Gardens

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• Sitka Local Foods Network building a pool of volunteers who can teach gardening

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Are you an experienced Sitka gardener willing to share some of your knowledge? The Sitka Local Foods Network needs you. The Sitka Local Foods Network is building a pool of volunteers who can teach gardening to local residents who might be new to growing local food.

We’re looking for people who can teach all aspects of gardening, such as how to build a raised garden bed, how to amend soil, how to choose seeds and plant starts for our climate, how to manage your garden once it’s planted, and more. To learn more about our education plans and our efforts to build a pool of teaching volunteers, please join us for a Sitka Local Foods Network education committee meeting from 5:30-7 p.m. on Monday, March 3, at Harrigan Centennial Hall.

While we encourage people who have completed the Master Gardener program to apply, you don’t have to be a Master Gardener for our list of teaching volunteers. Just send us a a note expressing your interest in teaching or helping with a class, what types of classes you’re comfortable teaching, and the best dates and times for teaching that class. Please list your prior experience with these skills (such as I’ve been growing my own garden in Sitka for 12 years).

In addition to skilled gardeners willing to teach basic gardening, we’re also looking for people who can teach Sitka residents how to gather seaweed and other beach greens, how to go berry picking, how to preserve and can food, how to field dress a deer, how to cook with some of the lesser-known veggies that grow in Sitka, and other local food skills. Also, please let us know if you can teach specialized classes, such as permaculture, hydroponics, square-foot gardening, container gardening, how to raise chickens, etc.

This spring our local University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service agent is retiring, so we’re trying to build a pool of volunteers who can provide gardening education until the UAF Cooperative Extension Service can hire a replacement. We might be without a Sitka agent for a period of time, and when they hire a new agent they may rewrite the job description.

To join our pool of teaching volunteers, send your information to charleswbingham3@gmail.com. Please put SLFN Education in the subject line of your email. Please send us a note if you’re willing to teach at a later date and not just this spring or summer. We thank you for your support.

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• Sitka Community Greenhouse and Education Center project to hold meeting on Friday, Feb. 7

Sitka Local Foods Network President Kerry MacLane, left, and Sprucecot Garden Owner Judy Johnstone pose in front of one of the high tunnels recently erected on Judy's land on Peterson Street. (Photo Courtesy of KCAW-Raven Radio)

Sitka Local Foods Network President Kerry MacLane, left, and Sprucecot Garden Owner Judy Johnstone pose in front of one of the high tunnels recently erected on Judy’s land on Peterson Street. (Photo Courtesy of KCAW-Raven Radio)

The Sitka Community Greenhouse and Education Center project will hold its next meeting at 5 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 7, at the Sprucecot B&B and Gardens at 308 Peterson St. This meeting is open to the public.

Judy Johnstone, who owns Sprucecot B&B and Gardens, is hosting the meeting, where participants will discuss the possibility of her donating her high-tunnel greenhouse to the project and the possible use of her garden site for community gardeners. She will provide refreshments.

In addition, committee members will report on the meeting we had with some of the gardeners from the Blatchley Community Gardens and research done on other sites. The new “mystery” sites are the former tank farm overlooking Indian Village and the two lots owned by Tess Hayburn (from the former Lane 7 eatery to the Back Street site, where her house was destroyed by a small plane that crashed into it a few years ago).

Please bring your creativity to the table, but try to keep your comments concise and on topic, as the meeting will end at 6:30 p.m. (i.e., no swapping of gardening stories … sorry!). Folks are welcome to stay and socialize after the meeting and swap all the stories they want. The Sitka Local Foods Network is supporting this project, but is not coordinating it.

For more information, call Kerry MacLane at 752-0654.

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• Scenes from the Sitka Local Foods Network’s 2014 annual meeting and potluck dinner

On Saturday, Jan. 11, the Sitka Local Foods Network hosted its 2014 annual meeting and potluck dinner at the Sitka Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Hall.

The two dozen or so participants shared a meal of local food dishes, as well as heard reports on some of the various projects the Sitka Local Foods Network is coordinating and/or supporting. We also were introduced to new board member candidates who were added to the board a week later.

Here are some scenes from the event.

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• Sitka community greenhouse project to host two meetings this week

This is the inside of a community greenhouse built above the Arctic Circle in Inuvik, Northwest Territories, Canada, that has been one of the models for the Sitka Community Greenhouse and Education Center (Photo from http://www.cityfarmer.org/inuvik.html).

