4/10/13
Amoeba Monthly Uncovering and Discovering the hard facts about amoebas for you
All you need and want to know about the Urban Homestead!
History of Arlington Garden!
Exclusive interview with home gardener Adam Jette! Who will be Organism of the Year? 1
Table of Contents Organism of the Year…………………………………….1 Home Gardens…………………………………………...2 Arlington Gardens……………………………………..…3 The Urban Homestead……………………………..…….4 Tick Tock………………………………………………...5 Poems…………………………………………………….6 The Color Purple…………………………………..……12 Adventures in Nature…………………………………...13 Letters from the Editors……………………….………..14 Cutest Couples………………………………………....17
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Organism of the Year We here at Amoeba Monthly have finally chosen the winner of our annual and yearly competition of “Organism of the Year.” Through many tough decisions, we have finally chosen the winner. The winner of this year’s competition is the amoeba or protozoa! The amoeba greatly helps the soil, but in which way, and why does the soil need help? We are losing soil, and Planet Earth is beginning to endure the hard effects of soil loss. But what is causing us to lose our soil? There are two processes that may be to blame called weathering and erosion. Weathering is when the soil is worn away by “rock or other material.” Erosion is when the soil is blown away or worn away by the atmosphere, for example wind or rain. But, before these processes were always in balance with each other so they wouldn’t be taking too much without leaving the earth with to little soil. So why has the balance stopped working? You can blame us humans for that, thanks to climate change. But why is soil so important anyways? Soil does not only replenish life, but it is life. It is the base of the food chain. All animals, including carnivores, need plants to survive. As carnivores may eat other carnivores or omnivores, those animals that they are eating may eat plants, or eats another
animal that uses plants as it’s main food source, and so on. Even though crops and vegetation may not be the predator’s main food source, it is the prey, and one of the most importing things that are needed to support the food chain. But without soil, it is impossible for crops and vegetation to grow, slowly killing all living species and organisms on Mother Earth. Now to focus on our winning organism for 2013. The amoeba is an amazing organism that helps the soil greatly. What the amoeba, a secondary decomposer does is remineralize soil with carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorous. The amoeba does this by eating bacterial primary decomposers. Decomposers that are primary take organic material and decompose it to create minerals. The problem with the primary decomposers is they cannot release these minerals from themselves. That’s where the amoeba comes in. After the amoeba consumes the primary decomposers they release, through special vacuoles called contractile vacuoles the useful nutrients (from the food vacuole) into the soil.
I just wanted to thank all of the organisms who entered in this year’s Organism of the Year contest and to invite to re-enter for next year! Thank You! 3
By: Io Adam Jette is a home gardener who started because of a family tradition. “My parents had a garden” he tolsecret to a good garden is the soil beneath it. He says “The soil is the nutrients for the plants”. Without the soil the plants could not survive and thrive. He also told me his secret to keeping a healthy PH level for the soil to be (so plants can have the perfect balance of acidity and basic to grown properly in). He explained to me that when the soil is at a bad PH level you want to amend it. Amending helps the soil to receive nutrients plus absorb water and helps plant roots to spread throughout the ground. Adam says that he grows roughly 6 months of the family’s salads a year (one salad a night) in his garden! He says he also has had success recently growing strawberries, carrots, chard, lettuce, and snap peas. He mentioned in the interview that he liked growing his own garden because he knows exactly where the food came from, bonding with his son, and enjoying the harvests of his own hard labor. When I talked d me when I
asked him why he first started. He also said that he wanted grow his own fruits and vegetables for his family plus friends to enjoy and to become a more self-sustaining person. He told me that the to Adam about the environment he mentioned his watering system and his compost. He mentioned his compost because it takes food and agricultural waste and turns it into to humus or fertile topsoil. Adam says that he likes the compost because it is free and it gives him good topsoil that s environment friendly. Adam has a special way of watering his plants without wasting water while getting the plants the water they need. It is called a timed drip irrigation system. What it does is drip water directly on the plants base on a timer to give the plant the water it needs to grow without wasting the resource. He also likes the system because it prevents weeds from growing around the beads and saves his hard work. Adam told me that the most rewarding thing about his garden is “digging in dirt and being out there amongst the sun and green” he says “I do it for me, for my piece of mind, but everyone gets to reap the benefits”. Growing your own home garden is both easy and fun. Go plant some seeds of you own today! All you need is a shovel, seeds, water, fertile soil, and little bit of sweat. 4
