Our Horticulture Course

As a whole I really enjoyed the Horticulture course, I found it very interesting and fun. I liked the different things we did week to week, and the things I learned along the way.

I liked doing work in our Sensory Garden, planting lots of different plants and flowers. Even days where we just de-weeded around the beds and the flowers themselves, I still enjoyed it as I felt like it made the garden look better and we were proud of it.

I enjoyed learning about the different bulbs or flowers we planted, like the weather conditions they need to grow, their scent and what they can be used for. 

I enjoyed the building side too, the day we made light boxes for our onion sets. I liked that because we were building their environment to live in. And we then were done we got to cut up the chives and bring them home. 

I enjoyed the trip we went on to the 'Grow Your Own' Exhibition 

in Dublin City Centre. That was very fun and I learned a lot about 

the things they had on display. We got to do our DNA test which was really interesting.

Overall, Horticulture, as a subject, was very fun yet challenging. Interesting and very educational, I defiantly enjoyed my weeks in this class.

Week 6

On Tuesday, 19th of November, our horticulture class did some work in the Sensory Garden. We did some cultivating and also we looked at our onion sets we planted in pots 2 weeks ago.



The onions we planted 2 weeks ago had grown a lot. We had watered 
them everyday and they stayed in direct sunlight. We cut the chives up and got to bring them home.

After this we went out into the garden. We tossed the soil in all the flower beds to mix the nutrients. We then covered all of the beds with flattened cardboard to protect the soil.



We then did a general clean, we-deeded the soil and surrounding areas of the beds. And we also racked up all of the leaves in the courtyard as well using a rake and putting them into a black bag for compost.

'Grow Your Own' Exhibition

On Tuesday, 5th of November,
 our horticulture class went on 
a trip into Dublin City Centre 
to the 'Grow Your Own' Exhibition. 
We got a tour of the exhibition 
and we were told about the pieces around.






In this piece, the scientists took cigarettes off the ground of Dublin and used them to extract DNA, they then used that DNA to figure out what the smokers looked like. When they did, an artist created moulds of what they looked like.
                                                                                         

This is a video of a plant factory, the factory is not like every other stainless steel one. Its made of just plants but they are grown using other plants DNA. They are only grown in this desert because of the climate.

This piece is chemical equipment used to make golden flakes. It uses chemicals to make gold but it is a very, very slow process and after a few weeks of this, theres only one tiny nugget of gold made so far.

We then did a DNA test ourselves. We swished a drink around our mouths and bit down on our checks to get DNA cells. We put the drink into the test tube and shook in to mix it even more. We then each added ethanol onto of the drink in the test tube, we had to make sure they didn't mix.

We rolled the tube between our hands at a slight tilt to get a better chance of getting the DNA. When the ethanol became whiter with the clump of DNA, we had to try and take it out. We used a dropper to suck the clump of DNA into a separate container.

Week 5

On Tuesday, 22nd of October, our horticulture class did some indoor work. We spend the class making sunlight boxes for our onion sets. We did the following to make the boxes;

Construction:                      

The first thing we did was cut the cardboard boxes, so that the front was open and the sides were slanted.





Then we covered the entire front of the box with glue and cut some tin foil and covered the whole front and sides with it. This tin foil is used so that the sunlight bounces around the box and gets to every angle of the onion sets. 





When we finished making the sunlight boxes, we then started to make decomposable plant pots. We used three strips of newspaper per pot and one strip of masking tape. We used the end of a bottle as a mould to get the newspaper to stay round.

These boxes  and the pots with soil and more onion sets were then kept in the back of the science room in our school, as this classroom gets the most sunlight in the window which the onions sets need to grow.

We checked the onion sets a week on and seen progress, they were watered everyday and were in direct sunlight all day.

Week 4

On Tuesday, 15th of October, our horticulture class did more work on the garden. This week we did more work with bulbs, we used;

Hyacinthus:

Grown from a bulbs, the      

Hyacinth plant can sprout 

many different colours, 

the most common colour 

is a baby blue.

Onion Sets:

Onions are for culinary 

use, cooked or raw. They 

contain a certain chemical 

substance which can 

irritate the eyes.

Amaryllis:

This bulb is usually pink

or purple in colour, they 

mainly need a dry or a little 

wet weather condition. They

 don't grow well in tropical 

or frozen conditions.

