Category: Hints for Alaska Gardeners

Lessons in the garden for the teacher

ecalexander

After the hustle and bustle of a school year, I often find myself in the garden unwinding and thinking about all that happened and how to make things better for next year. Many times I’ve found myself framing gardening techniques within the context of teaching practices as a best method for positive outcomes both in the garden and the classroom. For context, my garden is located eight miles north of the Arctic Circle, in a fly-in only community which doubles the cost of any outside materials for production. The same Read More …

If gardening brings me a bushel of peace–I’ll take it!

nctruitt

An unknown author reportedly said, “Gardening is cheaper than therapy and you get tomatoes.” I appreciate this because I am a psychologist, however, it is truly my goal to be a good gardener. I gardened with my father and mother when I was a child growing up in Colorado. We had a very large rose garden and I learned how to prune them and prepare the plants for the Colorado  winter. My father taught me the basics of gardening vegetables. As a side note, my father just turned 84 years Read More …

Mushroom Gardening in Ketchikan

cjdavidshofer

My Mushroom Garden in rain country! My wife and I recently got married June 21st 2015, and bought a house on an open gravel pad in Ketchikan, Alaska. It’s a 3 bedroom 1.5 bath fixer upper but has great potential–something my wife (Amanda) saw when we first took a look at the place. I saw a lot of work! Replacement of windows, siding and remodeling the kitchen was just a start. We took on the challenge and we are loving the place as we see it change from day to Read More …

3R Potatoes or… What Do You Do When the Kitchen Gives You a Case of Sprouting Potatoes?

banorman2

I love trying new things and learning. More importantly, I love learning alongside my students. This was my second year of teaching in Nenana. I teach Life Skills and Art in grades 9-12 during the day and after school I run our 21st Century Community Learning Center where we have 4H, Art, Science, Homework, and Robotics clubs along with a few other programs. During the after school programs, I get the opportunity to work with students in grades K-12. During both 4H and Life Skills, we cover nutrition and growing Read More …

From Rubbish To Radishes

rkboettcher

Growing up in rural Missouri, I never imagined myself ever living in rural Alaska and though there are plenty of differences, my childhood experiences have certainly prepared me for, even made me well-suited to, living off the Alaska road system. I am the product of a Depression-era father and an East German Communist escapee mother which made for an interesting combination of conservatism and organic lifestyle that many long for these days. We reduced, reused and recycled out of necessity before it came into fashion and we were taught it Read More …

Bonding with employees while gardening for a local food pantry

sjkesting

Plant a Row for the Hungry I own a small business in East Anchorage. My business has absolutely nothing to do with gardening but we all love to eat and enjoy the great outdoors so gardening interests many of my employees. My business is a small group that loves to be a part of our local community with a quarterly volunteer project. Last year we started doing a group gardening project with the product donated to a local food bank. This idea came from Alaska Mill and Feed’s program, “Plant Read More …

Sensory Gardens for Children With Special Needs

kkneill

I am a Teacher’s Assistant in a Life Skills 2 classroom. The majority of our students are on the Autism Spectrum and are non-verbal. There are many challenges working with our students. I try to make these challenges less stressful by creating positive learning experiences. I have chosen to use indoor container gardening for our sensory garden due to the fact that several of our students are flight risks. Container gardens also make it easier to garden throughout the school year and our students can more easily see the growing Read More …

Gardening with Dogs

jmclay

We have always had dogs in our home and to us they are family. They go everywhere with us and the garden is no exception. Each dog has their own personality and each one has a different favorite pastime in the garden. One loved raspberries, one watermelon berries, one pea pods and pea shoots and one baby kohlrabi, broccoli and cauliflower plants. As each dog grew up we adapted our gardens to prevent the dogs from destroying the space or eating more than their share of the bounty. If you Read More …