Bianca's Garden

Pictures

Intern Profile

I want to work at the garden because:

I'd like to learn more about gardening and I think it will be a good first job.

Two of my personal goals for working at the Dallas Youth Garden this summer are:

1) Successfully grow my garden and get a good yield from it.

2) Help improve the garden and make it even more successful in the future.

Two things I hope to learn for working at the Dallas Youth Garden are:

1) Efficient ways to successfully grow food.

2) Ways to improve the way I garden.

I think my biggest challenge will be:

I think it will be overall making sure that my garden is successful because I've never grown anything on such a large scale.

My favorite vegetable or fruit is:

Tomatoes, because they are very versatile so you can eat them raw and you can cook with them and they are delicious both ways.

I think a leader is:

Someone who inspires others to improve, and who helps others and drives them to do their best.

I hope to contribute this leadership skill to the garden this season:

I hope to help others improve their garden, and to help lead projects while I also improve.

Garden Plan:

Rows of vegetables planted:

18 rows

Number of different kinds of vegetables planted:

18 different kinds of plants

Planned Garden Yield:

280 pounds total

My garden did or did/not match my plan and why:

It did match because I did everything in order and I made sure I had all of the right plants and stuck to my plan. I ended up having to put in honeydew instead of eggplant and watermelon because they weren’t coming up.

Garden Log:

May 4: Started work and removed tarps

May 7-11: I did all of my paperwork and garden planning, and I helped clean up after the Master Gardeners plant sale.

May 14-18: I started planting my garden.

May 21-25: I continued to plant my garden.

May 28- June 1: I finished planting my garden.

June 4-8: I worked on watering and weeding my garden. We also spread wood chips on the paths.

June 11-15: I continued watering and weeding my garden.

June 18-22: I continued watering and weeding, and we went to dancing oaks nursery for the pollinator festival.

June 25-29: I watered and weeded all week.

July 2-6: I watered and weeded, and on the 4th we watered for everyone that wasn’t there. I also picked this week.

July 9-13: I watered and weeded. On Saturday we weeded in between people's rows and I finally finished weeding my dill rows!

July 16-20: I picked, watered, and weeded and we got ready for open house.

July 23-27: Open house was on the 23rd and we gave tours and I picked, watered and weeded this week.

July 30- Aug 3: I brought in my squash on Tuesday and throughout the week we watered, weeded, and got ready for fair next week.

Aug 6-10: We picked for fair on Tuesday and Thursday morning we brought over all the vegetables and picked flowers. Thursday afternoon we prepared for our booth. On Friday we worked our booth and saw our ribbons. I got 4 blues, 3 invitations to state, and 1 champion for my dill! On Saturday we had a normal work day.

Aug 13-17: We picked, watered, and weeded. On Tuesday we got our fair ribbons and premiums and on Saturday we did minions. On Thursday I sprayed milk on the zucchini and squash for the mildew.

Aug 20-24: We picked and watered this week. We have vegetables at state this week. I got my cucumbers weeded all the way and did my last Leadership Project.

Aug 27-31:

June Leadership Project:

Problem: There are lots of cucumber bugs in my garden.

Solution: I’m going to put yellow cups full of soapy water throughout my rows that have cucumber bugs to attract and kill them.

Test/Activity: I will see if this works by seeing if there are lots of cucumber bugs in the cups and if there is a noticeable difference in my garden.

Results: Overall my project wasn’t very successful because it didn’t catch any cucumber bugs, it just killed bees and caught dead flea beetles that Dean sprayed. I think it might have worked better if I had done it when there were tons of bugs, but it didn’t work very well.

Communication: Results will be communicated to the group when I have results.

Leadership Skills: Planning, problem solving, effective communication

Information found at https://www.highmowingseeds.com/blog/organic-control-measures-for-striped-cucumber-beetles/ (trap method found in the comments).

July Leadership Project:

Problem: People might not know how to use some of the food that we grow.

Solution: I’m going to put a recipe on this page that people can use for one of the vegetables that we grow at the garden.

Test/Activity: I am going to research recipes and find one for a vegetable that is grown at the garden, make it, bring it in for everyone at the garden, and put the recipe on my page.

Results: It was delicious!

Communication: I will tell everyone at the garden what I make and have them try it and the recipe will be put on my page for the community to use.

Leadership Skills: Planning, research, communication, and problem solving.

Cheesy squash

The recipe is very simple. All you need to do is cut the squash into 1/4 inch thick slices and put them onto a baking sheet and put a spoonful of grated cheese on top. Bake it for 15-20 minutes at 425 degrees. This recipe is great because you can use yellow squash, summer squash, crookneck squash, and both yellow and green zucchini. The recipe called for Parmesan cheese, but I used a cheese blend so you could use whatever cheese you wanted to.

I found this recipe at https://www.fivehearthome.com/baked-parmesan-yelllow-squash-rounds-recipe/.

August Leadership Project

Problem: Not everyone knows who we are, and the church provides the land for us to be able to do the garden and I want to thank them.

Test/Activity: I am going to write a thank you letter to the church for giving us the land for the garden.

Results: More people will know who we are, and the church will be thanked for their contribution.

Communication: My thank you letter will be emailed to the church. I also have it down below so that anyone can view it on the site.

Leadership skills: Planning and communication.

To whom it may concern at Trinity Lutheran Church,

I am Bianca and I am one of this year’s interns at the Dallas Youth Garden outside of your church. I wanted to thank you for donating the land for the garden. With this land, we are able to grow hundreds of pounds of food to donate to the Willamette Valley Food Association, which goes to people that need it. It also creates job opportunities for all of us interns, which is most of our first jobs. It teaches us leadership skills, learning opportunities, and how to be a good employee. Your contribution is hugely appreciated, so thank you to everyone at Trinity Lutheran Church who has helped make the garden possible.

Sincerely,

Bianca Parsons

2019 DYG Intern

Extra Leadership Project

Problem: There is powdery mildew on my zucchini and some of my squash.

Solution: I’m going to use a water and milk mixture and spray it on the leaves to try to stop the mildew.

Test/Activity: I’m going to watch and see if the mildew gets better and/or slows down.

Results: I sprayed it first on the 15th, and on the 17th there wasn’t too much change. On the 22nd I will spray it again on half of them and see if there is any improvement and report back.

All in all I think that the milk helped a little bit, but it’s so close to the end of the season that it’s hard to tell. I think it would help more if I had sprayed earlier.

Communication: I will tell everyone at the garden what happens. Chloe also used the milk and water, so we will see if hers also gets better.

Leadership Skills: Problem solving, planning, research, communication, and observation.

Information found at https://dengarden.com/gardening/Organic-Methods-of-Exterminating-Powdery-Mildew.