Molly's Garden

This is my picture of my coffee cake, but I can't get it where it's supposed to be on the page.

Intern Profile

I want to work at the garden because: I think it will be a good opportunity to gain some job experience, meet new people, and learn how to garden better.

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

1. Not having any plants die.

2. If we have fair, winning something.

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

1. How to garden better.

2. How to hold a job.

I think my biggest challenge will be: Making my pre-existing schedule work with this internship.

My favorite vegetable or fruit is: Green beans.

I hope to contribute this to the garden this year: Extremely good work ethic.

Garden Plan:

Vegetables and Flowers Planted (list in order):

Marigolds

Butternut Squash

Radishes

Cucumber

Cabbage

Zucchini

Zinnia

Tomatoes

Carrots

Beets

Lettuce

Crookneck Squash

Peppers

Beets

Pole beans

Dill

Yellow Squash

Rows of vegetables planted: 14

Number of different kinds of vegetables planted: 13

Planned Garden Yield: 338 lbs

Total Biggest Producer: Zucchini

Time Sheet:

May Days Off: 1

Extra Days: 0

Days Late: 0

June Days Off: 4

Extra Days: 0

Days Late: 0

July Days Off: 0

Extra Days: 1

Days Late: 0

August Days Off: 2

Extra Days: 0

Days Late: 0

September Days Off: 2

Extra Days: 2

Days Late: 0

Total Days Off: 8

Final Thoughts:

My favorite vegetable was pole beans.

Because: They were fun to watch grow and easy to pick.

My most productive vegetable was zucchini and I harvested 131.7 Pounds.

My least productive vegetable was cucumber and I harvested 0 Pounds.

My total harvest for the year was 402.6 Pounds.

My favorite job was: planting starts

My least favorite job was: Laying down straw and paper (mulching).

I could have done better at: Picking zucchinis while they were smaller.

I did the best I could doing: Weeding

The two things I learned most at the garden this year were:

1. Weeding early is really important, and if you don't weed a row early on it will effect the plants as long as they're alive.

2. Pole beans will latch on to anything they can grab, so the fence, but also weeds, each other, other nearby rows and plants, etc.

Garden Log:

May 1-7: Zoom meetings and planned my garden.

May 8-14: Planted my garden

May 15-21: Planted my garden

May 22-28 : Finished planting, spread straw, and had a day off for swim.

May 29-June 4: Spread straw, picked buds off of squash, and weeded.

June 5-11: Spread more straw, thinned my radishes, weeded, replaced my dead cucumbers with squash, and squished lots of cucumber bugs.

June 12-18: Put in tomato cages, harvested radishes, removed flowers from my tomatoes and squash, and weeded.

June 19-25: I thinned my beets and lettuce, removed flowers from my tomatoes and squash, and weeded a lot.

June 26-July 2: I started getting some squash and zucchini to pick, and I continued weeding and watering. We also used fish fertilizer, and laid down bark dust paths, and I put up my pole bean fence.

July 3-9: I harvested some of my lettuce, and I got some big zucchini for the first time. I continued weeding, watering, and picking flowers off of just my small plants.

July 10-16: I harvested the rest of my lettuce and about half of my beets, and did a lot of weeding.

July 17-23: I harvested almost the rest of my beets and lots of yellow & crookneck squash and zucchini. I also found 4 radishes that somehow survived being weed-wacked twice and not being weeded or watered for weeks, so that was pretty cool. I kept weeding and watering.

July 24-30: I harvested squash and zucchini, and kept weeding and watering. We also put fish fertilizer on our squash and tomatoes.

July 31-August 6: I harvested squash, zucchini, beets, and cabbage. I also watered, weeded, helped a little bit in Amelia's garden, and played catch using apples with the other interns.

August 7-13: I harvested squash, zucchini, beans, tomatoes and cabbage. I also watered and weeded.

August 14-20: I harvested squash, zucchini, tomatoes, beans, peppers, and the rest of my cabbage. I also watered and weeded.

August 21-27: I harvested squash, zucchini, tomatoes, peppers, carrots, beans, and watered and weeded.

August 28-September 3: I harvested squash, zucchini, tomatoes, the rest of my peppers, the rest of my carrots, beans, butternut squash and watered and weeded.

September 4-The end: Vacation time/I did not attend the optional days due to my schedule.

Recipe: Cinnamon and Sugar Zucchini Coffee Cake

Ingredients:

• 1 1/3 cups brown sugar

• 1/3 cup oil (olive oil)

• 1 egg

• 1 cup buttermilk (you can sub milk + lemon juice)

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• 1 teaspoon vanilla

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

• 1 1/2 cups grated zucchini

• Splash of lemon juice

For the topping:

• 1 cup sugar

• 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

• 2 tablespoons butter

How to Cook It:

• Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

• Press or drain the excess moisture out of the zucchini shreds. Mix the cake ingredients in order given.

• Combine the topping ingredients with your fingers or in a food processor to make a crumbly topping. Pour half of the batter into a greased 9×13 cake pan. Cover with half of the crumbs. Repeat with the remaining batter and topping.

• Bake for 45 minutes.

Picture: see top.

Food Assistance:

Date Attended: 8/4

What did you help with? We set up a table and I carried out produce to set on it, and then we tried to give as much of it away as possible.

What were people like? All of the people I talked to (people who worked at the Academy building and people we gave or tried to give food to) we're really nice.

What did you learn? Most people aren't planning to go out and get produce but if you manage to stop them and tell them it's free a lot of people will take some anyway. There were a surprising amount of people who tried to buy the produce as well.

Garden Project/Problem Solved

Problem: I wanted to know how much the food I had donated was worth, or how much money I could have saved people.

Solution: I decided to research zucchini prices vs. pounds to see how much my zucchini would've cost at a store.

Test/Activity: I looked up and averaged zucchini prices and used that to calculate how much my zucchini would've cost based on the pounds of it I grew.

Results: My zucchini had the potential to save people $263.40. However, this is the price of grocery store zucchinis, which are usually significantly smaller than the ones I grew.

Communication: I talked to Dean to see if this project would be an okay one to do, and got this approved.

Booth Participation

Date: 7/25/21

Organization: Rotary Breakfast

People Encountered: 4

Presentation: I told them my name and that I was an intern at Dallas Youth Garden, and in combination with the other people working the booth we told them that we grew food to give to places like the food bank, we each had garden plots that were 25 x 50 feet that we managed, over the last 9 year DYG had employed over 85 interns and donated over 28,000 pounds of food, we also showed them some pictures of he garden and us, and told them what activities we do (planting, watering, weeding, fish fertilizer, tomato cages, pole bean fences, etc.) and what vegetables we grew.

How it went: It was pretty easy.

Why was it important to do this: So we could spread awareness about DYG and so we could get public speaking and people skills.

What did you learn: People want to help you out when you're public speaking or giving a presentation. It's not that terrifying once you realize people don't actually want to see you crash and burn.