Joel Bos is a local master gardener who divides his time between his business, working as a naturalist with Discovery Southeast, and serving on the board of directors for Juneau Community Garden.
For this week’s Garden Talk, Bos spoke with KTOO’s Chloe Pleznac about outdoor programs for kids — and about how anyone can get involved in community gardening.
Much of Bos’s work is centered around the Juneau Community Garden in the Mendenhall Valley — work he describes as standing on the shoulders of Juneau’s gardening giants.
“The folks who laid the foundation and are still working on the board and are still maintaining the gardens are just heroes in our community,” he said. “If you haven’t been out to the Montana Creek Road community garden, you should check it out. It’s the closest thing we have to a farm here in town.”
Bos also works to introduce children to gardening through Discovery Southeast’s free and payment-optional programs.
“They’ll get to explore the gardens, they’ll get to see everything that’s growing, they’ll get to taste, they’ll get to help weed and maintain the plots,” Bos said. “Sometimes they get to harvest and we donate the produce to charity.”
This summer’s camp openings have already filled, but interested youth can get involved through after-school programming this fall or next summer’s camps.
For Bos, watching Discovery Southeast campers get settled and comfortable in these natural settings is rewarding.
“Every once in a while you can get this moment where every kid is working and every kid is quiet and every kid is silently weeding or looking at an insect or just touching a flower pedal,” he said. “It’s just kind of this magical moment.”
You can join the Juneau Community Garden plot waitlist online at juneaucommunitygarden.org. Bos says it usually takes about a year for the waitlist to turn over. You can learn more about Discovery Southeast’s year-round youth outdoor program offerings on their website, discoverysoutheast.org.
Bos suggests that people interested in getting involved with Juneau Community Garden come out for the 29th Harvest Faire on Aug. 24, where they can buy locally grown produce for a good cause, meet other gardeners, and explore the three-acre garden.
Correction: This episode previously gave the wrong date for this year’s Harvest Faire.
