It Begins!

Yes, today is the beginning, officially of my gardening season.  It really began two weeks ago when I ordered my seeds, but today it is official because I planted my first seeds--HOORAY!!  My wonderful mom came over and we set up our planting table out in the garage, scrubbed up seed tray flats, wet down the Redi-earth (our preferred starting medium), filled the trays and planted five flats full of little bitty seeds.  I know that this happens every year, but it is still majic to me.  I hold this tiny petunia seed that is smaller than the head of a pin, really much, much smaller, and I plant it and in a few months if I put three of these plants together they will make the most beautiful hanging baskets--miracle!  We planted about 250 petunia seeds, a couple dozen cherry tomatoes, a few cucumbers and a few trays of bacopa.  In three days I will literally be springing out of bed in the morning to check and see if any seedlings have emerged.  It is a great way to start the day.

I truly am crazy about gardening, but I manage to put it on hold from about the middle of October until the end of December.  Right after Christmas the seed catalogs arrive and I spend hours pouring over them, planning what new varieties I want to try and what new plants I want to experiment with.  Seed catalogs can be a wealth of information.  Let me share with you my feelings on a few of them.
 
My old standby and still my favorite is Stokes Seeds.  Stokes is great for both vegetable and flower seeds.  They always have a nice synopsis about each entry and their seed packets always have propogating instructions, germination times and days to harvest right on them.  They have pelleted carrot seed, a must if you are growing very many carrots.  If you aren't growing that many carrots, read on to find out where else you can get pelleted carrot seed.   I have never had any luck ordering from their website, but you can call their toll-free number and they are always most helpful in taking your order.  The sales people I have worked with are so friendly by the time I am through placing my long orders I feel like I have made a new friend.

My next favorite seed company, and truly a close second to Stokes is Harris Seeds.  They have the most beautiful catalogs!  I always want to order one of everything they have.  They also have the best prices on pelleted petunia seeds, multi-pelleted bacopa seeds and osteospernum seed.  They are quick to respond to any questions and even though I am a truly small grower, they recognize me as a professional grower and give me the very best service you can imagine.  At the end of the year they email me a list of what I have purchased throughout the year which is very helpful in planning the next season.  Go online and request a catalog, it is truly a feast for the eyes!

Territorial Seeds is a great source.  Their catalog is not glossy or fancy, but they have some great varieties.  They carry Imperial Star Artichokes, the only ones I know that will actually make artichokes in Alaska.  They also have terrific lettuce varieties.  Last summer I discovered thier red iceberg lettuce.  It is just beautiful, like a flower to look at, and also crisp and tasty!  I am definitely repeating that this year. 

Johnny's Selected Seeds has a beautiful catalog.  This year they are offering pelleted carrot seed.  Every gardener knows how tiny carrot seed can be and thus it is impossible to plant them thin enough.  The result is lots of thinning, over and over again.  Pelleted seeds are wonderful because you can sow them thinly.  I never thin my carrots anymore--lovely.  If you try nothing else new in your garden this year, try these carrot pellets.  I am so glad that someone (Johnny's) has finally offered these to the home gardener.  They also have about twenty pages of tools and supplies which are always interesting to browse through and drool over. 

Both Burpee's and Burgess have pretty catalogs but not quite the selection of varieties as say Stokes, but not everyone wants to have so many choices.  I get all of my tomato and cucumber seed from Hydro Gardens.  They are pretty spendy, but I think it's because of the varieties I am buying.

A word about having your seed orders shipped.  Some of the companies will offer free shipping if your order is large enough but of course, sometimes that doesn't apply to Alaska.  I recommend placing you orders over the phone and try to get your seeds sent through the post office.  Usually seed orders are not very heavy and UPS charges are alot more than the postal service for small items.  Case in point:  I just got seeds from Hydro Gardens.  The package weight was .4 lbs and it cost $25 in shipping.  I should have talked them into putting the order in a flat rate box, a small one would do, and it would have been less that $6. 

