Sitka photographer Psalm Oines didn’t look far to find her latest subject for a photo essay. Psalm drove a couple of miles down Sawmill Creek Road to the Down-To-Earth U-Pick Garden owned by Lori Adams. Lori’s garden, located at 2103 Sawmill Creek Road, is popular with people looking for fresh veggies before the Sitka Farmers Markets get started each summer or during the weeks in between the markets. Click this link to see Psalm’s great photos of Lori’s garden. To learn more about Lori (shown here during an August 2010 Sitka Farmers Market) and her garden, go to this link from 2010.
Gardens
• July work parties set for St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm
St. Peter's Fellowship Farm sign
The Sitka Local Foods Network will host work parties from 2-4 p.m. each Saturday in July at St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm (if there isn’t a Sitka Farmers Market scheduled that Saturday).
St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm provides vegetables, herbs and fruit for the Sitka Farmers Markets, which start in July (from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on July 16, 30, Aug. 13, 27 and Sept. 10 at ANB Hall). The communal garden is located behind St. Peter’s By The Sea Episcopal Church on Lincoln Street.
In addition to helping get the communal garden ready to grow veggies this summer, volunteers can meet Laura Schmidt, who is the lead gardener for St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm this year and will coordinate most of the summer’s work parties. Laura said the work parties will be kid-friendly and there will be several activities to keep the kids busy.
To learn more about the garden work parties, please contact Laura Schmidt at 623-7003 or 738-7009. To learn more about the Sitka Farmers Markets, contact Linda Wilson at 747-3096 (nights or weekends) or by e-mail at lawilson87@hotmail.com.
• James David Sneed to present food self-sufficiency talks and demonstrations
Why is salty seaweed good for tomatoes, potatoes and broccoli? Is raising small livestock in Southeast Alaska feasible? What seeds can we save here?
James David Sneed, from Price of Wales Island, has been experimenting with food self-sufficiency in Southeast Alaska for 30 years. He also has presented on this topic in Washington state.
James David will give a talk on food self-sufficiency from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturday, June 11, at Harrigan Centennial Hall.
James David also will present a hands-on workshop from 10 a.m. to noon the following Saturday, June 18, at Judy Johnstone’s Sprucecott Gardens (306 Peterson Ave – up the hill from McDonalds). This workshop will feature hand tool use and care, garden layouts, bioregional aspects of gardening and nutritional gardening.
Each workshop costs $10, or $15 for both. Low income and WIC enrollees are free. Tickets available at Old Harbor Books, from Sitka Local Foods Network board members and at the door. Funds raised benefit the Sitka Local Foods Network.
For more information, call Kerry MacLane at 752-0654.
• June work parties set for St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm
St. Peter's Fellowship Farm sign
The Sitka Local Foods Network will host work parties from 2-4 p.m. each Saturday in June at St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm.
St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm provides vegetables, herbs and fruit for the Sitka Farmers Markets, which start in July (from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on July 16, 30, Aug. 13, 27 and Sept. 10 at ANB Hall). It is located behind St. Peter’s By The Sea Episcopal Church on Lincoln Street.
In addition to helping get the communal garden ready to grow veggies this summer, volunteers can meet Laura Schmidt, who is the lead gardener for St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm this year and will coordinate most of the summer’s work parties. Laura said the work parties will be kid-friendly and there will be several activities to keep the kids busy.
To learn more about the work parties, please contact Laura Schmidt at 738-7009.
• Time changes for Saturday’s planting party at St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm
St. Peter's Fellowship Farm sign
The time has changed to 1-3 p.m. for the planting party on Saturday, May 14, at St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm. The times also have changed for the next two planting parties, from 2-4 p.m. on Saturday, May 21 and 28.
St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm provides vegetables, herbs and fruit for the Sitka Farmers Markets, which start in July (from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on July 16, 30, Aug. 13, 27 and Sept. 10 at ANB Hall). It is located behind St. Peter’s By The Sea Episcopal Church on Lincoln Street.
In addition to helping get the communal garden ready to grow veggies this summer, volunteers can meet Laura Schmidt, who is the lead gardener for St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm this year and will coordinate most of the work parties and May planting parties. Laura said the work and planting parties will be kid-friendly and there will be several activities to keep the kids busy.
People who picked up seed starter kits at Let’s Grow Sitka in March should check the date they are scheduled to bring their started seeds in for planting. If you can’t bring them in on that date, please contact Laura Schmidt (623-7003) or Lisa Sadleir-Hart (747-5985) to make arrangements for someone else to bring them in on the scheduled date.
• Sitka Local Foods Network board of directors to meet on Thursday, May 12
The Sitka Local Foods Network board of directors will hold its monthly meeting from 6-7:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 12, at the Sitka Local Foods Network’s new office in the Sitka Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Building, 408 Marine St.
Key topics for the meeting include the start of work parties at St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm, preparations for the upcoming Sitka Farmers Market season, an update on fruit tree planting efforts from the Sitka Fruit Tree Initiative, an update on the Sitka Seafood Festival, an update on the Sitka Community Greenhouse and Education Center project, a recap of the Let’s Grow Sitka event on March 20, an update on Blatchley Community Garden plans for the spring and summer, an update on the Alaska Food Policy Council, an update on the Fish In Schools Hooray (FISH) project to get more locally caught fish into school menus.
