Week 6 Update - Mr. Braden’s Builders

Our builders group today spent time talking about native plants vs non-native vs invasive plants. We discussed why non-native plants are at a disadvantage to native plants when it comes to hardiness, resilience, and maintenance. We discussed how non-native invasives threaten the biodiversity necessary for soil health. That when non-native invasives enter they can outcompete the native plants for a number of factors, and that when they do that they will continuously mine the same set of nutrients within the soil, which eventually leads to soil degradation. Also that when the native plants that are used as food sources and habitats for local wildlife are replaced it can cause other disruptions in the balance of nature. We spent time harvesting okra, seeing the chickens and the cows and even had a bonus porcupine that we got spend a few minutes with. That whole experience was amazing, the porcupine was clearly very old and had a lot of trouble seeing which allowed us to be within a few feet of the animal without spooking it. In general porcupines are not worried about predators in the slightest, but they can still be spooked. This porcupine had no qualms with our proximity and just kept eating uninterrupted despite our presence. It was wonderful.

We got to visit the square foot garden bed that we planted last week and saw the beginnings of our lettuces sprouting and did a small amount of weeding.

In checking on our compost experiment we saw that we had a new friend living in our compost bucket, black soldier fly larvae. Black soldier flies are excellent for composting and we will continue to discuss their effect on our pile as weeks pass.

We also spent time in the afternoon putting together starts for native milkweed, mealy blue sage, and bluebonnets. We discussed their importance for local pollinators and went through the process of starting a small pot of each one. After watering our pots we set them in the greenhouse and began closing our day.

Questions to ask:
Why are native plants important?
What was going on with the porcupine?
What did you need to do to the bluebonnet seeds before they could be planted? (sandpaper was involved)
How much okra was there to be harvested?
Was anything sprouting in the raised garden bed yet?