Gardening in Southcentral Alaska

Is anyone interested in hearing about gardening in Southcentral Alaska...short seasons, cool soil, lots of rain. We live on the coast, tucked in by mountains, as well. Not much "soil" around here, so loam is precious.Lots of container gardening and little tricks to make the most of our warm days. I thought it might be fun to compare what we can grow in different areas.

I would! I always read about how wonderful gardening in Alaska is because of the loooong summer days. Do you grow veggies too or just flowers? I'm sure you could teach us a lot. Hows your weather this winter? Just curious if it has been unsually warm like the rest of the country.

hello Weezingreens, welcome to DG, am sure u will love it here. i live in the high desert of So. Calif.

i am very much interested on what u info u can share with us. i once saw a show on tv, the location is somewhere in Alaska where they grew cabbages to almost 100 lbs! i could hardly believe my eyes when i saw that huge cabbage.

i had a friend who used to live in Dawson Creek. she too is a gardener. we used to exchange notes in gardening way back then. pls. tell us about ur area and how u cope with gardening all year round... ma vie

Wow, Alaska?
That's one state that I've always
wanted to visit.
I'd love to hear about your gardening
there.
Welcome from Michigan!

I'd like to hear about it too :)

Me too, me too? I have often wondered how you do it?
sue

Would love to hear about it too

Wow! What a great response. I thought it sounded a bit pompous of me after I sent it off, but I think I'd like to hear about Alaska if I lived somewhere else, and I know I will harvest some info about the places you all garden.

I live on the Kenai Peninsula,on the east side, in Seward,Alaska. We have rather mild weather here. Our harbor is open all winter, with only an occasional skin of ice, due to the warm Japanese current. I'll look up some good websites for further info, since I am geography impaired!

Yes, Poppysue, we have long summer days, but they end all too soon, and many of our summer days are overcast here along the coast, so there goes the sun! Yes, we grow veggies here, too, though the results can be a bit less rewarding. Those of you with good long growing seasons would laugh at those of us in Seward who get all misty about the five zucchini we had our plant last year! Of course, all the cole plants love us, so cabbage (not the big heads like the Matanuska Valley boasts), broccoli, cauliflower, kale, etc. do quite well. Peas grow sweet & juicy, and lettuce heads are good the whole season, since the cool soil and lower temps keep things from bolting.

As for the weather,at the moment, it is snowing outside my dormer window, but we have had some unseasonably warm weather mixed with some unseasonably cold weather, so it will be a true test for some of the new perennials I tried last season.

I've got lots of great pictures, but am a little unsure how to share them here at DG. I've got them Jpg'd, but haven't figured out how to move around in this big cybergarden yet!

MaVieRose: I think your friend in Dawson Creek probably has better summers than we do here...hotter, at any rate. I've passed through there a couple times coming up the Alcan, but that's been almost 30 years ago!

We have an active garden club that meets in the winters so that we can feed our garden joneses and share information. We're too busy to meet in the summer. I have some great pics from our garden tours..will share when I figure out where to send them!

Oscarsdotter: I'm familiar with Michigan, being an old mid-west girl myself..born and raised in northern Indiana. I recall great gardens back there. My brother and I would head out to the garden with salt shakers in hand to raid the tomatoes and cucumbers. I really miss those ripe tomatoes warm from the sun!

I'd better shut up for now or they'll take my password away...is there a limit to the length of these messages?...never conversed on a forum before!..WZ

WZ, the limit is 65535 characters. Your post is only 2,539 characters, to give you an idea of how long a post truly could become. :)

(BTW - Thanks for the info - I am finding it a very interesting read)

Weezingreens... do u have caraboo, bear, and deer problems in your garden? it would seems that is the common problem of most Alaska gardeners, i've heard of.

for ur info, whenever i post jpg photo the normal size i use is 650x480 which i think is very reasonable size, i think. maybe Dave could tell u the reasonable size of photo for posting.

