Raised Bed Building

This past Saturday, my dad and 2 sisters and I built 3 raised beds behind Oakbrook for the garden! When I say we built the raised beds, I mean mainly my dad did for safety reasons, but I still helped out of course. I mean, I tried to handle the machine that could potentially cut my whole hand off, but it wasn't going so smoothly, so I let the man with experience handle it. Around 12 noon, we all headed to Lowe's to get the supplies: 9 pieces of 6 by 8 feet of wood, nails, potting soil for when I start planting seeds in the classroom, the seeds themselves, and something organic that helps prevent weeds. Then, we headed to Oakbrook to begin our work. We finished our work around 3 pm after some frustration in the hot sun. I plan to start planting the seeds in the 4th grade classroom sometime next week. I asked the 4th graders to start bringing in emtpy gallon milk jugs to start the process. Every day or so I've been taking a volunteer from each 4th grade class to show them how to emtpy the compost so as to get them more involved as well as lessen my work load. Empyting it and cleaning it out/refilling it with water as well as doing the same process with the senior commons compost bin takes longer than one would think- about 25-30 minutes! Good thing I have 7th period free now or else I don't know what I would do. Anyways, of course I documented the raised bed-building process with my camera- I got some nice shots taken of myself pretending to be doing all the work- posing with the lethal nail-gun or whatever that thing is called. Driller? I don't know. Anyways, so that's it for now. Til next Friday!

Eat your Apple first, THEN put it in the compost

This coming weekend, I’m going to build the raised beds with the assistance of my father. I still have to go get seeds and plan how many I need. The 4^th grade has started to bring in empty milk cartons- for when we start planting in the classroom so we can transplant later. Composting is going well! The 4^th grade is really eager and excited to help. It’s funny because every day during 7^th period when I empty their compost bin in the larger one behind the school, whole, completely uneaten oranges and apples will fall in. There seems to be the problem of the kids not eating their food, but bringing it solely to feed the compost. I told the 4^th grade teachers about the problem so that they can tell their students to eat their food first and then dump the left-overs in the bin. When I was dumping the 4^th grade compost in the larger bin yesterday, the 5^th grade teacher, Mrs. Rivers, popped her head out the window, asked me what I was doing, and after my explanation, requested for me to come speak to her class sometime this week about my project. A few days ago, Mrs. West and Mrs. Lummus told me that they had made copies of an article about composting for their class and given them a writing assignment. They are adjusting and adding on to their science curriculum because of my project! So, things are going quite nicely in that regard- naturally coming together, which is what I want. On the other hand, my research paper is not going so well. I got off to a bad start on my thesis. But, I think I’ve come up with a more specific focus: Surviving on foods grown locally that are in season- living a self-sustainable lifestyle- is attainable and valuable to the average American because it is healthier and more energy efficient. That’s all I have for now.

Moving Forward

Yesterday I presented my proposal, which I thought went quite well. I got some great ideas on how to promote health and really move forward in my project. I realized that I need to take pictures of my project as it progresses as a sort of accountability method. Also, I want to try to get the students at Oakbrook to eat healthier ad one way of promoting health is by offering healthier snacks during snack-time. For a one week period, I want to completely eliminate all the junk-food options and just have healthier snacks available to see if the students respond positively. It will be an experiment. I want to make students understand that eating healthier results in more energy and, in the long-run, feeling better and even performing better academically as well as in athletics. I want to have a viewing of the documentary FoodInc at the beginning of this “Energy” week, so that students are more aware of what they are eating and how it affects their bodies and minds.

This past weekend after church on Sunday, I got a compost barrel for the school, as well as two smaller compost bins- one for the Senior Commons and the other for the 4^th grade class. Once I actually bring the large compost bin to school, I plan to get my cohorts and the 4^th grade started on composting and at the end of every day, I will empty the two smaller compost bins in the larger one outside. I have already introduced the idea of composting and organic gardening to the 4^th grade class this past Tuesday, so now, they are just waiting for me to tell them when they can start. The next step in my project is for the 4^th grade to bring in large, empty, milk cartons so that we can start planting broccoli and lettuce in them in the classroom and let those plants be growing while I am in the process of building the raised beds. One of the next few weekends, I plan to get the wood and build the raised beds. The challenge is finding the time to do it. Also, last week, I took some of the soil from where the garden will be to the Clemson Extension Service so that they could tell me what the soil needs, but they said I didn’t have enough soil, so I have to go back one of these days and try again. That’s about it for now!

