WELCOME

Welcome to my first blog entry.  I’ll attempt to encourage you get a vegetable plot planted. Here in the Far North we are always and forever under the onus of questionable food security. If this is your first garden, please, think small. You don’t have to feed a third world nation, just your family, and if you’re a family of one why not harvest what you want to eat right outside your door? 

Choose the spot ~ not too far from the kitchen. That is one of many mistakes you can learn from me. Having gardened in Alaska for 50 years I’ve made many and am willing to share so you don’t have to make the same ones. For instance, our vegetable plot is on the only flat surface with good drainage that was available. That may seem obvious but that perfect spot is as far from the kitchen and still on our property as it can get. Maybe not a mistake, but not the most convenient location. How about those spruce trees? They offer dense shade so you’ll want to take that into consideration. Birch trees are a haven for aphids so keep away from them. Where has the snow drifted? It will be the last to leave so dodge that area. How about a prevailing wind? I think you get the idea. 

All that said~ we have arrived at that wondrous time of year when we can marry seed to soil, albeit either under lights or on your window sill. 

Get a fresh bag of potting soil, some containers and let’s get to work. 

You probably have your seeds and the ones you should be most interested in are tomatoes, artichokes, onions, shallots. These need an extra early start and pampering once they are up and running. I like to use a generous four pack for the tomatoes. Put two seeds in each cell. Once they come up you will choose the strongest and snip the other away or even divide them and have more tomato plants than you can deal with. That’s a live and learn situation. Tomatoes are weeds, they will thrive and produce an enormous amount of tomatoes. Thus, think about how many you want to plant. For the two of us there are four plants, each different. I’m not interested in canning, just eating fresh. 

I start two different kinds of onions:  Patterson is an excellent storing onion, achieves a nice size and is versatile; Red Wing is just that ~ red, zesty, beautiful and it too keeps well. What more can you ask for? Ambition is the shallot of choice. But to start all of these I use a larger container and sprinkle the seed on the surface of the damp planting medium, using more to lightly cover the seeds. The artichoke goes into its very own four inch pot because it will stay there for what seems forever, patience.

These are the plants that need an extra early start, get going. 

So, while I was in the Wagon Wheel getting fresh potting soil, I couldn’t resist the primula vulgaris right there on the counter. Every year I tell myself not to do it, that they will languish on the dining room table, that they will die before I can get them planted outside. Well, here they are again. Why not, why not add a splash of color to the almost end of February? Why not garner as much joy as possible before they look like they wish they never left the nursery they came from, thriving under perfect conditions with a steady supply of commercial fertilizer to meet their fate on my dining room table. Well, maybe this is the year for success.