Thanks for the information, everybody. I think my pics are a reasonable size, but I just don't know how to submit more than one at a time. I guess that should occur on my personal page, but, as I said, I'm just getting my sea legs around here, so please be patient.

MaVieRose: We do have bear in this neck of the woods, but we're too far south for caribou. There are no deer in this area, for the most part, though Montegue Island has some small deer. There is quite a population of moose in this area. In the summer, they are inclined to visit yards and strip branches from prized trees and shrubs.

An angry moose is an awesome creature indeed, so discouraging them can be life-threatening. Rather than run from agressive action, a moose's hackles will go up and they will retaliate. I had occasion to learn this first hand two years ago when a cow moose begun munching on my little crab apple tree. I sprayed it with the hose and it stampeded toward me like a locomotive. I stepped off into a grouping of trees and she whizzed on by, Thank God. Now I just go out into the yard and make a little noise here and there that they might find irritating. My best successes in hastening their departure is to sing the theme song from Mr. Ed. Cow and calf headed off into the woods in disgust.

Actually, the most loathsome invader of the Seward gardens is the dreaded slug. I do not trust any critter that looks like a snail with little antenae until you touch them, then they turn into little crescent buggers..the eerie little shape shifters. I used a product called "Sluggo" which is made from Iron Phosphate and something like an oatmeal base. It is harmless to birds and other critters, but fatal to slugs.

Well, let me know if you have any other questions...WZ

thank for that interesting info WZ. here is a url that list plants that resistant and non resistant to deer... http://www.wvu.edu/~agexten/hortcult/treeshru/resistan.htm hope u could use it. ma vie

The only person that I can think of that is close to you is Brugcrazy - northern Vancouver Island. I'm in Vancouver and it'll take me most of a day to get up to where she is and she's a zone8/9. The pineapple express comes through here and there.
~Know what you're talking about the slugs. Nothing like a 6inch slug to wake you up in the morning.
Tell us more~~

Hi, Liz.. we don't have those big ol' banana slugs. These are smaller, but equally disgusting. The only good thing I can see about a 6" slug is that it might eat a 1" slug!

We've got a strange little ecosystem going here. We're a zone 3-5. Most everything has to be started indoors, but nothing has to be "heat tolerant". It's different up north, but here it is pretty temperate...WZ

MaVie..thanks for the link...deer aren't a problem, but moose probably like a lot of the same delicacies..WZ

to deter slugs... use sand or dried eggshells. snails can't stay either one. draw a line of sharp sand along the edges of ur plant. here a url http://www.bugspray.com/articles98/slugs.html hope it helps.

Weezingreens , I just pop-in and I did find this thread very interesting. I always wonder about gardening in Alaska and with all the responses, it made a very good educational reading.
What kind of flower / ornamental can you grow?
cristina

Weezingreens, I love this thread. I too, live in a climate much like yours. I live right on the border of zone 3 and 4. Since last year was my first year, I planted lots of stuff that I probably shouldn't have, but it's been such a beautiful winter, that I'm even expecting to see my plants that are only hardy to zone 5 pop their little heads up in the spring. Glad to meet another gardener that lives in a cold zone. Welcome to Daves Garden!
Joan

Hi, JoanJ: Yes, it sounds like we have some similarities, though I'll bet your summers are much hotter & dryer. You can grow those yummy tomatoes, cukes, and bush beans outdoors. These are greenhouse items for me. Zukes are marginal outdoor. There are parts of Alaska that are hot in the summers, too, such as Fairbanks, where it can down to 40 degrees in the winter and up to 90 degrees in the summer. My DH says he's seen it reach 100 up there. This is a very moderate climate here...seldom dipping below zero, but usually staying in the 20's in the winter, then only reaching the 70's in the hottest part of the summer. How long is your growing season? Our last threat of frost is about June 1, and we can expect frost again in mid-late September. If we have similar plant options, I can share seeds with you. I hope to get on the trade list here soon.

