Garden Of Organic Delights

Kylie Jacque Head Rose Gardener for Woodland Park Zoo Rose Garden, located in Seattle, Washington looks calm and collected the very hot day GOOD first interviewed her in the rose garden and very enthusiastic for roses, which she had also recently saw via a bicycle trip in Tuscany Italy which is fitting as she and a team of staff and volunteers take care of 2.5 acres of roses of various classes, from hybrid teas to climbers and old roses in a formal rose garden next to the Woodland Park Zoo, in a beautiful setting that could make ancient Tuscans proud. GOOD staff interviewed Kylie and volunteers over several days to get their thoughts about the organic methods being utilized in the garden and their contributions as well as to understand the complete process and transformation that the garden went through.

One of GOOD’s volunteers well remembers the garden prior to its transformation to organic methods. “The garden has always been beautiful but I recall smelling the chemicals and being told not to touch the flowers because of the possibility of systemic pesticide and herbicides when I was younger.” Now the garden looks and smells healthy…and the flowers might even be edible! (Not quite…please do not harvest the roses for your next meal)

Kylie Jacque came onboard just as this pilot project was getting off the ground, other compost tea use for supplies was funded in part by a grant by Seattle Pacific University. She states she is very happy and proud to work in the Rose Garden and get the opportunity to work with the public and demonstrate organic/natural methods keeping with the vision of the zoo for conservation. “My background was in residential gardens and I had public garden experience at Mt Holyoke and Pennsylvania State. I prefer public garden work because of the direct contact with the public and meeting their expectations as well as seeing their enthusiasm. It really motivates me and I am very lucky to work here.”

“Woodland Park Zoo saves animals and their habitats through conservation leadership and engaging experiences, inspiring people to learn, care and act.” so using organic and natural methods and materials really promotes the mission of conservation and caring for the earth.”

Kylie and the staff and volunteers have a full rotation of maintaining the garden; hard pruning, removing diseased and dead leaves, replacing plants that do poorly with ones that do better, weekly applications of compost teas and annual application of organic fertilizer 2 cups per plant as well as practicing I.P.M and watering methods to avoid disease and pests.

Good writers wanted to know for ourselves and our readers, how and what the transformation was like to go from a chemically dependent garden to one that is more organic and how she and her staff and volunteers did it given the formidable challenges in such a large and formal garden where public expectations run so high.

Kylie minces no words when she says “I thought the transformation was tough” and it was not easy to trust the process at first.” “Frankly I wondered if we were going to make it, but I was committed to the project along with others and the goal of a beautiful and more environmentally friendly rose garden for the public and the zoo” I was in the garden every day and the first year was really hard. Some people perceive that the changes were not drastic but I do not agree. We stopped using the round of chemicals and started with the compost tea and the plants went into shock almost… after all over 80 years of chemicals the soil was depleted and the plants had to react to a new regime. We had foliar drop off and black spot was rampant. Old time Rosarians were pessimistic and concerned. It was really hard to come to work some days. Some of the feedback was not very positive but we forged ahead anyway. Gradually we saw great changes. Year two was much better as the roses seemed able to uptake the nutrition we were giving them via better soil conditions and our soil tests came back more positive.

We are working with Soil Food Web Inc. a company based in Oregon using research from Dr. Ingham and others. I work with Matt Slaughter at Soil Web and we do soil testing every three months. This year in 2009 is the best year yet and the roses reflect it.

“Basically, after years and years of chemical applications the soil was in lay person’s terms dead and the microbial activity was minimal so soil conditions had to be changed to prevent diseases and pest problems and allow proper uptake of nutrients. Healthy soil means healthy plants without chemical intervention.

We brew a batch of tea every week and it contains a compost, Alaskan Humus which we order which is fungal dominated, kelp, fish fertilizer and. We use an aeration sysem that is very large. Home gardeners would use smaller systems of course. I would not use compost teas purchased off the shelf. The microbes need aeration to be alive and work most effectively. I believe InHarmony Landscaping offers a service where they come and spray compost teas in home gardens because admittedly this takes a bit of work but it gets easier once you understand the process we simply do it on a large scale.

Kylie Jacque came onboard at Woodland Park Rose Garden just as this pilot project was getting off the ground. She states she is very happy and proud to work in the Rose Garden and get the opportunity to work with the public and demonstrate organic/natural methods keeping with the vision of the zoo for conservation. She credits TJ Hook, with having the vision and fortitude to support and craft this project with sustainability and environmental safety in mind.

