RUBI’S GARDEN
PROFILE
I want to work at the garden because:
Two of my personal goals for working at the Dallas Youth Garden this summer are:
1. Getting used to going out of my comfort zone
2 Keeping all of the plants healthy.
Two things I hope to learn from working at the Dallas Youth Garden are:
1. Learning how to grow or care for different types of plants.
2. Improving my teamwork and gardening skills.
I think my biggest challenge will be: Keeping the weeds away
My favorite vegetable or fruit is: Strawberries
I hope to contribute this to the garden this year: Staying dependable and always willing to help with tasks that are needed to be completed.
GARDEN PLAN
Vegetables and Flowers Planted (list in order):
Zinnia
Marigolds
Radish
Radish
Onion
Tomato
Peppers
Patty pans
Beans
Beets
Zucchini
Butternut squash?
Acorn squash?
Cabbage
Marigolds
Onion
Rows of vegetables planted: 16
Number of different kinds of vegetables planted: 12-14
Planned Garden Yield: 300
Planned Biggest Producer: Patty pans
GARDEN LOG:
May 2-7: Just started. Met in the garden and then garden planning using Zoom.
May 9-15: Helped Clean up Plant Sale. Garden planning zoom meetings. Cleaned up tools
May 16-22: Measuring and planting seeds and transplants into my garden
May 23-29: Finishing up planting while ensuring that weeds are out of the way to maintain healthy plants.
May 30-June 4: Planting was now finished and started working on more weeding.
June 5-12: More weeding and preparing for laying hay over our garden which makes weeding better later on.
June 15-27: We finished up laying the straw, hydrated our gardens and weeded around our plants.
June 28-July 3: More watering plants and weeding
July 4-10: Picked radishes and continued weeding. Unfortunately, the radishes were not very great this year but my peppers and marigolds are doing very well so far. I am hoping for a bit more out of the onions and they will be the main focus in weeding this week. We also have been working on our 3 educational garden projects.
July 11-17: Started with the completing straw party. Yay we had the first round of minions where everyone stations at each garden to help with weeding. This benefited my beans and marigolds very well since the weeds are not soaking up all of the water.
July 18-24: We did more weeding and we are continuing our educational projects. I made it pretty far with my second project and plan to complete it the next week.
July 25-31: Day one was very fun! We did another round of minions and I focused on my marigolds. My zinnias are doing very very well which I am excited for. My marigolds have been a huge struggle with the weeds but there has been a lot of progress. My patty pans have also been very amazing and I have been able to pick at least 5 of them already. My tomato plants and peppers have also been making lots of progress with growing.
August 1-7: We started with the open house which was very fun because we got to teach people things that people may not have known about gardening. Many have got some very good advise from experts as well. The rest of the week I continued with garden maintenance.
August 8-14: This week I focused on weeding my transplants, which I have not weeded in a minute. Everyone in the garden learned that tomatoes and squash may have been overwatered and started using meters to measure how wet the soil was. There is now a tiny bit of noticeable improvement in the color of the leaves. I started preparing for the bake off.
August 15-21: Started with the bake off. My teammate was Sam 2 who I really enjoyed working with, and she is awesome. We got first place, and we made very delicious pumpkin pudding and stuffed patty pans.
August 22-28:
August 29-Sept 4:
GARDEN PROJECTS
2. Recipe
Name: Banana Pepper Cheese Sauce
Ingredients:
1-2 Banana Peppers (Fresh or canned)
2 cups milk
2 cups pepper jack or any other cheese
3 Tbsp salted or unsalted butter
3 Tbsp flour
1 cup sour cream (Can be substituted with cream cheese)
3 Tbsp green onion (optional)
Steps to Make it:
Place a skillet on the stove on medium heat.
Add the butter and let it melt completely.
Sprinkle the flour over the melted butter.
Whisk until the butter and flour are fully combined into a smooth paste.
Continue cooking and whisking for 1 minute to remove the raw flour taste.
Remove skillet from the heat.
Slowly whisk in the milk until mixture is smooth with no clumps.
Return the skillet back to medium heat.
Whisk often until the sauce thickens and begins to bubble.
Remove the skillet from the heat and let sauce cool for 2-5 minutes (Warning: Do not add sour cream while the sauce is too hot, it will turn gross).
Add the sour cream.
Stir until the sour cream is fully mixed in and the sauce is smooth.
The sauce is done.
Thoughts: 100/10
This is one of my favorite recipes because it is delicious, easy to follow, and takes less than 15 minutes to make. The ingredients work really well together and remind me of the filling in jalapeño poppers. I think this recipe is great for beginners because it teaches basic cooking skills and can easily be customized with different ingredients. It was inspired by an enchilada recipe, but many of the ingredients were changed to create an even better flavor. Overall, I would definitely recommend this recipe because it is simple, quick, and tastes amazing.
Link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1S1195IVnRWCSqyL1wPWTEew35aIWj6mzvf1CP8wUKaQ/edit?usp=sharing
2. Education:
Topic: Do tomato plants grow better when staked or caged?
Info Summary: In my presentation, I explained the differences between the planting methods, pros and cons and what happens when you do not cage or stake your plants.
Why this is important: Knowing whether to stake or cage tomato plants helps gardeners grow healthier plants and produce better harvest.
Website where info was found: https://journeywithjill.net/gardening/2019/03/19/is-it-better-to-stake-or-cage-tomatoes/
Link to slide show: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1SziR2j-doVEQjaJk6cJRQ2cZ4_tjMjvtP8GafOei4Ik/edit?usp=sharing
3. Education:
Topic: Why 3d printing can improve your garden
Info Summary: PLA filament which is used in many 3d prints is a better plastic than Polypropylene which is typically used for many store bought gardening tools since PLA is biodegradable and is at a lower cost. A lot of waste is Polypropylene which is non biodegradable and is harder to recycle.
Why this is important: Many people do not look into the type of plastic they buy and eventually it ends up in landfill causing pollution and microplastics are harmful to soil.
Website where info was found: https://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/what-to-know-about-the-toxicity-of-polypropylene
Link to slide show: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1SziR2j-doVEQjaJk6cJRQ2cZ4_tjMjvtP8GafOei4Ik/edit?usp=sharing
MONTHLY GARDEN SUMMARY
May: Days Worked: 11 Days Off: 2 Extra Days Worked:0 Days Late: 0
June: Days Worked: 11 Days Off: 2 Extra Days Worked: 1 Days Late: 0
July: Days Worked: 13 Days Off: 1 Extra Days Worked: 0 Days Late: 0
August: Days Worked _____ Days Off _____ Extra Days Worked _____ Days Late: 0
September: Days Worked _____ Days Off _____ Extra Days Worked _____ Days Late: 0