This piece will hopefully capture a bit of how the 2020 summer gardening season went. This time around, we went into the season armed with information from the Master Gardener Course taken online at UAF in 2019. What good is new knowledge if you don’t use it? Better yet, if you try something new, it…
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In Alaska, starting plants indoors takes some effort. They need lights. They need good soil (eventually). And based on the part of the state you live in; they need to be done indoors for varying lengths of time. Here in Anchorage, we are cautioned to not plant outside until the leaves of the birch…
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Where I started when I didn’t know where to start. I always knew I wanted to have a vegetable garden; but when we finally bought a house with some land I didn’t know what to grow, how to grow it, and when to start. I was starting to feel a little overwhelmed because I knew…
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Mindfulness and Gardening The Benefits of Stopping, Breathing and Enjoying your Alaska Garden Gardening has consistently proven to be a healthy, mood-enhancing activity that begets numerous psychological and physical benefits. For example, gardening showed significant increases in quality of life, self-esteem, life satisfaction, happiness, and sense of community, as well as reductions in…
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Whether you are planning a new garden or have well established beds, testing your soil can provide valuable information about your garden’s fertility and help you plan additions of amendments to correct for imbalances and deficiencies. Healthy, fertile soil is the foundation of a productive garden. Photo by Author. Soil is comprised of inorganic…
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Are you new to gardening in Alaska? Are you often overwhelmed by all of the possibilities when trying to select annuals, perennials, trees, and shrubs? Do you enjoy spending winter evenings flipping through glossy garden photos for inspiration? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you will enjoy Cool Plants for Cold Climates,…
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As a gardener, I have many things to confess. The ideal image of a person bending over neat rows with gloves, apron, hat and trowel, with that odd tiny rake sitting off to the side ready to be used (does anyone ever actually use that thing?) is not me. Not even close. Confession…
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Time to light it up! The little plants are pushing their shoulders out of the soil. Within hours, they will be pushing skyward in a life saving race to find the sun. It is very important to put the light on them quickly so that they do not get too leggy in their…
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Its that time! It is the time of year – time to appease our need for the smell of soil and the love of nurturing green life. Many people spend a fortune in plants at the box stores and green houses. Good for them, there is nothing wrong with that. However, paying $2-3 per…
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