Starting bare root strawberries

This summer I received 2500 bare root strawberry starts. With that, one must ask themselves what to do with that amount of starts and how to approach what to do with them all. These starts in particular come from a commercial variety called ‘Tribute’. This variety is particularly desirable because of the large yields of sweet delicious berries and are hardy enough to survive cold wet winters. This hybrid strawberry was developed by the University of Maryland for large crops with good disease tolerance. I began by pulling all the Read More …

Forging Friendships: Review of Jessica Walliser’s Attracting Beneficial Bugs to Your Garden

Have you every wondered if that unknown insect scuttling around in your garden is a threat to your carefully nurtured plants? Or how to keep ladybugs in your garden and decimate the aphids that cropped up in your ornamental flower bed? Have you ever felt overwhelmed by an onslaught of garden pests, but have been reluctant to rely on chemical pesticides? If you’ve needed an answer to any of these questions or have been seeking an introduction to alternative pest control methods, then Jessica Walliser’s Attracting Beneficial Bugs to Your Read More …

The search for local knowledge: the Homer Garden Club publications

A slow start Last spring I moved to the Homer area with my family. It was late June by the time I got a chance to start a garden. I knew I was going to have a late start, but I have always had a garden, and I knew I could grow something in what was left of the season. I knew the season was going to be short, so I decided to focus my efforts in the greenhouse. I planted some beans and squash in six inch deep boxes, Read More …

Interior Gardeners: Like Ducks to Water

Gardening seems to come as naturally to residents of Alaska’s Heartland as, well, as ducks take to water. After the long snowy winter, the bright spring days and luminescent nights of late April and early May inspire many of us to start seedlings on the windowsill and to clean up the garden (raised beds, old wheelbarrows and bathtubs, patio pots and hanging baskets), or whatever else our imagination and resources come up with as Places to Put Plants. The harvest may be small or it may be bountiful, it may Read More …

Worms inside your House? A review of UAF Cooperative Extension’s “Composting with Worms”

Want to see my worms? This was a common question I’d ask guests visiting my apartment as a vermicompost enthusiast. I was introduced to composting with worms as a young adult living in Chicago, and jumped at the opportunity to make this type of compost a staple of my urban life. I loved that it was an affordable, effective, and relatively effortless way to create nutrients for soil. And the bin fit under my bed. My vermicompost bin lasted a year and a half. When I moved to Alaska, the Read More …

A Reservoir of Information for Urban Farmers: A General Analysis of Upstart University

Intro: Upstart University Powered by Plenty Of all the searching for a reservoir of information that is relevant to large-scale vertical hydroponic and aquaponic farms, there is only one source that floats on top. Upstart University is an online college that is semi-specific of ZipGrow and Deep Water Culture systems that are primarily set up to empower those in growing food systems in all areas. The ZipFarm is a vertical water working system that Dr. Nate Storey with Bright AgroTech designed to use less space and less energy compared to Read More …

Book Review: “Alaska Gardening Guide Volume 1” by Ann D. Roberts

When we bought our first house in Fairbanks nearly 20 years ago, I wanted to have a garden but really had no idea what would grow successfully, or how to grow vegetables in our climate. I was moving from the Pacific Northwest and was looking for information specific to growing in the Interior, at a time when accessing information on the Internet was not as easy as today, and was still dial-up at the time. Somewhere in town I picked up the Alaska Gardening Guide, Volume 1, Alaska Vegetables for Read More …

Gorgeous Inspiration for Home Gardeners and Farmer Florists

Overview The book Floret Farm’s Cut Flower Garden  is an inspirational book for anyone wanting to cultivate a beautiful garden full of flowers for arranging. Author Erin Benzakein along with photographer Julie Chai have filled this 300 page resource with beautiful photos and hard won growing advice on more than 175 flower varieties plus planning tips for all four seasons. The setting for the book is a Mt. Vernon, Washington farm that is only two acres in size. Erin and her husband Chris have created a small scale, high intensity Read More …

A Great Place to Get Free Information

Free Information One of the first places my husband and I go for gardening information is the Alabama Cooperative Extension System (ACES). Why Alabama and not Alaska? Well, I gardened for many years in Alaska but have since moved to lovely Alabama. Each state has an Extension service with brick and mortar offices and websites. Each Extension service is tailored to the specific climate of that state. We especially like their information because it is based on research and written by specialists. We have confidence that the information we get Read More …