The 10 Companion... Vegetables?

In Food, a math and science course, we are studying food as a science. In the other class, Food for Thought, we talked about the history of food. The Food class is a freshman class that’s integrated with the math and science of fruits and vegetables. We learned about plant ecology, how certain plants are companion plants, and how those plants assist each other. An example is when they share nutrients or give shelter. At times they will benefit one another like warding off insects.

The elements of a healthy soil environment include nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. These are 3 macronutrients that help in the growth of the garden; nitrogen assists in gathering protein and green coloring with the chlorophyll. There are also different types of dirt, alive and dead. The live dirt is rich in organisms, compost, mulch (anything like other scraps of plants), and has a darker color of brown than other types. The dead dirt is much paler and has pests that don’t benefit the ecosystem the way that the dirt or the plants may need. It may also be hard to break apart, unlike alive dirt which may be fragile and falls apart, but has many more nutrients.

This Action Project is meant for us to study the optimal situation for 10 vegetables of our choice (within the options inside a catalogue) and plan out, like a blueprint, a garden. Along with a detailed sketch, we have the option of actually growing them. My 10 products of choice are; the dragon carrot, iceberg lettuce, nutri bud broccoli (yes that’s the actual name), rudolf radish, renegade spinach, scotland leeks, yukon gold potatoes, legend tomatoes, black beans, and some maize/corn.

All these plants interconnect and share similar nutrients. Carrots grow well with lettuce and tomatoes. While tomatoes delay the growth, they assist in the flavor, by adding to it. Lettuce will grow well with radishes and beans, and beans also go with corn and spinach (if they are broad beans). Beans themselves are a nitrogen fixer which aid in the gathering of nitrogen like converting it into nitrogen compounds that plants can absorb. Some of these compounds include nitrate, nitrites, and ammonia. Plus, broccoli grows well with potatoes. Broccoli loves calcium and even though there aren’t any herbs to help with that, the potatoes add flavor similarly to the tomatoes. Then corn can also grow as a companion plant with the potatoes. They also resemble characters I like through either obscure references or mistaken identity.

I designed the garden in a circular formulation because all my plants interconnect with each other to assist one another. My backyard would already sustain these because my mother already has a garden there. However I do need to add a nitrogen and phosphorus booster. I need 1.8 lbs of blood meal, which adds nitrogen, and 0.72 lbs of soft rock phosphate, that is a phosphorus booster. I figured it out with these calculations:

Test	Result	Parts per Million Equivalency Chart
pH	pH 7 neutral	----------------
Phosphorus (P)	P2 adequate	20
Potassium (K)	k3 sufficient	600
Nitrogen (N)	N1 deficient	10

Nutrient	Product	Quantity
Nitrogen	Blood Meal	1.8 lbs
	Fish Meal
	Cottonseed Meal
	Feather Meal
Phosphorus	Soft Rock Phosphate	o.72 lbs
Potassium	Sulfate of Potash	Not needed

Nitrogen:

36% of 5

36% x 5 = 1.8

Phosphorus:

36% of  2

36% 2 = 0. 72

I obtained the 36% percent through a calculation. This was done by comparing my area of my garden compared to the recommended amount for a set area. So my garden was just 36% of that size that requires 5lbs of blood meal and the two pounds of the phosphate.

  Overall, I’ve learned much through this unit. The main reason why I did the soil test was to check if I needed any thing, like nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) boosters such as blood meal and phosphate. I might actually plant the garden after the project, but it also might take up a lot of time, so there’s no guarantee there. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed.