Blog 25: Mentorship

    Literal

• Mentorship Log
• Ivonne Escobedo (626) 821-3233

Interpretive

    I feel I am very lucky to have had this mentorship. I have seen and had hands on experienced with what it is like to work with plants, that not only native to the United States, but from places such as Africa, Australia, and, Japan. I had the pleasure to propagate plants in a green house and water and care for them. Although it was and is a lot of work, I still enjoyed the hands on experience. I also took pleasure in working at the mentorship office with Ivonne, because with out her giving me a volunteer position I would most likely not be able to work with plants. I had the opportunity to talk with and meet many people that had such an interest and an immense knowledge about plants and I am thankful that they shared information with me as well. 

   Applied

     Since I had the pleasure of talking and networking their, I always had someone to interview. Durning these interview, it would help lead me to an answer or give me some ideas on what to research next. My interviews helped me with my answers. I feel my third interview was the best because it cleared my doubt about my second answer.

     Also, getting a chance to see hands on how my two answers (planning a garden and healthy soil) can really benefit a garden. At the Arcadia Arboretum we are not allowed to plant flowers with out checking the soil and planning out the flower type and its needs. If someone neglects to do so, the plant usually dies or is discolored due to the fact of a lack of nutrients. We are constantly composting and adding it to our soil to make sure it is at the upmost condition. 
At the arboretum, the gardeners always plan out the garden to see where they will plant the flowers, vegetables, or trees before actually doing so. They take into consideration of the sun location, the space, and the season. They never plant flowers without considering those things. Seeing how my two answers was applied in the arboretum really gave me the confidence that was needed when researching my answers. 

Blog 24: Exit Interview Questions

1) My essential question is, “what is the best way to grow a healthy, organic flower garden?” My best answer to my eq is maintaining and knowing your soil condition to preserve a healthy garden. Through out my senior project I have read multiple articles by horticulture college professors, an example being James Bauder the professor of university of Minnesota. All of these articles explained in great detail that in order to have a successful garden, of any sort, you must start with the soil. Each flower has different needs, such as a child, and you as a gardener must protein to each need. Certain plants, like catus for example, need soil with great drainage, which is why they prosper in sand. But, most flower, like sunflowers or roses, prosper in soil full of nutrients. If you do not know how to maintain healthy soil or do not know what soil you are working with, you could cause avoidable problems. Gardeners that do not know what soil they are working with, will most likely plant flowers in the wrong soil causing the plant not to grow at all or be unhealthy.

2) When it came to arriving to this answer I was kind of lucky. I did not have any answers at the time of doing my science experiment but while researching my science component, I stumbled upon my answer. My science experiment was centered around an issue that horticulturists and farmers have to deal with, this is salinated soil. Salinated soil, according to the author of organic gardening Pauline Pears, is a condition where soil contains too much salt thus absorbing all the nutrients and water from the soil making it unusable. While researching salinated soil, I quickly discovered how important soil is to gardening, but is the thing often overlooked. According to the creator of the green bent movement, a non profit organization, dirt is our most precious mineral because with out it we would have nothing. Although it seemed obvious before that soil is needed I didn’t have an appreciation for it until researching and seeing the effects of my experiment.

3) During 1^st semester I had mentorship at the Arcadia Arboretum but I did not work with plants at all because I did not have their trust yet. But, luckily for me, they finally let me work with plants after helping out at the membership office after a couple months of working there, which was around December.

4) My two important sources are, The Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening by Pauline Pears and my 3^rd interview with Frank McDonald. The book (organic), was a book I checked out of the library at Cal Poly and really helped me a lot. It gave me most the knowledge about my first answer and even gave me the idea of my second answer, planning a garden. The 3^rd interview gave me reassurance about my 2^nd answer because I was not sure if it was valid enough.  

5) My product for my senior topic is definitely appreciation for nature in a way I haven’t before. As a child I never liked nature and viewed it as dirty and gross.  But, doing my independent components made me appreciate it much more as well as my mentorship. I had the chance to work with plants that were not native to the United States and grew them however I wanted at mentorship. I saw them as controlled and now beautiful. Then growing my own plants at home for my IC on my own was also a great experience. Taking the time out of my day was never tedious to grow my own plants, but rather a way to relax and have some time of my own. Another product I have would be that the superintend of the arboretum said since I have been volunteering since June I can most likely get a job their more than anyone else that applies.  

Blog 23: 2014 Interview

1.  Q: Who did you interview and what house are they in?
A: Sabrina Colin, South
2. Q: What ideas do you have for your senior project and why?
A: For my senior project I was thinking about doing international marketing because I have relatives in the business. Maybe from international marketing I could branch into fashion marketing. But, that all depends where I can do my service learning.

3.  Q: What do you plan to do for your summer 10 hour mentorship experience?
A: Well can you do the 10 hours with a relative? Because that's what I was planning?
Me: Yes you can.
A: Okay then I will do my 10 hours with my aunt who is in the marketing field. 

