Blog 14: Independent Component 1

LITERAL:

• A) I, Danielle Carlson, affirm that I completed my Independent Component which represents 30 hours of work.
• B) My mentors name is Jerry Carlson, my father, who watched me complete my 30 hours of work.
• C) Independent Component Log
• D) Basically I started out and planted daliahs into a pot. Every week I would water and pull weeds and, sometimes I would compost and put that over my flower garden. When my flowers outgrew their pots, I would put them into bigger pots with new soil. 

INTERPRETIVE:

• The things that would take the longest would have to be switching the flowers into bigger pots because I have to be careful not to harm the roots of the flowers. Also watering took some time because I had to do this everyday. But, in the end it was relaxing and enjoyable. (Order of pictures: newest to oldest)

APPLIED: 

• Growing my own flower garden gave me a chance to get a hands on experience of being an actual horticulturist. I had to plan my garden before hand to get a better idea of how it would turn out. Also growing my own mini flower garden helped me discover my first answer to my eq which is soil health. Without doing this as my in dependent component I would not have a basic idea of all the work that goes into maintaining healthy soil and how important it is to a flower garden. Durning this experience I also learned the benefits of composting, or creating natural nutrients for a garden. I really got to witness first hand how much faster and stronger the flowers grow with composting. In fact one of the flowers is almost in bloom and it isn't even spring yet, which I find incredible.  Overall I believe growing my own flower garden benefit my senior topic more ways than one. It helped me understand what it is like to grow my own healthy garden as well as it be a way to relieve stress and feel success when I witness my hard work begin to prosper. 

Blog 13: Rough Draft of 30 minute presentation

30 minute presentation outline

A Little I.C Check

My dahlia's that I am growing for my Independent Component are thriving and healthy. Especially the four I originally planted in the big black planter. Unfortunately though, the planter was a bit shallow so I had to move the dahlias but they are fine. I have been watering them and making sure there soil is still healthy. Also, if I see any bugs, I personally remove them. YUCK, but it's better than using pesticides. All and all, I think my I.C is turning out to be successful, especially since I am having fun while doing it.

Mentorship Fun Day

Yesterday at the arboretum all the tasks where finished early since there were many volunteers. All the other volunteers left early but I had to stay there for another hour do to the fact I knew there would be traffic on the freeway. Since I was sitting in the mentorship office bored out of my mind with another volunteer, this lady (Ivonne's substitute for the day) told us we could walk around the arboretum for fun since we were done early.
Even though it was freezing it was still fun to walk around and enjoy the beautiful scenery for a hour. The peacefulness of the arboretum helped clear my mind and allow me to forget about senior project and such things...well at least for a little bit.

Blog 12: Third Interview Questions

1. What is the best way to grow a healthy organic garden?
2. What do you consider an organic garden?
3. What is most important to maintain a healthy garden?
4. What soil is most important to use in an organic garden?
5. When faced with pest in an organic garden, what is the best way to rid of them?
6. What must a horticulturists know when planning an organic garden?
7. What is the hardest step in maintaing a healthy garden?
8. Are there any rewards in growing an organic garden compared to a non-organinc one? 
9. Do you have any straggles when growing your garden?
10. What do you think is the most important when caring for a flower garden?