February 16, 2023 by Charles Bingham

Southeast Alaska Master Gardeners to offer ‘Practical Landscaping for Southeast Alaska’ classes

Planning Your Garden (1)

Practical Landscaping for Southeast Alaska is a series presented by the SEAK Master Gardeners Association, in collaboration with the Juneau Public Library, and is an opportunity to look at the practical aspects of design as well as providing a chance to explore creative possibilities of your own, unique garden.

These classes are offered in person at the Mendenhall Valley Library in Juneau, and virtually. We would love to see you in person but realize not everyone can make it. Zoom will be available to those that register HERE and fill out this brief form.

February 16th 5:45-7:45pm
Landscape Design Considerations
This session will focus on the practical considerations for landscape design. Examine how and where sun enters your yard in different locations, wind direction and ferocity, where water settles in your yard, what features are already there to be incorporated into the design.

Merrill Jensen is a horticulturist who became first manager of the Jensen-Olsen Arboretum in 2007. While there, he succeeded in getting national collection status for the largest documented collection of primula, primroses in North America – an outstanding feat. He also as created the garden design and flow.

When Your Yard is a Swamp: Drainage Solutions When You Have Too Much Water
This session explores various options for those areas in your yard that can’t compete with two weeks of record-breaking rain and for those areas that seem to bog down from our typical weather. Explore options and perspectives from our experienced panel.

Ed Buyarski has been gardening in the rain in Southeast Alaska since 1983. He has gardened in Wrangell, Petersburg, Sitka, Juneau, and Haines. 2022 was a record breaker with 105 measured inches at his place near Tee Harbor. Still, good crops were harvested of garlic, potatoes, beets, carrots and much more. Thanks to plenty of compost, a lot of timely rain, some sun, and using plenty of plastic to warm the soil and plants harvest happens. Hoop houses also allowed him to grow tomatoes, cucumbers and even some corn. Lots of primroses and other perennial flowers also brighten up his gardens. Promotion of lawn reduction and more food production here is his religion and you can often hear him preaching on KFSK and KTOO during the gardening season as well as in classes and workshops sponsored by the Master Gardeners and University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service.

Danielle Brown-Farrell, MG class of 2016. Dani is the owner of Sunny Slope Organic Farm, which runs a successful community supported agriculture (CSA) in the growing season, sells both perennials and annuals in the spring, and provides landscaping expertise.

George Campbell is the owner of Little Diggers and Landscaping, LLC. George has been providing expertise in landscaping since 2017 utilizing heavy equipment.

March 16th, 5:45-7:45pm
Color as a Design Element in the Landscape
Color draws us into gardens more than any other element, well maybe besides berries, birds, or for a rest. Is that your objective–to use more color? Gardeners sometimes think only of flower color in their garden. Yet, many other features of plants can be drawn upon for color. Objects and structures also can be used as bold anchors or features to build on or around a landscape. Ginger will present inspirational ways to mix or think about color as you build, renovate, or invigorate your garden’s evolution.

Ginger Hudson is the current manager of the Jensen-Olson Arboretum, a CBJ Parks & Rec facility. She came to Juneau from Anchorage where she worked for the Alaska Botanical Garden in Anchorage as the Special Horticulture Projects Manager. Ginger has operated her own landscape design business in addition to teaching design and maintenance. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing, a Bachelor of Environmental Design, and is an Advanced Master Gardener. Join Ginger and her staff in Juneau at JOA this summer where she is delighted to lead native plant walks, Primula tours, and public garden tours.

Building the Bones of a Landscape; Pathways, Rocks, and Patterns
Landscaping is a language; it shows us how to manage ourselves in the world. Choosing the plants is the very last stage of landscape design, long before picking the color of the Rhododendrons, dealing with the mechanics of the site drives the design considerations. Activities and lifestyle demands are addressed by access and transport considerations. In an illuminating session, Margaret will illustrate some of the principles and methods for creating, or remodeling a landscape that functions well for the purposes desired by the users, and able to be managed over time as the garden matures.

