MCKENNA’S GARDEN

PROFILE

I want to work at the garden because: I want to work at the garden because I want to learn more about the process of how my food is made. I really appreciate the way people work to make others life easier so I am really happy to have to opportunity to give back to that community.

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

  1. Gain gardening skills/knowledge on the subject

  2. Help to fund my NYLF Medicine and Health Care program to support my future career

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

  1. How to successfully produce my own food

  2. How to successful operate in a work like environment

I think my biggest challenge will be: I believe my biggest challenge at the garden will be knowing when my plants underground are ready and getting to them quick enough. I don’t have very much gardening experience so this will be quite a big challenge.

My favorite vegetable or fruit is: My favorite vegetable is cucumber. Although botanically speaking it is a fruit most people do consider it to be a vegetable which follows the culinary guidelines. I love the crunch and eating it as a nice refreshing snack after a day of school. They are delicious and a great way to supplement hydration.

I hope to contribute this to the garden this year: During my time at the garden I hope to help boost communication and contribute to the community by having a good attitude and work ethic. I want to help make this a really good year at the garden!

 GARDEN PLAN

Vegetables and Flowers Planted (list in order):

  1. Marigolds

  2. Marigolds

  3. Radishes

  4. Radishes

  5. Dark Zucchini

  6. Dark Zucchini

  7. Crookneck squash

  8. Crookneck squash

  9. Dill

  10. Dill

  11. Early Girl Tomatoes

  12. Jory Tomatoes

  13. Cabbage

  14. Cabbage

  15. Carrots

  16. Basil

Rows of vegetables planted: 16 rows

Number of different kinds of vegetables planted: 10 different types

Planned Garden Yield: 376 lbs.

Planned Biggest Producer: Dark Zucchini (near 100 lbs. optimally)

Changes in my plan during planting: We ran out of carrot seeds by the time I got to the end of my garden so I switched carrots for basil.

GARDEN LOG

  • May 1-3:

    May 1st -This was the very first day we attended the garden. We went over paperwork expectations and played a fun name game.

    May 3rd - This day we learned how to remove the tarps from the garden. This was a great team building activity.

  • May 4-10:

    May 6th - This day was a zoom meeting where we went over how to plan a garden and things to look out for. This zoom was only about 20 minutes long.

    May 8th - This was another zoom meeting. We checked in oon our progress in planning our garden and how much our optimal yield is. This was about 30 minutes long and we had a Q&A section at the end.

    May 10th - This day was designated to cleaning up after the plant sale. we spend our time packing up tons of tables and sweeping the floors. despite this being work it was a lot of fun to do with my peers.

  • May 11-17:

    May 13th - This was an intro to planting and expectations in the garden I only got a few rows done this day because i was still trying to figure everything out. This day I only got two rows of marigolds (one was half way done for me as an example).

    May 15th - This was our second day of planting. We got example of how to handle transplants. This day I planted two rows of radishes, and one row of dark zucchini.

    May 17th - This was supposed to be our third day of planting but we did get rained out. Instead of planting we had a zoom meeting where we went over everything to do with our websites and projects. This included a list of expectations and what to do if we needed help.

  • May 18-24:

    May 20th - This was our third day of planting. I planted one row of dark zucchini and two rows of crookneck squash. I had a lot of fun watering this day.

    May 22nd - We continued planting our gardens and spent a bit of time watering as well. This was our fourth day planting and I planted two rows of dill and one row of tomatoes. This was the first day I started to see my radishes pop up and I was really excited.

May 24th - This was my last day of planting. I got tons done today because it was a longer day. This day I planted one row of tomatoes, two rows of cabbage, one row of carrots, and one row of basil. At break time we had delecious oatmeal cookies and had a short discussion about social media presence and the best way to advocate our program.

  • May 25-31:

    May 27th - I was not planting this day because I had finished but some people were so I watered my plants very throughly and spend a long time weeding. This was actually a very calming time, weeding can be fun!

