Week 1: Experiment

Gardeners usually turn over the top layer of soil before planting to get rid of weeds, and make it easier to use fertilizers and plant crops. It also speeds up the decomposition of crop remains and weeds. So what we decided to experiment was the difference between the growth of turned over soil and unturned soil. What we did was plant the same seeds in both the turned over soil and unturned soil. What we planted was a row of Arugula, a row of Beets, a row of Nelson carrots and a row of Yaya carrots. I think that the turned over soil will grow better than the unturned soil. The biggest problem with weeds in the garden environment is that they compete with the plants that are trying to grow. Weeds compete with flowers, grasses, vegetable and fruit plants for water, sunlight and nutrients.

Week 1: Seeds

This week has been very eventful at the garden. A large space in the garden has already been taken up by a myriad of vegetables, some of which are Yaya carrots, Nabechan onions, Arugula, and Red Russian Kale. All of the vegetables that have been planted are outdoors, but we do have plans to start growing tomatoes and peppers indoors before transplanting them outside into the garden. Unfortunately, though, we have not had enough people to actually begin planting indoors. The reason we don't just plant the tomatoes and peppers in the garden right now is because they need to be grown in a more stable environment in order to grow, for more info on transplanting vegetables click here. We hope to start planting the tomatoes and peppers as soon as we have enough people to do it. We are also thinking about what else to plant in the remaining garden space, we were thinking about peas and beans. The soil in about a quarter of the garden has been turned, this means that we have churned up and mixed the soil around before planting in it. 

                  

               The first seeds going in

Week 1: Weather

The first week was mostly partially cloudy with few exceptions like Saturday when was sunny. But looking at the bright side ( got it? bright=sunny) partially cloudy isn't that bad, we still have some spots of sun during the day. What worries me is the temperature even though or plants are early season plants they still need some warmth to grow. Hopefully week 2 things are going to get warmer. Luckily we have an awesome soil we sent samples of our soil to be tested by Umass amherst and they sent us back good news, our soil is very rich on things like phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium what will help our plants grow strong and tall.

Welcom to Our Garden

Welcome to our blog! We are students from the ABRHS MAP program. Our biology teacher gave us an assignment to plant a garden and to write blog about the garden that we are planting. Right now, the garden is empty but the soil is in relatively good condition. Now that the snow has finally melted, we will start planting soon. The experiment will take place all the way through to the end of the year, and will consist of, getting the soil ready, making holes, planting seeds, watering, watching out for pests, and watching the plants grow. The vegetables should be fully grown by the end of the school year, once they are finished we will be using them to cook recipes. We will be updating this blog every friday up until the end of the year. We hope that you, our dear reader, find our blog to be helpful and entertaining, enjoy :).