Sunny Skies

Finally, a week free from rain! Students took advantage of the beautiful weather and visited the arboretum almost everyday last week.Thanks to the arboretum staff, students used straw from the arboretum's Halloween event to mulch all of the beds. Mulching will really help the garden by keeping weeds down -weeds are less exposed to sunlight -and help moderate soil temperatures so the plants aren't as stressed by drastic day to night changes. Students also uprooted old plants and prepared empty beds for strawberry plants. They also noticed that some of the pumpkin plants are turning gray and plan to investigate what the odd coloration is.




















Who wants a mustard green? Despite the heavy rain, these guys are thriving. Students are thinking about different ways to make sure that the excess is no wasted. One of these options includes taking some of the produce to freshman classes so that they can get a glimpse of what
participating in an organic garden will give them.


























The pepper plants have been very good to the student group throughout the spring and summer, but it's time to go. They'll be back next spring.











Lizzie Beale helps uproot the last of the pepper plants.














If you look closely, you can see the straw covering the beds. The mulch will really help with garden maintenance.

Halloween at the arboretum

The rain is keeping us out of the garden, but I'd like to tell you about this upcoming event for Saturday, October 31 at the arboretum.

Tuscaloosa's own "Ultra-Runner", Nick Sella, will run 50 miles to support the wonderful UA Arboretum.

Come and join the festivities - FUN for EVERYONE!!!
-Children's Activities from 4 - 6 pm
-Trick or Treat!
-Children's Costume Contest @ 5 pm
-Adult's Activities from 6 - 10 pm
- Costume Contest @ 7 pm
-Bands!
-Food!

Costume Contest Categories:
1. Best Botanical (without using Kudzu!)
2. Best costume using white toilet paper
3. Best Costume using recycled materials

Admission: $10/person*, Children under 12 get in FREE.
*Free to members of the Friends of the Arboretum, you can sign up for membership at the event!
-Recieve a T-Shirt with a $50 Donation to the UA Arboretum
-Make a Pledge for every mile that Nick runs! All Funds Raised go directly to the Arboretum! (no amount is too big or too small)

Please check it out! Hopefully, the rain will stay away. Don't forget your costume!

Alabama DIRT camp ~ Summer 09

Hola, friends! This past summer Stephen Spikes, Hunter Rayfield and I put together a week-long camp (with the help of Mary Jo and Kristina Hopkins-Jones) for girls aged 12-15. This was part of the summer compost project that Stephen and Hunter primarily worked on, while I focused on developing the community outreach portion.

If you haven't heard about the compost project at the Arboretum, then let me tell you about it. Bama Dining has worked incredibly hard at becoming a "greener" establishment; with the help of Ms. Hopkins-Jones, Bama Dining began donating their pre-consumer food waste & coffee grounds to the Arboretum for composting. In addition to leaf litter and constant upkeep, the result is several tons of beautiful compost out on the old golf course parking lot. The project has been an incredible success and hopefully will be permanently ongoing!

If I ever figure out how to post photos on this blog, I will post (unfortunately very old) pictures from the camp and describe what we did each day. It was an exceedingly rewarding experience for all parties involved, and in my case, I reconsidered the type of impact I wish to make in the world. Enjoy!

Another Week of Rain

Once again, we had a long week of rain that kept students from their daily garden visits. Fortunately, I managed to take a solo trip out to the arboretum at 8 am on Thursday, an hour before Tuscaloosans found themsevles donning their rain gear for the fourth time that week.
The results: Most of what we planted is growing, and there doesn't appear to be any signs of disease or fungus on anything. The fire ants looks like they have taken a toll, which is something to be pleased with despite the dismal weather. And, as to be expected, weeds are springing up everywhere.

Students for Sustainability continues to be active even though students can't be out in the garden as much as they would like. Instead, the student group is meeting every other Wednesday at 8 pm (the next will be the 28th) to discuss plans for expansion, what to do for the garden now, and recruitment. We are currently focusing on the ant problem, and though we used organic mint spray last year, we will try cornmeal this year since we can obtain it quicker and it's cheaper. I'll make sure to write later about how effective the cornmeal is. The student group also continues to go out to the garden every Sunday at 1 pm, when weather allows. Weeding and making sure that nothing has gone awry are our top goals when we visit the garden. If you don't know anything about gardening, please don't be afraid to come! Each Sunday we talk to students about gardening basics so they can listen, learn, and apply the knowledge immediately. We usually go out for lunch afterwards, too, which is always a nice way to really meet everyone.

Bees, Bees, BEES!!

