Grow Your Own - Alaska Master Gardeners

Alaska Master Gardeners Conference 2016
Grow Your Own
April 16, 2016
UAA Lucy Cuddy Center
from the soil up
P resentations & S peakers
Opening/Keynote Presentation
The Rejuvenated Garden &
Restored Gardener – Marianne Binetti
Marianne will share her four steps to cleaning and restoring the
garden after a long winter and discuss the healthful aspects gardeners
realize from the gardening process, beyond fresh veggies.
Marianne Binetti’s gardening expertise is renowned in the Pacific
Northwest. She can be found hosting Ciscoe Morris’s radio show in
Tacoma, as a guest on television programs or handling gardening Q&A for HGTV's web
site. Visitors to the Northwest Flower & Garden Show in Seattle come away delighted
after hearing Marianne speak. Marianne is prolific writer. Her syndicated gardening
column runs in over a dozen newspapers weekly. Of the 10 gardening books she has
authored or co-authored, “Easy Answers for Great Gardens” was dedicated to Master
Gardeners. She teaches gardening at community colleges, trains Master Gardeners
through Washington State University and leads garden tours around the world with her
husband, Joe.
Once as a child, on a trip to visit her great grandfather,
she noticed purple primroses blooming among the
weeds of her great grandmother’s abandoned garden.
Marianne secretly carried a few plants home in her coat
pocket and transplanted them into her garden. These
primroses continues to move wherever Marianne lives.
Alaska gardeners will especially appreciate that
Marianne claims not to be in ‘zone denial’ and only
grows cool-season crops in Enumclaw where she lives
with her family near Seattle.
Closing Presentation The Lazy Gardener – Marianne Binetti
Marianne will close out our conference sharing her techniques in having a beautiful
garden when there is little time or energy, and wisdom that has inspired her to take
on new challenges in the garden.
Designing a Haven for Birds, Bees and Other Pollinators–
Brenda Adams, Gardens By Design & Master Gardener, Homer
A well-designed garden can be a beautiful haven for
pollinators, birds and other wildlife. Thoughtful steps to
take to attract these vital creatures to your garden and
satisfy their needs.
Brenda Adams is the author of the acclaimed book,
There’s a Moose in My Garden: Designing Gardens in
Alaska and the Far North (University of Alaska Press,
2013). She is currently under contract to write another
book, this one on cold climate plants. She teaches
“Northern Garden Design and Creation” at the University
of Alaska as well as the landscape design section of the
Alaska Master Gardeners’ course.
Brenda is the award-winning designer of Gardens By
Design, Alaska’s premier garden design firm. She has designed over 200 unique and
personalized gardens for both residential and commercial clients in Alaska. She’s a longtime master gardener and member of Alaska’s Rock Garden Society, the Perennial Plant
Association, Garden Writers’ Association, Alaska Master Gardeners, and the Alaska
Botanical Garden. She was president of the Homer Garden Club (2004-2010) and still
serves on its board.
Brenda’s designs have received three prestigious awards in the Perennial Plant
Association’s (PPA) annual international competition. The awards recognize projects that
are exemplary in the use of herbaceous perennials to help create balance and beauty in
landscape design. Her 2012award was the PPA’s highest, the Honor Award. She was
also awarded the PPA’s Merit Award in 2007 and in 2009. She is the only Alaskan to
receive either award. She, her book, and her designs have been featured in Horticulture
magazine, Alaska Home magazine and the Anchorage Daily News. She is a frequent
guest on radio offering advice to gardeners who toil in zone 2 through zone 5.
Primroses: from Seed to Sale to the
Garden – Ed Buyarski, Ed’s Edible
Landscaping & Master Gardener, Juneau
Former President of the American Primrose Society,
Ed will share his secrets about primrose culture, basic
techniques from starting seeds through planting and
nurturing them in your garden. He will share pictures
from his garden and Juneau’s Jensen-Olson
Arboretum, which contains one of North America’s
renowned Primula Collections.