    May 29th - Again I was not planting this day however I did get to start making my sign. I got everything preped for my sign which will soon label which garden belongs to me! I spent the rest of my day of work watering my plants and weeding a bit more.

    May 31st - I was really sick this day so I ended up not going but this was supposed to be hay day.

  • June 1-7:

    June 3rd - Today was very simple. I started by watering my plants then transitioned into weeding. I did get to put my sign in today as well.

    June 5th - I started with watering this day because i was a bit early. I got to see some of my dill start to come up.

    June 7th - This was another hay laying day for us. We got quite a bit done and most everyone has some part of their garden done with hay.

  • June 8-14:

    June 10th - This day a did a lot of weeding. I got my carrots, basil, and cabbage all weeded. I also spent some time watering. I did notice that my zucchini was getting better after it was sprayed for cucumber bugs.

    June 12th - This was a very basic day at the garden. I watered and did some weeding. Nothing really out of the ordinary.

    June 14th - Today was another hay day. We got really good progress done today and a large part of my garden now has hay laid down.

  • June 15-21:

    June 17th - This day was “stinky feet day” We use fish guts to fertilize our transplants. We did run out near the end so we will have to do the rest another time.

    June 19th - Today was an optional day for the garden so I got a lot of weeding done on my marigolds, which was good becuase they really needed it.

    June 21st - This was another hay day much like all of the other early saturdays. We came to an end early on this day because of the rain but we still made great progress. There was only 8 people that showed up bhowever we still got the whole right hand side of the garden done.

  • June 22-28:

    June 24th - Today we got to weed our gardens all day and it was nice weather. I got one row of carrots and one row of marigolds done.

    June 26th - I got to start with watering today because I was a little bit early. After this I did a little bit of weeding by my zucchini and some really tedious weeding by my dill.

    June 28th - This was another hay day similar to all of the others I have previously participated in but we finally finished my garden so my weeding should get a lote easier. We still have a couple of gardens left but I have a feeling we will finish all of the hay next Saturday.

Final Thoughts:


My favorite garden vegetable was:
Because:
I harvested _____ pounds of produce from my garden.
My favorite job was:
My least favorite job was:
I could have done better at:
I did the best I could doing:
The two things I learned most at the garden this year were:
1.
2.

GARDEN PROJECTS

1.Project One

Question/Problem(s) Proposed: What are the small white butterflies around the cabbage in all of the gardens?

Answer(s) I found: These butterflies atually can go by many different names such as a cabbage white butterfly, imported cabbage worm, and Pieris rapae (scienctific name). These little butterflies are a very common pest in gardens around oregon and are considered minor pests esspecially when taking a look at the damage overall to your garden. The larve of this pest is often called “green worms” because of their color and tend to live on cabbage, cauliflower, and broccoli plants. The larve can create small holes in the leaves of plants but the damage should not affect the crops severely. If however the crops are going to be sold and a larve is found in packaged food they shall not make it though to the stores becuase stabndards are high. You can try to elminate their presence in your garden by using BTK (Bacillus thuringiensis kurstaki) but it would have to be sprayed within 7 days of the larve first appearing making it hard to make the time window for many home gardeners. Other solutions to the pest infesting your garden are using row cover barriers to exclude them, or you can hand pick your vegetables and throughly check each head to ensure there are no larve on your harvest.

URL Reference: Oregon State Universitiy Practice Organic Cabbage Worm Control

2. Recipe:

Name:

Vegetable Used:

Ingredients:

Steps to Make it:

Opinion:

3. Another Project

Question/Problem(s) Proposed:

Answer(s) I found:

URL Reference:

MONTHLY GARDEN SUMMARY

May: Days Worked: 13 Days Off: 1 Extra Days Worked: 0 Days Late: 0 Total Produce(Pounds): 0 lbs.

June: Days Worked _____ Days Off _____ Extra Days Worked _____ Days Late_______ Total Produce(Pounds):__.

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

August: Days Worked _____ Days Off ____ Extra Days Worked _____ Days Late_______ Total Produce(Pounds):__

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