: 2 Extra Days Worked: 0 Days Late: 0 Total Produce(Pounds):__

September: Days Worked ____ Days Off _____ Extra Days Worked _____ Days Late______ Total Produce(Pounds):____