This is the inside of a community greenhouse built above the Arctic Circle in Inuvik, Northwest Territories, Canada, that has been one of the models for the Sitka Community Greenhouse and Education Center (Photo from http://www.cityfarmer.org/inuvik.html).

The Sitka community greenhouse project will host two meetings this week about its project and how it might impact Blatchley Community Gardens.

The first meeting is an informal tea for people leasing garden plots at Blatchley Community Gardens, and it takes place  at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 15, at the Sitka Westmark Hotel dining room. The meeting topic will be people to share ideas about improvements and expansion of the community gardening in Sitka.

The second meeting is the regular monthly meeting of the Sitka Community Greenhouse and Education Center project, and it takes place at 5 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 17, at the Sitka Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Hall (408 Marine Street, parking is off Spruce Street). This meeting will feature reports from committee members on possible building sites (one possible site is at Blatchley Community Gardens).

For more information, contact Kerry MacLane at 752-0654.

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• Sitka Local Foods Network named Alaska’s lone finalist in 50 States for Good contest

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The Sitka Local Foods Network has been selected as the Alaska representative in the fifth annual 50 States for Good contest, where one representative nonprofit organization from each state and the District of Columbia compete for a chance to win $10,000 from Tom’s of Maine.

Supporters of the Sitka Local Foods Network can take part in a public vote to help the organization share in $150,000 total grants from Tom’s of Maine (15 awards of $10,000 each). Voting is simple, just go to http://www.50statesforgood.com/, and follow the instructions. People can vote once per day for one nonprofit finalist during the period from 8 a.m. Alaska time (noon Eastern) on Monday, Sept. 16, through 4 p.m. Alaska time (8 p.m. Eastern) on Tuesday, Oct. 15. A free Facebook account is required for voting, and people who do not already have an account can go to https://www.facebook.com/ to create one.

The 50 States for Good program was created to help uncover local nonprofit groups that address a variety of community needs and engage volunteers to get the work done. This year’s finalists offer a diverse range of community services, such as improving access to local foods, working with people who have autism, helping street teens, supporting the needs of low-income residents, providing food and hygiene products to the homeless, building playgrounds, and more.

The Sitka Local Foods Network works on a variety of food-oriented projects in Sitka, a community of 9,000 people on Baranof Island in Southeast Alaska. Even though there is no commercial agriculture on the island, the Sitka Local Foods Network created the Sitka Farmers Market, which sells produce grown at the organization’s St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm communal garden and from family backyard gardens. The Sitka Local Foods Network also is trying to build the Sitka Community Greenhouse and Education Center, which will be a commercial greenhouse providing local produce and bedding plants for residents, and an education center teaching local students about gardening. Education is another focus of the network, which hosts the annual Let’s Grow Sitka garden exhibition in March and brings nationally known speakers to town to teach about gardening, seeds and greenhouses.

“We are honored to be chosen to represent Alaska in the 50 States for Good competition,” said Lisa Sadleir-Hart, president of the Sitka Local Foods Network board of directors. “If we are successful, we hope to further food production in Sitka using a host of strategies, such as creating an additional community garden, offering seed money to the community greenhouse and education center working group, or helping the school district jump start a school-based garden program. An award of $10,000 from Tom’s of Maine can really help Sitka make strides in improving its local food system.”

The 51 finalists (one from each state plus the District of Columbia) were selected from a pool of about 1,100 nominated nonprofit organizations by an independent panel of judges that included Huffington Post columnist Lisa M. Dietlin, Cool People Care president Sam Davidson, assistant features editor covering social good for Mashable.com Matt Petronzio, and The Vampire Diaries star and nonprofit founder Ian Somerhalder.

“A desire to do more for a favorite can often be hindered by a lack of time to volunteer or the financial means to make a donation,” said Susan Dewhirst, goodness programs manager at Tom’s of Maine. “The 50 States for Good program makes it easy for anyone to have an impact and directly help organizations that are bringing goodness to communities in a variety of creative and inspiring ways.”

For several decades, Tom’s of Maine, a natural products company focused on oral and personal care products, has donated 10 percent of its profits back to the community and encourages its employees to use 5 percent (12 days) of their paid time off to volunteer every year. For more information, visit http://www.tomsofmaine.com/ or like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/TomsofMaine. Voting information will be at both links.

To learn more about the Sitka Local Foods Network and some of its community projects, go to http://www.sitkalocalfoodsnetwork.org/ or like the organization’s new Facebook page at  https://www.facebook.com/SitkaLocalFoodsNetwork.

