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I peeked under the big leaves of the Brussels Sprout plant and found the vegetable growing quite nicely. We won’t harvest these until after the first frost, sometime after Labor Day. So far most of the vegetables in my first year garden have done well, the bush beans are a flop but everything else did fine. I won’t know about the potatoes until mid-September when we dig them out. That is always fun, sort of like searching for Easter eggs.

Gail Niebrugge, Alaska Art

It is time to share some of my garden favorites since I spend time in the yard almost every day.  Puttering around in the garden seems to recharge my energy, soothes my soul, and connects me to nature. There is something satisfying about digging dirt with your hands, deadheading flowers, pulling weeds, adjusting the wood chips to cover bare spots, and watching small buds bloom into beautiful flowers or tasty vegetables. Last year I planted five Himalayan Blue Poppy perennials, sadly this year only three came back and just two of the plants bloomed. They are gorgeous.  Some say these plants are easy to grow but they seem sort of temperamental to me.  I hope all three return to bloom next year.

Gail Niebrugge, Artist of Alaska

The cauliflower in the garden is reaching maturity. I covered the heads with leaves, but they outgrew the cover and started getting sunburned and turning pink along the exposed edges. I picked larger leaves and tucked them in to keep the head pure white. By the way, we already ate this one and it was tender, and tasty!

Gail Niebrugge, Alaska Artist

I talked to Patrick, the owner of Applied Organics, about the growing population of ducks dining on the corn gluten weed seed killer that he spread on our lawn last month. He was mortified, ours was the first lake property he has serviced and has never had this problem before. The corn gluten came in small pellets, just perfect for waterfowl to nibble. On his next visit Patrick assured me he would reapply new gluten, and this time use the powdered version. Meanwhile, I’m spending a lot of time cleaning poop off of the dock.

Gail Niebrugge, Alaska Artist

I was excited to see Ed Baker arrive with his trailer load of spruce trees. With the aid of his helper they carefully unloaded the trees with roots balled in burlap and gave us detailed directions on how to plant. If all goes well in ten years or so, our yard will be a forest again. I love trees!

Gail Niebrugge, Alaska Artist

Ed Baker using his “story pole” to check the height of a beautiful black spruce at his tree farm. We ordered several 5′ tall spruce trees to plant in the yard this summer to replace the forest that was cleared for the building site. These are one of the heartiest trees in Alaska and can withstand strong winds and cold temperatures. They are slow growers, but in a few years should be large enough to create some areas of privacy in the yard. Ed will dig up each tree and deliver sometime next week.

Gail Niebrugge, Alaska Artist

An unforseen by-product of using Corn Gluten as a weed killing agent is that it has attracted ducks and birds to dine on the lawn. Several pair of Mallard Ducks and a bevy of assorted birds are happily gorging themselves with the corn pellets. I wonder if enough will remain to do the job of killing weeds? Patrick at Applied Organics said he would spread another coat and use the powdered form instead of the pellets at his next visit.

Gail Niebrugge, Alaska Artist

Our fragile first year lawn needed some nutrition and because of its proximity to the lake we were hesitant to use chemicals. We found Patrick Hoosier, the owner of Applied Organics, Anchorage, Alaska, who specialized in organic lawn maintenance and hired him to fertilize and kill weeds. First he spread Corn Gluten to kill all the weed seeds sown this year. He advised we would have to hand-pull all the weeds that were germinated last year. Then, he applied Compost Tea to fertilize.

Patrick and his wife applying Compost Tea. Hopefully this will work and our lawn will become healthy, thick, and green.

Gail Niebrugge, Alaska Artist

I love to grow Snap Peas, Snow Peas, and Green Beans. Some varieties will grow up to 6′ tall and need a trellace for support. We built these simple trellises with 2′x2′ wood frames and garden twine for the grid. In my last garden I experimented with some scrap wire mesh, and later built very “artsy” structures out of twisted and bent willow branches. I’d like to do that again, but this year the simple wood and string approach will suffice until I have more time.

More tomorrow.

Gail Niebrugge, Alaskan Artist

By mid May the soil in the raised beds is ready for planting seeds and potatoes. I have cut several varieties of seed potatoes into pieces, each piece contains at least one eye and after they dry for a day I will plant them. This year I’ve chosen Yukon Gold, Fingerlings, Reds, and German Butterball. It is fun to watch them grow, and even more rewarding to dig up the mature potatoes after a few September frosts.

More tomorrow.

Gail Niebrugge, Alaska Artist

Bob is hard at work finishing the raised beds for our new vegetable garden. My job was to fill them with topsoil. My arms, back, and legs are much stronger now, from shoveling dirt into the wheelbarrow and dumping it into these tall planters. I like the height, I won’t have to bend over so much when planting or weeding. Bob put a trim along the top edge that will be a great space to stash tools, phone, camera, waterbottle, or whatever else I might be toting around with me. Planting must wait until Memorial Day weekend when we are safe from overnight frosts.

