Planning tenth entry

Hello everybody!!

Last week we went to Complutenses’ University to learn about the vegetable garden that they have there. It is so big and they have all so tidied. When we came we had a small meeting with the organizer and he was explaining us how is the vegetable garden structured. Then he was telling us what kind of flowers, vegetables and plants they have and the most important thing about our group, how is the vegetable garden structured. They had there different parts where they grow plants. There is a big greenhouse where they plant and later put these plants in different position in all the garden. Also, they make their own fertilizer, they have worms too and they are creating at the moment with the help of a school a pond. It was quite interesting because the man was telling us how the plants have to be situated in order to grow in a correct way, so we payed attention to that because it is very important to our vegetable garden. Here, you can see some photos that we took:

We enjoyed the visit too much…

                

Apart from that, we could observe the structure of the vegetable garden. There were different parts with aromatic plants like rosemary, lavender, thyme… then there was another part where they create their own fertilizer with food, plants too and they put this mixture together in the sun around 60º degrees… he told us that is a very good idea if you want a perfect fertilizer. Also, there were tomatoes, lettuces, aubergines, marrows… one important thing is that, they put between these plants some flowers in order to get the attention of the insects and bees. All the structure was with lot of care and in a correct position to the sun and with a good irrigation. You can see more photos:

If you want you can come too, because this vegetable garden is inside a plan of Comunidad de Madrid and it is called, “Urban vegetable garden” you can go there to take care the plants, or maybe go with your family to enjoy a day or if you have free time, why not? It could be a fantastic idea!

Planning nineth entry

14/05/2016

Hello again!

The big day has arrived. Planting’s day.

Previously, we have said that plants which are planted not grew up. For this reason, we have bought new plants in a garden center. We bought some plants such as mint, lettuces, pepper, basil, oregano, chives, etc.

We had everything prepared; we had the soil in their boxes and in the pallets too. All that was missing was the junior gardeners. Who were the junior gardeners? They were students of three, four and five years of  Escuelas Santísimo Sacramento school.  

All the member of this project, we had divided into several groups. In this case, the persons responsible for planning were waiting for children in the garden’s corner.

The first class was three years old.  The children were accompanied by their teacher and

our classmates of didactic. Some children brought other plants that had grown so that we

could plant them.  In addition, they made some drawings of plants that were planted.

These drawings were placed in a mural to improve on garden decoration. 

We divided the children into groups so that we would be easier to plant them, in an individuated way. The class of three years old, planted mint.

The next class was five years old. These followed the same procedure as before. 

We gave the drawings and later, we stick theses drawings on the mural.  We made a brief

explanation of what we were doing and finally planted chives. 

And for the last class, were four years old. In this case, the children planted oregano and basil.

In between classes, the persons responsible for planning received the visit of some students and teachers CES Don Bosco. All the persons carried different plants for planting. We were there to help them. Many people participated in this event.  

As a final conclusion in this big day, we would like to thank a third grade of Pre-primary education “The unicorns”. We would also like to Escuelas Santísimo Sacramento School for participation in it.  

Planning eighth entry

Hello Everyone!

How are you? We are so happy.

During this week, it has happened many things in our vertical garden. So, let’s start.

Last week, we put some bags with water and soil to check if it put up with.   The result was satisfactory; the bags support it.

On the other hand, there were the boxes. We had to cut the meshes for all the boxes. It was a quick and simple job.
We had the boxes with their meshes and the pallets with their bags. All the work was done. But… we had to carry the pallets and boxes for our garden’s corner.

When all materials were ready (pallets, boxes, bottles, plants, etc.) in our garden’s corner. We begin to mix the compost of horse with the soil. It was the first time that we mix the soil with the compost, I can tell you that it smelled very bad.  

We had already made the mix.  The only thing missing to throw the soil in all the bags and pallets.  

 

We were ready for the BIG DAY. 

In the next entry, we will talk about this.

Be happy. 

Planning seventh entry

LET’S GO WITH THE MESH

Hi, we are here again!

This week we have done a lot of things and the structure is almost ready to be placed.

We have been very focus on finishing all the bags, for this reason, we have finished to burn all the edges of the bags, because they were a little bit frayed. Later, we have to do the bags for each space of the structure, but we had a problem: How could we join the mesh to form bags? First, we tried to do it burnt the edges and join them, however, this method was not very successful, due to the mesh separated with ease, so we had to find another solution. We thought that staple it would be a great idea, and it was. The bags look great and hold up very well.

When all the bags were finished, we started to place them in the different gaps of the pallets. We have had some difficulties, because we did not how to hold them; however we have solved this problem holding them with staples. And it seems to resist and looks good, isn’t it?

Finally, we have poured soil and water in two of the bags to prove if they resist the weight of the soil and the water, and we are very happy because it seems to have worked, because it holds up very well.

The next week, we will continue telling you how our work in the vegetable garden continues developing. 

Planning sixth entry

RETURN TO WORK!

Hello! We are back!

After our internship period, we are already back to the university this Monday 25, and now we return to carry on our garden project!

The previous week before starting the internship period, all the class planted a chive plant with the idea and the aim of make it grow a little bit to transplant it after into our garden, but we have failed and any plant hasn´t grown, so we have to change our plans and we have decided that the only solution is to buy seedlings, but you could know more about that in other publications!

Also there are some good news too! Before going to our internship schools, the pallets and the Wood boxes were varnished and the mesh was cut. Everything is ready to continue working in the next steps.

Thank you!

More information about GARDENICIOUS PROJECT in following publications.

