FINALE: Smile for the Camera

Time Elapsed: Monday @ ~12:30 - 1:30 PM  & Tuesday @ ~10:30 - 11:30 PM

Well boys. This is it. Almost showtime. Let's get through dress rehearsal one more time, and by dress I mean glistening you kids and water one more time. 

Sproutin good onion buns.

Sup carrots? I anticipate to see how much orange is attached to your greens.

Cucumbers I see you..haven't changed very much. That's cool that's cool. No need for drastic changes for the same result.

Short stud! Your leaves look so bountiful.

Huh. Isn't that one of our tomatoes? Weird, how'd it get this far? Why's it detached in the first place?

Hmm..well I see nothing else unusual about the tomatoes, most of them aren't just ripe yet...

But we still got these primetime babies. You guys are raring to get up the stage that is our mouths, especially you in the back over there, I'm sure you're looking to be-AAAHHH!!

The tomato has been bitten! Half of it looks like it's been chomped off! Damnit why can't find the picture for that now? What the fruity-patooty happened? Did a bird get its beak on it? A collaboration of insects? The cat? I can't really tell! Oh well. So we're 2 for 3 when it comes to edible tomatoes. That's still pretty good, right. They just have to last one more day. Cool? Cool. No pressure tomatoes.

Harvest Day

So the rooster finally crows for the final day of veggie gardening. Yay. So I got word on what exactly happened to our best tomato of the crop. According to Gabriel, apparently there was a volunteer during his shift that was collecting some tomatoes, assuming that the class project was already over. The misunderstanding caused us particularly two tomatoes, and Gabe's explanation may have saved all the rest. But enough about that, let's head on over to the plucking main event..where cameras are demanding very specific shots of almost everything we do. Man, these public access guys really do want their high-class shots. You can really tell some scenes were really forced. Putting them in the background now, the actual harvesting was a bit of a mixed bag to my expectations. The onions particularly were a bit small, and the carrot to stem ratio was a bit one-sided. The cucumbers didn't seem to be ready at all, being too undersized for popping up, at least the basil and tomatoes were perfectly qualified for the basket. According to Dr. Callahan, this seemed to be the expected outcome as the season wasn't exactly so great for them. All together, the profit still seemed to be pretty humongous.

 Thanks to our temporary model for making our crops look extra beasty on set.

In the end, it turned out to be a pretty bountiful feast after cleaning things up. This whole shindig really made me think how much of a fragile bitch this whole gardening business is. Perhaps it's a lot easier and thus more appreciated when the garden isn't miles away from you. It also made me think of the growing business as a whole. We only had to take care of one plot and it was such a big deal to us. Imagine having to manage entire acres of different stuff, or even of a single crop. We'd probably flip out. If we weren't being judged by natural means and were only being graded by results of the crop, how many of us would have resorted to using more excruciating means to take care of their plants? Use insect repllent or pesticide to keep the flys away? Using growth enhancers to make the process quicker? Would it really be that easy to convert to such methods if we were under the standards of the current agricultural system? As a little college student, I can't say I have either the knowledge or the credibility to have any real say on the matter, even after all these weeks in the classroom.

One thing is for sure though: This has made me curious to try again on my own on my land to see if I can conduct my own food supply. It will be a tough task though. I mean I don't think it would have been possible to maintain the garden without the assistance and coordination of the others, Scott, Gabriel, and Daniel. They really do have my appreciation for enabling me to contribute as much as I can. For now, I just simply hope all the know-how gets to stick in my head for at least a little while longer..preferably to give my thumb a different color for the inevitable apocalypse.

Week 7: I'm Running Out of "Clever" Titles

Time Elapsed: 

Monday & Wednesday @ ~12:40 - 1:20/ Tuesday & Thursday @ ~11:00 - 11:35

I think we're gonna make it. I think we're going to have a bountiful harvest this semester. We already have a pair of red (ripe?) tomatoes alongside the other toms just now starting to change color. The disease seems to have dissipated or at the very least not affected the final product.

The basil bud actually grew inches as well! Just as when I was getting worried for the shirt stud, it starts to grow up throughout the weekend. Compared to the other basil plants, ours is still not as tall, but I'll take our 'small' victories

The cucumber patch hasn't changed very much since the beginning when it began to sprout. Only difference I see from it physically speaking are the flowers that are growing out of it. Should they be appreciated or suspicious?

As long as we maintain this proper maintenance cycle of watering and dirt sweeping, I think things are going to turn up swell in the final days..unless something drastic has already occurred underground.

Week 5: No Disease Please

Time Elapsed: Monday: ~12:20 - 1:00 PM

                          Tuesday & Thursday: ~9:40 - 10:30 AM

No new or major developments when it comes to the little sprouts. They still seem to be in one piece despite the few scary storms we've been having over the weekend.