Gail Niebrugge, Alaska Artist

Part of my landscaping plan is to artfully arrange a few boulders in the woodchips along the driveway in the front of the studio, and plant hearty roses in between.  I drove to Rock Alaska Quarry in Eagle River, Alaska, and selected a few small rocks and one larger boulder. The biggest one was about 1500 lbs., not quite a ton. It was very hard for me to visualize how these rocks would look in my yard, the quarry is huge, and the rocks I’ve selected are but a pebble in the bucket (so to speak). From the back of a dump truck they were unloaded into a pile, and I soon realized that they’d have to be rearranged.  We moved them into place by wrapping a tow strap around each one and dragging it with our pickup truck.

More tomorrow.

Gail Niebrugge, Alaska Artist

Part of the job of keeping our woods healthy is to thin out the standing dead trees. This not only allows sunlight to reach the small spruce growing underneath, but eliminates the hazard of falling limbs, or the wind downing trees onto the house. We found some great tree jockeys at Brandlen Tree Care, a Matanuska Valley owned and operated business, who climbed these big, dead Cottonwoods with chainsaws and carefully cut them down, section by section. Now our woods are safe and look beautiful. I can’t wait for the trees to turn green in May.

Gail Niebrugge, Alaska Artist

It took a couple of days, but we got all the woodchips spread. The muscles in my back, legs, arms and hands are protesting from the increased activity, but it felt good to be working outdoors in the sun. Now I’m looking for a few large (huge) boulders to place near the circle of dirt in the middle of the chips, then I’ll bring in some topsoil to mound around the boulders and plant some hardy roses. It will be interesting to see if my landscape plan changes as we proceed. Meanwhile, the 4″ layer of woodchips should serve to slow down the growth of weeds, and that is a good thing.

More tomorrow.

Gail Niebrugge, Alaskan Artist

Me working in the front yard of the Niebrugge Studio/Residence shoveling woodchips. This will be the second summer in our new home, and about a half acre still needs to be landscaped. Part of the yard will remain forested, we thinned the dead trees and hauled away broken branches until it is quite pleasant now to walk through the woods. Along the outer edges of the forest we plan to use woodchips to transition from the driveway to the natural ground cover of leaves and mulch under the trees. We figured it would take about 50 yards of woodchips to complete the job. That is a lot of wheelbarrow loads and a lot of raking for our aging senior bodies, but we are determined to do this ourselves.

More tomorrow.

Gail Niebrugge, Alaska Artist

The landscape at Niebrugge Studio covered in fresh snow.

I promised to write a series on the Business of Art and the Artist and I will, but sometimes I just have to stop and “smell the roses” so to speak. The landscape outside is absolutely staggering in its beauty, and yesterday while the sun was shining, I drove all around the valley snapping photos for future painting reference material. And, today a reporter from Channel 2 News, Anchorage, will be here interviewing Bob and I for a segment in the news tonight. So, I guess, this is part of the business of art. Be flexible and don’t pass up good opportunities.

Gail Niebrugge, Alaska Artist

Gail and son Ron skating on her new ice rink

My family gave me an ice skating rink for Christmas! After a big holiday meal, my son, grand kids, and son-in-law took the snow blower, shovels, and brooms down to the lake and created an ice skating rink. Beneath the layer of fluffy new snow was the smooth wind polished frozen surface of the lake perfect for ice skating! Not only did they build a nice sized rink, but they added an extended loop trail off to one side. Now when I take stretching breaks from the easel I have choices; shovel snow, go skating, or ski.  Winter fun.
Gail Niebrugge, Alaska Artist

We love snow and it was beautiful outside at Christmas with almost a foot of the new fluffy stuff, but along with all of its splendor comes additional work. Bob had to run the snow blower on the driveway almost every day for a week. Each day all the walkways, driveway and patio would be nicely shoveled and cleared and by the next morning it would have to be done all over again. Regardless, a good layer of snow creates opportunities for all sorts of fun. Now when I take stretching breaks from the easel I have choices; shoveling snow and cross country skiing!
Gail Niebrugge, Alaska Artist

Front yard from the front porch, summer 2006. Back lawn from the patio looking at the lake, summer 2006.

Well, I think we did it, the grass seeds finally took hold and the hand seeded lawn in the back looks almost as good as the hydroseeded lawn in the front. Read my earlier excerpts on lawn woes in the Landscaping category of this blog.

Gail Niebrugge, Alaska Artist

I’m astonished when I look back at the calendar and see that it has only been ten weeks since I sat down with grid paper and laid out a landscape plan for the new studio/residence. Much has happened since we raked the first rock. One thing for sure, I now have a huge pile of rocks to use as I please. (more…)