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• Sitka shows off its gardens to International Master Garden Conference cruise

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InternationalMasterGardenersConferenceLogoSome 1,100 participants in the 2013 International Master Gardeners Conference were in Sitka on Wednesday, Sept. 11, when the Holland America Lines cruise ship Westerdam docked in town.

As part of the visit, the Sitka District office of the University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service prepared a walking tour for the conference participants to show off local gardens and other highlights. The walking tour was a unique opportunity to showcase the challenges and methods used to garden in Sitka as well as interact with Master Gardeners from various locales. In addition to visiting Sitka, the Sept. 7-14 cruise took the conference from Seattle to Juneau, Glacier Bay, Sitka, Ketchikan, Victoria (British Columbia) and back to Seattle.

The Sitka walking tour started at Harrigan Centennial Hall and included a stop to look at apple trees by KCAW-Raven Radio, a stop at the Sitka Pioneer Home to look at the roses and other gardens, a stop at the Russian Bishop’s House (where kindergarten students from nearby Baranof Elementary School plant vegetables in the spring and harvest them in the fall when they return as first-graders). From there the walking tour went to St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm (where the Sitka Local Foods Network grows veggies to sell at the Sitka Farmers Markets), then it was on to the Sheldon Jackson Museum and on to Sitka National Historical Park. The final two stops were at a garden on the Sheldon Jackson Campus (between the Yaw Art Center and Hames Athletic and Wellness Center), and on to the US Geological Survey Geomagnetic Station and UAF Cooperative Extension Service demonstration plots (at the site of the original USDA Sitka Experimental Farm (Page 7), which was the first in Alaska and had more than 100 acres of crops from 1898-1931).

Also at Harrigan Centennial Hall, Sitka filmmaker Ellen Frankenstein hosted a couple of showings of her movie “Eating Alaska,” which examines the food choices one makes, especially when they live in Alaska where produce can be marginal but fish and game are widely available.

UAFMasterGardenerProgramLogoThe Master Gardener (MG) program started in Seattle in the 1970s as a way to extend the horticulture resources of Washington State’s land grant university  to the urban horticulture public in Seattle. The Master Gardeners receive 40 hours of training, similar to a basic three-credit-semester-hour, college-level horticulture class.

In return for this low-cost education the MG participants provide 40 hours of service to their community using Cooperative Extension information resources from their home states. The MG service may be in food gardening, pest management, youth gardening, tree and landscape care, public gardens, etc. Since the initial Seattle project, Master Gardener programs now exist in every state in the U.S., as well as Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and other countries. A Master Gardener course was taught in Sitka in April at the University of Alaska Southeast Sitka Campus.

• Sitka garden walking tour map for 2013 International Master Gardeners Conference

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• Lori Adams offers copies of her Sitka gardening book for sale

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As the owner of Down-To-Earth U-Pick Garden, Lori Adams has learned a lot about vegetable gardening in Sitka. Now she  is sharing what she learned with a new book, “How to Grow Vegetables in Sitka, Alaska.”

“‘How To Grow Vegetables In Sitka, Alaska,’ is an edited and revised compilation of the Gardening In Sitka column that appeared in the 2012 editions of the Daily Sitka Sentinel (and repeated on this site),” Adams said. “It’s organized in a user-friendly format with room for you own notes with a yearly planner in the back. This book teaches you to successfully grow vegetables outside in Sitka’s difficult climate.”

The book costs $20, plus tax, and Adams has been selling copies at her booth at the Sitka Farmers Market. In addition, people wanting books can contact her from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Mondays through Saturdays at the Down-To-Earth U-Pick Garden, 2103 Sawmill Creek Road. She can be reached at 738-2241.

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• Alaska Division of Agriculture to host four On-Farm Food Safety Workshops in Southeast communities

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The Alaska Division of Agriculture is planning a series of four On-Farm Food Safety Workshops in Southeast Alaska communities the week of July 21-25. The workshops will be in Skagway, Haines, Juneau and Sitka.

These workshops are geared toward farmers both large and small, farmers market vendors, gardeners, and anyone who is interested in learning more about food safety in the production of fruits and vegetables.

The Sitka workshop will be from 6-9 p.m. on Thursday, July 25, in the upstairs classroom of the See House at the St. Peter’s By The Sea Episcopal Church (on Lincoln Street, the brown church with the steeple above Crescent Harbor). This is a voluntary educational event for farmers and gardeners who want to learn more about agricultural practices that help reduce the risk of food-borne illness, especially if they plan to sell or donate produce to the Sitka Farmers Market or other programs. For more information about the Sitka workshop, contact Lisa Sadleir-Hart at 747-5985.

