In our yard the wildflower Fireweed has reached the top, folk lore says that snow follows six weeks later.  I’m certainly not ready, I hope this old legend forecast is wrong.  Nevertheless, the nights are growing cooler, daylight is shortening and I can feel fall in the air.  A certain crispness and fresh smell envelopes [...]

Seeds from the nearby bird feeder planted themselves in the Broccoli bed and are ready to bloom any day now in the vegetable garden.  Last week I harvested the last of the broccoli and cauliflower and am going to enjoy the added bonus of sunflowers instead of looking at empty beds.  I’ll take more photos [...]

While we were away a few days the cabbage seemed to double in size, just the perfect amount of rain and sunshine this year.  This red beauty made a huge salad, crispy/tender, and very tasty.  I’m glad I have a fence around the garden this year, because as soon as the cabbage are picked the [...]

Early August is the time for harvesting vegetables in Alaska, and flowers reach their peak bloom.  It is a beautiful time of the year.  My sweet peas and ornamental cabbage bring a touch of color to the vegetable garden.  Every day I’m picking peas, zucchini, carrots, beets, and early baby potatoes.  Love it! Gail Niebrugge, [...]

Thursday several neighbors and I attended the Mat-Su Bureau Farm Tour, sponsored by the State of Alaska Department of Agriculture and the Mat-Su Farm Bureau.  It was a very enlightening and informative experience.  Our first stop was the Country Gardens Farms where they have perfected the process of growing sod.  I was fascinated with the [...]

As I struggle to figure out what to do in my unfinished yard fraught with weeds, gardener supreme LeEllen Baker of Wasilla, Alaska, suggested that I consider building a rock garden along an 80′ long gentle slope in a sort-of forgotten area alongside the garage.  At the moment it consists of a two year-old pile [...]

The second part of our Palmer garden tour with the Valley Garden Club, July 26, took us to the productive greenhouse of Pia Cottini located at 6800 Palmer-Fishook Rd.  Her tender ripe tomatoes and peppers are grown in soil and heated with a 55 gallon drum barrel stove.  Of course she had gorgeous flowers sprinkled [...]

During the Valley Garden Club tour of Palmer, Alaska, gardens July 16, I fell in love with the gardens of the Gray Owl Farm.  Located at Mile 51.8 Glenn Highway, this gem is tucked away on a side road, Collier, and is undergoing a transition from a plant nursery to cut flowers.  Nearly an acre [...]

Tuesday, July 26, I had the good fortune to take a tour of six Palmer, Alaska, gardens with members of the Valley Garden Club.  First stop was Kenley Farms where owner Carol Kenley walked us through the huge hydroponic greenhouse, explained her vegetable gardens where she grows corn, and led us through displays of stunning [...]

They’re in your eyes, they’re in your nose, they cling like velcro to your clothes.  I clean them up, and they come back, a never ending seed attack.  Next spring they grow, into small trees, I rip them out while on my knees.  Looming large, stout and tall, their splendor reigns throughout the fall.  Leaves [...]

With silver bells and cockle shells and little beets all in a row.  Continuous Alaska summer daylight encourages rapid growth and causes broccoli to bolt early.  So far, so good.  Cauliflower and Broccoli have not started to form on leafy stems yet but every year it seems to  happen overnight, then we begin the eating [...]

Himalayan Blue Poppies are in full color right now, gracing the flower bed alongside the porch at the studio front door.  They grow in abandon abundance, reseeding themselves like weeds in the dark moist soil.  It seems criminal to pull up young starts throwing them onto the pile of dying chickweed as I go about [...]

If you’ve been following my Blog for awhile you know how much I enjoy my vegetable garden during the continuous daylight of our short Alaska summer.  These Brussels Sprout plants have been in the ground for three weeks now and are growing by leaps and bounds.  The rains this summer have been spaced beautifully so [...]

A few frosty mornings signaled time to dig up the potatoes in the garden.  We planted five varieties this year, Yukon Gold, Gold Rush, Purple, Red Fingerlings, and Yellow Fingerlings. This is a partial harvest, we will dig up the rest in a day or so.  I think we have more than we can eat.  [...]

The summer of rain might have been tough on some crops, but was a blessing for brussels sprouts.  My plants are loaded with the tiny succulent cabbages that will benefit greatly from the first frost.  I can’t wait to harvest them, they are one of my favorite vegetables and taste so much better fresh from [...]

I’ve been so busy lately that my garden suffered from neglect, quick visits to grab fresh carrots, snow peas, and zucchini for munchies was about the only attention the vegetables received for several weeks.  Daily rainfall produced a bumper crop of slugs, who created lacy designs in leaves during their slug feast.  I trimmed all [...]

Each Hosta plant in the perennial garden has at least six blooms, they are quite showy this year.  The cool wet summer seems to help them thrive.  The front walk to the studio has been ablaze in color since late May when the Bergenia bloomed.  I’m still waiting for the last six Asiatic Lily plants [...]

My perennials are slow to bloom this year due to the constant clouds and rain, but once blooming they are spectacular!  These lilies grace the front walk to the studio, and at least half my plants haven’t bloomed yet.  When they all open their petals it should be an awesome sight.  This has been a [...]

Slogging through the rain soaked yard I found dozens of wild mushrooms of different varieties emerging through the soil.  I call this one the “orange shroom” due to my ignorance of these fungus fruits. I’ve named these “prickly mushrooms”. “Domed shrooms”, I’m sure someone will set me straight and tell me if they are poisonous.  [...]

This has been such a cloudy, wet summer that most of the zucchini has rotted before it matured.  I’m hoping this crop will make it to the table.  These vegetables can double in size overnight so it pays to check them every day.  These grow outside the fence along with potatoes because the moose don’t [...]