kitchen gardening, problems that I solved using IDEALS

During week 2 of Flagship Training Program with Foster Learning Pakistan they assigned us an activity of kitchen gardening .Kitchen Gardening is now becoming a trend due to the number of advantages it offers plus the vegetables grown with your own hand are guaranteed to be pure and safe for human health. It arises the question what basically kitchen gardening is? It is a garden or an area where herbs, vegetables or fruits are grown for domestic use .This vegetation grown is much more safer than that which is present in the market .So as I was talking about the gardening activity and I decided to grow following plants in my garden.

1. ONION 2. GARLIC 3. CORRIANDER

The task was not so easy as many hurdles were faced during the completion of it .I was facing many problems but I solved them with the help of IDEALS. The technique ideals is composed of 6 words or 6 methods that were helpful in solving the problems faced by me during this activity. The completion of my task was due to followings 6 steps that are very advantageous:

I- Identify the problem-what the real problem we are facing:

In the first step ,I was surrounded by two major problems. The problems that were basically hindering my way to complete my task. These difficulties on hearing were very simple but I knew that how much hurdles were there in my way to solve them. Talking about the problems the first one was that I lacked essentials for gardening. Now my second was closely to the first one as I had no transport means to have my stuff. It was a big problem indeed. Without the help of transport how can I be able to complete the mission?

“A problem is only a problem if you refuse to look for a solution. If you don’t take action to fix it then it will remain a problem.” Catherine Pulsipher.

D- Defining the context- what are the facts that frame this problem?

Why problem is called a problem? Because it holds all the objectives that at one point for a person seem impossible. I was seriously going through this phase as two main challenges that were basically constituting problem were I lacked all the necessary things for gardening like soil ,pot and most importantly seeds that I wanted to plant and non availability of transport which was even worse. As in my family there is no particular mode of transport that we use and there was no one whom we know can take us and sadly I had to travel quite far place to get all the things.

“The only difference between a problem and a solution is that people understand the solution.” Charles Kettering

E- Enumerating the choices- what are the plausible options?

I started looking for way to overcome it I got variety of options. The options that in my view were acceptable and reasonable and were as following:

1. To go to nursery that is nearest to my house by looking onto the Google maps and it will be convenient as soil ,pot and saplings will be available altogether at the nursery.
2. The second that popped into my mind was to ask neighbors. Not all but may be some are fond of gardening and they may have planted small pots in their home. So their guidance will be good.
3. Last but not the least was to visit any near-by field as the soil in fields is much fertile and full of nutrients and to get what we want. and to use plastic bottles as pot to reduce the plastic pollution as pots itself were very expensive.

A- Analyzing options- What is the best course of options?

Despite of the fact that many options were available, the consequences of selecting any option after analyzing it can’t be overlooked. So the outcome of analysis was: In option first when I was thinking about going to the nursery as I searched through Google Map it came out that there was a nursery but at a considerable distance from my house which of course mean large amount of money was required and the expenses of buying materials were still present so as tempting as it was after deep thinking it got rejected. In second one where I thought of asking neighbors it was though reasonable as not going somewhere far and not so much expenses but to my disappoint nobody in my neighbor was fond of kitchen gardening. Third option was presented to me by neighbors as they gave me the idea to go to fields that were opposite to my colony and to get what I want after crossing Lahore ring road. It was quite reasonable as not at a far distance. But my cousins refused to go with me and ultimate choice was to go with my mother.

“If a problem is fixable, if a situation is such that you can do something about it, then there is no need to worry. If it’s not fixable, then there is no help in worrying. There is no benefit in worrying whatsoever.” _The Dalai Lama_

L- Listing the reasons explicitly?- Why is this the best course of action?

The most favorable option was third one it was agreed by me and my mother because my uncles family can’t help me to get to fields because they all were either sick or have some urgent work to do. We carried the bags and necessary equipment and went to the fields in the surroundings there were village where our relatives live so it was the best choice .They helped me in getting the soil and seeds not drawing any suspicions as local people were around us. finally we reached home after holding big bags full of soil. Indeed it was very tiring.

S- Self-correct- Look at it again- what did we miss?

The problem was solved at maximum extent but still there stood a minimum hurdle as I planted the seeds within half cut plastic bottle filled up with field soil it was not easy to differentiate between them in order to overcome the fact that we missed not considering it as important I wrote on a simple paper the name of plant and pasted it on the bottle so It became easy for everyone to read and know what plant I had planted. With these 6 steps and right choices I completed my work before time.

look at my kitchen garden

Have you done kitchen gardening ever? What did you planted? will love to see your experience here. Indeed IDEALS was very helpful while solving this problem.