I PLANNED A GARDEN!!!!!

For the first unit of our STEAM class, Fuel, we focused on the chemical and mathematical aspects of food culture. We took two field experiences. The first was to a farm where we learned all about what it took to maintain a sustainable and organic garden. There we learned more about the chemical aspects of food, whereas during our second FE to a “green” catering company, we learned more about the math aspect of food. The dimensions of garden beds where they plant the food and the amount of people they cater for in relation to how many dishes they need from their garden. For this action project we decided to take what we learned during both field experiences and plan our own garden. Here is my garden!!


My garden is located in the patch of grass that I have by the side of my house. The actual garden is in a raised bed with the wooden container being about 10ft by 4ft. In length, while also being about a 2-3ft deep. I chose this space and area because it is spacious enough to contain my companion plants. Companion plants are plant that grow well together. Not only that, but they also help eachother grow. Her are some that I chose. Tomatoes and basil are perfect companion plants because the basil takes up more nitrogen which gives the tomato plant more ability to grow bigger and better tomatoes, while also ensuring that flies and mosquitoes don’t go near the paired plants. Another pair of plants is corn and beans. Beans provide support for the corn to grow straight up and healthy. It also acts as a nitrogen fixer which gives the corn more nutrients to grow. As most people know, in order to grow any plant, you need a considerable amount of “healthy soil”. What exactly makes soil healthy rather that soil you would find on the ground near a gas station? Well healthy soil has millions upon millions of microbes feeding the soil nutrients. It also contains both macro and micro nutrients. Macro nutrients could include carbon, hydrogen, carbohydrates and etc, while micronutrients can be calcium, magnesium and copper. You can always tell if you have healthy soil if you mix it in water and get a solution that has a PH of 7. The PH of my soil and water solution turned out to be 6.8. This is really close to perfectly healthy soil but still needs a little bit of work. The easiest and most efficient way to get the soil’s PH level to an even 7 is to put fresh compost in the soil. This does take a bit of time, but is sure to get you the results that you would need.

In this unit, we also learned about Fukuoka and his methods to conducting natural farming. He came up with four different steps to consider when farming. Let the soil work on its own/don’t till it. Don’t use chemical fertilizers on the plants or soil. Don’t spray herbicides or do much weeding just let the soil work. And lastly, don’t use pesticides. According to Fukuoka, I did not apply a very “natural farming” idea to my garden. I didn't use pesticides, herbicides, or chemicals in my garden. But I did suggest putting compost in the soil, which does count as tilling the garden. I did not abide by fukuoka’s principles for farming, but there is only so much you can do when trying to start a garden in an area where there are lots of chemicals from the cars and chemicals being sprayed on the grass.

The aspects of this project turned out to be very tedious and frustrating, but despite that, it was still fun to plan my own garden and relate that to other gardeners and farmers.


Work Cited

Nauta, Phil. “What I Learned From Masanobu Fukuoka.” Smiling Gardener, 10 Feb. 2017, www.smilinggardener.com/organic-gardening-tips/masanobu-fukuoka/. Accessed 2 May 2019.

“Companion Planting For Top 10 Veggies Grown in US - Farmers’ Almanac.” Farmers’ Almanac, May 2019, www.farmersalmanac.com/companion-planting-guide-31301. Accessed 2 May 2019.