Planning fifth entry

STARTING WITH THE STRUCTURE

During this week, we have decided how we will put the pallets and the boxes in the garden and how we will keep the plants inside of the pallets and the boxes.

How are we going to put the pallets and the boxes?

The pallets will hook to the wall through a small hook and these pallets also, will be leaning to the outside in order to increase the security. The boxes will be put in a row on the floor, in this way it will be easier to access them.

What can we use to keep the plants inside of the pallets and boxes?    

We can´t plant the plants directly on the pallets or the boxes because the soil can leave through the holes and there is a higher probability of to find more insects. For this reason, we have decided to buy a geotextile mesh between the base of the pallet and the box and the soil. On the one hand with this mesh, we will make small bags which will put inside of the different sections of each pallet for the different plants. On the other hand, we will cut bigger pieces of the same mesh for the boxes.  

    

Each pallet and box have different measurements, so we had to measure all of them taking into account the width, length and depth. After to get all the measurement we have decided to buy a geotextile mesh roll with 20 m x 1.05 m for all the garden. 

During these days, we have cut the mesh and we are starting to make the bags for the pallets.

We will tell you how it went the next week! 

Planning fourth entry

SOMETHING THAT WE HAD NOT TAKEN INTO ACCOUNT: THE VARNISH

When all the structure seemed to be prepared and ready to be placed on the wall, we realized that we were working with wood! We knew it before of course, but we didn’t take into account that one of the main elements of the garden is water! And water causes wood to rot!

Since we knew the problem, we just needed to find a solution: VARNISH.

We have bought it in Leroy Merlin, a can of 5 L per 30€, being the most economic, and we were ready to paint.

Materials:

• Brushes
• A basin
• Old newspapers or magazines
• Dirty and old clothes
• Ventilated space

 It was enough with 5L and the little remaining we will use it to give a second coat of varnish in the parts that will be more in contact with water.

If we have to highlight a learning from this experience, that is TO LEARN IN THE PROCESS BY SOLVING PROBLEMS.

Planning third entry

THE STRUCTURE OF THE GARDEN

We have started building our vegetable garden. We had already 6 pales but we needed wooden boxes of fruit. These ones were easy to find if you just slip down at the end of any street market. We have a total of 14. 

We have needed to fix the pales to make them useful for our garden. That means, that we have had to remove some of the planks depending on the space we needed for aromatic plants or vegetables. In addition, we have had to sand some of them that could be dangerous for children. And that is mainly what we have been doing today. 

We will continue working as much as we can. The deadline is very close!!

Planning second entry

OUR PROJECT HAS BEEN ACCEPTED

Our project has been accepted! That’s a really good new!!! Now we have many things to do ahead!

We just decided to spend the day of today planning and establishing deadlines for things to be done in order to make this project real. Also, it is important for the rest of the groups to plan according to our calendar. That is, more or less, how it would look like:

• Before the 17th of March. We have to prepare the structure and put it into the wall and floor. That means to measure the pales and boxes, paint them if it is necessary, buy and put the net, measure the way and organize the space in an efficient way and get it done there.
• Before the 17th of March optional. On one hand, prepare the amount of soil that we will need (that means to calculate the volume that each pale and box need).  On the other hand, to prepare the natural fertilizer. We will try to post, next week, an entry about how to prepare it.
• First week of May. We will put all the soil in the correct amounts, in each section. In addition, we will wait for the Didactic group to go to the school and collect the planted seeds. We will count how many have survived and, according to this data, we will buy bulbs to plant and complete the garden.

After that, how function will be covered. We will just need to revise every now and then the structure to ensure the perdurability.

Planning first entry

DESIGNING THE VEGETABLE GARDEN

In this entry, we want to enumerate some of the aspects that we have needed to take into account. For example, the SPACE. We’ve needed to think carefully where we wanted to put the garden and which characteristics were essential. In our case, we will settle it down in front of the gym door of the school Santísimo Sacramento. 

• LIGHT. The bricks wall has been selected because it will receive the light of the afternoon. 
• ACCESSIBILITY. It is the place between the university and the school what allows us to make a project in collaboration with some classes of the school. It is also next to a water source and a drain. 
• DIMENSIONS. A wall of 7 meters. 

We want to have two kinds of vegetable gardens. One will be vertical, and the other one, horizontal. 

• VERTICAL GARDEN. It is going to be made with pales. In each pale we will put some small bags of net where we will put soil and the plant. 
• HORIZONTAL GARDEN. This one will be made by wooden boxes of fruit. We will take the advantage of the bigger volume to use them for the vegetable that needs more soil as green beans or peppers.

This design answers the necessity of doing it in a sustainable way, by using recyclable materials to take care of the environment. 

That is all we can design before the project is accepted. Let’s hope we get a positive answer on Tuesday. We will keep you informed!

Hello from Planning.

WELCOME TO THE PLANNING SECTION

Hello everyone! If you are thinking to design a vegetable garden but you don’t know how to start, you are in the correct section! We want to narrate you our everyday process to share our ideas, difficulties and results with you.

But who we are? We are part of the project Gardenicious, a group of seven girls that are in charge of THE DESIGN AND PLANNING. These are the team members: Laura, Tessa, Alejandra, Elena, Patricia, Blanca y Tamara.And our main tasks are the following ones:

1. Design the previous idea of which kind of vegetable garden fixes with our conditions (of space, time and sources) and preferences.
2. Plan the necessary steps to carry it out.
3. And finally, get down to work!

In the next entries you can follow our process. Probably, we will need to change some parts in relation to what we have planned. Or maybe most of it! But that’s the good point of projects…

To learn together, by doing, on our way  J

See you in the next entry!