On Tuesday we got an opportunity to plant our first trial plots. We are using some railing planters that are shaped like an inverted "v". The hope is that we can use the lower parts as a miniature cisterns for catching rain. We've put a wicking medium over the cisterns and some potting soil over that.
The students want to be able to measure the growth of their plants so they decided to place a string grid over the garden and sketch it and measure each plant in centimeters. They are using plant markers to identify each of our different test plants.
They want to collect data about the temperature, humidity and rain fall out on the roof. We'll set up a miniature weather station on Friday. We'll also try a second kind of trial plot. This one will only have the wicking medium, water holding mulch and a top coat of pea gravel. A third trial plot will have a soil and mulch mixture.
We are all very excited to see what happens. To me, this is the best kind of science (and learning). Everything we're doing has a purpose. We don't know what the outcome will be ahead of time. It's real.
The Rookery 
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