Dreams abound!

Hello all!

I'm a day late and a dollar short, but I'm finally getting around to posting my portion on the public horticulture blog. If I haven't been introduced, I'm Kira Chaloupka and in the Fab Five co-hort. Though I'm in the program I have a slightly different role... I work in the Dean's office for the College of Agriculture as the Graduate Assistant of Recruitment and Alumni Relations. In short, I work with students, both prospective and current, as well as those who used to be. I love the opportunity I've been given to share my experiences and further promote both Horticulture and Agriculture. Here are a few things I've been involved with...

School started with a bang and to embrace our love of food and fellowship, we hosted a Welcome Back picnic for all of our students in the college. The student organizations set up shop and promoted their club. We had a great time mixing and mingling!

 

 

 I also get assigned to random tasks, such as checking web recording devices and programs. To do this I requested the assistance of one of our students workers, Nettie Eakes, to help me test it out! Here we are at "Mission Control" located in the basement of Comer. For the practice run, we displayed items up for auction at Ag Round like this nice welding mask.

 

 

 My big project for the year is coordinating the Ag Exploration Days, which are hosted across the state at various experiment stations, where we talk with prospective students about all the opportunities presented through the College. Below, you can see some of the Ag Ambassadors helping students make ice cream. I've been to Clanton and Fairhope with expectations to be in North Alabama next week, and closer to home later in November.

Representing AU College of Agriculture and its many majors in Fairhope

As you can tell, I do quite a bit of traveling. But I spend my fair share of time in the office and my recent addition to my desk is Herbie! He was given to me by my super awesome boss!!

He's the brown one on the left, admiring his future blue home!



The last thing I want to share is the dream board... where ideas are chased and inspiration comes to life! We've marked off a few things, with plenty left to seek.  

 

 

Classes are moving on, my research is coming together (which I will hopefully speak on next time), and work passes the months, which I can't believe it's almost October!

 

This is short and sweet, but gives you a little glimpse into my life as a graduate assistant. I've got to run and prepare to leave bright and early in the morning...

 

Happy Friday!

KC



 

The Mighty Oaks

The game has begun and we’re off to a good start. We have some real all-star players this year and they’re ready to learn some trees! I’ve heard our football team is doing pretty well too! I’m a teaching assistant this semester for Dr. Ponders arboriculture class and as always the opening season game was the mighty oaks.

The train is already picking up speed and we’re now into the hickories, but the oaks will always be my favorite. This summer I was able to be part of the team that assisted Dr. Keever in propagating the poisoned Toomer’s Oaks. I helped stick some of the over 3,000 cuttings taken from rhizomic shoots after the trees had to be cut down. I never did roll the trees during my time at Auburn though I’ll never forget being at the final A-day celebration roll. Being able to help with the oaks propagation was a really amazing opportunity to preserve one of Auburns traditions.

Helping with arboriculture has also been a great experience. I guess I’m what you would call a soft spoken person so it’s been a great opportunity for me to learn how to teach. The professors here at Auburn are an amazing resource and it’s great to be able to help inspire the next generation of horticulturists.

Thanks for reading and as always, have a great tree day!

Bloggin Time!

After an eventful, busy week at Auburn and an enjoyable few days in Destin, FL with my grandparents, I am finally getting around to the blog; my first blog post for the public hort program, actually! My week started off quite hectic, full of class, homework, TA assignments, and just plain ole life. Once Thursday arrived, I headed off to Destin with my grandparents to attend the Mississippi Poultry Association Conference. My grandfather is a poultry vet, partially retired, for MSU. Little did he know, or myself and my grandmother, that his presence was requested for his induction into the Mississippi Poultry Association Hall of Fame! It was quite a surprise and wonderful ceremony, and I was so happy I got to be there for him. My Papaw always told me and the other grandchildren that "knowledge is the one thing that people can't take away from you, and you are the only person who can obtain that knowledge." My Papaw has always pushed me to do well in school and learn meaningful, applicable things, for not only my benefit, but for the benefit of others. He is one of the reasons I decided to further my education by pursuing a master's degree. And now, here I am, studying public horticulture at AU.

For my research, I am focusing on educational and edible garden design and demonstration for youth. The project will involve designing a garden(s), and installing and maintaining the garden(s). In conjunction with the gardens, an educational program will be implemented as well to correlate and reflect specific elements of the garden. An example of that would be designing a vegetable garden and implementing educational curriculum focused on vegetable gardening of the specific plants in that garden. I am very excited and happy with the research avenue I am pursuing. Landscape design, installation, and maintenance, along with educating youth about plants, the benefits of plants, and just facilitating interactions and relationships between people and plants, especially youth, is what I plan to pursue career wise.

So that's my week and a brief over view of my research! As a Mississippi State University alumni, I am still learning the ropes here at Auburn, as well as the campus. So far, my time here at Auburn has been nice. I love the campus; it's beautiful. My department is great and so is our program. I am looking forward to what the future holds for not only myself, but everyone in the program. We are all pursuing related, yet various and distinct research topics in public horticulture that I feel are very relevant, influential, and important for our industry. I hope we all have a great fall semester, with as little stress as possible and lots of fun.  




  

Plant Evaluation Project for AL Botanical Gardens

As the Fall class semester is getting underway, many great opportunities have come my way in Public Horticulture.  The majority of them have come in the form of my research project's development.  The momentum of my new project is picking up speed, and there are several groups and individuals on board with it that are as excited as I am about being a part of the project.

My project consists of implementing a variety of plant trials/evaluations at three public garden entities throughout the state of Alabama.  It is meant to evaluate the performance and public perceptions of some of the horticulture industry's up-and-coming and popular plant cultivars in different locations.  Several groups have developed programs like this before, but have typically had difficulty sustaining maintenance needs for plantings of this degree.  The time involved in traveling to take data, pull weeds, and water new plants can be daunting for just one or two individuals.  So, in order to alleviate some of the maintenance work load, we're partnering with Master Gardener groups throughout the state to play a huge role in helping with this portion of the study.  In addition, these folks will be vital in the survey portion of the study which will give people from the Green Industry, garden clubs, and public garden guests a chance to weigh in on their favorite plants and why they would purchase them for their own gardens.

The people I've met with at Huntsville Botanical Gardens and Dothan Area Botanical Gardens have been stellar in there acceptance and enthusiasm for this to happen.  These two gardens are very different in the demographic of guests that they draw from and the exhibits they offer, but both are managed by a wonderful staff and committee that have the same desires in their mission statements that I do...to expand the world of horticulture and promote excellent, new plants to people everywhere.

These new partnerships will hopefully be great connections for the future of Auburn University's Public Horticulture program.  The possibilities that could develop in regard to teaching, projects, and public service projects are endless.  Being a part of the beginning of partnerships that could benefit groups for years to come excites me and helps me better envision my career and what I'd like it to be.  The opportunity to be a part of this program continues to make me grateful for this time in my life, and I'm looking forward to the possibilities that it can bring.

That's a snippet of what's going on in my corner of the world.  Catch ya again soon!!