Irrigation, Ecosystem Gardening and Trends

 Irrigation, Ecosystem Gardening and Trends

Irrigation is the method in which a controlled amount of water is supplied to plants at regular intervals for agriculture. It is used to assist in the growing of agricultural crops, maintenance of landscapes, and re-vegetation of disturbed soils in dry areas and during periods of inadequate rainfall.

An ecosystem is all of the plants, insects, and wildlife (all of the living things) that interact with all of the physical non-living things (soil, water, air, sunlight) that together create the environment that produces the ecosystem services on which we as humans are totally dependent.

These trends and innovations are redefining every aspect of gardening in the West—and changing the way we live, eat, and connect with one another. Garden and landscape designers across the country forecast noteworthy ideas shaping the gardening world in 2017

Trends

A good way to support local farmers who grow organically is to use Community Supported Agriculture (CSA).  This works by having people in the community pay local farmers so that they have enough start money to buy all the necessary equipment and supplies for his garden.  The people who pay get a share of each harvest the farmer has that year.  It helps keep the farmer from having too much left over crops.  This agreement keeps people from having to start up and maintain their own personal garden.  One of the most beneficial things about using CSA is that it provides small to medium size farmers with a large portion of their income, and it also keeps the money local to help with the local economy.  Most of these farmers grow organically also, but not all of them do so it is important to ask first.

Food Sheds

In class one of the topics we talked about was foodsheds. I never heard the term foodshed until I was read about it for this class. A foodshed is a "geographic location that produces the food for a particular population." This encompasses everything from production to consumption, including logistics (farm to mouth). Foodshed covers the "flow" of the food. The foodshed is split into zones ONLY geographically and not politically. Counties and governments have nothing to do with the separation between zones. For example FL would be split into north, central, and south. In our case, South Florida, we have enough food on hand at any given time on average to last three days before needing to import anything. 

Garden Techniques

I enjoyed learning about different gardening techniques and varies options for growing a garden and what trends are out there currently. The techniques that interested me were the basics to help and start a small garden at home. These topics were not particularly by main interest, but learning about gardening tool, trends and techniques, helped me engage in wanting to grow my own tree, plants and garden in my home.

Food Deserts

A food desert is an urban area in which it is difficult to buy affordable or good quality fresh food. Many people who live is big cities are unable to have access to local and fresh foods and many poor people live in food deserts. The more local cities have access to local foods and produce, they will sustain and help maintain a healthy and clean lifestyle. They will know what is GMO, what toxins they are putting on their bodies and ingesting. Consumers will also be able to afford local foods and is they are indeed organic, they will even pay a little more for their produce.

Sowing, Harvesting and Weeds

Sowing, Harvesting and Weeds

Sowing is the scatter of seeds over an open land on earth. It can also be defined as being dispersed with a purpose of growth.

Harvesting is to handle and grow crops. It can also mean storing and keeping something that was grown and nurtured by the planet.

A weed is a plant considered undesirable in a particular situation, "a plant in the wrong place". Examples commonly are plants unwanted in human-controlled settings, such as farm fields, gardens, lawns, and parks.

Seed Planting

As Professor Segal said, gardening has more to do with preparing nutrient rich soil clear of any harmful substances, such as weeds or harmful organisms, than it does with actually growing the plants themselves.  The idea of planting seeds in trays is very beneficial for many reasons.  The soil in the trays consists of what the planter puts in it while the ground soil cannot be fully controlled.  This gives the seed the best chance to grow and develop in those vital first steps of growth.   Keeping the small plants in the trays also helps keep the plants away from anything that could be harmful to it that is in the ground soil.  Basically the trays provide perfect conditions for the seeds to begin growth.  Once the seed is too large to be in the tray any longer, it is strong enough to survive in the less perfect ground soil.  It is very simple to remove the small plant from the tray and place it in the ground where you have prepared the best soil possible.

