Alaska Master Gardeners Anchorage

This is a very special thank you to the Alaska Master Gardeners Anchorage. They have been very generous with a grant of $500 for the Harvest of Hope Memorial Garden. This grant along with other contributions will not only pay for the operation and maintenance of the garden this year but will go along way in beginning a new project. The project is to build a hoop house between the north edge of the garden and the orchard.

A hoop house will allow us to grow crops we would normally be able to plant. These "buildings" extend the season so we may begin in April and possibly go into November before we have to put it to bed for the winter. I look forward to beginning construction this summer. With a completion in early 2021. Will keep you all posted on the progress as we move it along.

A special thank you for all the gifts we have received this year.

When To Plant

Early April

This question always plagues Alaska gardeners. Actually all gardeners ask this question no matter where they live. It's too bad we can't be like central and southern Florida where all year is planting time. But even in Florida planting in July and August gets spotty results at best. There is no insurance on the weather. If you want to be certain there won't be a frost you will have to wait until the middle of June. If you are just cautious Memorial Day weekend will do. Remember the greater the risk the greater the reward. The sooner you plant the sooner you harvest, within reason of course.

Seed Packet Front

A hard freeze is classified as 24° F.  According to the National Garden Association you are past the danger of a hard freeze on April 5. That's 80% of the time there won't be a hard freeze after April 5. There is a 50% chance there will be no temperatures lower than 32 F after May 8. There is a 90% chance there will be no temperatures below 32 F on or after May 19. I've lived in Anchorage for 45+ years and I have seen it snow on May 16. That snow hung around for a day or two. In 2017 the week before Memorial Day the lows were in the mid 30s. I had planted summer and winter squash the week before. The week after Memorial Day I planted summer and winter squash again. In 2016 I was harvesting summer squash the second week in June.

April 24

There are some things you can plant as soon as you can work the ground. They won't grow very fast but they will survive most of what the spring weather will throw at them. Plant peas as soon as you are able. Plant potatoes as soon as you can work the ground. If you get some things in the ground early it will give you more time to do the other stuff that needs to be done when there is a crunch on the time you have. I will most always plant cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, and sprouts by the third week in May. These last four can be direct seeded but you will get crops much sooner if you use transplants.

By the 20th of May all of your seeds should be in the ground, all of mine are. The ground will probably be below 50° yet but they will grow. If you want to be absolutely safe put in your summer squash Memorial Day weekend. I would chance a week earlier and be prepared to replant if necessary. Crops like leaf lettuce and radishes do best in the cool spring weather. But be prepared to plant subsequent crops as you harvest the first plantings. Radishes and leaf lettuce mature in about 30 days.

Seed Packet Back

Anything that needs a soil temperature greater than 60° F to germinate you should start indoors and transplant or you should grow in a season extended environment. Our soil in Anchorage seldom gets to 60°or more unless it's on the south side of a light colored building in the middle of June.

Planting is the time of anticipation and anxiety. I can't wait 'til it comes up. Then there is the other side of the coin, I hope it comes up. You will experience both. Have fun planting.

Don't throw away the seed packet when you are done planting. The back of the packet has a lot of useful information for later use.

Let Yarducopia Use Some Space

You do have an "urban" lot that you would like to mow less often or maybe not at all. There is an organization that can help you with that. Let's say you would like to provide produce for some organization like Lutheran Social Services Food Pantry, the Gospel Rescue Mission, or maybe Bean's Cafe. You don't have the time. You suspect you don't have the talent to do a garden from start to finish. Yarducopia uses your property to help people learn organic gardening practices and raise food. The food is split between the people doing the gardening, the home owner, and a nonprofit organization of the homeowner's choice. This is a method to use your property for gardening, help someone else learn gardening, share your bounty with others and have wonderful fresh produce grown on your property to enjoy during the harvest season.

The organization is now taking signups now for the next planting season. Check them out. You might just strike gold right in your own yard.

A Special Thank You

I wish to thank ELCA World Hunger for their Domestic Hunger Grants. I applied last week for a $500 grant for the garden. They were kind enough to approve the grant. They also asked me to put up a fund raiser to see if I could get a match for the $500.

Thank you to everyone who has made or will be making a donation. As of this morning the campaign for the garden has raised $750 in just a single day. Many as well have asked where they could mail a check. If you are interested in sending a check the address is on the right hand margin of this blog post.

If you wish to pay by credit card click here. 100% of the funds will go to the garden. You can do this through April 15. After that please send a check to the address on the right.

Thanks to all of you for your monetary donations, your time, and your talents. All are very useful to the garden each day of the year.

April, In Like a Lion

Fire Pit

Here it is April 3rd and we got about 3 inches of snow last night at my house. It's certainly not the biggest April snowstorm I have seen but it's still depressing. With still about 20 inches of snow on the garden I haven't done much there. My seeds haven't arrived yet but again that's no big deal. As long as they are here near the middle of the month I have no concerns. With all the social distancing there wasn't much I could do with others for the garden but I'm still working.

Bare Ground

 Two days this past week I burned a bunch of brush that had been stacked up for a couple of summers. Some of the pile is still buried in the snow but probably 85% of it is gone, up in smoke so to speak. I will probably do some more of that next week as well. There are multiple brush piles. Will also be washing some more seed starting equipment next week. When the seeds come will have to plant them into something.


I'm going to try a new variety of peppers this year as well. They are called Aji Rico. They were developed in Peru. I picked this variety because it's supposed to have a  50-55 day maturity from the time of transplant. If things work well at home I might try to plant it in the main garden next year. They haven't arrived yet and will be trying to grow them in the house this summer and next fall. I will keep you apprised of the progress or lack of progress in this space.

That's all for now. Stay safe!

Celebrate the Small Victories

Leeks

We have been away for some time, nearly two months. The virus has put a cramp in going out to check on stuff. My wife and I quarantined ourselves on the return from our 6 week vacation in South America. Two more weeks together. At least we like each other.

As you might recall we planted chili peppers and leeks before we left. The leeks are doing fine but the chili were eaten to the dirt by some critter, probably a shrew. They are resourceful little buggers. Once the quarantine is complete I will set some traps and see if I can get it or them.

Pepper Redo

Will probably have to transplant the leeks as they get larger. The peppers have already been replanted, thanks Dan. I will wait patiently or not for them to reappear. We should not worry about the small stuff and it turns out that almost everything is the small stuff.

On the bright side, I did order the seeds for the garden today. Hopefully they will arrive in time to get the broccoli and cabbage started the middle of April. I will be working on get the stuff ready while locked up. Plan to start the zucchini about the 1st of May. That worked very well last year.

Stay well, more later.

Beginning 2020

Winter in the Garden

On February 1, 2020 the garden planting has begun. I would normally wait until the middle of the month to start the peppers but I will be gone until the end of March so must get things going now. We also planted leeks on the first. I was planning on putting leeks in the ground the first of March but again I won't be here. The peppers this year will be jalapeño and Hungarian yellow wax. Both have been successful in the past and will be planted again this year. I started the leeks in April last year and that was too late. So will see if we can do better in 2020. We did run out of seeds so Bonnie and I went to Alaska Mill & Feed and bought more yellow peppers and more leeks. Different seed brands but should work just fine.

Washing the Containers

Planting

While I am playing in South America two ladies and a gentleman from church will be taking care of the plants in my absence. I profusely thank Jennifer Wardell, Donna York, and Dan Bollerud for taking time for the plants.