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Brenda Baker

The Sage and Snow Garden Club awarded its first Garden of Beauty Award for 2024 to Brenda Baker and Tony Pratt near Daniel. Their triple-walled polycarbonate Riga greenhouse is brimming with several varieties of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, peas, yellow squash, herbs, as well as marigolds, nasturtiums, and sunflowers. They use large containers of water and automated vents to help regulate the indoor temperature. Inside the greenhouse, Brenda opted to use lick tubs and other containers for growing plants. The potting mix in the containers consists of her homemade compost and biochar, worm castings, and native soil. Each container is linked to an automated irrigation system. Outside the greenhouse in raised beds, Brenda grows cucumbers, asparagus, winter squash, and chives and borage to attract bees. Their home is surrounded by several outdoor beds for growing flowers, including a spectacular variety of colorful columbines. Brenda and Tony make their own biochar using ammonium nitrate (nitrogen) and lump charcoal briquettes. Biochar adds humic acid to the soil, creating a soil activator to energize microbial activity and encourage the uptake of nutrients by plants. They also use vinegar to help break down egg shells into usable calcium for plants. It was a fascinating and enriching field trip to Brenda and Tony’s gardens.