By: Sylvia Arlington Gardens is a 3-acre lot that is a garden with a Mediterranean style. This is so that it fits our climate. Originally it was one the most elegant houses in the South Orange Grove Boulevard. It was owned by John Durand. After they removed the existing Victorian home, the workmen created a French style ch창teau. Every piece of wood was hand carved. The interior wood was oak, mahganony, and walnut and then it had a dulled glitter of gold on the wood. In front of the house was 600 feet of a Tropical garden. The garden had palm trees, cacti, and century plants not including different types of flower bushes, with roses, and chrysanthemums. The property stayed in the family till John M. Durand the third died in 1960.The furniture and art were sold at an auction in 1961 and then the home was destroyed. Now, after the home was destroyed the gardens are still being planted on the remaining 3 acres. The Arlington gardens is the only dedicated public garden in Pasadena. In 2003 the city of Pasadena and Caltrans were beginning to talk about the use of the 3-acre site, which had been vacant for forty years. Home to two mature oaks, a jacaranda, a California pepper tree, and five different varieties of palm trees council member Steve Madison asked the community what they would like to do with the site. The answer was not to have playing fields, parking lot, or restrooms. But they did not say what the development should be. Then a woman named Betty McKenney said that there should be a Mediterranean climate garden. The idea caught on, though people looked for others to do the work to get it started. Schools made drawings for the design, and others began to visualize the garden. Then the city of Pasadena met 5
with Pasadena Water and power, and the McKenney's to work together and move forward. With the help of Steve Madison, Mayor Bill Bogaard, council member Sid Tyler, and the partnership with the Pasadena water and power, the project began. First the entire lot was covered in mulch. Then a rudimentary irrigation system was installed. Later some areas were graded to create level areas to collect in. In July 2005 with representatives from Pasadena water, power, and the city the first plants and trees were planted The Arlington garden has been recognized in some articles in the Los Angeles Times, the Pasadena Star News, and The Quarterly, and the Arroyo. They also have been recognized in books such as Hometown Pasadena and in home Pasadena. The garden has been visited by Garden Conservancy, Pasadena Heritage, Mediterranean Garden Society, Pasadena Garden Club, The Diggers, the LA County Arboretum, the Washington DC headquartered American Public Garden Association, and Pacific Horticulture. It has also been recognized by the city three times and was donated a solar powered fountain by the west Pasadena residents association. Betty and Kicker were recognized with Community Service Award and in 2008 The Pasadena museum of history named them Contemporary History Makers. At the garden many schools do community service including Sequoyah School, Pasadena High School Interact Club, Mayfield Senior School, and Westridge School. One example is in 2010 Mayfield Senior School helped build a classical seven-circuit labyrinth. It is not only helped by schools but by Girl Scout troops and Boy Scout troops. One example of those is when a Girl Scout troop picked 200 lbs of oranges to make 1300 jars of Arlington Garden Sweet Orange Marmalade. The Arlington garden is an amazing place full of surprises. It is open seven days a week, so why not go their one day a take a peek. Hopefully you will find that not only is it eco friendly but also is beautiful, and can bring people happiness.
By Jessica In the middle of the bustling city known as Pasadena lives one special home. Covered by plants, thriving with one of nature. Helping each other without harming the earth. Bringing a community together instead of apart. But what is this place you may ask? It is known as the Urban Homestead. The Urban Homestead incredibly helps the environment as well as teaches great life lessons to members of the community, along with bringing everyone together. From self-sufficiency, to organic gardening, this is the place to be in Pasadena. At the Urban Homestead lives a family who has basically turned their own house into a farm. The Westridge School for Girls class of ‘18 took a visit there in October in the year of 2012, where they took a tour and met some of the animals themselves. In the gardens you can find many plants, from oranges to giant squash. This family could live off their backyard and only their backyard if they wanted too. Along with the plants come the very loved animals, 6
treated right with the citified and healthy farming. They’ve also made a few giant hives to help house many honeybees, so they can help pollinate the plants and help the environment. Due to the animals and plants, everything just begins to work each other to create its own little environment in the big city. But why stop there? The Urban Homestead brings the community together. They teach many classes for schools in the area, to spread the lessons and teach how to live a nice and healthy life- without hurting the environment of course. Not only do they indulge children of all ages into a new kind of knowledge, but also have music nights to bring the local city musicians together to jam out while enjoying the nice nature of the backyard. And why would they want to keep this all to themselves? Even though they are letting the community in, they decided it wasn’t enough. They also sell fruits and vegetables in front of their house on their front porch, and sell their crops as well! How could things get any better? Not only do they help the environment, but they are generous as well! My one recommendation? Visit the Urban Homestead in Pasadena today!
