I started by identifying the space I wanted to work with; because I was creating five duplicates, I had to keep the area away from human activity as much as possible.
Since I’m testing three areas, I have a total of fifteen samples. Because there are so many factors that could influence the outcome, I find it difficult to record observations. I was confused about the hypotheses again. I had to remind myself to just take notes on what I saw. I believe I need to increase the replicates in order to obtain more accurate findings because, for instance, the temperature and the shade provided by the trees are not constant and keep changing over time.
I placed wood squares around each sample in the garden, but it is really difficult to protect them from human activity, particularly now that summer has arrived, and everyone is ready to spend time outside. One of the biggest challenges I faced was that grass takes time to grow since the soil is completely new.
The problem, in my opinion, is that there are a lot of facts and occurrences happening that I am unable to stop; therefore, I’m not really sure what is influencing the research.
I recently found out that my garden is home to two raccoons every night! I’m not sure if that will have an impact on the observations, but I’m not sure what they are actually doing. Additionally, I noticed that some places had more earthworms than others, and I understood that this could have an impact on the results down the road.
As of right now, I can see that some grass is growing in the centre of the garden and beneath the tree but given the larger plants in the backdrop at the third position, I believe that more room is required. That will improve my ability to see the outcome.
I highly recommend recording grass height in each sample that gives you a clear variable that your are measuring. Then measure soil moisture at each sample as well. There may be other factors influencing grass growth, but you can’t control or measure them all. You can and should still talk about other factors that might influence your results in your discussion.