Local Sources for Seeds

Learning about seeds and local seed sources in this weeks presentation, gives options and the ability to be able to get local and country wide exposure to other plants and crops. A local seed source such as ECHO here in South West Florida, where they hold over 6,332 seeds from all over the world for trial. With the exposure to native and wild seeds to make local and wild edible crops has lead ECHO to donating more than 1,557 pounds of goods just this past year alone. Us customers can also be able to buy seeds from ECHO and other food supply stores to build our own gardens and explore varieties of crops.

Local Plant Sources

What I enjoyed about this weeks class and from the readings about seed planting and harvesting is how to plant seeds to make them the best products and outcomes for harvesting. It was overall important information for us to know, learn and understand how to plant seeds and which seeds are appropriate to plant when/where so we can make and build our own gardens. Being able to plant our own vegetables, fruits and other harvests can benefit us from having to rely on grocery stores for fresh foods. It is also important to learn how to plant seeds for plants and flowers.

Harvesting

One of the things that we learned about in class today were weeds, which is just a plant that's growing in an inappropriate place. They talked about different types of weeds and how to get rid of them. One of the more interesting ways I thought was to use a blowtorch. I never knew that was a legitimate method to eliminate weeds. They also went over cover crops which essentially just does the same thing as mulch (protection) except it's a living barrier. 

Irrigation methods were also covered in class.  Some of the methods I was already familiar with, like manual irrigation, rain water, and drip methods. I still think that the computer controlled irrigation sprayer system is pretty cool. The professor gave a bunch of gardening tips and talked about composting for a little bit as well. 

Gardening Organically, Edible Garden and Soil Building

Gardening Organically, Edible Garden and Soil Building

Organic gardening means you won't be using synthetic fertilizers or pesticides, but that doesn't mean your plants are left to fend for themselves. There are an array of tools you can use to bolster plant health and ward off pests.

Edible landscaping is the use of food-producing plants in the residential landscape. It combines fruit and nut trees, berry bushes, vegetables, herbs, edible flowers, along with ornamental plants into aesthetically pleasing design

Wearing away of Earth's surface caused by wind, water, ice or chemicals. Soil-Building. Process where the breakdown of rocks and organic materials creates arable (farmable) land.

Local Gardening

Being able to garden local and organically can provide and help the local economy in a big way. As of season starting here in Southwest Florida, if I am not working then I am at the local farmers market by my house each Saturday morning. Not only are you able to support local companies and businesses as well as knowing where your food, products and goods are coming from. I usually go to get local fruits such as oranges and grapefruit as well as local produce such as tomatoes from the fields in Immokalee. Not only is everything very local and healthy, but not so expensive either. I rather take the time to go to a local market then a store for my produce because I know what I will be eating, as well as supporting the local community.

Local Planting

Not having much interest, resources or want to garden was difficult for me to like this weeks class and presentations. Even though, my group learned about composting and what benefits it may have for local gardeners, I personally don't have an interest in it or resources to do it in my home. However, being able to learn and have ideas on what different types of pots there are for planting you can have at home. There were also many options and different pots to learn about for the different types of gardens other people may want and have. Learning about different containers to garden in is best for different garden areas.

Soil Building

This week I learned about highly managed compost, compost tea, and compost extract. Highly managed compost (or aggressively managed compost) is similar to passive compost, except it requires a lot of work (like turning and monitoring the temperature). In return the compost is created much faster (2 weeks or so instead of a year). The speed at which the compost is created is dictated by the size of the materials and how often it's turned. 

Compost tea is exactly what it sounds like. The compost (and other optional ingredients) is brewed/steeped into water and aerated. The microorganisms are fed either molasses or kelp/fish powder. This process takes at least one day, but after it's done you are left with liquid fertilizer. The tea has a very high concentration of microorganisms. 

Compost extract is very similar to tea except that it is normally produced using humidified compost. The compost is placed inside a burlap sack and submerged in a barrel of water for an hour or so (some methods take slightly more or less time). The end result is similar to the tea, except the extract has a greater number of different microorganisms (biodiversity) than the tea, and it has generally much better shelf life as well. 

