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Amoeba Monthly

Who will be Organism of the Year?

4/10/13

Uncovering and Discovering the hard facts about amoebas for you

Exclusive interview with home gardener Adam Jette!

History of Arlington Garden!

All you need and want to know about the Urban Homestead!

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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 deci-sions, we have finally chosen the winner. The winner of this year’s competition is the amoeba or pro-tozoa! 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 en-dure 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 weather-ing 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 al-ways 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 replen-ish life, but it is life. It is the base of the food chain. All animals, in-cluding 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 win-ning organism for 2013. The amoeba is an amazing organism that helps the soil greatly. What the amoeba, a secondary decom-poser does is remineralize soil with carbon, nitrogen, and phos-phorous. The amoeba does this by eating bacterial primary decom-posers. Decomposers that are pri-mary take organic material and decompose it to create minerals. The problem with the primary de-composers is they cannot release these minerals from themselves. That’s where the amoeba comes in. After the amoeba consumes the primary decomposers they re-lease, 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!

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By: Io

Adam Jette is a home gar-dener 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 keep-ing a healthy PH level for the soil to be (so plants can have the per-fect balance of acidity and basic to grown properly in). He ex-plained 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, let-tuce, and snap peas. He men-tioned in the interview that he liked growing his own garden be-cause 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 per-

son.

He told me that the to Ad-am about the environment he men-tioned his watering system and his compost. He mentioned his compost because it takes food and agricul-tural waste and turns it into to hu-mus 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 irri-gation system. What it does is drip water directly on the plants base on a timer to give the plant the wa-ter it needs to grow without wasting the resource. He also likes the sys-tem 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 to-day! All you need is a shovel, seeds, water, fertile soil, and little

bit of sweat.

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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. Origi-nally it was one the most elegant houses in the South Orange Grove Boulevard. It was owned by John Durand. After they re-moved the existing Victorian home, the workmen created a French style château. 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 furni-ture 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 re-maining 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 commu-nity 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

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 Pasade-na 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 grad-ed 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 Ange-les 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 Pasade-na. The garden has been visited by Gar-den Conservancy, Pasadena Heritage, Mediterranean Garden Society, Pasadena Garden Club, The Diggers, the LA County Arboretum, the Washington DC headquar-tered 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 Communi-ty Service Award and in 2008 The Pasade-na museum of history named them Contem-porary 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 Marma-lade.

The Arlington garden is an amaz-ing 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 beauti-ful, and can bring people happiness.

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By Jessica In the middle of the bus-tling city known as Pasadena lives one special home. Covered by plants, thriving with one of nature. Helping each other with-out harming the earth. Bringing a community together instead of apart. But what is this place you may ask? It is known as the Ur-ban Homestead. The Urban Homestead incredibly helps the environment as well as teaches great life les-sons to members of the communi-ty, 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 or-anges to giant squash. This fami-ly could live off their backyard and only their backyard if they wanted too. Along with the plants come the very loved animals,

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 mu-sicians together to jam out while enjoying the nice nature of the backyard. And why would they want to keep this all to them-selves? 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 rec-ommendation? 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.

-Io

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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 you- No 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

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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 honeysuck-le in the air, And bees buzzing in and out of their hive pol-linating 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

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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

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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 re-routed 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 hu-man 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

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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 to-

gether 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 Ar-

lington 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 sam-

ples 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 fo-

cused enough, it would work.

But you cannot forget the

day where we learned about Vic-

tory Gardens, and made propagan-

da posters to promote making your

own garden. Through hard work,

and the thanks of my team mem-

bers, 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 envi-

ronment to finish this great pro-

ject, 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 seri-ous. This overall experience I think has changed my life. I learned to charge through tough problems with others and stay up late cram-ming 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 de-pression 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 starv-ing. I thought that this was a clever and smart idea and wish I could be a part of one in my own com-munity.

The next day we visited the amazing Arlington gardens. We walked through a labyrinth, wrote poems about nature, and took samples for science. The gar-den 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 fa-vorite 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 expe-rience was well welcomed in my mind and exciting! It is not every day that I can say ‘I planted a garden’. This experience has in-spired me to be more active in my garden at home and in other com-munity 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

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