Sweet Summer Time!

Hello again fellow readers!

Vertical structure with control plants on bench=1 Block

I hope you enjoyed our England posts as much as we enjoyed our England trip! As I mentioned in my previous post, my fellow co-horts and I have much more to share, naturally. So for this week, I would like to provide a brief synopsis of my summer semester thus far after returning from England.

Once I returned from England, I hit the ground running with my research experiment, which was initiated the day before we left for England. What is my research experiment? Well, let me tell you a little about it! My research is a pilot study that focuses on using vertical A-frame structures that serve as an innovative, cost-effective method for growing edible, herbaceous plants, and other plants as well.

Detroit Dark Red Beet Seedling

The goal of the study is to illustrate that the vertical structures will yield twice the amount of plant yield, with the same quality yield, as a traditional bench plot, which takes up the same amount of square footage as one vertical structure. If that explanation was a little confusing, here is another way to word the goal of the experiment. One A-frame vertical structure occupies a total of 16 square feet. One bench plot, which serves as the control, also occupies a total of 16 square feet. The wooden A-frame vertical structure has 2 wall panels comprised of metal cattle fencing; this is where the pots are placed on the structure. The bench plot holds a total of 21 plants. Since there are 2 usable wall panels on one structure, the entire structure holds 42 plants; thus, the yield on the vertical structure holds two times the amount of plant material as the bench plot while occupying the same amount of space as the bench plot. In essence, you get more bang for your buck by growing plants on a vertical structure.

Kira drilling holes in plastic pots

 for drip-irrigation

Here's the research behind the experiment. We've doubled the plant number on the vertical structures, but the real question is, "Will the plants on the vertical structure grow as well or better than the plants grown on the bench?" What a great question, right?! Well, I can't answer the question for you just yet, because I just terminated the study last Thursday and will need to analyze the collected data. However, I will be sure to let everyone know the results whether it is via the blog or my thesis.

Here's what I can tell you though. The plants that were grown on the vertical structure, amaranth, basil, and red beets, they grew beautifully!By the end of the study, the vertical structures (4 total) looked like a jungle! It was beautiful, and I was oh so glad to see that the study was a success since all the plants grew well on the vertical structure, and none of the plants died! Take a look at the pictures for more details about my experiment!

Leah recording leaf area data for amaranth post-harvest

I would like to also mention that the completion of this first study would NEVER been possible had it not been for my wonderful, kind, hard-working fellow co-horts. It took quite a lot of time, sweat, hard-work, effort, and endurance to terminate this first study. God was so good to me by sending me such a wonderful and helpful army to help me finish experiment 1. Our public horticulture group truly is a great group. Thank you again to Leah Rogers, Heath Gober, Hanna Pettus, Monte Baugh, Seth Allen, Jayne Funderburk, and Evan Ware!

As for now, today is the first day of experiment 2, which will be a repeat of experiment 1. The only major difference between experiment 1 and 2 is the beets grown in experiment 1 will be replaced by cilantro. Wish me luck and pray this experiment is as successful as the former!

From L-R: Seth and Monte loading

 basil into the plant dryer

Until next time, I hope y'all have a great week! Get ready for some awesome posts and photos from our new students in the program who are at the APGA Conference in Colorado for the week. I can't wait to see what's in store for them as well.

Adios, amigos!
-Hilary

Jayne (pink shirt), Seth (behind Jayne), Monte (red shirt), and Evan counting basil leaves

A small jungle of beets, basil, and amaranth

 (from top to bottom)

Bench plot- Amaranth is one of 2 other crops on the bench.

Happy Ending

For our last day in England, our schedule consisted of a London street art tour in the A.M. The tour lasted approximately 2-2.5 hours, and occupied our entire morning. During the tour, we walked around a small portion of the city of London viewing rather distinct and unusual art work that covered buildings and walls, light posts, road signs, restaurants, etc. The media used by the artists consisted of a wide variety of art materials, some of which were quite unique and non-traditional, such as the sticker art work; yes, some of the art work was represented by a mere sticker. Other art media used to cover the city and streets included spray paint, ink, news papers, and plain old paint. Once the lengthy tour ended and our dogs and tummies began to bark, our tour guide kindly directed us to a good old fashioned, completely American themed restaurant- a burger joint.

By the time we had our fill of familiar food and drink, it was time to move on to our next sight-seeing destination for the afternoon, the London Tower! Once our herd of Auburn students "minded the gap" and boarded the tube (underground train), with our group leaving very little room for other passengers on the train, we sped along to our historic destination and next adventure. After we got off the tube, we took a short stroll down a lovely, busy part of London that appeared to be the business district, turned a corner and saw the large and beautiful London Tower beckoning us to enter her historic and people filled, high-towered walls. What a sight indeed! Once we entered the tall fortress, we broke into buddy pairs to divide and conquer as much as we could in our 3 hour time frame. So much history is held within this beautiful, man-made creation: the Crown Jewels, the execution and beheading area in the court yard (which was represented by too lovely of a monument, in my opinion), the Royal Armories in the White Tower, the Torture Tower, and more. We had quite a day! Once our allotted time for the London Tower was up, our fearless leaders gave us permission to tour other places such as Winchester Cathedral, Big Ben, etc. as long as we stayed in groups.

And so, wonderful public horticulture readers, that concludes our trip and tour of the beautiful country of England, and a few of her nearby countries! Sunday morning arrived, as usual after Saturday, and we boarded our taxi-van to the airport. We bade our ancestral country farewell, hoping to return again someday, and boarded the plane that would fly us back across "the pond" to our mother country. Once we touched down in that sweet southern state named after one of England's kings, whom I met in Hampton Court, I could have kissed the Georgia clay! England was wonderful, and a once-in-a-lifetime trip filled with memories and people I hope to never forget, but there is nothing like coming home and absolutely nothing like coming home to the U. S. A.! I missed the sweet tea belt more than I knew, and I immediately called my family once I was granted cell phone service again.


Keep checking back for new blogs from new faces and events, dear readers! Our new class of students will have much to share once they begin posting about their time as a public hort student and later, when they embark on their week-long trip to the annual American Public Gardens Association (APGA) meeting mid-June held in Denver, CO.

Until next time, friends!

-Hilary 

               From L-R: Hanna Pettus

Kira Chaloupka

Savannah Duke