Yesterday (October 1), Students for Sustainability took a field trip out to Bill Hewett's bee keeping farm. Bill has approximately 75 hives and makes pure honey...yum! Bill was generous enough to not only let students see his hang-out, but taught them the in's and out's of bee keeping and even let them sample some! Needless to say, most left with at least a jar of his pure honey in hand. Below are pictures of Bill and students.



Meet Bill Hewett, Beekeeping expert.










Bill stands amongst the bees, pointing at them as they work away. Students meet the honey-producers face to face. I was too scared to get close.











Inside his honey extracting factory, students look at honeycomb remains as Bill explains the process.














Did I mention that he had delicious treats for us?
















Above, Bill has has some honeycomb for us to try. Chelsea Smith, Students for Sustainability V.P. , enjoys a piece along with the rest of the group. I quickly realized after trying some that you're supposed to suck the honey out of the comb, not eat the entire thing.




Now, students hear a summary of how honey is extracted from wooden frames that are in the beehives.






Bees store their honey in these frames. Beekeepers then take these frames out of the hive
to extract the honey.









This is an uncapping knife. It slices off the cappings from the honeycomb.





















Next, Bill takes the sheets and puts them in the honey extractor.



















And now, we have pure honey!






Bill explains the difference between raw
and pure honey as students watch honey slowly
pour out from the extractor. Pure honey
is put through a filter so that honeycomb
chunks and whatever else the bees put in the wooden frames is left out of the final product.










To the left, Nicole Ortega, Students for Sustainability President, pours warm honey from the extractor into a jar to take home. Most students purchased some honey.










Students thanked Bill for letting them check out his place. If you missed this trip, don't worry. I'm sure we'll visit again in the spring. Keep checking the facebook group and watching for messages about other fun field trips!

Slash Pine Press and Creative Campus Present: "Into the Woods" at the UA Arboretum

Due to the all of the rain this past week, students found few opportune times to visit or really work in the garden. Though they were finally able to go out yesterday -Thursday, September 23- their actions were limited to weeding and looking at the damage done by the rain. The results: fallen over tomato plants, bursted, rotten tomatoes (which occurs because of excess water), and an abundance of weeds. However, the baby pants are getting bigger and look like they've enjoyed all of the water.

No pictures today, folks. Instead, I wanted to talk about the upcoming Into the Woods event, a day of hiking and poetry, that will be hosted on October 3rd at the UA arboretum.

Imagine hiking with others in silence when suddenly, someone stops you. A person then appears in front of the group and begins reading poetry. When she is done, the group turns and continues to walk quietly, continuing to stop and listen to readers until they reach the end of the trail and enjoy delicious refreshments. This is what "Into the Woods" will be like - a relaxing, reflective, and unique spiritual experience that allows one to experience art, human creation, in the presence of the natural environment.

You can check out the official press release below:

Slash Pine Press and Creative Campus To Present "Into the Woods"

An Interactive Combination of Hiking, Poetry and Prose

Tuscaloosa, AL-September 22, 2009- Slash Pine Press, in collaboration with UA Creative Campus, will present "Into the Woods" Saturday, October 3rd from 9:30AM-12:00PM at University of Alabama Arboretum and cross country trails.

The traditional poetry reading, which typically consists of poets reading to an indoor room of a sitting audience followed by light conversation over a glass of champagne afterward, takes on a new wardrobe. Bug spray & trailheads merge together to lure young and old into the woods and appreciate a morning of hiking and contemporary writing.

The event will consist of four hiking groups made up of 15-20 participants. These groups will start on the 3.5 to 4 mile trail in fifteen minute intervals. Each tour group will listen to the work of two different writers.

As the participants walk through the arboretum, readers positioned along the trail will emerge from specific locations to recite a portion of a writer's work. After the completion of a section of story or poem, the group will continue in mostly silence until the next reader is reached.

The featured writer of each hike will be the final reader who will finish reading his or her piece to the group. The featured writers include: Patti White & Steve Kowalski at 9:45 AM, Wendy Rawlings & Juan Reyes at 10 AM, Nathan Parker & BJ Hollars at 10:15 AM, and Amy Monticello & Ryan Browne at 10:30 AM.

Those interested in attending are required to reserve a place on the tour by emailing slashpinepress@gmail.com. They should indicate which tour group they are interested in joining. Space is limited to eighty participants to protect against trail erosion and provide a meditative experience for all those involved.

pep...pep...peppers!

Our garden is full of peppers! These are Thai Hot Peppers, and are good as a spice in dishes, but don't eat them on their own! (I speak from experience)

Lizzie and Beth enjoy the delights of organically grown peppers.

The Ornamental Peppers are smaller and less abundant than the Thai Hots.

There's a huge fire ant bed in the oregano! We're working on getting some organic pest control in order to sustainably manage the ant problem in the garden. And finally, ahhhh a butterfly.