STEAK_awsome's+Garden+experience

[[image:flawas.jpg width="459" height="346" align="right" caption="this is a flower that was blooming in the garden"]] This is my garden journal wiki!!!
There is a garden in our school which we go to every Tuesday this garden is located in the center of our school and has many different fruits and vegetables. Somestudents are given the extraordinary privilege of working and keeping this garden healthy. Luckily, my class is one of those classes. We do many different things here; there are four jobs we can do. One of those jobs is "compost crew" in which we help to work with the two or more other composters, We study how many decomposers break down dead plants and other compostable items into nutrients for soil. There is also the job available of "harvesters" were they harvest certain foods and make them for us into small salads or a small cooked snack. The snack that is given is always extremely fresh (considering the fact they were just picked) and has also never been anything less than delicious. There is also the "biologists" job which includes the many students that do this going around answering many questions about how healthy the garden is and testing the abiotic soil. The last but definitely one of the most enjoyed jobs is maintenance where you pull out any dead plants, plant new seeds into the open areas and also make observations about what soil can help plant which specific type of tree or plant. Read on to see each and every experience of going to the garden which includes me doing all these jobs in specific ways.

Garden journals Garden journal #1 This is my first garden journal we went to the garden every Tuesday being helped by Liz and Asia our two garden instructors. City sprouts supplied this garden to us.(For more info on City Sprouts go here about us.) On this day (I was put into a group of four hellokittylover5, funnydude1 and eltigueron) I was a composter with my group we churned the compost and identified various organisms. The first activities that we did was catch then identify many living creatures I caught many insects, which included slugs, centipedes, isopods and snails. After catching these small animals I went to my worksheet and circled the organisms th at I caught. Thus being done with that part of the job I went to the next and began to churn the large mixture of dirt, rotten apples, deceased plants and other compostable items. Although at the beginning of the class I was a bit nervous of picking up a living creature I was confident when the moment came.

Garden journal #2 This is my second garden journal I had an exquisite time taking care of the garden last time and was not surprised when it happened again. One thing that I will remember is the red fungus that had infected the apple trees leaves. I enjoyed the many pitter patters of the rain making the ground steamy while emitting a sweet smell. And the sight of the perfectly round and small dark green watermelon was a beautiful sight. What we did in our biologists group was looking at the surrounding area and test soil to see what would grow in what soil best. Just by coming here twice I have been able to learn how to take care of a garden and become responsible.

Garden journal # 4 I have now gone to the garden three times and am going for the fourth time now. I am on the last job for this cycle I have already done composter, harvester, and biologist now I am doing maintenance. This time I dug a narrow but deep hole to plant bulbs. Which in a few weeks would grow into gorgeous blooming flowers. The texture of the soft clumps of dirt was intriguing to me considering the moisture of the soil. After planting the bulbs my group and I went to plant garlic we first had to peel off the outer layer of skin then plant them a certain distant apart. This was a day at the garden where we learned how to plant different flowers and foods.

= GARDEN JOURNAL #7 =

This is my seventh garden journal. Today I successfully worked as a biologist. This time I paced around the garden taking notes of the interesting ecosystem of our lovely garden. One of the organisms I wrote down was a producer then answered a few questions and drew about that creature. I must say going around thinking about how to survive this world sounds and is very difficult without the modern technology found in this day and age. But seeing other living creatures actually survive and adapt to their environment is an interesting thing to learn. I discovered this day that learning to take responsibility through caring for a garden is an enjoyable workspace. Through all this time the seasons have changed and many producers and consumers have died this change has began telling me that winter is finally here. I have now experienced quite many invigorating garden trips to proudly call myself a gardener.

For one of my jobs as biologists we had to write down on a form what it was that we did and the many different aspects of the garden. In this ecosystem I observed that it wouldn’t be able to survive without the decomposers. This cycle would first begin by first the producers dieing from not having enough nutrients, then the primary consumers would die from having no plants to eat, then the secondary consumers would have no animals to eat, and finally the tertiary consumers would die and the ecosystem would no longer have any biotic organisms. A lesson that I learned today was that in an energy pyramid every organism plays its part and without it nothing would survive. Although each time I go to the garden learn something new it is always unique and what I learned today was that everything has its importance and moving one thing makes everything else collapse.

#9 This is my ninth garden journal. Sadly this means that it is my final time caring for the garden. The groups were separated differently this time we had no biologists and there were two maintenance groups. I was in the second maintenance group. What we did was dig a large hole and put many different scraps those scraps included left over food, decomposable material, and dead plants. After we filled up the hole with these decomposable items we covered it up and patted the soil until it looked like there was never a hole there. While digging we discovered an earthworm in which we spared its life and let it wiggle into safety. After all the groups finished with there many jobs, we came together as and the harvesting group created for us a hummus, which was tangy, zesty and delectable. I have sadly had to say goodbye to this heartwarming activity in which we did every Tuesday, but I made the best of it and enjoyed every second.

Here are some links to City Sprouts websites: [|CitySprout], this is the direct link to info of the amigos school garden: