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For some reason this Morden Fireglow rose bush thrives in my perennial flower bed. All other varieties other than the hardy Hansa Rugosa have died. Some didn’t made it through a winter and others grow for several years before dried thorny branches simply won’t yield a single green leaf. I had to part with two Purple Pavers this year, replacing them with dependable Hansa. Four years old, this gorgeous fireglow is flowering and producing new shoots daily. I won’t question why, I simply rejoice it in it’s beauty and enjoy the fact that it is still alive and happy.

Gail Niebrugge, painter of flowers

My garden is host to ten Brussels Sprouts plants, each are sporting rows of miniature sprouts climbing the thick, stout stalks. This vegetable will continue to grow and mature well after the first frosts of September, and will actually become sweeter and more tender as a result of the cold weather. I will cull the sprouts from their stalks sometime during mid September, blanching, vacuum sealing and freezing them for use during winter. Time for tending my garden is growing to an end for several weeks, my Artist-in-Residence at Denali National Park is nearly here and I need to get packed and ready.

Gail Niebrugge, Landscape painter

I have about a dozen of these tough, hardy, dependable Hansa Rugosa bushes in the yard. Once they begin to bloom they provide an abundance of roses, the ground is soon carpeted with colorful petals and the plants continue to produce multitudes of buds for months. It doesn’t seem that anything can harm them, during winter some are hidden under huge piles of snow accumulated from plowing the drive, others stand as stark prickly silhouettes against wind blown snow drifts. Whatever the reason, they flourish in my garden and they are loved and cherished.

Gail Niebrugge, flower artist

My garden is yielding huge quantities of succulent tasty vegetables, more than we can use, so we share the bounty with neighbors and friends. It is going to be hard to be away for ten days the first of August doing my stint as Artist-in-Residence in Denali National Park. When I scheduled my dates last winter I didn’t take into account that the garden would be at its peak yield.

Here is part of tonight’s dinner. We’ve found that turnip is fabulous and sweet eaten raw with a dip as are the carrots, we bar-b-que beet slices coated lightly with olive oil, kosher salt and freshly ground pepper. Yum, delicious! Zucchini and yellow squash are waiting in the refrigerator along with snap peas and the small shoots of broccoli that grow after the big heads are harvested.

Gail Niebrugge, Alaska landscape painter

The perennials along the walk to the studio front door are beginning to bloom, wow, it is going to be a riot of color this year! These are three Asiatic Lily plants, I have a total of ten in this flower bed. I’m going to miss some of the bloom while I’m serving as Artist-in-Residence in Denali for 10 days in August.

Gail Niebrugge, Alaska flower painter

The second round of cauliflower are maturing in the garden.  This one will be ready to pick in a day or two.  My plants are growing by leaps and bounds this summer, I have a small White Spruce that has more than 28″ of new growth and most have over a foot!  Love the weather this year, perfect for growing.

Gail Niebrugge, Alaska painter

In keeping with my plan to re-forest our acre of weeds and rocks we ordered more trees from our favorite tree farm; Baker’s Acres 674 W. Selina Lane, Wasilla, AK 99654 Tel: 907/357-4175, by appointment only.
Ed Baker carefully delivered three Lilac’s, two Caragana’s, and one superb 7′ White Spruce.  The Lilac and Caragana will be planted along the fence at the property line, and the spruce will be added to my collection of transplanted trees out by the road.  Someday, probably when I’m nearing 90, we will have a beautiful forest again replacing all the trees that were ripped out to build the house.

Bob planting a Lilac along the fence.  Ed grows a type of Lilac that the moose won’t eat.  This is important because our yard became a salad bowl for moose last winter.

Gail Niebrugge, Alaskan landscape artist

It seems like my zucchini grows an inch a day, it is nearly a foot long now and shows no sign of slowing down.  I’m kept hopping to stay up with the bounty from the vegetable garden this summer.  Everything is juicy, sweet and crisp.  Love summer and fresh veggies!