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Earth I cannot be tamed. My friends, the birds agree as they swoop low next to my mouth and listen to my babble. No one can understand me, I am like a caveman in the 21st century. I know only of sunset, sunrise and the earth beneath me. I make sounds of a barbaric yawp for only the earth and sun above me to hear. The sunsets and night are mysteriously awakened. Dark, damp Mist surrounds me in the dead of night. I let it take me, up,up,up. I am waiting for my crash, my destruction. All I can see is my only dream sitting on the ground, Or rather in it. I long to see the worms of the earth crawling in the soil one last time Then it happens, I am dropped. I fall into the soil underneath me and claw my way into dark fertile matter. Now I too can become that fertile matter. The stuff you walk every day without thinking about it, Without noticing the wonderful things that keep your life running as you know it Now I too may become part of the earth, Where I came from. -Io8
Death and Life I looked at the soil expecting a sensation, A sensation of food, A sensation of life, But I stepped to close, But I looked to close, To see no longer life, But death. How can you stand there? How can you plant your plants In such a disgusting place? How can you plant your plants, Your food, Your life, In carcasses? In remains? In death? How do youNo how do we, Continuously eat from the soil That takes our death and gives us life, That makes us live but uses our death, Our death to replenish life, But our life to encourage death. And to think looking at the soil, One day is it possible that one day that can be you? - Jessica 9
Breathe To breathe in awakens the senses of life. One breath can hold the somber song of a lonesome bird, The ever silent crunch of a bug under your shoe, The smell of sweet wildflowers and honeysuckle in the air, And bees buzzing in and out of their hive pollinating flowers. Where wisteria grows wild covering the plain whiteness of life, And where soil is no longer dirt, But rather the recipe for life. I know this now, But not before, The golden gates knocked on my door. They cried for me, and I heard their plea, So I thought I left life eternally. But I now know where they sent me to go, Back into the soil that made me. -Io
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The Things We Have Missed Sitting in shade I wonder of the things I’ve missed in life. The things that I’ve missed in nature, out in the open. The things that my generation can never see. But sitting in this shade, on this bench, I now see, And I now notice, Things that I have never noticed before, But that have been there before, through, and after my life. I see the orange poppies reaching towards the sun, I see an arch feeling the atmosphere with just the color purple, I see the bushes reaching out into the pathway just oozing for attention, I see the patches and rows of dark purple filling the soil from beneath, I see the small trees reaching towards the sky as high as they can, But most of all I see what I’ve missed, and I see what I’ve heard, And I hear the small birds chirping trying to show me the path Of what I’ve missed in my life. -Jessica 11
One Wild and Precious Life A sound of a car whizzing past me I hear it getting further and further away Until it disappears into a mound of oblivion Then I hear the sound of a bird I don’t know its name or what it looks like, but I can hear its call Above me are three small palm trees Their alignment resembles a triangle Their leaves are sharp Pointed Speckled yellow with a base coat of dark green I look to the right I see bark its pattern looks like someone carved it in a checkered pattern I look more closely and I see ants These ants remind me of children Running ramped without care Ants able to carry up to 9 times their own weight A child able to dream up 90 possibilities of a game Ants live with other ants Children never like to be alone Yet then why do I, once a child, love to be alone here Maybe it’s because I grew up I smell my own sweat running down my forehead as if whining to be under the shade of the palm trees It was salty and bitter for a smell But surprisingly soothing I smell the vibrant orange flowers growing by my untied shoe laces A smell like black licorice I smell the metallic multiple colored ball on a fake marble carved brick It smells of iron and blood I close my eyes put my middle and index finger on a rough and fuzzy leaf connected to the bright orange flower It feels like the dead ends of hair I look around and see the garden I stand up and then see a beetle on the top of the metallic ball Look at its black, black color It reminds me of Egypt and Bastet The cat god I look around and notice a fountain with no water It reminded me of how I leave and always come back too late I die inside -Sylvia 12
Barbaric Yawp Recreation or deformation? We have neither the choice nor the right to ask earth for a supply of beauty in life And not offer it something in return What can I do? I do nothing but admit myself worthy of feeding this beauty as an honor Which isn’t usually recognized? How much the earth bends to our aid surprises me, For we treat it like scum stuck to the mossy rocks near a river being rerouted to a city When the earth deserves to be celebrated every moment of every day Why? Never neglect what is needed We have been hollowed out and replaced with greed and the desire of the artificial When you and i return earth’s favors Only then will we callout through the wolf and eagle And let them say “Let yourself go, for it is the will of everything around you” I hope to be used and appreciated I fear that this strange process is dark - until the soil is fertile with human souls It is as if the puppeteer left and the puppets are left to put on a show Without moving I await earth’s praise from every single wall covering your surroundings None come I am not sure the light at the end of this tunnel holds plants or Disappearing topsoil Please fin beauty Please find soil Please find yourself Please find me -Sylvia 13
