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Applied Quiz: Capstone Projects

A second set of questions on this chapter, weighted toward using the ideas rather than recalling them. Each one puts you in a situation and asks how to apply what the whole book has built toward.

1. You are on Phase 1 of the Garden Design Capstone and want to skip straight to choosing plants because you already know what you like. What does the project structure say?

  1. Fine — plant selection is the substance of the project
  2. Site assessment comes first for a reason: sun mapping, soil data, moisture and existing plant inventory determine which plants are even candidates, and the rubric scores a thorough assessment separately
  3. Site assessment can be done afterward to justify the choices
  4. Only professional designers need to assess sites
Show Answer

The correct answer is B. The six-phase diagram makes assessment the foundation the other five phases rest on, and it maps back to Chapters 1, 2 and 15. Choosing plants first and assessing later inverts the whole method this book teaches.

Concept Tested: Garden Design Capstone Sequence

See: Chapter 17

2. A capstone plant list has 16 native species, all blooming in July and August. How does the rubric score it and why?

  1. Excellent — it exceeds the 15-species threshold
  2. Below excellent; the top band requires three-season bloom and pollinator support alongside the species count, and a single-season list fails the bloom criterion no matter how many species it has
  3. Excellent, since bloom timing is not part of the rubric
  4. Beginning, because 16 species is too many
Show Answer

The correct answer is B. The rubric's plant-selection band is compound: 15+ species and three-season bloom and pollinator support and multiple community types. This is Chapter 6's continuous-bloom principle showing up as a grading criterion.

Concept Tested: Plant Selection Criteria

See: Chapter 17

3. In the Pollinator Corridor Plan, why does the project ask you to measure the gaps between habitat sites rather than just add up total habitat area?

  1. Gap measurement is a formality
  2. Native bees may only travel a few hundred meters between food sources, so habitat that is too far apart functions as isolated patches rather than a connected corridor
  3. Because larger gaps are cheaper to plant
  4. Because gaps determine property ownership
Show Answer

The correct answer is B. Connectivity, not acreage, is what makes a corridor work. This is habitat fragmentation from Chapter 15 turned into a design constraint — the same total area arranged differently produces a very different outcome for a short-range forager.

Concept Tested: Pollinator Corridor Design

See: Chapter 17

4. Your corridor proposal specifies eight native species per site with sequential bloom, but says nothing about nesting. What is missing?

  1. Nothing — flowers are what pollinators need
  2. Nesting habitat provisions — bare soil patches, brush piles, bee hotels or dead wood — plus water sources; the project requires them because food alone does not support a population
  3. Only a water source
  4. A larger species count
Show Answer

The correct answer is B. The project's deliverables list nesting and water separately from the plant list, mirroring Chapter 6's four essentials. A corridor of flowers with nowhere to nest is a feeding route, not habitat.

Concept Tested: Habitat Requirements Beyond Flowers

See: Chapter 17

5. The corridor project asks for a community engagement plan and an obstacles section. Why are those part of an ecological project?

  1. They are filler to lengthen the assignment
  2. A corridor crosses property lines, so ownership, maintenance responsibility and public awareness determine whether the plan can actually be built — the ecology is only half the problem
  3. Because grading requires written components
  4. Because ecologists are expected to do public relations
Show Answer

The correct answer is B. This is the difference between a design and a plan. A corridor that is ecologically ideal and crosses fifteen unwilling properties accomplishes nothing, which is why the project treats obstacles as a required analysis rather than an afterthought.

Concept Tested: Implementation Constraints

See: Chapter 17

6. A capstone budget lists total cost but no nursery sources and no explanation of why plugs were chosen over seed. How does the rubric read that?

  1. Excellent — the total is what matters
  2. Below proficient; the top band wants a realistic budget with two or more nursery sources and the format choices explained, since plug-versus-seed is a real trade-off in cost, speed and establishment
  3. Proficient, since a budget is present
  4. Sourcing is not part of the rubric
Show Answer

The correct answer is B. Phase 4 maps to Chapters 11 and 14, where sourcing, provenance and cost-share programs live. Naming the nursery is also what makes local ecotype claims checkable rather than assumed.

Concept Tested: Sourcing and Budget

See: Chapter 17

7. A student's maintenance plan says "weed as needed and water occasionally." What does the rubric require instead?

  1. Nothing more — native gardens need little maintenance
  2. A detailed month-by-month calendar, an invasive species strategy, and a long-term plan — because establishment years, seasonal timing and multi-year invasive follow-up all differ
  3. Only a watering schedule
  4. A list of tools required
Show Answer

The correct answer is B. Vague maintenance notes score at the "developing" band. The specificity matters because Chapters 9, 11 and 12 all established that timing is the variable that decides whether the work succeeds.

Concept Tested: Maintenance Planning

See: Chapter 17

8. Phase 6 of the design capstone maps to Chapter 16. What does presentation have to do with critical thinking?

  1. Nothing — the mapping is arbitrary
  2. The rubric's top band requires evidence-based reasoning throughout, so you have to defend each choice with sources rather than preference — which is Chapter 16's source-evaluation and trade-off analysis applied to your own design
  3. Only that presentations should avoid logical fallacies
  4. Because presentations are graded on delivery style
Show Answer

The correct answer is B. The capstone closes the loop the book opened: you are now the source someone else is evaluating. Making trade-offs explicit and citing evidence is what separates a defensible design from a set of preferences.

Concept Tested: Evidence-Based Reasoning in Design

See: Chapter 17

9. You must choose one capstone. Your goal is to help a neighborhood act collectively rather than to improve one property. Which fits best?

  1. The Garden Design Capstone, which produces the most detailed plan
  2. The Pollinator Corridor Plan — it spans at least three sites across a neighborhood and includes a community engagement plan
  3. The Field Guide Creation project
  4. The Maintenance Calendar Project
Show Answer

The correct answer is B. Matching the project to the outcome you want is the point of offering eight of them. The Garden Design Capstone is deeper on a single site; the corridor project is the one built around coordination across owners.

Concept Tested: Choosing a Capstone

See: Chapter 17

  1. That the chapters are independent and can be read in any order
  2. That the capstone is where the separate threads combine — site assessment from Chapters 1–2 and 15, plant communities from 3–6 and 10, sourcing from 11 and 14, management from 9 and 12, and reasoning from 16 — so the project is the integration, not a summary
  3. That only the listed chapters matter
  4. That the earlier chapters can be skipped if you do a capstone
Show Answer

The correct answer is B. Each phase draws on a different part of the book, which is why the capstone comes last. It is the point where knowing about native plants becomes doing something with them on a real site.

Concept Tested: Integrating the Full Course

See: Chapter 17