Ed Buyarski was transplanted from Upper Michigan
through Southern Idaho to Alaska in 1983 after a visit in
1977 via bus, train, ferry and thumb. He and his wife Janis
raised two children in Alaska and now visit them in
California and pick fruit in the winter with their grandsons.
Ed has been gardening in Southeast Alaska since 1984 in
Wrangell, Petersburg, Sitka, Juneau and Haines. He started
his business-Ed’s Edible Landscaping-to give people a
chance to have beautiful as well as tasty plants in their
yards. Many fruits and berries have been planted with
success resulting in a lot of fresh eating, jams, jellies and
pies over the years. Growing and propagating many
species and varieties of Primula has become another
profitable part of his business.
Ed is past President of The American Primrose Society as
well as Southeast Alaska Master Gardeners and enjoys
teaching gardening classes. He has also volunteered for
Alaska Public Radio as a host of Garden Talk on KTOO in
Juneau and KFSK in Petersburg for many years.
Plant Propagation Techniques and Seed Storage – Patricia S.
Holloway (Pat)– Professor, University of Alaska Fairbanks
With over 30 years experience in plant propagation and developing protocols for starting
difficult to grow species, Pat will give a synopsis of propagation techniques touching on
different methods such as, cuttings; layering; grafting; bulb, corm and tuber propagation;
and seed propagation and storage.
in UAF’s School of Natural Resources & Agricultural
Sciences. She is credited with founding the Georgeson
Botanical Garden (GBG) in 1989 and served as director
until her retirement this past year. Pat has been a favorite
speaker at home gardening and professional horticulture
conferences in the state. She taught a class as part of the
Advanced Master Gardener course on Plant Physiology
and has worked with Master Gardener volunteers at
Georgeson Botanical Garden.
UAFphotobyToddParis
Pat Holloway recently retired as professor of horticulture
Pat’s horticultural expertise includes small fruit production,
propagating native plants and greenhouse management.
Her peony research was the catalyst for Alaska’s cut-flower peony industry. Pat plans her
retirement to be atypical and will continue to work with Alaska’s commercial peony growers
and teach the classes she loves on plant propagation and berries. In November 2015 , Dr.
Holloway received the prestigious Emil Usibelli Distinguished Service Award. New Twists in Cooking from the
Garden – Paul Marmora, Master Gardener
Always looking for new combinations of tastes and
textures, Paul will demonstrate his cooking talents with
new and simple recipes from the garden .
Paul Marmora started gardening at an early age in the
suburbs of New York. His gardening interests as an adult
might be considered somewhat esoteric. His real passions
are bonsai and miniature orchids. Paul is a founder of
Cook Inlet Bonsai Society and during the Alaska State
Fair can be found in a room behind the Crops Department
holding audience with fair-goers as he works on his bonsai
collection and demonstrates the nuances of his art.
Paul is an enthusiastic teacher. Anchorage gardening
clubs repeatedly call upon Mr. Marmora to be one of their
presenters. Paul has given classes at Bell’s Nursery, Green Connection and P&M
Garden Services and the Cooperative Extension Service. Mr. Marmora’s personal
garden has been open for tour on many occasions.
Paul is also known for his culinary prowess. He and his wife Bonnie operated a small
catering business in the Bay area during the 1990s. Now retired from his job as a FedEx
instructor, Paul has found a way to meld his professional skills and hobbies by teaching
in the Continuing Education Department at the University of Alaska Anchorage. Not
limiting himself to cooking and gardening, Paul also teaches sign language, business
communication and floral design.
Growing Haskap Berries in Your Back Yard –
Brian Olson, Alaska Berries, Soldotna
Tips on how to successfully grow these delicious
berries and their healthful benefits from an expert
who has been experimenting and improving his
growing techniques from his home and business
in Soldotna.
Brian & Laurie Olson own and operate the
first, and currently only, 100% Alaska-grown
winery in the state. Alaska Berries winery and
tasting room is located on their 4-acre berry
farm near Soldotna. While researching unique
and hardy berry plants, they discovered Haskap and began trials to determine their
suitability for Southcentral Alaska conditions. Results have been a resounding success.