Board meetings are free and open to the general public. We always welcome new volunteers interested in helping out with our various projects. For more information, contact Kerry MacLane at 752-0654.
• St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm work party scheduled for Wednesday, May 4
St. Peter's Fellowship Farm sign
Volunteers are need to help out at a special work party from 5:15-6:45 p.m. on Wednesday, May 4, at St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm. This work party will be to build a couple of new raised garden beds and to do other preparation work before a series of planting parties scheduled for May.
From 1-4 p.m. on each Saturday in May (May 7, 14, 21 and 28), volunteers are needed for planting parties at St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm, which is a communal garden located behind St. Peter’s By The Sea Episcopal Church on Lincoln Street. St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm provides vegetables, herbs and fruit for the Sitka Farmers Markets, which start in July (from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on July 16, 30, Aug. 13, 27 and Sept. 10 at ANB Hall).
In addition to helping get the communal garden ready to grow veggies this summer, volunteers can meet Laura Schmidt, who is the lead gardener for St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm this year and will coordinate most of the work parties and May planting parties. Laura said the work and planting parties will be kid-friendly and there will be several activities to keep the kids busy.
People who picked up seed starter kits at Let’s Grow Sitka in March should check the date they are scheduled to bring their started seeds in for planting. If you can’t bring them in on that date, please contact Laura Schmidt (623-7003) or Lisa Sadleir-Hart (747-5985) to make arrangements for someone else to bring them in on the scheduled date.
• Start now in your fight against slugs and snails
Ah, springtime in Southeast Alaska, when the weather is moist and chilly. If it’s springtime in Southeast, it means it’s time for garden slugs, the bane of every Southeast gardener.
Now is the time to fight slugs, even if you haven’t planted yet as you wait for final frost in May. Slugs get into gardens in the spring, and this is when they are laying their eggs (and both male and female slugs can lay eggs). If you don’t fight the slugs now, the problem will be worse in the summer when your garden starts growing. Slugs eat the plants in your garden, and if uncontrolled they can do considerable damage to your crops.
Charlie Nardozzi, who writes the Edible Landscaping page on the National Gardening Association’s site, recently posted a good article on how to control slugs and snails. Most of his hints work in Alaska, though some people say the Southeast rain makes beer traps less effective here than in dryer climates.
The University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service has several publications with information on controlling pests such as slugs. One good reference is the Gardening in Southeast Alaska booklet (click link for free download as a PDF file). Another good reference, written by Sitka-based Resource Development Agent Robert Gorman, is the publication “Slugs” (click link for free download as a PDF file).
Fran Durner, who used to write the Talk Dirt To Me blog for the Anchorage Daily News, wrote a post about slug control a couple of years ago that included a picture of slug eggs so people could get them out of their gardens before they hatch. Fran also wrote a post about using dryer lint to deter slugs. Julie Riley of the Anchorage office of the UAF Cooperative Extension Service also wrote an article for the Anchorage Daily News with tips on how to control slugs that gardeners in Southeast might find helpful.
• Work parties scheduled for St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm
St. Peter's Fellowship Farm sign
The Sitka Local Foods Network will host a work party from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday, April 23, to help prepare the St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm communal garden for planting in May.
St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm provides vegetables, herbs and fruit for the Sitka Farmers Markets, which start on July 16. It is located behind St. Peter’s By The Sea Episcopal Church on Lincoln Street.
During the April 23 work party, volunteers will relocate the compost bins, build new raised garden beds and add amendments to the soil. Tools will be provided. The “farm” welcomes any donations of dirt, sand and seaweed. Volunteers also can meet Laura Schmidt, who is the lead gardener for St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm this year and will coordinate most of the work parties and May planting parties. Laura said the work and planting parties will be kid-friendly and there will be several activities to keep the kids busy.
The tentative schedule for planting parties in May is to meet from 1-4 p.m. on Saturdays, May 7, 14, 21 and 28, to plant a variety of crops. People who picked up seed starter kits at Let’s Grow Sitka in March should check the date they are scheduled to bring their started seeds in for planting. If you can’t bring them in on that date, please contact Laura (623-7003) or Lisa Sadleir-Hart (747-5985) to make arrangements for someone else to bring them in on the scheduled date.
• Sitka National Historical Park hosts ‘Gardening in Sitka’ presentation
The Sitka National Historical Park‘s “An Evening in the Park” series will feature a presentation at 7 p.m. on Thursday, April 21, called “Gardening in Sitka: A Unique Challenge.”
This presentation will be led by Park Ranger Thomas Cook, who also is certified as a Master Gardener. The presentation takes place at the Sitka National Historical Park Visitors Center Theatre.
Gardening in Sitka can be a challenge, with lots of rain and tricky soil conditions. This can discourage many aspiring green thumbs. But with a little knowledge, you can plant and grow a beautiful garden in Sitka.
This interactive presentation invites people to share their own perspectives and experiences, and to discuss their successes and challenges with the group as a whole. Ranger Thomas Cook will discuss planting schedules for Sitka, how to overcome acidic soil conditions, seeds vs. seedlings, slugs and pests, and how to construct an inexpensive greenhouse.
To learn more, contact Becky Latanich at 747-0132 or becky_latanich@nps.gov.
Sitka Local Foods Network 
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