We planted these bulbs in the area where we removed the old Japanese Flowers, we planted them in a circle, inside the circle of the pansies. We also did weeding, cleaned the area around the plants, watered all the plants and re-tossed the soil to mix nutrients.

Week 3

On Tuesday, the 8th of October, our horticulture class continued work on our garden, this week we focused on 'bulbs'.

We learned some theory behind bulbs themselves and how to grow them. We planted Allium, Hyacinths and Tulipa bulbs in our garden. But before all of that happened we had to dead-head the old plants in the bed. We also had the difficult task of removing all of the stems and bulbs of the Japanese Flowers that occupied the bed beforehand.

Working on the Japanese Flowers:

Before removing the bulbs we dead-headed the flowers in the bed. We had to remove the top soil around the flowers and pull out the stems one by one.




                                                               

                                             


To remove the bulbs we had to dig fully around the bulb and get it all from the bottom. This was a very difficult task as the bulbs were quite deep in the ground and were very big. They have ver strong roots so this made it harder for us to remove it fully.


When all of the old bulbs were 
removed we re-tossed the topsoil to mix the nutrients. We had to get the bed ready for new bulbs to be planted there next week.

Planting the bulbs:

When we finished on removing the Japanese Flowers we began to plant other, new bulbs in another part of the garden. We planted Allium, Hyacinths and Tulipa bulbs, along with de-weeding around the area we were planting.

 
Hyacinths Bulbs.
                                      Allium Bulbs.










                                     
                                     
                                                                                             




Tulipa Bulbs.

Week 2

On Tuesday, 24th of September, our TY horticulture class continued work on our Sensory Garden.
This week we focused on scent and taste in our garden, using Lavender and Physalis plants.

Lavender:

The plant we used this week in our garden was ' English Lavender '. 

Which can be used in herbal medicine, herbal tea or sometimes used as a culinary herb. It is mainly known from its strong, fresh scent.

Physalis:

The next plant we used in our Sensory Garden was the Physalis plant. This plant is similar to the tomato in colour and shape, and can be used for culinary dishes. Physalis, in some cases, can also be used in medicine.

After we planted the Lavender and Physalis plants, we began work on the garden itself. We removed all of the surrounding weeds in the area of the plants and made it more pleasing. We also tossed some of the soil near and around the plants in order to mix nutrients in the soil.

Week 1

On Tuesday, 9th of September, our TY horticulture class began to work on our Community Sensory Garden. This garden will      consist of different plants that fall under the categories of the    

senses. This week we planted in the area of smell and taste, here are some of the plants we used:

Helichrysum Italicum:

This plant is more commonly known as 'The Curry Plant' for its strong scent. This plant will be used in this area obviously as it appeals to one of the senses. When in bloom this plant produces a flower yellow in colour. Although it may smell of curry it in fact doesn't have the same taste and is not used in curry dishes. 

Lavender:

The next plant we had was lavender, we used this particular plant for its strong scent and its bright purple colour, both of which appeal to the senses. Lavender can be used in cooking and also in fragrance or storage reasons mainly because of its strong, fresh, clean scent.

We will be used two of the most common types of lavender in our garden:

English Lavender:          French Lavender:

       

Lemon Balm:

This herb was the next plant to be in our garden. This perennial herb produces a strong citrus scent and appeals hugely to our smell, perfect for our sensory garden. This herb can be used as a scent for candles and is also used in flavouring ice-creams. 

Taste Garden:

The next part of our garden included herbs and onions, appealing to our sense of taste. We used the following herbs in our garden;

Thyme:

Thyme is mostly used in dishes as a dried herb for flavour, and can also have a strong scent. 

Meaning it appeals to sense of smell also.

Chives:

Chives are mainly used in dishes   

such as soups, fish dishes and for 

seasoning as it is used as flavouring. 

Mint:

Mint is used in medicine as its          

strong scent can help colds or 

chest infections by clearing the 

airways. It is also used in 

cooking and herbal teas.

When we were told about our plants and how they fit into our    garden, we began work. 
           We removed all the weeds from the soil beds in our courtyard too make them look more pleasing. We then used our shovels to toss the soil in these beds to mix the nutrients as the top soil had become dry.We also removed the weeds from around the outside of the beds for clean look. 
          We then each planted a pansy around the circular flower bed to form a 'border'. These flowers are small in size and purple in colour and give out a nice, clean scent.