Month: June 2016

Savage Gardening: Keeping Carnivorous Plants Alive

sjump

Almost every time I go to Lowe’s I see Venus fly traps or pitcher plants for sale. Last week a colleague asked about mine–mainly how do I keep them alive? His son had convinced him to let him bring one home. Within weeks, the leaves were turning black, and no new leaves were forming. Unfortunately, other symptoms, such as rotting leaves, didn’t match those of a plant going into dormancy. I have been raising carnivorous plants for a few years now so after trial, error, and lots of research, I Read More …

Opportunity of a Lifetime: How I Came to be the Manager of a School District Greenhouse in Tok, Alaska

Bonnie

Looking For Direction and Purpose We’ve all heard of people obtaining their dream job, but finding and getting my own seemed a long shot. Over the course of my adult life thoughts of a dream job often came to mind, especially on those days I dreaded going to work at all, those days I forced myself to get up and show up. When my co-worker said to my sister-in-law, “She just shows up, does her job, and leaves,” I knew it was time to change the mindset I had fallen Read More …

Gardening in the Classroom

emprado

LEARNING FROM THE GROUND UP Some of the best gardeners are children. They bring a curiosity and excitement unmatched by the grown garden enthusiast. Most schools have started gardening and composting programs allowing students hands on experience. I work for an after school program called Rally in Juneau, Alaska. One of Rally’s sites is at Harborview elementary and lucky for us they have gardening beds and a composting site on the school grounds. Rally has incorporated the gardens in its summer program to help keep them maintained when school is Read More …

My Corny Experiment

nrambo

A friend of mine worked on a very extensive winter sowing project. So extensive she had plenty of seedlings to share. After seeing what she ended up producing, I am fairly positive I am going to do the same next year. I helped her a bit during the process in which she took milk jugs, cut them in half, filled the bottom with soil, planted seeds, taped the jug back together and laid them outside in April to begin germinating. When June 1st rolled around, her jugs were bursting. All Read More …

Bonding with employees while gardening for a local food pantry

sjkesting

Plant a Row for the Hungry I own a small business in East Anchorage. My business has absolutely nothing to do with gardening but we all love to eat and enjoy the great outdoors so gardening interests many of my employees. My business is a small group that loves to be a part of our local community with a quarterly volunteer project. Last year we started doing a group gardening project with the product donated to a local food bank. This idea came from Alaska Mill and Feed’s program, “Plant Read More …

One Species, Many Vegetables – An Introduction to Artificial Selection

Sarah

Brassica oleracea — An introduction to artificial selection Subject area: Biological Science — 6-8th grade Season: Best in early fall when Brussels sprouts attached to stem would be available and whole plants could be brought into classroom. Could be taught any time of year using vegetables from the grocery store. Time: This lesson is a one class period introduction to the concept of artificial selection. Suggested Materials: Samples of vegetables. Ideally these would include broccoli, Brussel sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, collard greens, kale, kohlrabi and romanesco. If possible it would be Read More …

Sensory Gardens for Children With Special Needs

kkneill

I am a Teacher’s Assistant in a Life Skills 2 classroom. The majority of our students are on the Autism Spectrum and are non-verbal. There are many challenges working with our students. I try to make these challenges less stressful by creating positive learning experiences. I have chosen to use indoor container gardening for our sensory garden due to the fact that several of our students are flight risks. Container gardens also make it easier to garden throughout the school year and our students can more easily see the growing Read More …

Easy Way to Water with a Flow-Through Raised Bed

kemosley

Collecting garden ideas over the years has evolved into an efficient raised bed watering system. The initial concept came from an article in our electrical cooperative’s monthly magazine, Ruralite. At that point in time we were collecting rainwater from the nearly 4000 square feet of roof that covers our house, shop and sawmill shelter to water our gardens. Using rainwater to directly water by redirecting the downspout worked well, but rain comes and goes. The next addition to this model came from Cold Climate Housing Research Center’s Infiltration Planter Guide. Read More …