4.  Q:What do you hope to see or expect to see in watching the 2013 2-hour presentations?
A: I really hope I see fun activities that involve everyone. I hope they aren't boring, that would suck. I'm sure as long as it is entertaining I'll like them.

5.  What questions do you have that I can answer about senior year or senior project (or what additional information did you tell them about senior year or senior project)?

Junior Question: Is it really as hard as everyone says it is? I heard someone left crying this year because of all the stress they couldn't handle?
A: I honestly don't think it is too difficult as people make it out to be. You have a good amount of time to finish your senior project work. As long as you spread your time wisely and do your work, you should be fine.
JQ: Oh okay, what is your senior topic and where did you volunteer?
A: Mine is horticulture, or basically the study of plants, and I volunteered at the Arcadia Arboretum. 
JQ: Lastly,do you have any advice?
A: Pick a topic that interests you and you won't get bored of. Make sure there is enough research for your topic and you will be able to find people to interview because seniors have trouble with that. 

Blog 22: Final 3-Column Chart

click here :)

Blog 21: Independent Component 2

LITERAL

• I, Danielle Carlson, affirm hat I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.
• The website "The Old Farmer's Almanac" wrote an article about how to care for marigolds. LINK:http://www.almanac.com/plant/marigolds.  Another article I read was "How to Care for Marigolds". LINK: http://www.essortment.com/grow-care-marigolds-66205.html. The last article I read was by Jeff Lowenfels and it's called "As the Snow Goes, Consider Marigolds".
• Independent Component Log 2
• To complete this independent component, I wanted to grow marigolds. My goal for this IC was compare and contrast the differences when growing annual flowers (the marigolds) and perennial flowers (the dahlias I grew last semester.) I watered and cared for these plants daily which took a great amount of time because marigolds, when younger, need an immense  about of water. Along with that, I also prepared a flower bed where I will put the marigolds when they are bigger. The flower bed was a lot of work because I had to pull the extensive amount of weeds from the dirt and most of the weeds were huge. I also had to prepare the soil in the flower bed since it was not fit for the the sensitive annuals. I had to mix it with miracle grow and then add homemade compost. I also spent some time preparing and planing the garden out and did research on how to care for them.

INTERPETIVE

Here is the end result of my Independent Component. I knew the plants would not grow given the amount of time (they will probably bloom around July). But, they have grown quite well and are healthy. That's what counts :)

Some of the flowers that are growing

Up close and personal with the flower.

Flower bed before pulling weeds.

MONSTER WEED. This one had some thorns so it hurt pulling it out.

Remove weeds, looking better.

Added compost to make healthier.

All the flowers

• Too see more evidence here are the links to my blog posts: 
• Blog post 1
• Blog post 2
• Blog post 3
• Doing this independent component may have been a lot more difficult than the previous one, but it was worth it. I got to experience hands on how hard it is to grow annuals, and I did not fail. To me, gardening has become more like a hobby now instead of just work. I really enjoyed coming home after school to water my plants or clean up the flower bed; it defiantly gave me time to think and relax. I would have liked to start earlier though, and wished I asked if my IC was approved sooner, but in the amount of time I was given, I enjoyed every second of it.

APPLIED

• I believe that this component helped support both of my answers which are, maintaining soil health and planning your garden. Before planting my flowers in to the ground I spent 2 days researching and planning how I wanted it to go and what I needed to successfully grow my flowers. That is something I did not do previously and I preferred planning because it gave me a sense of direction. When it came to soil and maintaing its health, that played a huge factor. I had to start off with healthy soil or else my flowers would not get the nutrients they need, causing them not to grow. Also, I had to prepare the soil bed soil by removing weeds and adding compost to add nutrients. I am now more sure than ever about the importance of my answers and how they are relevant to my EQ. 

Independent Component #2 update #3

Since this week was quite warm towards the end I had to water TONS! Especailly since marigolds in the first 4 weeks of planting need to be watered at least 4 times a week for 30 minutes. They are quite needy. I continued watering and weeding this week but since it was cold at the beginning of the week, I had to bring my flowers inside. My marigolds are doing very well and have continued to grow, I think next week I will have to move them to bigger pots.

Independent Component #2 Update #2

It has been a week or so since I last updated about my independent component and I have to say, these annual flowers are a lot harder to grow than I thought. They require much more watering then the perennials I grew last time. Also, they always have to be in the sun or they will start to wilt immediately. Since the weather this weekend was colder than usual, I had to place them inside. However, I brought them outside once again on Sunday because my father did not want them inside. I also have started cleaning out a space where I will plant the Marigolds once they are ready. That took a lot of work because my yard has a lot of weeds that I had to pull, needless to say I did not finish but I won't give up :) Also, good news, my plants started to germinate (or start to grow) as shown below.

 

Some of the marigolds have started to pop out of the dirt :D

This is where I want to plant them once they are ready, obviously
 I have lots of weeds to pull. 

Me fake smiling as I pull weeds.

Up close and personal with all the weeds.

This one was a monster and took forever to pull out.