My Alaska garden

[Blue_In_AK]

Spring came early this year. My garden has been in for about a week and looks pretty happy. With our long days, everything grows fast.



Rhubarb and strawberries along the fence. Columbines, wild roses and forget-me-nots in the corner.


Tomatoes, cucumbers and hot peppers in the greenhouse

[uppityperson]

1. Very nice. Broccoli or cabbage? Your tomatoes are growing well.

[Blue_In_AK]

2. Broccoli AND cabbage (red)

Also three kinds of kale, several lettuces, zucchini and yellow squash, sugar snap peas and snow peas, purple bush beans, swiss chard, beets, radishes, and various and sundry herbs and "herb." Strawberries and rhubarb along the fence.

[uppityperson]

3. Excellent! I love the trellis also.

Can you grow potatoes or is the season too short, ground not warm enough for them? I know brassicas do well, but not sure about in the ground stuff.

[Blue_In_AK]

4. I grew a few potatoes a couple years ago, but

i don't think it was sunny enough for them to do as well as they should have. My tiny yard is on the north side of the house, so it's in shade quite a bit of the time. I've had good success most years with the things that I've planted this year, so I'm hopeful. We're supposed to have a particularly warm summer because of the El Nino so the squash and beans should do well.

[uppityperson]

5. I am glad to finally get a warm year, am glad am not down in CA though even here we

are very low on snowpack. I love this time of year, doing the garden, trying to remember to space those little plants far enough apart.

I've been growing several kinds of spuds, including local Ozettes. I am trying to build up my stock of them, thought I had enough last year to eat some as well as save for this year but my brother in law found out about them so sent home a bag with them instead of eating them. Maybe this year they'll do great.
http://www.specialtyproduce.com/produce/Ozette_Potatoes_7208.php http://www.potatogarden.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=PG&Product_Code=77OZE&Category_Code=NSP

I've compared my garden with family in France and theirs grow so much bigger faster. They are on the English channel and while our day temps are the same, their night temps stay higher than here. We get your cold water coming down, they get the warmer water coming up.

I love seeing what grows easily in different places, very interesting.

[libodem]

14. Speaking of spuds

The neighbor gave me a potato grower cage thingie. I lined it with paoer and put the pieces of potato inside of it. I tried to take the picture so my seedy asparagus shows up. The nasturtium, just bloomed a little yesterday and the pumpkin and squash are doing okay.

[img][/img]

[uppityperson]

17. That looks like an interesting way to grow them. Let me know how it does, thanks

[libodem]

18. Who knows?

This is Idaho after all. It's an experiment. Hoping it works.

[alfie]

6. I love the layout of your flower garden

Looks like you could wander through and find treasured plants hiding among the others.

[dixiegrrrrl]

7. What temp was it when you took the pics of the outdoor garden?

Everything looks wonderful for so early.

[Blue_In_AK]

8. Yesterday was 68 around 5:00 p.m. When I took these pics.

It's been in the 60s for about a week, 50s overnight.

Spring was quite early this year. We had a long period of no snow at the end of winter. Once the birch leaves started popping, it was just a matter of three or four days until everything was fully leafed out. We are told here that when the birch leaves are as big as squirrel's ears, it's okay to plant. That came maybe 10 days earlier in May than usual.

[Botany]

9. Your neighbors are gonna love your garden

Your tomatoes are booming! How warm does it get in the greenhouse?

[Blue_In_AK]

10. I have a tall fence.

I remember one summer before I had the fence up, a moose came in and ate six almost fully developed cabbages, then had diarrhea in front of my door. I'd never seen moose poop that looked like that. LOL.

The greenhouse gets pretty hot in the afternoon when the sun is shining, up to 120 degrees if I don't open the door. The tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers appreciate the heat.

[libodem]

11. Color me impressed

I love it! I moved to my new place in December. We had an early heavy snow last November, that took down the leaves that hadn't fallen, yet.(most of them) When I moved in I had a shitstorm of wet leaves. The garden spot had already been used for a lawn clipping dump. So I piled 4 feet of leaves on top. My new garden is a mess but I have been working the edges. I established some asparagus which has now gone to seed and planted an early crop of snap peas against the garden shed. They are thriving and
have some blooms.

I have a few veggies but my deal is the sedim and flowers. My place faces north. The front is shady and so is the front of the backyard fence. I threw down shade garden mix seeds and got a crop of fuchsias. The front ones are starting to open some are orange pink and some purple pink.
[img][/img]
I tore out a well established fir tree shaped like an umbrella. It was a yard hog right in the middle of everything. I started wacking and with the help of the neighbors it's gone and strawberries are in its place. They are just setting on. I have a few red ones already.

[Blue_In_AK]

12. Beautiful flowers!

[libodem]

13. Why thank you

This has been fun to see what blooms out of the shade mix. There are some that look like miniature snapdragons in a variety of colors. The fuchsias just opened, today.. I've been waiting impatiently.

[Blue_In_AK]

15. I planted an Alaska wildflower mix several years ago,

started them all carefully in flats, and now they come back every year. Some are annuals and some perennials. The annuals self-seed enough that they keep coming back, and the lupines, columbines, Maltese cross and daisies are all very well established now. I love seeing how the gardens change year to year.

[libodem]

16. That sounds beautiful

I love those medow mixes with poppies and corn flowers.

Your vegetable garden really looks nice. Mine is full of compost in the making.

[uppityperson]

19. That is beautiful. It is so fun, seeing how gardens evolve and change

Sounds like a good base for a ,garden all that composting grass and leaves.

[libodem]

20. My actual garden spot is the rockiest dirt ever

And all the composting vegetation seems to be over a pit of some type. It will be a while before it all breaks down and I can see exactly what I've got. There was also a wood plie and a pile of decorative rocks under a tarp, under the branches and leaves. The rocks were a real boon.