Author: ggphillips

Easy To Grow Houseplants

ggphillips

Houseplants Have Benefits Houseplants are a wonderful addition to any home. They add beauty, improve indoor air quality and uplift our spirit in the dead of winter. Some houseplants are difficult to grow, others not so much. Lets focus on a few inexpensive examples that are both common and easy to grow. One of my favorite houseplants is the snake plant (Sansevieria trifasciata). This plant is very forgiving. You can forget to water it, and it will still survive for days being completely dry. In fact, it’s better not to Read More …

Master Gardener Handbook California Edition Book Review.

ggphillips

Book Review Why would an Alaskan want to read a Master Gardener Handbook written for California? This California Master Gardener Handbook is very  well written. It is a comprehensive work written by twenty-five different authors who have both vast knowledge and experience in all aspects of how to successfully grow all kinds of plants. In addition to the authors there are eight collaborators all of whom are experts in their respective fields. The book was rigorously peer reviewed and completely scrutinized. This book was an enormous and complex project the Read More …

Why I Enrolled In The Master Gardener Online Course – And Why You Should,Too.

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Why Did I Enroll? I’m a retired and very successful farmer, yet I still took the Master Gardener Course Online. And do you know what? It was well worth my time. Yes, I already knew a lot about subjects such as edaphology, plant biology, agronomy and entomology; however, it’s important to keep up to date on the latest developments. And the Master Gardener Course got me up to speed on some important aspects of gardening/farming. For example, how to access weather data online. The course has some really amazing information Read More …

How To Protect Your Garden From Pests

ggphillips

Why Build A Fence? Mother nature can be a ruthless destroyer of a garden. As gardeners, we have to make every effort to properly choose the right location, prepare garden soil, prep the beds, sow, water, weed and shield plants from frost. And then there are the pests we have to contend with. The pests want to reap what we’ve sown; therefore, measures have to be taken to ensure that all of our planning and hard work isn’t ruined by nature — including the wind. Although the wind isn’t classified Read More …

What Basic Hand Tools And Supplies Do I Need To Start A Garden?

ggphillips

You Can Do A Lot With A Little. It doesn’t take much to get started. Firstly, we need just a few basic hand tools and lots of back and elbow grease. What do we need? A garden fork to turn and break up the soil; a shovel to move the soil around; a mattocks to dislodge rocks and cut through roots; a rake to classify and remove unwanted debris and level the beds; and a hoe to cultivate the rows and/or make furrows. We’ll also need some stakes, string, a Read More …

Planning Your Garden Quickstart Guide

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                      First Things To Think About. After you’ve chosen a suitable location for your garden (please see my previous post on that subject) now is the time to think about a garden plan. So what’s the first thing we need to think about? Probably the overall size of the garden is what we need to figure out first. The first question we should ask ourselves is “how much available time do I have to work and properly care for my Read More …

Location! Location! Location! Picking A Spot To Start A Garden.

ggphillips

Getting Started On The Right Foot Spring is here! And soon it’ll be time to get growing! And perhaps, like me, you have already set out some plants. But wait! Have you carefully considered some important facts which could make the difference between gardening success or failure? The truth is that every year many gardeners fail, because they just didn’t get started on the right foot to begin with by choosing wisely where to pick a spot to garden. Yes, location is very important. Let’s discuss some basic but essential Read More …

Pemmican is a Simple and Inexpensive High-Energy Food

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What is Pemmican? Native Americans needed a simple and reliable source of high-energy food packed with lots and lots of calories in order to sustain their outdoor lifestyle, so they developed pemmican. Today, persons who live and work in the outdoors can burn up to 4500 calories per day; therefore, a food source which is light, concentrated and has a long shelf-life is essential for those of us who wish to travel on foot in the bush. Hunters, trappers, fishermen, miners, hikers, cross-country skiers and anybody who burns a lot Read More …

Girdwood, Alaska – A Climate Profile

ggphillips

Girdwood Girdwood is a small community located 48 miles southeast of downtown Anchorage. Because Girdwood is located in a temperate rainforest, its summers are often overcast, cool and the ground is wet year round. The annual temperature usually varies between 16 to 64 °F but sometimes dip below -9 °F or rise above 72 °F. The record low was -30 °F (January 1989) and the record high was 88 °F (July 1972). A gardener can expect a typical growing season of approximately 4 to 4.5 months. In a really exceptional Read More …