As GOOD volunteers interviewed Kiley, people walking by were admiring the roses and one woman gushed “the garden looks absolutely beautiful.” One man pulled a weed out of a bed nearby and said “I love coming here for my daily walk.”

Kiley stated that the pressure and commitment was immense the first year. “After all this rose garden has been part of the community for a long time…people get married here and it is featured in their wedding photographs, it must be perfect.”

“We use a team approach and I work with absolutely wonderful amazing people.”

“We use a brewing system with a 250 gallon tank and we apply compost tea to the plants every Thursday, beginning in February with a soil drench as the roses have not budded out yet. This application goes through mid- October. “

Kylie also credits the “hard pruning” done of being part of the organic approach. “This was recommended by the Seattle Rose Society which does a demonstration here once a year for the public. They are wonderful. The previous person in my position did not like doing the hard pruning that we do now but we see great results and we think this has helped disease prevention and promoted good growth immensely. We basically prune out all diseased and old wood and new growth is very disease resistant and the garden shows it. “ GOOD asked Kylie how Rose Society members felt about the new organic regime and she states that “they are very supportive of it” and even have organic lectures given at their meetings from what I can tell from their bulletins. Yes, I have encountered one or two Rose Society members who were not happy when we went to more organic methods but generally it was due to the fact they did not understand the process and were skeptical of the results we would get.

Kylie also states that she is most happy about the fact that everyone can enjoy the garden now, especially children without fear of being exposed to toxic chemicals. Over 200,000 guests visit this garden each year. They can run around in their bare feet and that makes me very happy… we can keep the garden open while we are doing the compost treatments instead of having to close down during and after chemical fumigation which adds to down time and labor costs; “it is keeping with the zoo’s mission to care for the earth, the animals and each other.”

“The public response has been overwhelming positive.” I have had the opportunity to educate people about how their health is related to the health of the environment and that it takes patience…patience is the key. We got great results but it took time. Time for the soil to recover and rejuvenate as well as to discover which plants might not work in the garden. “My biggest problem is areas where improper planting and poor design were created so the plants are too big or not correct for the micro-climate.”

“Also, funding…it would be great to have more money to plant all the roses I want to plant and all at once. We are also getting rid of roses that do not do so well in the Pacific Northwest climate whether we use chemical or organic methods and frankly some of these roses never did well. We are taking them out and replacing them with ones that will. This is a work in progress and patience is the key.”

Kylie and the Woodland Park Rose Staff and volunteers also take care of the AARS roses. All American Rose Selections Every year 180 plants are given to the WPRG to be grown and tested. Woodland Park Rose Garden is one of the twenty three test sites in the nation… Kylie states that the AARS response to using organic methods has been extremely positive. “While it is true that we cannot compare results with roses that are chemically managed due to time and staffing constraints…and the space constraints, and the concerns of “drift” into the zoo, people have said that a comparison study could be done but it is just not possible here. Plus, the response to the organic rose garden has been overwhelmingly positive and we are not going to change back. It seems to be working. It is not just one thing but an “organic” process of working with nature and the soil and each other.”

Does this process sound familiar to you…we were very impressed by the garden, the volunteers and the staff. The roses are amazing. We hope you can enjoy them this year!

If you are interested in volunteering at this wonderful garden here is a link:

http://www.zoo.org/involved/volunteer/volunteer.html

Weather is cool and I should be in my garden today hauling bark and other materials for my sheet mulching project to take out the grass.  Instead I am on my deck drinking iced coffee and contemplating the worms.    I found a copy of Patricia Lanza's book "Lazagna Gardening":  even though I understand the method I wanted to read it from her lips and enjoy her ideas on th matter.    It was great and contained more information thatn I expected.  Amazon.com has some copies of the older book and I looked at the newer book and it has good ideas for small spaces.  Lasagna Gardening is very appropriate in these type of areas.  It is amazing the amount of produce you can harvest.

 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0875969623/ref=cm_cr_mts_prod_img

Locally, Forza coffee is stockpiling coffee and I have been using coffee grounds in my sheet mulching project along with bark chips and rabbit manure and straw.  I am amazed at the worm activity in a small bed that I throw my coffee grounds into every morning off the deck.  My coffee drinking is an excuse of course to take a break from hauling materials around.  I am trying an experiment with the coffee grounds to see which mixture the worms like best.  I am adding small amount of lime along with compost and coffee grounds seeing what level of grounds they can handle.  I forsee a day when we will see big bags of dried grounds at the garden center. 