The workshops are free, informal, and run for about three hours. The workshops consist of two powerpoint presentations – one on food safety, and introduction to both USDA GAP/GHP food safety audits and the FDA’s new Food Safety Modernization Act, and a second presentation that assists growers who are interested in marketing their produce to schools and local institutions.

The workshops include a site visit to a local farm or garden where we will conduct a mock food-safety audit and answer growers’ questions. We will also provide a wealth of food safety reference materials, and an introduction to online tools that can assist growers in creating a food safety plan, which is the first step in providing food safety assurance to their buyers.  All attendees will receive a copy of FamilyFarmed.org’s “Wholesale Success” reference manual, and a certificate for 3 hours of continuing education in farm food safety.

To learn about the Skagway, Haines and Juneau workshops, check out the flier posted above.

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• Skagway Garden Club hosts Southeast Alaska Garden Conference on July 19-21

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The Skagway Garden Club will host the Southeast Alaska Garden Conference on July 19-21 at various locations in Skagway, Alaska. The cot for the conference is $99.

The keynote speaker will be Garden Writers of America Hall of Fame member  Jeff Lowenfels, longtime garden columnist with the Anchorage Daily News and the author of the books “Teaming With Microbes: The Organic Gardener’s Guide to the Soil Food Web” and “Teaming With Nutrients: The Organic Gardeners Guide to Optimizing Plant Nutrition.” Lowenfels also was the founder of the “Plant A Row for the Hungry” (aka PAR) program that has provided more than 14 million meals for the hungry, and he is former president of the Garden Writers of America.

Garden enthusiasts will be thrilled at the selection of topics ranging from gardening for Alaska’s pollinators to cooking with local edibles through the science behind the process of composting. The conference will have activities for kids and tours of Skagway’s finest gardens and historic garden sites, which includes the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park’s Herbarium.

The conference includes a Friday evening opening reception at the Red Onion’s Bombay Room; Keynote and Saturday program at the Arctic Brotherhood Hall; Saturday continental breakfast; garden tours; lunch at the Westmark Hotel featuring Laurie Constantino, author of  “Tastes Like Home: Mediterranean Cooking in Alaska;” glassblowing demonstration and dinner at Jewell Gardens; and Sunday workshops. This year’s conference is hosted by the Skagway Garden Club and sponsored by the Skagway Convention and Visitors Bureau.

• Master schedule for the 2013 Southeast Alaska Garden Conference

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• Invasive and damaging insect, the green alder sawfly, found in Sitka

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GreenAlderSawflyLarvaFor the first time, an invasive insect called the green alder sawfly (Monsoma pulveratum) has been found in Sitka. This insect is considered a danger to alder trees in Sitka and other Southeast wetlands.

“Several days ago a positive identification has been made on the green alder sawfly in Sitka,” Bob Gorman, resource development faculty with the Sitka office of the University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service, wrote in an e-mail sent to Sitka and Southeast gardeners, “This invasive, exotic insect has defoliated alder trees in Anchorage and surrounding areas. It is a potentially serious threat to alder in southeast Alaska. The attached fact sheet (linked at the bottom of this post) provides details on the green alder sawfly. Distribute this information as you see fit. Thanks.”

The green alder sawfly is native to Europe and North Africa, and its preferred diet is European gray alder. It was first reported in North America in 1995 in Newfoundland, Canada. In 2004 it was first collected in Alaska near Palmer. Since 2007, the green alder sawfly has been documented defoliating thin-leaf alder (Alnus glutinosa) in numerous locations in Southcentral Alaska, eliminating alder in some watersheds. The green alder sawfly has been found in red alder (Alnus rubra) trees along Sawmill Creek Road, Halibut Point Road and Jarvis Street.

On Friday, KCAW-Raven Radio aired a story about the green alder sawfly with more details from Gorman and USDA Forest Service entomologist Liz Graham, who flew to Sitka from Juneau after Gorman sent her photos of the insect’s caterpillars.

Please report any known or suspected infestations of green alder sawfly to the Sitka office of the UAF Cooperative Extension Service by calling 747-9440 or stopping by the office located in Room 122 at University of Alaska Southeast Sitka Campus. GPS (global positioning system) coordinates of known locations of the green alder sawfly will help in determining the extent of this insect, which probably overwintered in Sitka.

• Green Alder Sawfly: A Threat to Sitka and Southeast Watersheds flier from the UAF Cooperative Extension Service