The tomato plant on the other hand seems to be catching on to something. Various leaves are turning color and gaining spots, in addition to the few bug chomps it's accumulated over time. I've already had to pinch off a couple leaves and also a whole stem to prevent the disease from spreading. Just hang on for a few more weeks, baby. Your tomatoes are showing a lot of promise and it'd suck if we had to make things complex now. Still thinking of employing some sort of natural bug repellent to stall for time, but hopefully we don't have to resort to...holy crap did a wasp just kill that bee right by me!? Nope nope nope. Calling a tactical retreat!

Week 3-4: Weed Like To See You Grow

Time Alotted: 

Monday-Wednesday @ ~12:40 - 1:20 PM

Tuesday @ ~9:40 - 10:15 AM

Good News: There are sprouts growing in our garden, signaling the growth of our veggies!

Bad News: Along with those sprouts are tons of weeds.

I have to be thankful my absence over spring break wasn't catastrophic. Looks like the team pulled off the time off just as planned and with their efforts come new progress for our crops. Our regular schedule back in action, but now with a new task added to the mix: weeding.

I never knew weeding could be so scary to do, since a good portion of our grades are on the line for pulling the wrong sprouts. Even with electronic devices and other tools to assist, I was still apprehensive about pulling anything without at least spending 30 seconds repeatedly confirming the identity of the plant in hand. It was especially difficult discerning between the basil plants and pennyworth weeds.

Speaking of our basil plants, while it's looking like our carrots, onions, cucumber, and tomato plants are growing in good fashion, I'm growing a bit concerned about the status of our basil bunch (no pun intended). I could only spot one obvious basil sprout within the plot where it should be. Maybe the others didn't make it, or were displaced somewhere else while watering. Makes me even more apprehensive about picking out green if that's the case.

 Current Basil Concern

Week 2: Budding the Buddies

Week 2: Budding the Buddies

Work Duration: 

Mondays-Wednesdays @ 12:15-1:20 PM (Afternoon checkup)

Tuesdays-Thursdays @ 9:30-10:10 AM (Morning Spree)

They're growing! Looking at the arugula of all the other plots made me a bit worried that our crops weren't gonna grow as successfully, but thanks to regular watering and a few cleaning sessions, these plants are growing as much as every other vegetable out there. I am a little concerned that some of the seeds may been pushed back into the corners from watering and are gonna be growing with a tight squeeze, but they can also just be weeds growing there as well. Will have to verify sometime soon.

Also happened to fish out a few centipedes that were trying to dig into the tomato plant while I was there as well. Not sure if their existence there was mutual to the plant, so I decided to play it safe and got them outta there. Looking at the long-term of the plot now, we may also need to consider implementing some organic pest control soon as well. I wish we don't need to though.

Day 1: Beeing Careful

Day 1: The Planting

Time Elapsed: 10:00-12:20 PM

Ah you can just smell the nature all around you..and the hickory smoke. After a quick orientation on the place, we were finally released into the wild of the Botanical Garden to begin a important task of vegetable gardening. I would personally like to thank our members Scott and Gabriel for braving the swarm of bees in order to retrieve the new good compost for our land while me and Daniel disposed of the old 'undesirable' top soil (which Scott and Gabriel went back in to dispose of).

Yes I have to admit, at first I feared the measurements and calculations would be our biggest challenge of the day, despite already graphing up a model of the planting layout earlier this week in class. But it turns out an aggravated swarm of bees would be the ones that would make the precision-demanding task into a game of dodging lasers and maintaining composure. The bees seemed to especially like Gabriel's beard. Thankfully it wasn't a total catastrophe for everyone involved and that's all there pretty much is to say on the matter.

Moving back onto the crops themselves, we first moved to transplant the tomato plant from its default pot into a hole in the newly-watered compost so that a good 1/3 of the plant was below ground. Hopefully I dug up a big enough hole for the girl as the lowest leaf on the plant (after a bit of trimming) was barely surfacing the ground. While that hole was watering, Daniel brought our predetermined grid into reality and planted the rest of the seeds into their proper positions. The basil would sit a good few feet from the tomato plant in the back row, as it serves as a good companion to tomatoes as we were told. The cucumber seed was planted in a mound a bit in front of the basil seed in order to avoid competition with the equally potentially tall tomato plant. I fear that further down the line that cucumber plant will block out a portion of the sun for the basil plant, but I'll just have to have faith in the calculations for now.


The front rows would thus be occupied by our smaller plants, with little to no competition between each other. With proper maintenance for those two rows of crops, I have little doubt in my mind that those will thus be the easiest to grow and harvest. By the time all of those seeds were planted, we were finally about ready to transplant the tomato plant into the soil and then surround it with a support base that Scott constructed for the occasion. We adjusted the plant's branches a bit so that they would grow around the support instead of colliding with it later on. Unfortunately I wasn't around for the final process of the seeding as I was put in the time-out corner by the bees, but I was able to come back just in time to water the soil again for a needed boost in moisture to end the day.

Of course this is only the start of our journey towards harvest as well as the plants. Hopefully the weather stays just as nice as it was today for the duration of the project, or at the very least remain consistent.