Color of the Month
Purple
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Us
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A Letter from the Editor By Jessica During the creation of the magazine, we were required to write a well worded and decorated magazine about the soil, along with the amoeba of course, known as the organism of the year. Our knowledge and brains came from many different projects that we were made to complete, in order to learn and put this magazine together as a finale and conclusion of our work. From the first day, to the last, we here on the writing and editing side of the magazine were hard at work. But, I guess there is one quote and one quote only that sums up all of our work. “Muck is the mother of the meal bag.” But what does this mean? That is not much as a difficult question, but an easy answer. Don’t get it? Let me explain.. The meal bag is representing our food. Not just ours, but also the other species of animals and organisms on planet Earth. And the word “Muck,” means soil. When you think about it, all our food comes from soil. If you follow the food chain slowly down to the bottom, you will see that the bottom of the food chain results in vegetation, crops, and plants. Plants is the base of the food chain, but plants’ one main source needed to grow is soil. So, soil is the reason we eat
and creates all of food on Planet Earth. Muck is the mother of the meal bag. We then took a trip to Arlington Gardens to more get in touch with our side of nature. There we did everything, from taking notes to write poems later on, to taking microorganism samples to study later on. We also took many pictures and had photo shoots for our magazine, along with a meditative focus through the Arlington Labyrinth, which proved to help us get rid of our stress and worries. And, when focused enough, it would work. But you cannot forget the day where we learned about Victory Gardens, and made propaganda posters to promote making your own garden. Through hard work, and the thanks of my team members, the poster was finished with flying colors, and a great message on top. “Tick tock, your life’s on the clock! Grow organic!” Even put all together, you can see the results here in the magazine you are reading now. From learning in the classroom, to researching on the computers, to taking trips along different nature spots, and much, much more, we’ve gathered enough research and enough truth from the environment to finish this great project, known as, the Soil Unit.
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Letter to the Editor By: Io In the week and a half I have been studying in the soil unit many things have happened. There have been times I have laughed, times I have played, and times I have been just plain serious. This overall experience I think has changed my life. I learned to charge through tough problems with others and stay up late cramming to finish something. I have also learned to have fun in nothing but dirt. Here my experiences. The first day we learned of the tough times in the great depression where people had to live of what they could find. Then they started something called a Victory Garden. They worked together as a community and made it possible for every family not to go starving. I thought that this was a clever and smart idea and wish I could be a part of one in my own community. The next day we visited the amazing Arlington gardens. We walked through a labyrinth, wrote poems about nature, and took samples for science. The garden was beautiful. I loved being mixed in with nature, intertwined as one. We also visited another garden called Descanso Gardens. Before we entered the garden we took a hike. All of the colors were absolutely amazing and I was glad to be part of the beauty.
When we entered the garden we were surrounded by amazing flowers, bushes, and other plant life. I could not believe how many different types of plants there were! I took tons of photos and then later made a collage with them. The last day we learned all about planting the crops. We built a rain garden and worm bin, planted our own plants, and helped build an herb garden. We also went on a tree walk and learned all about the wonderful trees we have on campus! My favorite part was definitely planting my own plants! I loved getting dirty with my hands and having fun with my friends. In the herb garden we learned about how different plants worked together in symbiosis. We learned in the rain garden about native plants and their pollinators. Overall I thought this experience was well welcomed in my mind and exciting! It is not every day that I can say ‘I planted a garden’. This experience has inspired me to be more active in my garden at home and in other community gardens. I have learned to grow native plants to preserve natural California and all about the microorganisms that live in the soil. In the future I hope that I will come across another opportunity like soon, so I can do it all over again.
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Cutest Couples
Brussels Sprouts and Parsley
Tomatoes and Mint
Rosemary and Cucumber
Eggplant and Sage 19
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