LACEY’S GARDEN

PROFILE

I want to work at the garden because it was a great summer job opportunity and a fun way to help the community.

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

  1. Meeting new people and getting to know them

  2. Get rid of my ‘arriving late’ gene.

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

  1. How to cultivate a large garden.

  2. good working techniques.

I think my biggest challenge will be keeping my plants watered during the hot months.

My favorite vegetable or fruit are cherries and potatoes.

I hope to contribute this to the garden this year: a hard worker that isnt afraid to get dirty.

 GARDEN PLAN

Vegetables and Flowers Planted (list in order):

  1. Marigold

  2. tomato

  3. cabbage

  4. carrots

  5. radish

  6. zucchini

  7. dill

  8. pattypan squash

  9. onion

  10. beets

  11. beans

  12. pumpkin

  13. cabbage

  14. acorn squash

Rows of vegetables planted: 13

Number of different kinds of vegetables planted: 10

Planned Garden Yield: — 335 lbs.

Planned Biggest Producer: zucchini

Changes in my plan during planting: instead of a whole second cabbage row, I replaced half with beets.

GARDEN LOG

  • May 2-4: We all got to know each other and played name games. Mine was “laughing lacey”. We did a lottery pull and I got the long garden, garden 10. we also pulled back the tarps covering the garden. we saw many creatures such as snakes, worms, birds, and even a mole. lil guy was cute.

  • May 7-12: We met on zoom, and all talked about our garden plans. mine was done thanks to Jodi, and I got some questions answered on the call.

  • May 14-19: We got to planting, and my first row was marigolds. thanks to Dean using my garden for the demo I got a slight head start. With the help of Jordy my planting went along smoothly.

  • May 21-25: I finally finished planting thanks to the help of the helpers and did a lot of watering. On Saturday, I helped scrub and paint the fence.

  • May 28-June 1: I had to replant one of my tomatoes that broke. Dean did a demo for the hay laying and I watered it down for him. We started making our garden signs and weeding.

  • June 4-8: Tuesday, I watered my plants and weeded. same thing on Thursday and those pesky weeds are having a hay day. Saturday we layed out more hay.

  • June 10-15: Same ol same ol, weeding and watering. On Saturday we layed hay and ate yummy cake. the poor pup got a haircut and looks very aerodynamic.

  • June 18-22: put the fences on my beans and did more weeding. most of my radishes are wiped out. The sun was boiling us on Thursday. Saturday, we finished laying the straw and ate more yummy snacks.

  • June 25-29: On Tuesday we had the honor of spreading fish innards all over the garden!!

  • July 2-6: I took Tuesday and Thursday off because of camping. On Saturday we weeded everyone’s onions and watered.

  • July 9-13: This week was full of watering and weeding. My Zucchini and PattyPans have been producing well. We weeded everybody’s beans on Saturday.

  • July 16-20: This week was yet again full of watering and weeding. Zucchini and Patties are still producing wonderfully.

  • July 23-27: helped Olivia harvest some lettuce, other than that lots of watering and weeding. The cucumber bugs are making my plants look like target practice.

  • July 30- Aug 3: same ol same ol with watering and weeding. On Saturday we had our open house and luckily my family was able to make it.

  • Aug 6- 10: beans are flourishing, got lots of harvesting done. we weeded everyone’s tomatoes and found a huge gross spider in Jodi’s Garden.

  • Aug 13-17: Tuesday was a huge harvesting day, we picked beets, dill, cabbage, beans, and summer squash. rest of the week was normal watering and weeding. We talked about the future schedule with school starting up.

  • Sep 3-7: LAST OFFICIAL WEEK. its bittersweet. I have really enjoyed my experience here. this week hasn’t been very busy just watering and minimal picking. the party is Saturday and i can’t wait to eat yummy food.

Final Thoughts:


My favorite garden vegetable was beets because they were super cute and huge and tasted so yummy.
I harvested 131.45 pounds of produce from my garden (excluding what we harvest in September).
My favorite job was when I got to sit down and tackle the weeds in my rows.
My least favorite job was watering because it takes forever.
I could have done better at the initial planting of the seeds and making sure I planted enough.
I did the best I could doing watering, in fact I probably did too much watering.
The two things I learned most at the garden this year was how to harvest cabbage and getting into the habit of clocking out.

GARDEN PROJECTS

1.Project One

Question/Problem(s) Proposed: Gardeners love ladybugs, but why is that?

Answer(s) I found: Other than being cute, lady bugs are great pest control. They eat all kinds of pests like aphids, whiteflies, and spider mites. Ladybugs are also pollinators, so they help the crops produce seeds and fruit.

URL Reference: All About Ladybugs & Why They're Good For Your Garden - Get Busy Gardening

2. Recipe.

Name: Easy dill pickle recipe

Vegetable Used: dill

Ingredients:

  • 5 cups white vinegar

  • 1 cup canning salt

  • 12 pounds pickling cucumbers, quartered or halved lengthwise

  • 9 dill sprigs or heads

  • 18 garlic cloves

  • 11 cups water

Steps to Make it:

  1. In a stockpot, bring water, vinegar and salt to a boil; boil 10 minutes. Pack cucumbers into 9 hot quart jars within 1/2 in. of top. Place 1 dill head, 2 garlic cloves and 2 peppers in each jar.

  2. Carefully ladle hot mixture into jars, leaving 1/2-in. headspace. Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace, if necessary, by adding hot mixture. Wipe rims. Center lids on jars; screw on bands until fingertip tight.

  3. Place jars into canner with simmering water, ensuring that they are completely covered with water. Bring to a boil; process for 15 minutes. Remove jars and cool.

Opinion: meh. mediocre. less than ordinary. palatable. not much flavor and the pickling cucumbers I used were quite bitter.

URL : Easy Dill Pickles Recipe: How to Make It (tasteofhome.com)

3. Another Project

Problem: having a small space but wanting a garden.

Solution: Using raised garden beds, pots, or vertical gardening can limit the space you take up in your back yard yet still being productive.

Test/Activity: we have a small backyard so we use raised garden beds to grow our vegetables.

Results: we effectively used our small space to make a size friendly garden.

URL Reference: https://ngb.org/raised-bed-gardening-benefits/

MONTHLY GARDEN SUMMARY

May: Days Worked _10_ Days Off __0___ Extra Days Worked _1_ Days Late_0__ Total Produce(Pounds):__0__

June: Days Worked _13__ Days Off __0___ Extra Days Worked __0__ Days Late___0____ Total Produce(Pounds):_0_

July: Days Worked _11_ Days Off _1_ Extra Days Worked _1_ Days Late___1___ Total Produce(Pounds):_10.85_

August: Days Worked _14__ Days Off _1__ Extra Days Worked _1__ Days Late__0__ Total Produce(Pounds):_120.6__

September: Days Worked _6__ Days Off __1__ Extra Days Worked __0__ Days Late__0__ Total Produce(Pounds):__unsure so far__