Thanks to the research done by Kelsey Montgomery and Mary Ann Turrentine last semester, the first hands-on project for the Biology team this semester was building a new Magic Circle.
Max Cooper and I set out to build another Magic circle adjacent to the existing one. Kelsey and Mary Ann left a report of how to build one, with suggestions and lists on plants that work well together in the garden. We also looked at the garden from last semester to pick out what we thought was growing best. Last years Magic Circle garden looks great overall! Most of the plants look healthy, with some even thriving (like the squash)!
The goal for this next one is to use some of the same plants, but also try to incorporate some different plants with similar properties and possibly expand our goods produced in the garden.
Another project of ours is to clear out weeds and plant some different vegetables or herbs where seeds planted last year did not sprout. The basil plants look healthy, demonstrating a sign of good climate adaptation, but there is already a decent amount of the herb so we would also like to plant some other plants like peppers, cucumbers, and hopefully more herbs.
Though it takes a long time for crops to produce a plentiful amount of food, the magic circle created last semester seems to be well on its way. Hopefully the addition of the new magic circle close by will contribute to more goods as well as healthier garden overall. So long as these gardens are maintained, it will be interesting to look at and see in a few years from now when the plantain, banana and other plants take off!