Margaret Tharp and David Lendrum, Landscape Alaska, shared that when they came to Juneau there were not even lawns in the valley, they started in their front yard in Lemon Creek and built nurseries in several parts of the community. Margaret graduated with a master’s in landscape architecture from the University of Oregon and was given a standing ovation for developing a salvage and reuse method for the native understory. She has designed much of our public and private landscape in her practice, including Thunder Mountain High School, the Alaska Capitol, Mendenhall Library, Ethel Lund SEARHC clinic, Treadwell Historic Park, and the residences of Ginger Johnson, Christine Zack and Jo Pegues. The only “1 Percent for Art” ever awarded for Landscape Architecture was her design for the Juneau Police Station. David is a lifelong “Hort”, with many positions including Juneau’s initial Arboretum, Soil and Water Conservation, and Landscape

April 20th, 5:45-7:45pm
The Secret Garden: The Power of Garden Rooms
This session explores the power of creating special spaces within the larger garden that allow themes, whimsy, and the pure delight of the unexpected. Find out how Garden Art, Whimsy, Themes and so much more can become a captivating and welcome addition to your landscape. Explore different types of themes and take your space from the average garden to the wow factor of your garden design. Learn about visual impact and sensory awareness using sight, sound, and smell. Learn the steps to discover your own secret garden.

Pat Hartman has spent the last 40 years planning, replanning, and growing ornamental plants, vegetable gardens and Garden Railroads throughout the Western United States. Her current garden contains various Garden Rooms which include meditation, whimsy, theme areas and spectacular views. In 2012 Pat completed the Alaska Master Gardener Class. Pat is a plant aficionado, world traveler, Garden Railroad geek, and active member of the Southeast Alaska Master Gardeners Organization serving as Web Manager. She currently serves as the American Primrose Society President and Chairs the ICRA for Primula committee. She incorporates Primula into her Garden Rooms that she has grown from seed, purchased, or shared from friends.

Water Features: Because Sometimes Living in a Rainforest isn’t Wet Enough
This session will explore fountains, waterfalls, ponds that have been found on the Juneau Master Garden Tour. Look at what our neighbors have done to enhance their space through their garden’s water features.

Registration link for all programs in this series: bit.ly/3K3iLjZ

If you have questions, please contact committee chairperson Corinne Conlon at dirtgirlgardening@gmail.com

July 17, 2013 by Charles Bingham

• Buying local food during a Southeast Alaska summer

Sitka Local Foods Network Board Vice President Cathy Lieser distributes “Alaska Grown” bumper stickers during the July Fourth parade in Sitka (Photo by Heike Hüttenkofer)

By CATHY LIESER
Sitka Local Foods Network Board Vice President

I am cooking on a boat throughout Southeast Alaska this summer, so on May 5, I planted seeds in my garden, covered it with bird netting and wished it well until my return. The text from my friend read, “the weeds are winning,” luckily I have an herb garden on the boat.

I have been on the hunt for local food in the towns where we provision. It was a late spring, so early on I watched plots greening up and took mental notes. There was kale and rhubarb in Tenakee, with one grower who sells on Friday — The Party Time Bakery — which uses local produce for delicious meals. We bought a rhubarb-berry pie fresh out of the oven and took it back to the boat.

In Juneau, we stocked up at Pinkies Fish Market where the mission is to create a local food economy by sourcing local seafood and other farm fresh items. I toured the Jensen-Olson Arboretum (click here for Facebook page) with Merrill Jensen while he shared about their process toward having a certified virus-free Tlingít potato. The Wild Oven sourdough bakery found me sampling chewy and flavorful loaves that I found out got better with age. At the Second Saturday Market, I bought greenhouse-fresh basil picked that morning.

I barely missed the first Sitka Farmers Market on July 6, but did raid my garden for spinach, kale, lettuce, corn salad and miner’s lettuce. I thank those who watered for me during the hot month of June. Our next boat destination was Petersburg, where I finally arrived on a day where two growers were selling.

