Springing into summer: Kara Monroe on preparing for UAA's warm-season horticulture

Ten-year campus horticulture veteran — and head of Grounds and Landscaping — Kara Monroe organizes a great deal of labor and materials for UAA’s summer planting season. In an area where summers are short and winters are long, planting outdoor common spaces is a task that takes dedicated crews of groundskeepers. 

The journey toward UAA’s campus-spanning flower beds, decorative trees and edible gardens and orchards began last year in October, where bed designs were planned by the Grounds team for the upcoming summer. 

“We have a short season,” Monroe said in an interview with The Northern Light, “We also have a cooler beginning and a cooler end.” 

Although the bulk of the planting and blooming season takes place in the summer, Monroe said that a major priority of the Grounds team is keeping the beds in good shape when the majority of students return in August. 

Balancing the length of the blooming season while simultaneously  maintaining arrangements usually requires some assistance from the teams’ greenhouse. 

“Everything that we plant here starts in the greenhouse,” Monroe said, gesturing out of her office window, “We have our first seeds in the soil, in the greenhouse, the last week of January – so most things tend to pick up in March.” 

Compared to the $9 to $15 pre-grown bottled plants that would otherwise be necessary for quick planting during the early season, Monroe said that their current system is far more practical and cost-effective. 

Experiments with overwintering other plants — such as dahlias and fuchsias – have been successful for Monroe’s crew this year. These techniques also allow edible plants such as sweet corn to grow in a climate that would otherwise not permit it. 

“This is outside the realm of what you can do on a windowsill,” Monroe joked. 

Recent years haven’t been without their unexpected shifts. High precipitation that the American Meteorological Society attributes to climate change has led to soil too moist to be accessed by vehicles without damaging seeds. 

Some extreme weather, however, has been welcome. 

“We’ve had summers where it’s hit 90 degrees for a week and a half.”

Despite the water requirements during those summers, Monroe pointed out that “We got used to growing things that normally you wouldn’t expect to see in Alaska, like zinnias.”

There are regular annual challenges that come from ordering materials closer to the season. Monroe said that sourcing materials such as plant pots and seeds need to be ordered as early as September and stored over the winter. 

“I’d say one of our biggest problems is staffing. There are days that we’re definitely stretched. We do the plants here but we’re also cleaning up gravel,” said Monroe.

Monroe said that Grounds’ responsibilities across 380 acres of land — 160 of which are manicured — also includes indoor plants that stay year round. 

Other projects can also emerge that require significant planning and labor. Monroe said the new fenced community garden space is one example, occupying a 60 by 100 foot space to house orchard trees and raised beds. 

“I think what we do in the summertime is it's great to just to teach people about what's edible here and what kind of flowers we grow,” Monroe said, “I think it's really special – we really have the opportunity to get involved with departments to meet people to work face to face with them.”

“Our relationship-building is just so important to getting the job done and then enhancing people's experiences including our own here on campus.”

The work is difficult, but it is a labor of love for groundskeepers at UAA.