orcapieman+Garden+Days

__WELCOME TO MY GARDEN JOURNAL GALLERY WIKI!!!!__ Every Tuesday in science class this year we went to the [|citysprouts] garden which was run by Liz and Asia. In the garden every group had a specific job to do. There were four groups: the harvesters, the "compost crew", maintenance, and the biologists. Each group had a special job to do, the harvesters picked and/or cooked delicious meals from the plants in the garden. The composters' job was to go through the compost bins and find organisms, cut down large pieces of scrap and freshen up theheap. The maintenance group's job was to help maintain the garden by planting seeds, pulling up plants, and transporting plants or dirt. Finally, the biologists' job was to find all types or evidence of producers, decomposers, and consumers. This is a collection of the journals I did after each day at the garden. Enjoy! GARDEN JOURNAL #1 Today was my first ever sixth grade garden experience at the [|Amigos School] citysprouts garden! A 'first' for me today was harvesting vegetables and fruits, before I only had experience harvesting apples. I will remember seeing a small, bulging watermelon on its plant. I will remember the smooth, curved feel of the eggplants my group and I harvested. I will remember the scissors snipping, harvesting vegetables and herbs. I will remember the sweet, minty smell of the basil. This week in the garden my group and I were the harvesters. Using scissors, we harvested herbs and vegetables such as eggplant, peppers, okra, basil, and swiss chard. But our prize catch was a ripe, delicious looking watermelon, a green sphere about the size of a football, our teacher agreed to cut it up for snack the next day (it was absolutely delicious). I had a incredible time this Tuesday at the garden today and I look forward to the many to come. GARDEN JOURNAL #2 Today was our second quest to the garden. A ‘first’ for me today was touching a slug. I will remember seeing the huge, bulging purple potato that I harvested. I will remember the slimy, slick feel of the slug. I will remember hearing the snipping of scissors cutting basil, swiss chard and parsnip. I will remember the sweet, minty smell of the basil. This week, I was a harvester again. The first thing we did today was harvest potatoes. These potatoes, hard dirt covered purple or tan lumps were on average about the size of a baseball, although they could be as small as a golf ball and as large as 6-9 inches long. Since most of the potatoes plants were dead or dying, perfectly ripe and excellent to harvest, we were able to harvest close to 30 ripe potatoes. We also cut vegetables and herbs like parsnip, basil, and swiss chard. Finally, we picked tomatillos from their tall, vine-like plant. The tomatillos were encased in a skin, so we could see if they were ripe by looking at how close the plant was to the skin. At the end of the class we rationed out the food that we harvested and put them in baggies for everyone to take home and eat. Today was another phenomenal day at the garden. GARDEN JOURNAL #3 Today our class traveled to the garden for the third time. A first for me today was planting grass. I have only planted a few things in my life and this special type of grass was a 'first'. I will remember seeing the long, winding centipede the compost group caught. I will remember the smooth, thin texture of the grass. I will remember the sound of the shovels digging through the soil and clanging against the cement that wasn't very deep. I will remember the smell of the warm, spicy and well cooked potatoes. This week my group was maintenance. First we planted a special type of grass that Liz was planning to put a lot of in a shady corner. To plant the grass we had to dig a pretty deep hole, dump a bucket of water in the hole, and splash another bucket of water on the plant once it was planted in the hole we had dug. After that we did other typical maintenance jobs, such as putting a bug disinfectant on the cabbage plants and checking that they were healthy. After this we helped the "compost crew" strip the leaves off fallen branches, we composted the leaves and threw the branches and small twigs in the yard waste. Today was another fabulous time at the garden and so far I have learned a ton.

GARDEN JOURNAL #4 Today we journeyed to the garden for the fourth time. A first for me today was seeing and touching a leopard slug. I will remember the disgusting slime trail that the slug left in the container we put it in to study it. I will remember the smooth, floppy texture of the worms I held. I will remember the sweet, inviting smell and taste of the polenta (a delicious mix of various veggies, including corn and tomatoes) the harvesters prepared. This week my group was the “compost crew”. We dug around in the compost bins with a twisty tool and little shovels, looking for decomposers. The compost bin was filled to the brim with paper cups, rotting apples, tomatoes, other decomposable material, and humus (the final product of a compost pile; fertile soil). My group found that there were a ton of visible decomposers and many more that we couldn’t see. We found decomposers such as worms, [|pill bugs], isopods, centipedes, and slugs. When we could catch an organism that interested us, we put it in a container so we could examine and sketch it. Today was another invigorating, awesome day at the garden where I tried out another new job, I can’t wait until next week. GARDEN JOURNAL #5 Today was our fifth garden adventure! A 'first' for me today was closely examining organisms in the garden and discovering consumers, producers and decomposers. I will remember the white, fuzzy insect eggs under the leaves on most of the trees. I will remember the soft, papery texture of the tree near the compost bins. I will remember the delightful melody of the bird birdsong and the not so delightful melodie of the "squirrel song". I will remember the heavenly smell and taste of the lemon tea that the "compost crew" made. This week my group and I were the biologists. Our job was to find and record all the producers, consumers and producers.There were a ton of producers and consumers but at first it looked there weren't many decomposers. However, upon further and more careful inspection we found that there were many hidden, and previously unknown to my group decomposers. These decomposers were so abundant that we were able to find 5-6 more //different// decomposers. These were organisms such as rust, [|mildew], snails, etc. Today for the first time I was a biologist, I have now done every job in the garden, learning something new each and every time GARDEN JOURNAL #6 Today our class ventured to the garden for the 6th time. As part of the "compost crew" this week my group and I found various organisms in the compost heap and decided to do an observation on one. These are my observations. What was my organism? It was a tiny, inch long white slug. What did I notice? I noticed that when the slug moved, two things happened; when it stretched to begin moving its eyes popped out, probably to help it navigate, and when it stretched to move its body expanded to twice its normal size. What role does my organism play in this environment? This organism’s role is to eat dead matter and turn that dead matter into vital nutrients and fertile soil for the plants living in the ecosystem. Could the garden exist without this organism? Without one slug, of course, but without all the decomposers? No, dead matter would pile up, killing all the plants and all other life in the garden. After going through the compost pile in the garden for the first time I was once again reminded and surprised of the huge importance of decomposers in every ecosystem. So ends another incredible, informative experience at the garden.

GARDEN JOURNAL #8(7) Today we visited the garden for the (wow!) 8th time. Today in our second to last week at the garden we began putting the great garden rest. This week my group and I were the maintenance group, we helped put the garden to rest by pulling up the odorous, coarse, dying eggplant plants. The eggplants were very deeply stuck in the soil and were incredibly hard to pull out. To get them out we had to move the soil around them away and pull very, very hard to get them out. Once we had the eggplant out we stripped the slowly dying leaves off the plants and mashed them into tiny pieces so that they could be easily compostable. Then we gave the leaves to the compost group. At the end of class we ate a well-prepared, delicious salad from the harvesters. Today was another extraordinary week in the garden. I am devastated that next week is our final garden week.

Thanks for reading! If you want to see some more awesome wikis about our garden experience from my classmates click here.