MaVie: Thanks for the slug tips. I like the "Sluggo" because it holds up well in the rainy times..it's little compressed pellets..and I have too many beds to build sand moats around them. Not to mention, and you're going to love this!..we don't really have any sand on this side of the peninsula! Our beaches are rocky...I've got to find a way to send you guys some more photos!

Cristina: Boy, what kind of ornamentals can I grow! Lots and lots. Here's a short list of the best perennials: Delphinium, Foxglove, Oriental Poppy, Himalayan Poppy, Bleeding Heart, Cranesbill, Dianthus, Phlox, Trollius, Ligularia, Campanula, Primula, Columbine, Lychnis, Mt. Bluet, Arabis, Aubrieta, Cerestium, Lady's Mantle, Forget-me-not, Lupine, Yarrow, Bergenia, Shasta Daisy, English Daisy, Sedum,and probably a lot more.

Weezingreens, yes our climates do sound similar alright, although here it can get down to 30 or 40 below zero in the winter. Not often, but it does happen. Our summers can and do get over 100 degrees frequently, plus we have wind most of the time, which dries things out quickly. Last frost to first frost is usually May 15 to around mid to late September. Sometimes it can be later. We extend our growing season by using hot caps to cover tender bedding plants in the spring, and then cover with blankets in the fall. We can grow all types of vegetables here I think. The only one I've ever had lots of trouble with is parsnips. I love them, and they should do well in the sandy soil we have, but I can't seem to get them to germinate. I would love to trade seeds sometime.

Thanks for the reply, Joan. I'm sure there are some varieties we would have in common. We extend our season much the same as you, but tenting our raised beds or draping row cover on the nights we anticipate frost. Generally, our climate seems much more temperate than yours. When I get my list of trading or SASA seeds ready, I'll give you a heads-up..WZ

Thanks, I'll let you know what I have when I get it all figured out too. I'm still redoing and designing gardens on paper. LOL! I've been doing that all winter, and when it finally comes time to do them, I will probably do something totally different. It's fun to plan and dream though.

Simply fascinating WZ....but we have anoter member from Vancouver also, and that would be Pebble.

"eyes"

To this born and bred Southern girl in central Texas now, this is a fascinating thread. I always marvel at the tourist material that shows lush gardens in Alaska. Heck, I marvel at anything growing above the Mason-Dixon line. But if I could grow Edelweiss, I would love it, if I could also have all the other things I have now. Keep up the info, please!

Thanks, Aimee. I have a garden friend that has some Edelweiss, so I purchased some seed this year. I was pretty proud last year to look around at tables and tables of plants I started from seed in my little basement. I didn't visit a single greenhouse last year, so all the flowers in my yard were mine...Of course, I just didn't have time to visit other greenhouses, or I'd have bought their stuff too! One of the comments I hear from visitors is that our flower colors are so vibrant...more vivid than they have at home...which could be anywhere. Down here in Seward we do have a pretty lush summer environment (we also have a few lushes in the bars downtown...but that's another story!). I think our plants work hard to grow and bloom as fast as possible because the window of time is so short. Of course, we can't just throw seeds outdoors and expect blooms and produce. Everything, including my lettuce is begun weeks before the last frost. We work hard to garden around here..including getting soil to plant in. On this side of the peninsula, we are mostly gravel base...good drainage, but not much real soil. Most serious gardeners have it brought down in dump truck loads from Anchorage, though some local soil is available when someone cleans out an old horselot or the like! Lots of us compost to ammend what soil we have. Composting is work up here, as well, since the temps don't get very hot up here. The first of our marriage, my DH threw some leaves into a wire cage and waited for compost to happen. We moved the undecomposed pile two years later! But, I guess composting is another whole topic. In spite of our heavy rainfall and proximity to the ocean, I don't consider it humid here. Even in summer, you can open a box of crackers or chips, and they don't get stale...not the case back in northern Indiana where I was raised. Some days the air felt like pudding back there! I guess it's always a trade off with the different zones. I can grow certain plants without effort, but others will never grow well here. That's what makes these forums so much fun...WZ