From left, Jenny Day, Katie DiCristina, and Pat Holloway shared their knowledge on sustainability.
When she first heard the buzzword “sustainable” Holloway said she immediately thought, “That’s a gardener’s middle name.”
At the Georgeson Botanical Garden, a program within UAF's School of Natural Resources and Agricultural Sciences and the Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station, Holloway, the GBG director, said she tries not to let the word sustainable become so commonplace that it gets overlooked. “Sustainability is important in everything, especially gardening,” she said, “but you can screw it up pretty badly.”
Sustainable practices have been used at GBG for a long time. “We have the oldest compost pile in interior Alaska,” Holloway said.
Sustainability must include looking at the big picture of what people are doing and their place in the environment. “Is it environmentally sound, economically feasible, and socially acceptable?” Holloway asked. Her favorite definition for sustainability is: “Simply put, sustainable gardening is that which depletes neither the garden nor the gardener.”
Holloway emphasized five areas critical to sustainable garden practices: water, plants and animals, materials, human health and well being, soils, and financial and political health.
Wise use of water is imperative, Holloway said. “Minimize waste, avoid erosion, and minimize pollution,” she advised. “It can be as simple as using rain barrels.”
Before the botanical garden was built, Holloway consulted with the Natural Resources Conservation Service to help plan how to manage water so gullies would not form and the garden would not lose its precious topsoil. For Holloway, managing water includes having diversion ditches, directional slopes and paths, grass walkways, and porous gravel walkways. Also, irises and daylilies are instrumental in helping manage water.
For irrigating, GBG uses soaker hoses and trickle irrigation systems. Mulching and composting also help in this conservation effort. And all the rainwater that can be caught is used to water plants.
As for sustainable plantings, Holloway said, “I’ve been an advocate for years and years about using native plants.” Propagating your own plants is another recommended method. “I’m a big fan of berry bushes,” she said. “If you have to plant a bush why not a black current bush?”
In the vegetable garden, Holloway said she tries all kinds of experiments to see what will grow and what won’t. “We even figured out a way to grow artichokes.”
Whatever you are growing needs to fit the location. “Think about the whole life cycle of the plant; figure out the ecology of the plant,” Holloway said.
She advised constantly looking out for potential invasive plants. “Every plant has the potential to run amok.”
Holloway encouraged everyone to share seeds and cuttings with other gardeners. “Learn how to take cuttings and do graftings,” she said. “It’s not insurmountable.”
Concerning pest control, Holloway said GBG is not entirely chemical free but there is hardly anything that can’t be controlled with biological products.
To be more sustainable, re-use garden materials as much as possible.
In the human health category, Holloway stressed the importance of antioxidants gained from wild berries. “We try to help gardeners become more knowledgeable in what they are eating,” she said. “The trend across the nation is to grow local. We can do it here.”
Her final point was the beauty of recycled art in gardens. Showing examples of planters made out of basketballs and cactus growing in an old chair, she said, “Gardening stimulates art and great literature. Using recycled art is a fun and interesting way to enjoy gardens in a different way.”
Yet in the end the thing that is most sustainable is education, Holloway said. “It’s the cornerstone of sustainability. Knowledge can be gained from Summer Sessions, Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, Master Gardeners, and even the back fence. “Pass it on, especially to the next generation,” Holloway said.
SNRAS Research Technician Katie DiCristina began her talk on sustainable soils with a definition. The word sustainable comes from the Latin word sustinere (to hold up, capable of enduring). “The forest is truly sustainable,” DiCristina said. “It maintains itself over time. We can look to these sustainable soils and apply to our own gardens.”
Soil consists of an organic layer, topsoil, subsoil, parent material, and bedrock. One teaspoon of soil can contain 100 million to 1 billion bacteria, several yards of fungal hyphae, thousands of protozoa, forty to fifty nematodes, and some arthropods and earthworms. “It’s all interconnected,” DiCristina said. “It’s a complex web of relationships between organisms.”
The “ingredients” of soil help the soil structure, increase water holding capacity, improve aeration, decrease erosion, and aid in nutrient availability and disease resistance.
Common methods of soil management include Rototilling, using pesticides, chemical fertilizers, and compost. “Rototilling makes the soil nice and fluffy but it breaks up the fungal hyphae and kills the worms and arthropods,” DiCristina said.
Pesticides reduce the microbial diversity, “killing the things you want to kill and the things you don’t want to kill.”
When applying fertilizer DiCristina advised getting to know your plants and what they actually need. Adding compost increases the microbial populations and builds the soil structure.
Her advice is to limit Rototilling and if you must do it, work in compost as you go. Limit pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizer. Follow up with compost teas. Apply compost. “Feed the soil, not the plants,” she said. “If you have healthy soil you will have healthy plants.”
Jenny Day, UAF Facilities Services landscape supervisor, concluded the evening with a talk about the work she and her crew are doing on campus. They maintain 200 annual and perennial beds and 124 hanging baskets and pots. They take care of some houseplants in offices, provide a cut flower service, and grow some food for dining services based on organic principles.
“I am incredibly interested in sustainability,” Day said. Facilities Services greenhouse is heated with steam and solar panels heat the water. Day uses no chemical fertilizers and she started a compost pile last year. She uses a computer database to track all aspects of gardening work to minimize use of paper.
Her most innovative methods have included switching annual beds to perennial and introducing companion planting where she pairs vegetables with flowers or herbs in the same bed. “We are working toward being more sustainable,” she said. “It’s sometimes a battle but a lot of people want the university to be a better place.”
Further reading:
Holloway recommends: The Sustainable Sites Initiative
Day recommends:
Carrots Love Tomatoes: Secrets of Companion Planting for Successful Gardening, Storey Publishing 1975, 1998, by Louise Riotte
Great Garden Companions: A Companion-PLanting System for a Beautiful, Chemical-Free Vegetable Garden, Rodale Press, Inc., by Sally Jean Cunningham
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