Alec's Garden
Getting ready to plant Alec's sign is done! Watering cumbers
Champion basil at the County Fair Alec Harvesting State Ribbon
Intern Profile
I want to be garden intern because....
Earn the experiance of working and expand my activities.
One of our primary goals for the garden is to provide fresh produce to the Willamette Valley Food Assistance Program. Two of my personal goals for working at the Dallas Youth Garden this summer are:
Expand my activities.
Get a future job reference.
Two things I hope to learn for working at the Dallas Youth Garden are:
To learn what it means to work.
To learn what it means to give to the community.
I think my biggest challenge will be:
Going against my nature and being able to interact with others throughout this experience.
My favorite vegetable is:
Tomatoes
My least favorite garden task is: weeding and moving soil.
My most favorite garden task is: harvesting produce.
I think a leader is: A leader is a strong person who takes the lead and guides others.
My worst leadership skill or trait is: My silent nature.
My best leadership skill or trait is: My best skill is my dedication.
Leadership Projects
Project name: Market Garden Produce Value
Problem: The Dallas Youth Garden donates ALL produce to the Willamette Valley Food Assistance Program. We need to know the value of this assistance and of our market produce.
Solution: Calculate the cost of produce when purchased locally and use that to estimate the value of three products.
Test/Research: The cost of produce current at Safeway is $3.99/pound for small tomatoes, 1.99/pound for cucumbers, and XXX/pound for broccoli. I harvested 63.5 pounds of small tomatoes, 118 pounds of cucumbers, and XX of broccoli make the value of my produce $ 253.37, $ 374.12 and $ 58.71 for each crop.
Communication: Report on value of crops to the group.
Leadership: ??
Project name: Fusarium wilt
Problem: A fungus that infects pumpkin, zucchini, cucumber, watermelon and any type of squash.
Solution: Use a raise bed, replace soil, crop rotation and crop replacement.
Test/Research: http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/gardens-gardening/your-garden/help-for-the-home-gardener/advice-tips-resources/pests-and-problems/diseases/cankers/fusarium-wilts-and-rots.aspx
Document: One page essay of Fasurium Wilt
Communication: Allows everyone to use my research in order to protect their garden.
Leadership: Knowledge to help others when burdend with a problem such as this.
Project name: Onion Seed Variety Comparison
Problem: Selecting the best seeds for produce will be important.
Solution: Compare production from two seed varieties for onions.
Test/Research: Planted seeds, compared germination rates, etc..
Seed Variety 1: Territorial - Guardsman onion
-- Germination: June 9th – 20 days to sprout
-- Harvest: August 23rd – 100 days to completely grow
-- Amount produced: 3.5lbs with 17 onions total
Seed Variety 2: Bibb – Red Salad Onion
--Germination: June 17th – 28 days to sprout
--Harvest: August 23rd – 92 days to completely grow
-- Amount produced: 1.2 lbs. with 6 onions total
Garden Plan
Garden Log
May 15-June 3: Planted the garden
June 3rd : Finally after a couple of weeks the planting has been completed, with the exception of basil starts. The tomatoes have already made good progress but a few weeds have begun to appear.
June 10th: There have been cucumber bugs that have been destroying my squash, so I built traps for them and used fish fertilizer to support their growth.
June 17th: The squash has made growth but I still used bone meal to help heal. The final step I took to produce squash is that I planted seeds next to the plants that weren’t doing that well. Lastly, the basil has been planted so the entire garden is finished.
June 24th : Many plants have been fertilized; as a result the cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers and basil are doing much better. Seeds such as onions, lettuce, spinach and carrots have sprouted. A major issue to deal with is the weeds.
July 1st: More traps have been placed just to be safe and the last row of tomatoes has stakes placed next to them in order to keep them upright. The majority of my focus has been on
weeding
July 10: It has been a busy week of gardening. Mulching, fertilizing, weeding, harvesting both spinach and lettuce have all taken up my time in the garden.
July 15: This week I noticed alot of cucumbers and unfortunately had my patty pan squash die. Hopefully, I will be able to do something about this issue.
July 22: I gave tours of my garden to a couple of people during the open house. Before that I harvested zucchini, tomatoes and cucumbers and filled my empty hills with peppermint swiss chard.
August 1st: This week has been a good week for harvesting. Both my tomatoes (1st and 2nd) are producing now. Fortunately, there were no major problems to attend to this week.
August 8th: Presented exhibits at Fair. Got blue ribbons and champion for basil exhibit. Going to state!
August 16th: Starting to select certain plants for state at the time, so I've made extra precaution to water those plants well. There has been one problem and that would be some bugs eating away at my brocoli, however, they are still producing just fine.
August 30th: Not anything new has been brought up in the garden, however, there is still work to do outside the garden that still involves it.
September 13th: Last update for the DYG, luckily the garden had gone great, except for the monstrous amount of tomatoes. Also, the rest of the plants are holding up rather nicely for how long and hot the summer has been.