NOW AVAILABLE: 680 Master Gardener Volunteer Hours or "Lasagna, anyone?"

Last Thursday, Haines added 680 hours to its volunteer "bank account."

After completing a 40-hour Cooperative Extension course, 17 Haines women and men qualified as Alaska Master Gardeners. In addition to the $50 participants pay for materials, each commits to 40 hours of community service on behalf of gardening - any which way. It can be hands-in-the-dirt planting and weeding, think-tank type stuff planning a landscape, gardening grant writing, one-on-one side-by-side gardening with a novice or a child, or even blogging about gardening just like this.

In no particular order, our Master Gardeners are: Mandy Ramsey, Beth MacCready, Donna Walter, Jean Smith, Courtney Culbeck, Debi Knight-Kennedy, Alexandra Feit, George Figdor, Penny Stoddard, Christy Lengsdorf, Mikail Denker, Art Jess, Leann Converse, Lani Hotch, Melissa Aaronson, Rene Ghallagher, and me.

Our instructor, Michele Hebert, has promised to return - because despite our newly minted status as "masters," there is still so much to learn. (She also admitted that she is a water child, temporarily stranded in Fairbanks and longs to live by the sea. Haines does that to people.)

One of the topics we began to explore is the structure of the soil. It turns out that it is teeming with life - life that one really ought not to disturb with a rototiller. It is estimated that one-fourth teaspoon of a fertile soil (about one ml) contains:

50 nematodes
62,000 algae
72,000 protozoa
111,000 fungi
2,920,000 actinomycetes
25, 280, 000 bacteria.

These elements are part of the "glue" that holds soil together. I wince to think how I have repeatedly sent these little creatures spinning with the tines of my Mantis. Soil is best left alone. I have become so convinced of this that when asked to borrow my rototiller I said, "No, you can buy it." Just kidding. Like a lot of gardeners, I think it is fun and satisfying to till - but I now know that it is not necessary to successful growing.

Michele illustrated her technical lesson about soil with a true story of three farms. The farmer in the middle practiced "no till" farming. His crop was abundant - more so than that of the farmers to the east and to the west. He began to sell off his fossil fuel equipment. But despite the evidence of his year after year abundance, through drought and other natural calamities, his neighbors clung to tradition. Like me, they liked to till. I guess some activities, even if limited in their usefulness, we do just because we like to. I will, however, henceforth, till more judiciously - gently, a little, not a lot.

"Lasagna gardening" is a no-till method particularly well suited to places where soil is minimal. Melissa Aronson gardens on the north side of Mt. Riley, along Beach Road. She is showing us her "lasagna" in the picture above. The concept of lasagna gardening arose from the systematization of an accident. One year, Patricia Lanza was too busy to remove sod, dig, double-dig, till, etc. so she dumped all the compost, peat moss, and barn litter in one spot and planted on top. Every time she mowed the lawn, she mulched with grass clippings. See Lasagna Gardening: A New Layering System for Bountiful Gardens: No Digging, No Tilling, No Weeding, No Kidding! (Read about the book at Amazon, but please buy it from Babbling Books in Haines. So far, it is not included in the resources at the Haines Borough Public Library.)

Here's a very brief lasagna recipe:

1. Stomp down or otherwise level your garden spot. Mow maybe.
2. Layer One: smother the area with an inch or two of newspaper, 6 or 7 sopping wet sheets at a time. You can also use cardboard.
3. Layer Two: spread a 2-3 inch deep layer of moistened peat moss or high carbon material to cover paper. High carbon material tends to be brown, like straw, leaves.
4. Layer Three: spread a 4-8 inch layer of high nitrogen material (fresh grass clippings, livestock manure, compost, kitchen vegetable wastes - "green").
5. Layer Four and beyond: Repeat Layers Two and Three until you have a bed 18-24 inches high.

You can plant the garden right away with transplants or seeds. If transplanting, pull the mulch away to form a hole, insert plant, and firm the mulch back around its roots. To sow seeds, sift a little compost or soil over the surface of the mulch, put down seeds, cover and press in with a bit more mulch.

Lasagna is usually cooked before it is eaten and just so, you can "cook" a lasagna garden before you plant. Cover with black plastic and let it sit for 6 weeks, then plant. The soil will be crumbly. But who has 6 weeks to spare in our short season? I say, assemble and plant!

If you are wary, call on one of the 17 Master Gardeners to help. They'd love to.