JOURNAL: April 28th

Battery Park in the Rain, photo from http://www.flickr.com/photos/shinythings/148101661/

Today I went out to the farm for the first time- I had never even been to Battery Park before even though I've lived in Manhattan for 18 years. Although there were two other people there with me, nobody else in our class was. It started pouring heavily and we went inside a Starbucks across the street for shelter, eventually we figured we might as well go back to school because obviously class wasn't going on at the farm today. Although I missed about an hour of the class I still feel like it was very productive. Today we discussed soil, mapped out our plots of land with our groups, and took clippings of different plants that will hopefully end up at the farm in Battery Park. I want to make a separate blog post for each topic we learn about and that I hope to also add to those with continued research at home... when I do the links will be highlighted in green in this post and will bring you to the specific blog post on the topic.

GARDENING BASICS: Before You Begin

When gardening, especially in an urban environment, you have to analyze alot of things before you actually begin planting.  Often making a draft of what you want your garden to be like beforehand will greatly help you cultivate a healthy garden, and there are many very important things to consider.

ENVIRONMENT: When planting outdoors, like in battery park, you are in an environment that isn't completely controlled. Each plant requires more or less of an element than another, so for each species you need to think about:

-Rainfall. While you can water your plants too much water can be just as bad for your plants as letting them dry out. If you are in an environment with heavy rainfall you have to figure out a way to protect your plants from that. Also, many plants require different amounts of water to grow.

-Sunlight. Sunlight is essential to all plants and you need to make sure they are getting enough.

-Soil. The type of soil the plant is sitting in is a very important factor. Not only will a plant not grow if not in the correct soil, but "bad" soil can contain diseases or pests that could kill your plant.

-Temperature. You don't want your plants to freeze or overheat.

FERTILIZERS: Fertilizers "are substances that supply plant nutrients or amend soil fertility." You may or may not want to add fertilizers depending on how healthy the environment is already. 

PESTICIDES: Especially when outdoors, you may opt to protect your plant with chemical products from pests. 

SEED/PLANT SPACE: Once you understand that the environment is a good fit for what you're looking to grow, you have to make sure all the plants get enough space between eachother. 

SEED/PLANT PLACEMENT: You will need to map out where exactly you want to put each plant, because all plants pair differently with others, so if you think strategically about where you are putting a certain plant in regards to another, it can be very beneficial to the health of your garden.

Keep in mind each type of plant or seed requires different care, so the more types of plants you choose to grow in one garden, the more complicated your draft will be.

I hope to delve deeper into each smaller topic in this post soon.