Content:
→ LITERAL
(a) Write: “I, Robert Machuca, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 37 hours of work.”
(b) Cite your source regarding who or what article or book helped you complete the independent component.
“Grass, Soil, Hope” by Courtney White aided me in envisioning how the layers of soil-less mediums - organic coconut coir and clay pods - of my indoor aquaponics garden and rejuvenated, worm infested soil in my backyard garden hosted a variety of interconnected, carbon trapping microbes. As explained by the book, the embedded microbial universe within each habitat provides more efficient water and nutrient transport, accumulation of the tough protein glomalin (jailers of excess carbon in the atmosphere), and eventually better collaboration between species of microorganisms through the creation of hummus - a breed of soil with utmost healthy in having plenty of air pockets providing oxygen to microbes and wiggle room for their inherent work habits.
COMPLETED
- As outlined in my proposal for what Independent Component One would consist of, I laid the groundwork for a backyard urban farm, complete with 4 types of blooming crops - Uchoy, Jalapeno, Sweet Pea, and Green Onion - and one type of soon-to-be crop seedling - Okra. The micro-farm, as I refer to it as, is bordered with leftover bricks from past household construction projects so that overgrowth/invading-growth can be prevented, and is cared for with an organic, no-till approach to conventional farming practices. I also went about exploring an alternative form of the land allotted to an urban farm, exploring how a smaller plot can best be maximized. To this end, I constructed my own version of an aquaponics garden, splitting a water jug in half and painting both halves black to dissuade algae growth - and a subsequent unstable aquatic environment. The bottom half (“lower deck”) was used as an aquarium for two fish and the top half (“upper deck”) was used as a pot for thriving lemongrass and room for future plantings like tomato. With the upper deck receiving its waterings from a tube pumping water from the fish tank and it’s constant import of water being drained into the fish tank, the fish tank’s supply of water was, in turn, constantly filtered. A mutualistic relationship was developed between the neighboring deck by design - one placed on top of the other - as the fish were provided with a maintained, sanitary harbor and the plants with a stream of fecal-laced, and thus fertilized, water essential for photosynthesis. The substitution of soil for coconut coir - the husk of a coconut similar in consistency to peat moss - and clay pods - balls of hardened clay ideal for the prevention of uncontrolled bacterial growth and free flow of water applied - nullified the danger of particulates acting as choking hazards for the fish and bolstered drainage. The aquaponics garden is self-managed, and, once produce if actively produced, is a “food forest” in that no human intervention is necessary for the components of the garden to work cohesively together and stay true to being a garden. In being a food forest, organic gardening has been achieved, as no man made chemicals need be inputted to an already healthy ecosystem. Every component to this water-based garden was handmade, and each engineering feat, such as perfectly aligning punched holes in both the PVC pipes and water jug in connecting the jug’s two halves, was self-induced and self-motivated. Granted, plenty of inspiration to persevere the many challenges faced, particular in regards to those involving the hunt for and purchase of materials, was provided by my mom, dad, sister, and dog Kaia.
→ INTERPRETIVE
Defend your work and explain its significance to your project and how it demonstrates 30 hours of work. Provide evidence (photos, transcript, art work, videos, etc) of the 30 hours of work.
→ APPLIED
- How I approached the work load Independent Component One would surely burden my schedule with when it was first assigned was ambitious. To see my ambition and its goal in nudging my family and I towards an independent sense of food security realized in front of me in the physical form of a green garden is awe-inspiring to say the least. I coexisted with and achieved my ambition to explore the varying types of urban farming in an effort to make it a cosmopolitan idea where its benefits can be realized in various types of locations, both small and smaller. It is true to say that urban farming is a condensed version of corporative commercial farming, as seen in Central California and through their products at supermarkets. It is also true to say that the simple act of planting “in the crack of the city” is more important than size when it comes to urban farming, simply because maximizing land is a priority and the environmental and social benefits in doing so is what unites a community towards a common, relatable goal: the pursuit of food on the table, and the option of making a living from and invest in the common good by growing food for others.