The Garden, which participates in the Alaska Grown program, is an abundant oasis of organic produce in the middle of town. Tonna Parker has turned a family lot into a production powerhouse using French intensive methods. For the last four years she has sold direct to the community, just stop by on a Tuesday or Saturday to see what she has available. I bought cucumbers and snap peas that did not make it home, I snacked while Tonna gave me a tour. She has beautiful raised beds, chickens, ducks and compact greenhouses where she is able to grow an astounding variety. Winter squash, pumpkins, tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, bok choi, kale, corn salad, arugula, carrots, beans, peas, berries, eggs, the abundance went on and on.

I was incredibly inspired by her approach toward finding varieties that thrive in her micro climate, ones that are tough and aggressive growers. She trials open-pollinated varieties and saves her own seed for many of her plantings. Freely sharing her knowledge, Tonna said she would happily work herself out of a job, she just wants folks to grow local and reap the benefits.

Farragut Farm makes the trip into Petersburg by boat to sell direct twice a month. Marja Smets and Bo Varsano had beautiful, tender and sweet produce for sale. Radishes nearly the size of golf balls, collards, kale, chard, green onions, carrots, garlic scapes, edible flowers, pea shoots, peas, Napa cabbage, turnips, beets, and lettuce. Wow, to have root crops and full-sized heads of Romaine lettuce and cabbage this early on is a testament to dedicated growing. I had heard that Farragut sells to charter boats and indeed I can place an order via email to be picked up one hour on either side of the high tide in Farragut Bay. They will row and deliver to the boat.

If you love fresh flowers, Craig Olson and Deb Hurley of the Flower Farm run a flower CSA. For a $100 subscription they deliver six bouquets a summer. Stunning dahlia, snapdragon, campanula, linaria, veronica, delphinum, and ageratum to name a few. They grow in three hoophouses and three heated greenhouses that were funded with a $20,000 grant from the Petersburg Development Fund. Planting starts on Jan. 9, and 60 percent of their sales are in veggie and flower bedding plants.

Inga’s Galley (click here for Facebook page) is the Petersburg reinvention of Sitka’s late-but-beloved Two Chicks on a Kabob Stick food cart. Amyee Peeler (one of the Two Chicks from Sitka) sources local produce whenever she can, and of course all of the seafood is local.

Unfortunately, the The Market In Petersburg was not happening on the Friday while I was in town, but I hope to hit it on July 19.

I’ll keep looking over the next two months wherever we dock, I am heartened to see folks committed to growing and sourcing the best food in Southeast. If you know of anyone that I’ve missed leave me a note at sitkalocalfoodsnetwork@gmail.com (put “Attention Cathy” in the subject line).

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

September 23, 2009 by Charles Bingham

• Capital City Weekly features Sitka Farmers Market Table of the Day, Running of the Boots fundraiser for Sitka Local Foods Network

Screenshot of Capital City Weekly page about Mike Wise winning the Table of the Day Award at the final Sitka Farmers Market of the summer

Click here to see this week’s Capital City Weekly coverage of Mike Wise of Raven’s Peek Roasters and Sailor’s Choice Coffee winning the Table of the Day Award for the final Sitka Farmers Market of the summer on Sept. 12.

Click here to read a notice in this week’s Capital City Weekly about the Running of the Boots on Saturday, Sept. 26.

For those of you who will be in Juneau and not in Sitka on Saturday for the Running of the Boots, click here to read about the Autumn Garden Party and Wine Tasting event on Saturday at the Jensen-Olson Arboretum up in Juneau.

In a local foods story from the Northwest Arctic, Kotzebue author/photographer Seth Kantner (author of “Ordinary Wolves” and “Shooping for Porcupine”) writes an essay for the Alaska Dispatch Web site about hunting caribou to provide meat for his family.

Finally, we have two stories about the role salmon played in the development of two Southeast Alaska communities — Ketchikan and Pelican. Ketchikan’s Dave Kiffer writes one of his regular history columns for the Stories in the News Web site about how Ketchikan became “the canned salmon capital of the world.” In the Capital City Weekly, Norm Carson writes a story about how a cold storage plant helped Pelican “settled closest to the fish.”