Gail Niebrugge, art of Alaska

My vegetable garden is in full bloom, yesterday I harvested broccoli, cauliflower, turnips and beets.  I thinned the carrots and have a bag full of tender babies for snacks.  Pods are forming on the pea vines, squash is 6″ long, and brussel sprouts are emerging along the tall leafy stalks.  Life is good.  Nasturtiums are flowering throughout the garden and bring bees who pollinate squash.  I pollinated with a tiny paintbrush before I began including flowers with the vegetables.  Pollinating is like painting in the garden!

Gail Niebrugge, Alaska artist

Our new patch of grass looks like a green velvet carpet thanks to plentiful summer rainfall.  We are the do-it-yourself-whenever-possible kind of gardeners and it has taken four years to complete the front yard at the studio/residence.

Last summer Bob designed a system to irrigate pumping directly from the lake, the plants have thrived from the nutrient laden warm water.  Vegetables flourish in fourteen raised beds and we’ve already harvested some lettuce and radishes.

Deep blue violet wild iris adds a dash of color to the back lawn.  This is what summer is all about, I love to garden and am eager to learn.  Tending plants between stints at the easel breaks up my time indoors, stretches stiff muscles and feeds the brain.

Gail Niebrugge, Alaska landscape artist

We had the good fortune to find Nate Pokryfki, the owner of Soft Coat an asphault sealing company, to seal our driveway.  He and his employees did an outstanding job.  Now we must stay off the freshly tarred drive for 36 hours.  It has been a challenge trying to keep the fresh hydroseeding watered out by the road on the left side of the drive, lots of walking back and forth around the garages, through the garden to the back of the house.  And carrying groceries, frames and art from the road across the lawn to the studio.  I really didn’t think about how convenient the driveway is until I can’t use it.

Gail Niebrugge, Alaska landscape painter

As part of the final front yard landscaping we decided to place a big rock on the lawn out by the road with our house numbers to make it easier for people to find the studio.  Fritz Hoffman of Rock Ridge Services took me to the Rock Alaska Quarry in Eagle River to find the perfect stone.  We chose this irregular, strangely shaped two and a half ton beauty.

Fritz and his helper, Duane Zander, unloaded the giant into a hole dug on our lawn.

They wrestled the behemoth for several hours turning it carefully to find the balance point, it tipped one way then the other and took a lot of patience.

After a lot of thought and discussion we declared the boulder installed!  It has interesting lines and is quite sculptural.  Now all we need to do is find some bronze house numbers and mount them on the front.  Thanks Fritz, Rock Ridge rocks!

More tomorrow,

Gail Niebrugge, landscape artist

I am fortunate to have a partner in my planting, my granddaughter Sydney.  Between the two of us we were able to get all the garden beds and flower pots done in half a day.  She is a cheerful, spunky helper.  The weather report forecasts that our sunny warm days are coming to an end, and fortunately my garden and yard are done.  Now I can go back to the easel with only short daily interruptions to inspect the plants and water.  May in Alaska was awesome this year!

Gail Niebrugge, artist

I have to admit that these past two weeks of sun and warm weather have pulled me away from my easel and tempted me to spend more than the normal amount of time in the yard.  This is the second big pile of wood chips we’ve garnered from the cutting and shredding of several dying trees in our woods.

My grandson, Reilly, is helping me spread the chips along the edges of our new garden path.  I’m sorry, but this tounge twister keeps reeling through my mind and I can’t get it to stop.  It is driving Reilly crazy.  “How many chips does a wood chuck chip before a wood chuck could chuck chips” or something like that……  I think the sun is getting to me….

Gail Niebrugge, artist

Seeds for Carrots, Peas, Sugar Snaps, Beets, Turnips, and Radishes were planted two weeks ago in the warm soil of the raised beds in the vegetable garden.  I also planted seed potatoes; Yukon Gold and Gold Rush.  The beds with Carrots, Beets and Turnips have been covered with plastic painters drop cloth to keep the soil moist and warm.  I will remove this cover as soon as the seeds sprout, any day now.  This week I will plant the starts for Broccoli, Cauliflower, Brussels Sprouts, Yellow Squash and Zucchini.  The nights should stay above freezing from now on, although I will cover the Squash if it threatens to be cold.

