Welcome To My Climatic Zone in the Matanuska Valley

My Climate I live in a subdivision in the middle of Palmer and Wasilla so all of my neighbors, including myself, have raised beds. One great benefit of raised beds is that they thaw much faster in the spring than frozen ground, so that means you can prepare and transplant earlier. Another reason raised beds work here is our ground is very rocky so it’s just easier to have a raised bed. The raised beds have better drainage, which is great for a rainy week. Benefit or challenge? I have Read More …

What’s the Challange: A Report on Anchorage’s Mountian View Climate

Mountain View, Anchorage: Garden Climactic Zone Intro Growing in Anchorage has been simple this summer mainly. In the micro-climate of Mountain View (Zone 4b), the most significant challenges resident gardeners have observed consist of locating the right spot to grow, due to the amount to buildings which block the sunlight from reaching plants. Some residents choose to use containers that make for easy transport and weeding should the chosen location not work out for that year, as seen in figures 1,2, and 3. Furthermore, there have been challenges with the Read More …

Seward’s Garden Climate Zone

Seward Climate I am currently not a resident of Alaska but have lived in Anchorage previously for several years. I raised a garden in every one of those years. However, because my husband and I thought we might consider retiring somewhere in Alaska I wanted to do some research on where would be best based on the longest growing season. I found that Seward, Alaska has the longest frost-free growing season in southern Alaska. From mid to end of April through September and possibly mid-October. The climate zone according to Read More …

Gardening with Wildlife in Chugiak, Alaska

All the Perks As with many communities in Alaska, gardening in Chugiak has many upsides and downsides. Compared to many other areas of the state we have considerably moderate temperatures that can extend our growing season with the help of picking appropriate varieties of plants to grow and the use of a greenhouse or season extender. According to the USDA Plant Hardiness Map, Chugiak is in Zone 4b. When compared to many other Alaskan communities, Chugiak has relatively mild weather extremes. Another upside to my community is that I live Read More …

Short and Sweet–Gardening in Interior Alaska

It may seem that growing a garden in Interior Alaska is very challenging given the extremes in our temperatures. However with the proper varieties of plants and gardening techniques, combined with our long days of sunlight and warm summer temperatures, gardens thrive. The USDA growing zone in my north Fairbanks area is Zone 2b, it is a short season, so any techniques to lengthen the season and warm the soil can make a huge difference. Although we have long days of sunlight here, I do struggle with getting enough sun Read More …

Seward Climate – So, What’s Normal?

General Climate On the USDA Plant Hardiness Zones map, Seward is in zone 6b. However, there are many micro climates within the community. My garden is approximately six miles north of the nearest weather station at the Seward airport where “normals’ are for years 1908-2011. See link here. Generally, the sun warms the airport/downtown area early in the morning. But in the afternoon, the area cools off much earlier because of the wind off of Resurrection Bay and shade from the mountains to the west. My garden is shaded longer Read More …

Windy Mountainside Gardening in Anchorage

Wind is Always a Threat Gardening in my mountainside neighborhood is a challenge just like so many other places in Alaska. In addition to the cool temperatures and neighborhood moose and rabbits, I have quite a bit of wind to contend with. We chose our property because of it’s remote location about fifteen minutes southeast of downtown Anchorage. Once off the highway it’s another ten minutes of climbing, winding roads. It’s a really quiet setting most days but occasionally the wind picks up outside and pummels the yard and house Read More …

Gardening on the Upper Kuskokwim

Gardens Thrive in Hardiness Zone 1b Between the beginning of June and end of August, the village yards sport beautiful lawns, flower beds, hanging baskets, a variety of imported landscape trees and bushes, vegetable gardens and strawberry and raspberry patches. People in McGrath like the challenge of growing plants here in this layer of warm yet damp soil on top of permafrost. Micro-climates The local weather service is in the “downtown” area. Generally the temperatures that they announce run about 3 degrees warmer than the temperatures that we are recording Read More …

Gardening in Interior Alaska

Gardening in Interior Alaska at the edge of a lovely lake at latitude 65 degrees, Zone 2b, is filled with great rewards and challenges. Succeeding in the face of challenges sweetens the benefits and rewards of gardening in an extreme climate zone. The growing season is short, requiring frenetic gardening activity in a few short months, but weary gardeners have a long rest period during the cold, dark winters. Temperature and photo period extremes go with the latitude and challenge gardeners to figure out plants that are suited to both Read More …