LIFE IN A CUBIC FOOT
INTRO
Former congressmen, William Kettner, played a key role in establishing navy bases and training centers around San Diego. The Naval Training Center (NTC), in Point Loma, was founded in 1923 and used primarily during World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. The NTC was officially closed as a naval base in 1997 at the end of the Cold War.
Designed by Frank Walter Stevenson, the NTC includes approximately 300 buildings with almost 3 million square feet. Once the NTC was closed, it became what is now known as Liberty Station. Liberty Station contains two grocery stores, a variety of eateries, and numerous local shops and boutiques. Liberty Station closely neighbors with three High Tech schools and The Rock Church.
High Tech High Media Arts came into possession of The Garden in 2009; the garden is located on Dewey Road at the end of Woodworth Way. HTHMA class of 2012 tends to and cultivates the garden, where they study the vegetation, insect hierarchy and anatomy, the plant life cycle, photosynthesis, soil analysis, and much more.
When you walk up to the garden, you can see the seniors’ tool shed on your left. As you move across the plateau towards the golf course, go to your left, and up the staircase, past our mysterious but friendly statue Pan.
The statue of Pan appeared quite inexplicably and unexplained in the center staircase but has since remained for aesthetic as well as sentry purposes. Pan is the Greek god of the wild, shepherds, flocks, nature, and hunting. Pan’s name literally means, “to pasture”; he is depicted as half goat, half man. Pan is an appropriate attribute to the gardens attire.
Once past Pan, you enter the garden; to the left, we have the flowerbed where a wide variety of small insects and organisms scurry about. In the center of the garden is a shallow fountain, which contains many small mosquito-eating fish and a lone goldfish that hide underneath the duckweed and rocks. To your far right are the seniors’ assigned garden plots.
In late August, the senior class of 2012 was introduced to the garden. They first had to grasp the lingo used while in the garden, such as lopping shears, spading fork, trowel, hand cultivator, drip line, and other technical agricultural terms. Once the class mastered their vocabulary, they got to work. First, they planted starter packs of seeds, which would later be transplanted into larger pots, or into the ground. While the starter packs baked in the sun and started to sprout, the seniors were hard at work clearing the overgrown shrubbery that summer vacation had bequeathed. The seniors cleared the path to the garden and weeded. Once they were finished, they were assigned a garden plot.
The seniors first cleared their plot of invasive plants and bugs, such as weeds and grubs, and collected seeds from last season’s crops, like sunflower and cosmo seeds; they then cultivated the soil with organic mulch and compost. Later, the class selected seeds from an organic online seed website, and planted a variety of fall and winter crops, such as carrots, garlic, radishes, onions, peas, beans, cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower, as well as different types of herbs.
Learning the different aspects of agriculture and cultivation were important, but that was only half of the environmental science class… The students were alloted a “cubic foot”. The seniors were randomly matched with a partner; the class then went out to the garden, where they choose a one-foot-by-one-foot territory to dig up and study. First, they took pictures of different plants and organisms they discovered in their square foot. They then investigated the soil contents and many earth worms. Lastly, they uprooted an assortment of plants, such as weeds, grasses, and algae that they then brought back to the classroom to press and study the roots, leaves, and seeds.
After collecting inside the cubic foot was finished, the seniors began to research and identify the plants, fungi, and insects they found. Once the research was finished, they compiled the pictures and data into a field guide specially formulated for the NTC HTHMA Garden, which will be presented at Senior Exhibition.
