Visitors to the Alaska Botanical Garden's 14th annual garden fair learned about worm bins and urban chickens, primroses and rain gardens, willow branch creations and an unusual way to compost. A garden talk titled "Don't Flush It. Compost it" provided a how-to for anyone who wants to put human waste to good use.
The real star was the garden itself.
The botanical garden off Campbell Airstrip Road in East Anchorage is young, and growing bit by bit. It's on 110 acres, but much of the land is wild woodland, with trails to various gardens featuring perennials, ornamental and fruit trees, herbs, and vegetables.
"Visitation is up. Membership is up. Demand for all of our children's educational programs is up. We're kind of growing on all fronts, so to speak," said Julianne McGuinness, the nonprofit public garden's executive director.
She's still the lone full-time, year-round staff member, but in the summer, there are now seven part- and full-time workers, and in the winter, she's joined by three part- timers. A $150,000 Rasmuson Foundation grant helped the garden add staff.
Much of the hard work of pulling weeds, pruning and fertilizing is provided by some 200 volunteers, plus a seasonal crew from Nine Star Education & Employment Services, McGuinness said. The garden operates without any government funding, she said.
A new garden area features more than 40 different types of peonies, all American Peony Society gold medal winners. The new east garden area also has fruit trees, including flowering crabapple trees that were covered in puffy white blossoms on Sunday.
Other dreams may soon be realized, too. The state capital budget includes $750,000 for a new paved trail, a small office building to replace rented space a mile away, and a propagation site. The latter would allow the garden staff to do agriculture and nursery research, McGuinness said. The capital budget is awaiting veto decisions by Gov. Sean Parnell.
Eventually the botanical garden wants to build a visitor and education center.
A fence completed in 2006 keeps the moose out, for the most part. Another anti-moose tool in the garden arsenal: Siberian tiger poop from the Alaska Zoo. The garden also uses Plantskydd, a commercial blood-based repellent.
The botanical garden is entirely organic, McGuinness said -- no chemical fertilizers or pesticides. They use fish meal and seaweed products, and lots of compost.
Over the weekend, crowds came to buy plants, garden art and other treasures. Kids made bird houses and planted marigolds. Gardeners took notes on what plants to try at home. Musicians played in the herb garden, where an Arctic kiwi was climbing up an arbor and unusual plants like apple mint and garden angelica had shot up after a winter's dormancy.
People also came to learn.
Kari Sherman manages the city's rain garden program and encouraged anyone interested to give it a try. It's a way of landscaping that catches and uses rainfall from roofs, driveways, walkways, compacted lawns and similar surfaces. The idea is to reduce stormwater runoff and improve the quality of water in streams and lakes.
For instance, a homeowner might put in a rock path on a slope to direct rainfall to a low-lying garden spot.
"It's not a rain barrel," she emphasized,
In the city program, homeowners can be reimbursed for half the cost of putting in a rain garden, up to $750. That can go toward plants, rental of excavation equipment, downspouts, mulch, rocks and gravel.
Perhaps the most unusual seminar provided detailed information on composting human waste. Delisa and Charlie Renideo of Wasilla told a small but interested crowd how they began following the guidelines laid out "The Humanure Handbook: A Guide to Composting Human Manure" a year ago.
The process is easier than you would think, and the compost is not smelly, they both said.
They showed a photo of their setup in the house. It looks almost like a regular toilet, except instead of a bowl, there's a wooden box, with a bucket hidden inside. They cover what is deposited in the bucket with sawdust every time. About once a week, they dump the full buckets into wooden compost bins that are lined with hay. They add more hay and other compost material such as vegetable scraps. They clean the buckets with warm water and biodegradable soap and dump the dirty water on the compost pile.
The waste composts at such a high temperature, human pathogens are killed, Delisa Renideo said. The material should compost for two years, to thoroughly break it down, she said.
It doesn't make sense to use clean water to flush toilets in a world where so many people haul their own drinking water, she said.
"It's actually perfect for every place," she said.
While the vendors will be gone, garden lovers can check out the Alaska Botanical Garden during daylight hours. A visit costs $5 for an individual or $10 for a family. Guided tours are offered at 1 p.m. daily.
Those with annual memberships -- $25 for students and seniors, $35 for individuals, and $50 for families -- get in for free and enjoy various discounts and events to boot.
For more information on the garden, go to www.alaskabg.org. To learn more about the city rain garden program, go to www.AnchorageRainGardens.com. For more on composting human waste, check out www.humanurehandbook.com.
Reach Lisa Demer at ldemer@adn.com or 257-4390.
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