Wikiwhoops

During the last two weeks of ALES 204, two assignments stand out most notably for me. The first is one is the Wikipedia stub entry. We were asked to find an article on Wikipedia which was a 'stub'; which is essentially an incomplete article, and add to it or complete it. I was going to choose Wiki's "sustainable planting" article, and thought of incorporating 'time stacking' and 'root stacking' onto the page.
Time stacking is simply the concept of varying the dates at which you plant perennials. If numerous plants of the same species are planted together at the the same time, they will be competing for the same resources at the same times. By maintaining variety and planting some earlier and some later, the plants will flower/fruit at different times, and won't be as vigorously competing for resources. Variety also adds stability to a system against varying annual conditions.

Retrieved November 16th, 2011 from the Garden Web

Root stacking is the concept of planting plants in such a way that a variety of root depths are maintained in the same area. That way, plants aren't competing for the same resources at the same soil depths. This drawing nicely demonstrates a variety of root depths:
Now, you maybe wondering: "Why is he telling me all of this here? Just link me to the whole wiki entry!". Well, the truth is that I missed the deadline for the Wikipedia article assignment by failing to read the rubric correctly! I figured I shouldn't let all my efforts go to waste, but I hope to finish the article entry by the term's end.
The second recent assignment we have done in ALES 204 which stands out for me is the lab we did this week in which we were asked to compose a pretend invitation to a professional with a LinkedIn profile. The assignment kind of played right into my hands since I immediately knew the person who I would (not actually) contact. It was William Shotyk of the University of Alberta, who gave recently gave this marvelous speech on soil and water here at the U of A. His talk fit so closely with my field of study that I figured to incorporate them together into the pretend invitation.