Tag: Alaska Gardening

Spice Up Your Garden with Nasturtiums

Boreal Bioscapes

If you are looking for a striking annual that flourishes in Alaska and doubles as a culinary delight, you may consider giving nasturtiums a try. By following a few simple tips, these flowers are a fun and easy addition to containers and garden beds, and are a hit with adults and children alike. Nasturtiums (genus Tropaeolum), have lush foliage, vibrant flowers, a pleasant fragrance, and are attractive to garden pollinators. However, it is their flavor that really makes them stand out in the crowded world of Alaskan annuals. In fact, Read More …

Modern Farmsteading: Getting Started

Sarah Richards

By Sarah Richards After years of daydreaming about having a farm of our own, the day is finally upon us. Toting a little log cabin, our partially cleared acre is surrounded by the hushed boreal forest. We call it Alaska Tiny Farm. My husband and I live here with our daughters (ages seven and five), two dogs, sixteen chickens, a rabbit, and two thousand red wiggler worms. Staking its claim off a quiet dirt road on the edge of the eastern Alaska Range, our new home is both remote and Read More …

Gardening in Alaska just got cooler with “Cool Plants for Cold Climates” by Brenda C. Adams

Boreal Bioscapes

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, the latest book by award-winning Alaskan garden designer Brenda C. Adams. Cool Plants for Cold Climates aims to provide you with the tools necessary to create beautiful flower gardens in Alaska. Organized into five concise, Read More …

Confessions of a Gardener

Grace

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 number 1: Clothes don’t make the gardener.   I am the person who gets out of their car after work to “quickly” go check on a plant that has been on my mind, and is pulled out Read More …

Seed Starting for Beginners Part 2

sjkesting

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 sun worshiping pursuit. I like to purchase the fluorescent lights at the local hardware store. They are typical “shop lights” and come with a plug. Unless you are an electrician, be careful not to buy the ones Read More …

Seed starting for Beginners Part 1

sjkesting

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 cabbage plant makes me wonder why they don’t just buy cabbage at the grocery store. Not only is it expensive, but missing the seed starting is missing one of the best parts! Watching and nurturing the Read More …

Importance of hardening off plants and soil testing prior to planting

Heidi Rader

By Natalie Jo Cossette, an Alaska Master Gardener The month of May rolled around and I was chomping at the bit to get into the garden. I tried to satisfy my urges with starting seeds in the garage under lights but it wasn’t enough. The beautiful weather called to me and I knew better than to put my plants outside before the last weekend in May. But the raised bed I’d constructed last year was ready and I hadn’t been able to have a garden for four seasons, so I Read More …

Alan Jackson was right, it is okay to be “Little Bitty”: A small garden plot in Alaska

Heidi Rader

By Andrea Hood, an Alaska Master Gardener This has been a growing season of revised expectations, and you know what? It has turned out just fine! Finding a great spot to garden can sometimes be a challenge. For those of us with the gardening bug, winter time is for dreaming of glorious spaces filled with fruiting vines, flower laden bushes, and vegetable patches overflowing with zucchini and tomatoes. In the spring, we receive or catalogs and make lists. All of those plans were shot earlier this year with news of Read More …

Marigolds: Edible, Beneficial, and Beautiful

Heidi Rader

By Mary Hinkley, an Alaska Master Gardener in Tok, Alaska   I believe in marigolds. Though marigold’s pest resistant qualities are mentioned on many of their seed packets, I feel they’re under rated. Most of my raised beds have a marigold border. This serves two purposes; the garden is beautiful and it’s safe from pest invasion. Early this season I went to the local nursery to get some for my greenhouse and found that it was too early for their marigold crop, so I bought some seeds, went home, and Read More …