Now, I hope that I didn't get anyone too excited about planting.  Remember, I have a dedicated plant room, grow shelves with lights and heat mats.  If you don't have these things, it is probably too early for you to start anything.  For you, get out the seed catalogs, place an order or two and start getting ready.  It will be time to plant before you know it. 

CORN!

We ate our first corn yesterday!  This is a big event at our house no matter when it is, but this year it is really, really big because I was not sure we would get any corn at all.  I am really surprised that we had corn by the the middle of August!  With all of the cloudy weather and the rain, I was sure that we would be lucky to get a few snaggely looking ears by the first of August. For corn to pollinate properly some dry weather is needed or many kernels never mature.  What we ate yesterday was great corn!  I was able to find enough for the whole family (all twenty of us including grandkids) to have an ear apiece.  It was so yummy!  Corn is so much work to grow that harvesting it is very rewarding.  Not everyone bothers to grow corn here, but the satisfaction of growing it is so worth it!  It isn't worth alot at the markets, although we sell it for $1.50-$2.00 per ear,  That may sound like a high price, but it is the most labor intensive and space intensive crop we grow.  When you consider that one zucchini plant will produce 15-20 zucchini in about the same space it takes to grown two ears of corn and that each zucchini sells for an average of $1.50 and zucchini is easy to grow, corn is a real bargain!  Just think, you can buy a whole ear of corn for the price of one fountain soda drink!  What a deal!

My first post :)

Hello everyone, my name is Natalie Kenley and I will now be contributing to the blog!! Above is a photo of our first artichokes of the season!

I have been working with Carol this summer in her gorgeous garden and at the Wednesday markets and I have been snapping a bunch of pictures that we want to share with you all. We had a fabulous time on the farm tour today and were so pleased with how many people came to support us all here in the valley. More about the tour to come...

Farm Tour and Rainy Wether

Tomorrow the day of the Mat-Su Farm Bureau Tour. The two tour buses are stopping here for the All Alaska Grown lunch and for a brief tour of our place. I'm not having to do the lunch, that is catered by The Rib Shack, but there was still a lot of work to do to get ready for the tour. This year I am the tour coordinator and so of course I am nervous about how the whole tour will go. Mostly, I am anxious about people coming here. We do have a lovely place and I want everyone on the tour to experience it at it's best. After all, some of my wonderful customers have told me they are coming and I want them to see where their food is grown. We normally spend a great deal of time weeding, but the last two days we have been ruthlessly attacking all weeds everywhere! Fortunately the weather cooperated and we were able to get the lawn mowed too, which is wonderful.
The rain this month has been so disheartening for farmers! I feel blessed that our gardens are doing well and I am grateful that we grow a diverse variety of vegetables. Crops that take a little more heat and any real sunshine just aren't doing well. My neighbors, Bob and Jeannie Havemiester have not gotten any hay up yet. They have some cut in the fields, but it has rained so much that it isn't good for anything now. My good friend, Arthur Keyes at Glacier Valley Farms, has his field of strawberries and zucchini at about 1/3 the production of last year. My corn is in silks, but with all the rain the pollination will probably be horrible and there will be no saleable ears, even if they do mature. My flowers are suffering in the wind and rain, my baskets usually unbelievably lovely are not lovely and even my lilies have yet to bloom.
With those downer thoughts, let me tell you what crops are doing well. Spinach, for one, has loved the sunless days. Spinach doesn't really like all of the daylight we get in the summer, so the overcast days were good for the spinach. It has been wonderful. Kohlrabi has been thriving in the cool, sunless days. Usually if it gets bigger than fist size, it will be woody and tough, but that has not been the case this year. Our cabbage loves this weather as well as the broccoli and cauliflower. And, I just can't leave out the lettuce. Our lettuce has been spectacular. The rain has made the lettuce crisp and sometimes when I am in the garden I feel like burying my face in a head and just taking a bite right out of the middle--no kidding, it is that good! The potatoes are also growing well and although the carrots are slow, trust me, we will have carrots.

Who knows, August could prove to be a sunny month. I am looking forward to a change in the weather pattern, but I am happy gardening even when the weather is uncooperative. I think that is a good thing, or I'd have been unhappy alot this last month.