For color and fun I fill pots with Nasturtium flowers and sprinkle them around in empty spaces.  By late July this will be an area of bountiful beauty and ripe vegetables, provided the moose do not discover this treasure.  Last year the moose ate all the mature Broccoli in my neighbors garden.  We really need to think about moose protection for the garden and the trees.  I hate the idea of a fence, but it may be the solution.  Something to ponder.  Ideas anyone???

Gail Niebrugge, Alaska artist

Before we knew it the job of building a new path to the garden was done.  The last step was to compact the gravel with a hand-roller filled with water.  The path will stay this way until next year or until I decide what to spread on the surface.  I’m not sure if I want tiny pebbles or something else, maybe it will stay just as it is.

Next I need to finish spreading wood chips along to edges to keep the weeds in check.  My original pile made from the dead Cottonwood tree is nearly gone and I’m looking for a new source for chips.

It is time to get back to the easel and paint and concentrate my spare time planting the vegetable garden.  In Alaska we have a small window of time to plant, it all happens around the Memorial Day weekend.  I’m hardening off the starts now and planted seeds in the raised beds last week.  I enjoy working in the yard, it leaves me satisfied and content.

More tomorrow,

Gail Niebrugge, Alaska artist

At this stage I requested help, I needed some additional brawn to spread the 10 yards of 1″ Minus gravel along the 125′ paper trail.  Bob generously gave up a week at the gym and helped me.  Every night we found pain in muscles that we never knew existed.  I found that soaking in the hot tub each evening helped ease the stiffness and pain, that and some red wine.  My painting hand began to close down and form itself into the shape of a wheelbarrow grip, and without gentle massage each morning it would not open and work properly.  Strange things happen to muscles and joints through the aging process.  Oh, the joys of growing old!

But, this project was graced by several weeks of sunny, warm spring weather.  It felt good to be working outdoors after a long, dark and very cold winter.  Robins greeted us every morning, Bonaparte gulls decorated the tall spruce and kept a noisy vigil, Tree Swallows arrived inspecting the nest boxes, and we watched the ice thaw on the lake.  We were immersed and surrounded in the re-birth of spring.  I found a sense of peace and rest, my soul rejoyced.

More tomorrow,

Gail Niebrugge, Alaska landscape painter

A photo of the beginning construction of my garden path with black weed barrier outlined in river rock.  The trail is 125′ in length and 5′ wide and took several days to prepare.  I began this project in early spring before the weeds took over.

The tiny trees were planted two years ago in the hopes that someday this area will become a forest again.  I will probably not see this in my lifetime, spruce trees grow very slow in Alaska just a few inches each year.  Nevertheless, I had to start somewhere, and I’m re-placing trees that were torn out during the construction of our studio/residence.

More tomorrow,

Gail Niebrugge, Alaska artist

A huge part of our new yard is not landscaped and is growing a bumper crop of clover and weeds.  It wouldn’t matter as much if it weren’t right out front along the road for all to see.  To my chagrin most of the trees were removed during the construction of the house/studio, my goal is to re-plant and create a new wooded area with a nice path leading to the garden.   And my budget only allows me to do it on the “cheap”.

One economical way to keep the weeds in check is to spread a layer of wood chips made from chipping the dead Cottonwood tree.  Since this area is boggy in the spring a nice firm path made from a layer of  l” Minus gravel will make a stable, mud-free walkway.  I made the path wide enough for my ATV and garden trailer to traverse.  The first step was to lay down black weed barrier and outline the edges with river rock.  I recycled, each and every rock was hand dug from our yard during previous landscape efforts.  I could feel the pain as I lugged the stones from my hoard pile and carefully layed them in place.  The warm sun of our beautiful spring made this job more enjoyable.

More tomorrow,

Gail Niebrugge, Alaska artist

Time to paint again.  For the next month I will try to squeeze the yard work in between painting sessions.  I need time to stretch while painting, so going into the garden to do a chore or two during the middle of the day for an hour or so works for me.  The first project on the easel is to paint a big close-up of a Himalayan Blue Poppy, one that grew in my garden last summer.  I begin with a loose pencil sketch on a stretched canvas.

Gail Niebrugge, Alaska flower artist