We’ve now had a portion of our seeds started since early March and considering that many of these seeds were over 5-7 years old, we’ve had great results on our seed starting! Unfortunately, seeds lose their viability as they age. This means their ability to germinate will reduce. Just like in previous years, we went through our entire seed catalog of stored seeds (which includes over 245 different varieties of
Six more weeks till Winter. Or so the story goes told by Alaskan Natives and sourdoughs alike. When the fireweed has bloomed all the way to the top, we have six more weeks till the snow flies. So far this break up and then into summer, we’ve had some successes….and some failures. That’s pretty typical though. The garden is doing well but could be doing better thanks to the late
I’ve often told newer gardeners that the best thing to do is watch your yard, really watch it for a full season to get a good idea of where the sun is at any given time of the day, where the water collects and lays stagnant most often, which areas are drier, and so on. So, following my own advice, last year that is precisely what I did. Now
So now here we are, in the middle of our second spring back in Fairbanks, Alaska after a reasonably mild winter. In late March we started our seeds, mostly tomatoes, a mixture of beans and a few herbs. This, I knew going into it, would be challenging since we would be going on a weeklong vacation in May. Trying to keep little seedlings going for a week without any attention
Life in Alaska moves infinitely slower than it does where we came from on the East coast but our gardening season is much much faster. So much so that it stunned me how quickly it ended. By the middle of September we were getting close to the type of temperatures that would kill the cold loving brassicas so we knew, the time has come to harvest what was left. Gardening
Yet another step made to prepare our backyard for our move from Aberdeen, Maryland to Fairbanks, Alaska. This past weekend our goal was to dig up as many Jerusalem Sunchokes as possible and since the weather was dry and sunny we figured it was time. First a bit of history, after all, you know if you’ve kept up with me in the past I love reading the histories of each
Yet another step made to prepare our backyard for our move from Aberdeen, Maryland to Fairbanks, Alaska. This past weekend our goal was to dig up as many Jerusalem Sunchokes as possible and since the weather was dry and sunny we figured it was time. First a bit of history, after all, you know if you’ve kept up with me in the past I love reading the histories of each
BHUT JOLOKIA HARVEST TIME!Three of these hot little babies are ready! At one point this plant was an unknown. We knew we planted seeds for a Bhut Jolokia plant but were uncertain if this was one. That is until it started producing peppers, late into the season. Now lo and behold, here it is. I harvested three of the fruits and just cutting them off the plant made my throat
Once again, we’re preparing the backyard garden to be thoroughly deconstructed. We just sold our patio table set so our back porch looks a tad bare. I’m sad to see it go but we needed to remove some weight from our household goods that will be shipped. I can say now, in hindsight, I am so glad I never put a massive amount of effort into beautifying our front yard
Well, most definitely the star of the garden this year are the SUNCHOKES.I highly recommend this plant as it seemed that the less attention we gave it, the more it appreciated it. These are now approximately 15 feet tall and seem to just keep getting taller and taller every day. I am really hoping we get a good amount out of these as this years Christmas presents will be herbs,
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