Organic Soil

A lot of what was discussed this past week had to do with personal gardening.  The vast amount of gardening techniques makes it easy for someone in any environment to grow their own food. The first thing needed is good soil. We learned many different ways to give more nutrients to the soil, most of them involve adding compost to the soil. Next we discussed different types of pots such as hanging pots to hold different plants in. This can be very useful for inside plants or if you live in a city and don't have a yard to plant in. Of all the things we discussed, I think the most important thing was that all these techniques teach us how to grow organically and locally. Organic food is what our bodies are meant to eat not the chemically and genetically modified food grown by large farms. 

Products and Recycling

Products and Recycling

A product is an article or substance that is manufactured or refined for sale. An environmentally friendly product is are sustainability and marketing terms referring to goods and services, laws, guidelines and policies that claim reduced, minimal, or no harm upon ecosystems or the environment.

Recycling is to convert (waste) into reusable material. Tips on reducing waste and conserving resources. The three R's - reduce, reuse and recycle - all help to cut down on the amount of waste we throw away. They conserve natural resources, landfill space and energy. Plus, the three R's save land and money communities must use to dispose of waste in landfills.

The Three R's

Growing up in a city like New York, recycling was taught from a young age and strictly enforced in our communities. Today, the city is not only over populated but people still make it part of their lifestyle to recycle. Each household is given three stickers for "regular" trash, "plastic" and paper. As of 2016, each home is given a compost garbage can and strictly enforced to encourage homeowners to make sure only food wastes and scrapes are placed in the brown compost bins. They are picked up twice weekly and if not stored correctly, the home will be fined. This makes New Yorkers not only want to recycle, but have to recycle. The more we can keep our planet clean, the more we can reuse. As the presentation stated in class, we need to "rethink" what we will do after we finish reusing, reducing and recycling the product.

Productivity Use

I enjoyed listening and learning about different and varies uses of products that can be reused multiple times over. I enjoyed learning about how to get longevity use out of products that I use everyday. For example, when other classmates noted that in order to not waste a multitude of products such as using mason jars or getting meat wrapped in paper products, we are lowering and cutting costs on recycling and more on reusing. These are better ways and more sustainable affects than using plastic and foam.

Waste Packaging

The presentations in class talked a lot about the amount of waste packaging alone creates.  I personally work at a nutrition store and had never really thought about the packaging of items until now.  Companies try to make the jugs of protein look as big as they can so that customers think they are getting a lot, but in reality the container is only half full if even that much.  Many bottles of pills also come in a box.  What is the point of putting a bottle of pills into a box also?  They are already packaged in the bottle.  There is no logical reason why companies use extra unnecessary materials other than the fact that they believe it will help them sell more of the product.  Greedy people are wasting resources and creating more trash that pollutes our planet for the simple reason of gaining more money.  One classmate discussed how the store she worked for would reuse boxes multiple times.  This is a great way to reduce waste and I believe more stores should do it.  My store receives the boxes and throws them all away right after they are unpacked.  They are used only once.  This is a huge amount of waste that could easily be avoided.

Making Life More Sustainable

This class we learned about sustainable products and waste/recycling. When dealing with product design manufacturers are starting to focus on making products and packaging that can be reused from the very beginning, with a train of thought called cradle-to-cradle. This means that instead of making the products biodegradable, they're designed from the ground up to be directly recycled back into itself for re-manufacturing. Research and development for a lot of these companies are also using biomimicry to improve the efficiency of their products. Since evolution naturally creates the most efficient features over millions of years, it's only natural to look at nature for inspiration. 

When we learned about waste and recycling, I thought it was pretty crazy that there is a giant accumulation of trash floating around the Pacific that's literally named The Great Pacific Garbage Patch... Which is exactly what it sounds like. Another thing that surprised me was the high percent of our country's total trash is made up of construction and demolition materials