After eight years at sea as a seaman and merchant marine officer, Marion Owen found a home ashore in 1984 in Kodiak, Alaska. Switching her focus to the land, Marion became a master gardener and passionate organic gardener. Now she has thirty raised beds filled with flowers, vegetables and herbs—a teaching garden, where visitors are welcome to explore and learn.

Marion is known as "The Compost Queen." In her columns for newspapers, magazines and Web sites, her articles cover everything from organic gardening techniques, to environmental issues, composting, cooking and healthy living. She also enjoys developing "sneaky nutrition" recipes such as "Out of This World Chocolate Beet Cake," as a way to get nutritious food into family meals. Marion also developed and patented PlanTea, an organic fertilizer in convenient tea bags for the home gardener (marion@ptialaska.net