Field Trip
Field Trip - Bishops Food Garden
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| First, we had to fill up our section with soil |
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| Our section |
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| Secondly, we planted our bottles with holes in |
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| After that, we planted our plants, added wood chippings and placed cardboard around our plants |
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| Then we added water into our bottles and covered the cardboard with more wood chippings |
Field Trip Reflection
Malick Majiet
On the 6th February 2020, all the grade nine pupils at Bishops were led by the Sustainable Agriculture Society(SAS) on a field trip to the Bishops food garden for the day. There were six stations set up. We were split into our general sets and spent 25 minutes at each station.
A new concept surrounding agriculture was explained at each station:
- Soil and Composting
A guest speaker from a landscaping company spoke to us about soil and composting. He spoke to us about the importance of soil and how soil and compost is formed. He said that it takes millions of years for just a cm of soil to be produced. Planting trees are important to prevent soil erosion from occurring. Compost is a mixture of organic matter that is left for a long time. Micro organisms use a mixture of oxygen, nitrogen, water and carbon to break down the organic matter and form compost which is high in nutrients. This process occurs at high temperatures and is why the pile of compost increased in heat as I dug closer to the center if the pile. This was very interesting.
A new concept surrounding agriculture was explained at each station:
- Soil and Composting
A guest speaker from a landscaping company spoke to us about soil and composting. He spoke to us about the importance of soil and how soil and compost is formed. He said that it takes millions of years for just a cm of soil to be produced. Planting trees are important to prevent soil erosion from occurring. Compost is a mixture of organic matter that is left for a long time. Micro organisms use a mixture of oxygen, nitrogen, water and carbon to break down the organic matter and form compost which is high in nutrients. This process occurs at high temperatures and is why the pile of compost increased in heat as I dug closer to the center if the pile. This was very interesting.
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| Compost and Wood Chippings |
- Water
Two matric pupils spoke to us about the importance of water and how to save water. They talked to us about how the drought impacted South Africa in 2017. Without water, plants cannot grow which leads to lack of food production and creates problems in the agricultural industry.
Water usage can be reduced by showering for shorter periods and reusing water to flush your toilets. At this station we poked holes into our 2L bottles that we brought.
I enjoyed learning about how Bishops dealt with drought during 2017.
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| Poking holes in bottles |
- Plants and Planting
Plants are one of the most important necessities for humans. They produce fruits and vegetables that humans need to survive. They also produce oxygen that humans need to breathe. They also decrease the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
When planting a plant, the quality of the soil is very important. The seeds must not be planted too deep in the soil or else they will not germinate. If too much water is added, the plant will drown. Plants need sunlight to create their own food through photosynthesis.
- Permaculture
Permaculture is the philosophy of working with nature and not against it. Two matrics talked to us about how to every system in nature is interlinked in some way.
They also taught us about companion planting. I never knew that certain plants help other plants to grow better. This influenced to plant plants in our window garden that complement each other and help each other to grow. This is why we planted Chili and Basil together.
- Pollination and Harvesting
Pollination is the act of transferring pollen grains from the male anther of a flower to the female stigma. Bees are needed for pollination to occur. Pollination forms more seeds and leads to the production of fruits that we eat. If all bees around the world died, humans would go extinct within 4 years. This is Albert Einsteins estimation.
As soon as the fruit has sprouted and grown to a good size, it should be harvested. It was very interesting to learn how important the queen bee of a hive is. The entire nest will follow the queen wherever she goes.
- Human Impact
Humans have had the biggest negative impact on the environment. We have destroyed ecosystems, pushed species to the brink of extinction and polluted are atmosphere and oceans almost beyond repair. Humans need to learn to respect the environment and only take the things we need. Deforestation causes soil erosion. Over-exploiting our resources has driven us to this point. We need to stop wasting and over-exploiting our resources.
Field Trip Reflection
Team work reflection
I don't think that we worked the best together as a group. The work was not fairly distributed. We worked well at coming up with ideas. We also had the same views on the environment, this helped us work together better. The blog work was done well between myself and Zak. The practicals went smoothly and Zak took the photos. Leo took the results.
Leo Letschert
Soil and composting
Soil was very hot.
Water
I learnt many ways to save water since we live in a climate that is prone to droughts.
Plants and planting
Important for the cycle of life.
Permaculture
Renewable system of food production.
Pollination and harvesting
Makes your harvesting better quality.
Human Impact
As humans we waste a lot and disrespect nature, but we don’t realize that ruining our environment can have heavy consequences on our earth.
Team work reflection
I think we work very well as a team because we all have the same views on the environment and we all have a wide variety of knowledge that we share between us.
Zac Coovadia
Reflection
Composting
I was extremely weird to see how the compost gets so hot and steamy, it was crazy that the inside of a pile of organisms and nutrients can get so hot while the outside temperature is much much cooler. the mulch was simple and easy to ptoduce while it was still very interested.
Water
To be honest water was the most boring out of the all the workshops but is the most important part to keeping a sustainable agricultre.We learnt about the importance of water during the drought and how to minimize the amount of water used for irrigation while still providing the plants with enough water to flourish.
Plants
We then learnt to prepare and plant the plants. This workshop was the most simple since most of us already knew the facts that were given to us.
Permaculture
The most interesting thing about this workshop, at least for me, was companion planting it is cool to know how plants in a sense have friends that they work better with.
Pollination and bees
For me the most intersting fact about this was that bees polinate anything in a five km radius, thats massive! we learnt that bees are one of the most important life forms on the planet.
Human impact
Us humans have really destroyed the planet and the least we can do is find ways to improve what we have done. one of the best ways to do this is by eliminating the use for cars, cars emit so much carbon dioxide that it damages the ozone layer and adds to the global warming crisis.
Our team has worked very efficiently with each other.