I am currently looking for ways to introduce the worms to my garden.  My soil is very hard and compacted and during a recent irrigation project we found no earthworms deep down.  It is no wonder people here are lawn chemically dependent.  There are no critters working the soil.  I am going to change that.  Worms do the work and leave castings but when I was searching for info. on how to deal with earth worms I found a "TruGreen Ad" that advocated not having organic material anywhere near your lawn...not using water and for pete's sake use chemicals.  This is EXACTLY the type of advice to give if you want to be chemically dependent when it comes to your lawn.  It is amazing they can get away with this advice..."put your lawn on drugs" (and by the way it kills the worms.)

So, I will gulp down this last bit of coffee and go haul the grounds around that I got from Forza Coffee.  Thanks to the staff who saved them for me and for coffee!  I am glad worms like coffee too!

Here is article by Doug Green, Author and Garden expert:

Coffee grounds and gardening might not seem like a match made in heaven but there?s some evidence to show that we should be using this very abundant waste product in our gardening efforts.

And most of us have lots of this product so here?s how to work both ends against the middle and use this product.

The first thing to be aware of is there?s a lot of misinformation and unproven data out there about coffee grounds and gardening.

Coffee Grounds & Slugs

The research on slugs and caffeine shows that concentrations of caffeine as low as .01 % reduces feeding by slugs (they avoid caffeine treated leaves) but that it doesn?t kill them at that rate.  A 1% solution can be expected to kill 60% of slugs while a 2% caffeine solution will knock out 95% of all slugs. This 2% solution is more effective than the chemical normally used in slug control. (metaldehyde)   The 2% solution also damaged some foliage on the tropical plants being used to feed the slugs. This calls into caution the use of caffeine on more tender leaved plants.

So where does this leave you with your morning coffee grounds and gardening?

Fresh coffee contains approximately .05% caffeine. This means that coffee grounds and fresh coffee will not kill slugs but may act as a mild deterrent. Slugs will go elsewhere to eat if given the choice.

Coffee Grounds And Garden

Absolutely!

Used coffee grounds make an excellent mulch. Note that they are acidic with a pH of between 3.0 and 5.0 making them superb for mulching rhododendrons, azalea and other acid loving plants.

They can be used thinly all over the regular garden as organic matter so you can simply toss your used coffee grounds onto the garden if you like. Unless you?re adding inches of this stuff (in commercial quantities) to the garden, you?re not going to see a difference in your soil pH.

If you do add a large quantity, you may want to dig them into the garden as there are reports that they will ?go bad? and develop a fungal layer if left exposed to the air.

Coffee Grounds & Worms

Coffee grounds are beloved by worms. I have a worm bin and you can almost hear the cheer when I toss in the morning?s makings of used coffee grounds. So if you have a vermiculture setup, use old coffee grounds as a food source. If not, simply toss them onto the garden and the worms will find them.

I note that I take my grounds to the office each day after making (and drinking) the coffee. This seems to stop any negative odors or fruit fly problems with saving up the coffee grounds for a week. I?d do the same in the garden. Toss them out daily into the garden or into the compost bin.

And they should go into your regular compost bin because they compost very well in the compost bin. They have a carbon-to-nitrogen ratio of 20:1, roughly the same as grass clippings. After making the morning wakeup, coffee grounds contain up to 2% nitrogen. So for composting purposes, consider coffee grounds "green" material similar to grass clippings.

And one of the interesting things about composting coffee grounds is that the microbes that do the composting will turn the coffee from acidic to a neutral pH. So coffee does not make compost acidic.

So that?s all the real news about coffee grounds and gardening.

Howdy all:  This is a note from the Moderator.  We met Cha Davis in a Chickens 101 class with Paul Farley and invited her to be the "Chicken Lady" Moderator on this website because she was already an experienced backyard chicken owner and lover.  She is also an amazing artist:  If you have seen her recently.  Please contact her and tell her to email us.  Aloha

GreenFringe.  By artist Cha Davis

Happy Earth Day April 22, 2009

We are gardening organically here in University Place!  Club start up in May 2009 at Starbucks!  Please call 253-564-5000 for more information.  Click on image for location!

Coffee Grounds are excellent for your organic garden