Both of my gardens share a philosophy as I realized when talking to Cathy Morrison - head of the Pasadena Community Gardens - for my third interview with an expert in the field. Appealing to the human instinct of socially applying oneself in meeting with new faces and volunteering time and energy to a hands-on activity that is gardening is what allows urban farming to yield influence in providing not only easily accessible, trendy, and healthy food, but also an outlet to an industrialized humanity in reminding itself where its food comes from. It sounds like such a novel idea, to lay eyes upon and take responsibility for the wellbeing of the land from whence your appetite was born. In actuality though, doing so is what our ancestors did to survive. In a sense, urban farmers are reconnecting with lost values, and the end product of urban farming is reconnecting in such a way and using scientific knowledge to promote a healthy, bountiful garden. By mending a backyard plot of hard, unhealthy soil, I have understood the importance of mulch and how this broken-down, decaying organic matter insulates the soil, maintaining its moisture and preserving its nutrients for plant consumption. By joining together different components of “dirt” for my aquaponics garden, I became better aware of the difference between dirt and soil, and how dirt is a sum of ingredients that uses chemistry to provide bedding for a plant, while soil takes this union to the next level by incorporating themes of biology into personally caring for dirt - encouraging closer attention to the microbial life in soil and making it self-sustaining. Soil is a stepping stone to organic farming, and it encourages the use of naturally-occurring cycles and chemical processes to make healthy the dirt on an urban farm.
As Cathy pointed out, science is also extensively upheld in urban farming when soil is being tested for correct levels of compounds within its structure - particularly those of phosphorous, phosphate, and nitrogen. It is for this reason that farming at the Pasadena Community Garden is carried out within 54 wooden raised beds (tubs of soil elevated off the ground). It is also for this reason that aquaponics can be seen as more efficient than traditional planting in the earth, in the same way vertical farming makes an urban farm use less space in producing an equivalent amount of produce. When you separate the soil you are using from that of the earth, you can more conveniently and effectively test its health and mend it accordingly. Soil around the perimeter of the Community Garden I speak of was laced with lead for example, and so planting in the earth near there would have placed at risk soil-sensitive crops - crops like lettuce whose composition and health heavily depends on what is in the soil (if the soil has lead, lettuce will add lead to its anatomy, placing diners of its leaves at risk). Correcting this issue would have required removing tons (literally) of soil infected with the deadly element, and the Community Garden needed every last penny to fund its membership and establish its business plan only tentatively in practice by that time. Thus, crops were planted in separate environments that didn’t involve moving to another location. To make sure the soil in these beds are healthy year after year, NPK (nitrogen, phosphorous, phosphate) tests are conducted before every planting and replanting.
The ease with which urban farming can fit into a city crack is extraordinary, and makes the idea and subsequent practice - a small business of sorts - adaptable. This adaptability is what Cathy upholds in her business plan, wherein she states that her non-profit organization is dedicated to “transforming abandoned, vacant properties into attractive and beneficial edible community gardens”. As she said, the variety at her community garden is not just visible through the crops planted, but also through her 54 sets of farmers (a family or group of about three per raised bed), ranging in profile from food-stamp holders to Pasadena elite who could buy out the Garden. In effect, the assembly line of urban farming (from farm to table) is more of a cycle that the linear track commercial farming employs, and where only its products are visible on market shelves. Both the social and ecological aspects of the idea are symbiotic with each, and the health of each determines the outcome of each. Their health becomes better insured as urban farming reaches out to creative consumers like myself and food-conscious restaurants like Pasadena’s Union, whose chef owns two raised beds at the Garden; in the meanwhile, as Scott told me when planting the edible flower Borridge this past Saturday: “weeds get a bad rap, before a vacant lot is colonized with crops, let there be weeds - they are plants after all!”
Grading Criteria
Pictures, parental approval/backing, physical model of handmade, functional aquaponics ‘food forest’, receipts of bought materials, use of activity included in Lesson Two Presentation as a platform from which to better understand the inner workings and feasibility in establishing an aquaponics garden and a creative design for it
