Growing a Guerrilla Garden

In our first unit of our new class Food we focused on what plants do to survive, the chemistry of plants, and calculations to focus on what would would be good plants for a garden. This unit really showed me how important some small plants are to this huge world of 7 billion people. I really enjoyed learning through this unit and going on a field experience to learn about how it is to supply food that is locally grown. More on the science side of this unit, we learned about how plants take in nutrients, how plants work together to "co-evolve", and what plants defend themselves along with hurt each other. I hope you enjoy.

"Raised bed" July 31 2007 Srl 

Plants might not seem to be the most exciting type of organism in the world, but they certainly do pack a punch when it comes to defending themselves, attacking others and overall fighting for survival. In order for plants to survive a healthy life in a garden they need the right amount of growing area, other plants in the area that work well with the plant, and the necessary nutrients they need to live.

This garden will be in the North side of Chicago in my front yard and will be outside with the elements to support it along with me caring for the plants. My garden will be in the front portion of my house, this portion is 6 ft x 4 ft so I have a total of 24 sq ft to use for my garden of ten plants. I decided to put these ten plants into my garden: beets, beans, carrots, cauliflower, eggplant, corn, celery, garlic, lettuce, and onions. The most important plant in this garden to help out all the other plants are the nitrogen fixer that is the beans. All types of legumes (beans are legumes) are nitrogen fixers which means that the nitrogen needed for the plants gets to those the easiest and quickest, allowing the other plants to take more nitrogen from microbes. Plants that stand tall like the corn are excellent for the beans to grow up, the relationship/symbiosis for the corn and the beans is mutual-ism because they are both helping each other survive.

Also while learning about plants’ survival and companionship we read the book One Straw Revolution and learned from the author (Masanobu Fukuoka) about his natural farming methods. Fukuoka's methods included not using any pesticides, herbicides, mechanical plowing, and chemical fertilizer. For my garden I should be able to bypass using the pesticides, herbicides, mechanical plowing, and chemical fertilizer; my garden wouldn't require any of these potentially harmful methods. My garden is only 24 square feet so plowing wouldn't be necessary and I wouldn't want to be eating the chemicals from the plant. I should be fine going all natural like Fukuoka.

Now to get more focused on the math and science part of creating a garden and growing plants for the garden. I plan on planting a garden in my front yard in the area that is 72 in x 48 in which is an area of 3,456 in squared, which is more than perfect for planting more than 10 plants. I also included three different containers (Bucket, box, and bottle) that I could grow plants in; with one of the containers having the total volume of 283.73 inches ( cubed, another one having a volume of 265.46 inches cubed, and the last one having a volume of 753.05 inches cubed.This means the total volume of them all is 1,302.04 inches cubed.

Calculations:
Pi x 4.25 squared x 5 = 283.73 in cubed Total = 1,302.24 in cubed
Pi x 3.5 squared x 8.25 = 265.46 in cubed
Pi x 5.75 squared x 7.25 = 753.05 in cubed

I also found that the total surface area of the three containers was 975.08 inches squared. Another important step to keeping a garden alive is making sure your plants are getting the right nutrients. I found I had a few unbalanced nutrients in my soil so I knew that I needed to change and monitor my planting soil. These calculations showed be how much of each nutrient I needed to add according to the size of my garden.

Nitrogen = 7 lbs /100 sq ft = 1.68 lbs for 24 sq ft
Phosphorus = 5 lbs/100 sq ft = 1.2 lbs/ 24 sq ft
Potassium = .5 lbs / 100 sq ft = .12 lbs/ 24 sq ft

I really enjoyed doing this project because it really showed me the power of plants and why they are so important to our society. If one plant species like corn gets wiped out we won’t have magazines, Twinkies, skateboards, or beef. I would really love to implement a garden into our home, and after doing this project I think I will, especially after getting so informed about plants and what they need to live. I might not be able to follow the exact garden plan I had shown earlier because I might not have the necessary resources to build my ideal garden.