|
Dalia Carbajal-Robles UC Davis undergraduate, 4th year Major: Landscape Architecture  Mural of El Corrido de Ricardo Valdez by Juan Solis - 1994 Photos of the mural by Robin Dunitz from the USC Digital Library circa 1994. Growing up in East Los Angeles, I saw many murals painted in public spaces. A mural I would commonly see is 'El Corrido De Ricardo', a mariachi painting by Juan Solis that depicts traditional Mexican clothing and colors. Juan Solis does a great job describing the mariachi culture and the story of how the Mariachi Plaza came to be known. When I first viewed El Corrido De Ricardo, I felt engaged because I was learning the cultural history of Mariachi Plaza. Murals convey a powerful message to the people and their communities.
2 Comments
Dalia Carbajal-Robles UC Davis undergraduate, 4th year Major: Landscape Architecture  Elizabeth and I created a sitting area with wooden pallets at the site, helping us to better brainstorm our ideas! The ability to communicate effectively with others and myself is something I strive to improve all the time. Having good communication skills can help one build strong relationships; it can help both parties learn and grow. During my freshman year at the University of California, Davis, I attended a dialogue seminar. It helped me develop confidence in my communication, as well as understand other people's viewpoints. This week I realized how much dialogue I have been practicing with people of different ages at Pine Trails Ranch.
Dalia Carbajal-Robles UC Davis undergraduate, 4th year Major: Landscape Architecture  Jose and Enrique in the ranch garden Enrique has worked at the Pine Trails Ranch for a long time, so he is very familiar with the site.
He was always surprised by our early morning presence, exclaiming "Oh, you girls are up early!" It wasn't until later that we had our first full conversation with Enrique regarding the garden beds. As we layered the stones for the garden beds, he came over to us and said we were incorrectly placing them down. He explained that the bottom of the brick contains an interlock that allows the brick to fit into the bottom layer brick. The sound of the stone locking had me and Elizebeth expressing our understanding with an "Ooooooh! That makes sense." Dalia Carbajal-Robles UC Davis undergraduate, 4th year Major: Landscape Architecture  New plantings on the ranch. A Molcajete is a Mexican traditional stone tool that is similar to a mortar, designed to grind various foods. In my Mexican household, we use a molcajete to make salsas or guacamole! Enrique, a local worker who has been offering us gardening advice, taught us a planting method called a "Cajete". Similar to the shape of a Molcajete, it involves digging around the plant to make a bowl-like figure. Which is what we did! We carefully began to shape a cajete around the plants. We also made sure that the roots were not exposed to the air since it can cause tiny invisible rootlets to dry up and die. To promote healthy plants and soil, we also added conditioning soil. Conditioning soil can help with soil structure, drainage, and replenish nutrients to make it easier for plants to grow.
Dalia Carbajal-Robles UC Davis undergraduate, 4th year Major: Landscape Architecture  When I first heard the word "irrigation", I knew it was related to water but had no idea how that works or is used. In agriculture, irrigation is the artificial supply of water to the land in order to help with the production of crops and the growth of landscape plants\lawns. Back then, our ancient ancestors irrigated their crops by carrying buckets of water from rivers or wells and pouring them on them. Irrigation today is made easier by canals, pipes, sprinklers, tanks, etc.
Dalia Carbajal-Robles UC Davis undergraduate, 4th year Major: Landscape Architecture  Here are some of my sketches! Maybe we can turn some into stickers!? We decided to provide more visual information about gardening after receiving some feedback and comments from our peers. It would be helpful to have graphic illustrations about our planting schedule since most people are visual learners, including me. We want to be able to answer questions like: When is the appropriate time to harvest? How will the plants be planted and where will they be placed on the garden beds?
Dalia Carbajal-Robles UC Davis undergraduate, 4th year Major: Landscape Architecture  A gorgeous sun diagram made by Dalia This week we presented our designs and concepts to our green team! I focused on designing our existing site plan, proposed site plan, and sun diagram. The programs I used for this were AutoCAD, Photoshop, and Adobe Illustrator. AutoCAD is a convenient way to outline, draw to scale, and create digital 2D designs, which can then be exported to Photoshop or Illustrator. Photoshop and Illustrator work well for rendering and applying graphics like arrows. As landscape architecture students, we often use design programs like these for many of our projects, so designing these was a lot of fun and fulfilling. Definitely, I felt like I used my most skilled abilities. Additionally, it provided us with an excellent opportunity to expand our portfolio and showcase our skills.
Dalia Carbajal-Robles UC Davis undergraduate, 4th year Major: Landscape Architecture  Here is Piper supporting us! Now that we had an idea of what we wanted to design, it was time to construct! We were given retaining wall blocks to play around with on our site. It was fun seeing the shape of the garden come to life! A big challenge was carrying the blocks (my teammate Elizabeth Shin and I definitely built some muscles!) and mapping out the curve radius when installing a curved retaining wall. Nevertheless, we finished laying out the first layer of blocks and the next step is to dig a trench for the bottom row of blocks. Luckily, nice gentlemen from Pine Trails Ranch will be helping us dig these trenches. This will provide stability and strength to the retaining walls. I cannot wait to have these garden beds up and ready to grow some green!
Dalia Carbajal-Robles UC Davis undergraduate, 4th year Major: Landscape Architecture  A greenhouse is made out mainly of glass, wood, or metal. During the day, sunlight enters the greenhouse that heats the inside of the greenhouse. At night, the heat is trapped by the glass walls and absorbed by plants and objects, hence why a greenhouse can be used even in colder climates! In other words, light energy is converted to heat energy! It is great to grow plants here because it protects them from extreme cold. Think of a stove and its baker, a greenhouse allows humidity and warmth for the gardener’s plants to grow. A fun fact is that tender plants, such as tomatoes, aubergines, and cucumbers grow really well in greenhouses. We are excited to see this greenhouse in action and grow some plants!
Dalia Carbajal-Robles UC Davis undergraduate, 4th year Major: Landscape Architecture  Hi, It's Summer!!
|