Alaska Berries was the first in the U.S. to make a commercially available product (jam)
out of the Haskap fruit. The Olson’s are also branching out to wine. Plans for the future
include production of a Haskap juice product.
Annie Nevaldine – Mistress of Ceremonies
As an accomplished macro-photographer and an engaging
speaker, Annie often gets called upon to make
presentations at garden club meetings and conferences.
She has been known as the 'lily lady' but Annie has an
impressive range of horticultural knowledge that she
willingly shares with others. Annie once photographed her
garden from the same window every day of the year. She’s
produced beautiful calendars that included close-up
images of flowers. Her photographs have been exhibited in
Homer and as part of Anchorage's First Friday art event.
Annie's contribution to the 2016 Alaska Master Gardener
Conference is as Mistress of Ceremonies.
Organic
Fertilizers: Getting Closer to the Science –
Julie Riley, UAF Cooperative Extension Service
Horticulturalist Julie Riley, will share new research results
from UAF on using fish-waste as a fertilizer. She’ll talk about
the release rates of N, P, K in cold soils, provide information
on commercially available products and offer suggestions
on how to use local materials to meet your garden’s
nutrient needs.
Julie Riley learned to grow her first vegetables by
reading the back of seed packets the summer she turned
18. Her professional life has been dedicated to
teaching people how to garden. Julie works with home
gardeners and the horticulture industry in Anchorage. She
is known for her community garden advocacy, her work
with the Refugee Farmers Market Project and her dislike
of cilantro. Her own garden is modest and currently
consists of wooly pockets sporting annual flowers along a chain-link fence. Containers
by her back door include a mix of vegetables, grasses, herbs, annual flowers and
fireweed. During the past 31 years Ms. Riley has trained over 1,200 Master Gardeners.
Lessons Learned on Eating From the Garden Year
Round: It Begins with the Soil — Dennis & Annie Ronsse,
Advanced Master Gardeners
Few can grow soil like Dennis. Learn about his gardening methods to create soil
that yields an extraordinary size, variety and quantity of organic vegetables. Annie
will share their family’s technique preserving foods to enjoy year round.
Dennis and Annie Ronsse both grew up
with vegetable gardening in Kansas and moved
to rural Alaska in 1981 where, as teachers, they
enjoyed learning the subsistence lifestyle of
Yup’ik villagers. After moving to Anchorage Annie
helped create Mardane’s Garden in 1998 which
currently involves six households. In
addition, the Ronsse’s have built large
terraced beds on a steep slope behind
their house. They organically grow
many vegetables, herbs and flowers
which provide a year round food supply
and excess to trade for wild meats or
give to Bean’s Cafe.
Urban Food, Growing More in Small or Unusual Gardens —
Dohnn Wood, Master Gardener
Eating your own locally grown food sounds great, but who has access to a farm field to
grow enough to be worthwhile? Dohnn and his family grow 2,000 lbs. of food in all kinds
of unusual locations around their city lot. He will discuss farming outside the bed, in
containers, boxes, green space and other pockets around your home. Turn a blank spot
in your yard or deck into a beautiful garden of groceries, and learn to eat fresh local food
you grew in space that might have otherwise gone to waste. It will be a fun exercise in
thinking a little different, led by a local mad scientist
gardener from Anchorage.
Dohnn Wood and his family began growing food
when they first bought their house in 2000. An avid
cook driven by his love of the taste of fresh food,
Dohnn utilizes his entire yard to grow vegetables,
black currants, raspberries and apples. He credits
his gardening inspiration to a book on farming
originally published in 1916, and the writings of
John Jeavons, Eliot Coleman, and Anna Edey.
Dohnn harvests vegetables from his deck before most gardeners have even planted a
seed in the ground. Dohnn is a member of the Anchorage Permaculture Guild and
helped his son’s Waldorf School classmates create a beautiful vegetable garden.