The first step

Yesterday, I met with my mentor, Mrs. Holbein at the school to go over my plan for the garden. We covered a lot! I plan to start composting at the school on Monday- in the 4th grade classes and in the Senior Commons. I will introduce the idea of composting and give instructions to everyone as well. This weekend, I will purchase what I will be needing to start composting immediately! No meats, cheeses, or things like twinkies (which, if it has no nutritional value for a human, how can it be beneficial to soil to help sustain a plant?) are allowed in the compost- only left-over foods (bread crusts, banana peels, egg shells, etc) or coffee grounds (as well as the filter). I will be emptying the composts in the senior commons and 4th grade classrooms every day to the larger compost outside near my garden. Today, I got the number for the man who maintains Oakbrook's grounds because I need to collect the grass clippings that accumulate whenever he mows the fields to add to my compost! I also need to start raking and collecting leaves for it. So, I will contact Mr. Clark, hopefully tomorrow, and ask him if he can pile the grass somewhere where I can access it. Tomorrow (Friday), I am going to take a soil sample from the area I plan to have the garden and take it to the Clemson Extension Service so that they can tell me what the soil is lacking. Mrs. Holbein told me it's very important for the soil to have a balance of nitrogen (for the leaves), phosphorous (for the roots), and potassium (energy) for my garden to be successful.

I want to start planting lettuce and broccoli as soon as possible (hopefully sometime next week) with the 4th grade class in small trays and let those plants start to grow. Once I get everything situated with my garden (tilling the ground, adding what needs to be added, and getting my raised beds built), I can trans-plant (is that the right word?) those vegetables into the raised beds. The reason I still need to get the soil tested and the earth tilled is because I want to plant potatoes directly into the ground in February, as well as perhaps some other vegetables. I want to have the experience of having both raised beds and a regular garden straight out of the ground. So, as well as getting the materials for starting the compost, I need to get the seeds this weekend (at the Piedmont Farming Supply) to start growing next week. I was a little worried about growing plants in the winter because I thought that a frost might ruin everything, but Mrs. Holbein assured me that there are ways to protect my "crops"! I feel much more confident about my project and am eager to get started!

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

The reason I chose my title to be what it is, is because it is the book that I am currently endorsed in. The more I read, the more excited I get about my project! It is really enlightening and inspirational. It's about how the author (Barbara Kingsolver) and her family moved away from their urban lifestyle to a farm for an entire year to be sustained solely on food bought locally or grown on their farm, and the food unavailable because it was out of season, they lived without. Barbara and her family "tried to wring most of the petroleum out of their food chain, even if that meant giving up some things" (10), which I think everyone can benefit from. She really emphasizes the idea that "knowing how foods grow is to know how and when to look for them" and that "such expertise is useful for certain kinds of people, namely, the ones who eat, no atter where they live or grocery shop" (10). I've been slowly digesting this book, page by page, and writing down everything that is both fascinating and helpful. This book emphasizes the fact that "we're a nation with an eating disorder, and we know it" (18) and discusses ways for the American culture to change. For the most part, we're all "agricultural agnostics" (11), which is something we need to remedy, and remedy fast. I've learned appalling facts such as that 3,900 calories per U.S. citizen per day is produced, which is twice what we need. There is a very discreet crime going on in the U.S: because humans have this built-in weakness for fats and sugars, we're being targeted purposely by the fast food industry, especially kids!. Because of this, my generation is predicted to have a shorter life expenctancy than our parents. That is seriously frightening and something needs to be done about it. Food, like cigarettes, can be an addiction, especially with all the chemicals in the unidentifiable, "unpronounceable ingrediant lists" (19). If you think about it, it's sickening! The fact of the matter is that what the land can give us is what the body needs and it is a foreign concept to the average American. Agricultural knowledge really needs to become a main part of the school system's curriculum.

So, now that I've gone off on my speel about what I learned in the first chapter of my new book, I'll get to other aspects of my project. I've been doing some more research and I've come to the conclusion that I'm going to have to have a winter garden. Someway, somehow. It's already too late to plant to harvest in the fall and it's too late to plant in the spring to harvest in the summer, seeing as senior project will be over by then. So, a winter garden it is! And it is not impossible- it just takes some more equipment, thinking, and time. I know I will be able to grow garlic, some sort of lettuce, perhaps some beans, and something else that I can't quite remember. I'll have to find someway to keep my crops at the right temperature... there is some sort of cheap and easy greenhouse idea that I've looked at on the internet, but it will require some more research. Also, I will be applying for a grant to pay for all of my expenses. It's the same grant that my sister got for her recycling senior project, so hopefully I'll be successful like she was. But you never know- I can't exactly count on that until I've actually gotten the grant. But with Mrs. Price and Mrs. Berube on my side, I can't help but be a little confident. I've also been getting really excited with incorporating my senior project idea with the 4th grade curriculum. I'm having some great ideas on how to get the elementary students involved and excited about my project. I've been thinking that they could actually help me with the planting process and learn something while they're at it! They could perhaps each have their own little watering can that they can decorate and each day be responsible to water a certain plant. Stuff like that. I'll continue to be thinking of other ideas and if anyone has any new ideas for me, please don't hesistate to tell me! I do believe that's it for now. Until next Friday!