August 24, 2009 by Charles Bingham

• Juneau Empire spotlights harvest of Tlingít potatoes

(Photo courtesy of Klas Stolpe/Juneau Empire) Bill Ehlers, assistant gardener at the Jensen-Olson Arboretum in Juneau, holds a Tlingít potato next to some borage plant flowers.

The Juneau Empire on Monday (click here) ran a nice photo package of a sustainable harvest camp at the Jensen-Olson Arboretum in Juneau that was hosted by the 4-H program run by UAF Cooperative Extension Service and the Alaska Department of Fish & Game. The photos feature several children harvesting “Maria’s Potatoes,” a type of Tlingít potato grown from seed potatoes that originally came from deceased Tlingít elder Maria Miller’s garden in Klukwan. These fingerling potatoes do well in Southeast Alaska’s rainy climate and have been around for hundreds of years. The story link above has a link to an audio slideshow by Juneau Empire photographer Michael Penn. The slideshow is worth watching.

By the way, click here to read more about the Tlingít potato posted on the Sitka Local Foods Network site about three weeks ago. Elizabeth Kunibe did want to clarify that in the link to the Chilkat Valley News story she is misquoted so it appears that she “discovered” the Ozette potato (another Native American variety). She said she is not the discoverer.

Kunibe also said the Tlingít potatoes can be sold, but for food only and not for seed. Some of them contain potato viruses, transmitted by vectors, that can affect the soil and other varieties of potatoes. She said when people buy seed potatoes, they need to make sure they have “clean seed” or “virus-free seed” before they plant. She said potato viruses do not affect humans who eat the potatoes, but we need to use clean seed to keep the viruses from destroying crops (like what happened in the Irish potato famine). She said the UAF Cooperative Extension Service, which has offices in Sitka and Juneau, may have more information on how to find virus-free seed potatoes.

Kunibe, who made a presentation on Tlingít potatoes and traditional gardening in Sitka last year, is hoping to schedule another trip to Sitka for a future presentation. Kunibe also wanted share this link from the USDA Agricultural Research Service about newly discovered nutritional benefits of potatoes, especially in regards to phytochemicals and cancer prevention.

August 12, 2009 by Charles Bingham

• Capital City Weekly covers Sitka Farmers Market

Capital City Weekly screenshot showing the Table of the Day Award winners from the second Sitka Farmers Market of the summer (Aug. 1)

This week’s edition of Capital City Weekly (a free Southeast Alaska regional weekly newspaper that comes out on Wednesdays) had some good coverage of the Sitka Farmers Market.

Click here to see a photo honoring Table of the Day Award winners Pete Karras and Mimi Goodwin from the second Sitka Farmers Market on Aug. 1. This photo ran in the Health section of the paper.

Click here to see a package of four photos taken by Capital City Weekly reporter Libby Sterling when she was in Sitka for the first Sitka Farmers Market on July 18. This package ran in the Outdoors section of the paper.

By the way, the third Sitka Farmers Market of the summer takes place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 15, at the Alaska Native Brotherhood Hall, 235 Katlian St. Some booth space is available, so call Linda Wilson at 747-3096 (nights and weekends) for more information.

The Sitka Local Foods Network (the 501(c)(3) non-profit group that sponsors the Sitka Farmers Market) welcomes any volunteers who want to help set up the market before it opens and take it down once the market is over. Also, the Sitka Local Foods Network accepts donations of extra locally grown produce and berries people may have to sell at the network’s booth at the Sitka Farmers Market. The money raised at the network’s booth helps fund Sitka Local Foods Network projects (the market, community gardens, seed money for the community greenhouse project, educational speakers, etc.). Just drop your extra produce off at the network’s booth, usually outside right next to the building on Katlian St., at the start of the market.

And finally, there was one last story of interest in this week’s Capital City Weekly. Click here to read an article and photo package about the variety of plants being grown at the Jensen-Olson Arboretum in Juneau.