Misc/Chat Pics of raised beds veg and some of my flowers this week.

AlaskaSue

North to the Future
There’s been a cool breeze from the east since I got up at 4 this morning. Nice blue sky but I need a sweater today. Coming off either the Knik or Matanuska Glacier, though I think it’s the latter as it is a tad more north than direct east. Light enough breeze that we have no glacier dust in the air, at least.

Taking a break to listen to and watch all the birds; I have enough feeders and ground that the huge variety of avian visitors keeps my gardens virtually pest-free - I have never had to use pesticides yet.

A few pics of the current growing things (except for my sad little okra experiment….I have ideas about that for next year though).

Looking at part of the big raised bed w/second rounds of carrots, celery, beets, kale, radishes ….many from seeds I saved last year. Collards and cabbages further down. That pink flower is a hibiscus of all things and I just love it.
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Other end of raised bed with broc, kale, cabbages, sunflower, turnips, Swiss chard, pumpkins, sp squash….and I’m letting a broc go to seed along with the aspara-broc on the left….which I grew from last year‘s seed. The aspara-broc is fantastic. Could find no seeds or starts for it this year, I’m glad I was able to regrow from last year’s seed.


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Potato berries I collected from last years spuds; had just little seedlings when I planted but they totally are caught up with the seed potatoes I put in another area. Doesn’t look like much, but I can’t wait to see what comes of these :) ETA: the leaves are a bit bigger than my hand; I need to throw a glove down in a pic like this for perspective,ha!
 
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AlaskaSue

North to the Future
A bit more for ya…a great deal of both veg and flowers are grown from my seeds that I collected and saved from last year‘s gardens so I’m rejoicing a bit at how well so much of it has done. I also dug thru and planted some seeds from 2014 to see how they are doing, actually very good percentage on those (commercial seeds, not any I collected). I start my seeds indoors beginning in Feb. to plant out Memorial Day weekend.

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The peony bed has very young plants so they finished blooming already, but I had added a few things for more color at one end.
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Containers of white onions, cardoons, leeks, sunflowers. This is out in a good, sunny spot and all did really well.

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Just a pot of nasturtiums on a tree stump walking into my woods - but I like how they blend with the fireweed, which as you can see is just about topped off. When it is, I’ll count 6 weeks to snow on the ground. I put my saved seeds in that pot in June on the day I got back from North Pole.
 
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Wildwood

Veteran Member
There’s been a cool breeze from the east since I got up at 4 this morning. Nice blue sky but I need a sweater today. Coming off either the Knik or Matanuska Glacier, though I think it’s the latter as it is a tad more north than direct east. Light enough breeze that we have no glacier dust in the air, at least.

Taking a break to listen to and watch all the birds; I have enough feeders and ground that the huge variety of avian visitors keeps my gardens virtually pest-free - I have never had to use pesticides yet.

A few pics of the current growing things (except for my sad little okra experiment….I have ideas about that for next year though).

Looking at part of the big raised bed w/second rounds of carrots, celery, beets, kale, radishes ….many from seeds I saved last year. Collards and cabbages further down. That pink flower is a hibiscus of all things and I just love it.
View attachment 280548

View attachment 280549
Other end of raised bed with broc, kale, cabbages, sunflower, turnips, Swiss chard, pumpkins, sp squash….and I’m letting a broc go to seed along with the aspara-broc on the left….which I grew from last year‘s seed. The aspara-broc is fantastic. Could find no seeds or starts for it this year, I’m glad I was able to regrow from last year’s seed.


View attachment 280550

Potato berries I collected from last years spuds; had just little seedlings when I planted but they totally are caught up with the seed potatoes I put in another area. Doesn’t look like much, but I can’t wait to see what comes of these :)
It's beautiful and the picture of health!
 

AlaskaSue

North to the Future
Back deck from my raised bed. As I grew almost everything from seed, I’m interested to see how it goes for saving them again for next season :)
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View from the parking area, but I guess you only can see the two by garage…a whole bunch of baskets by the front door though. To the right is where I am using pick and shovel to dig in the so called soil to plant more cottoneasters…the grounds is actually boulders cemented into a gravel matrix laid down by the glacier some years back.
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Full view of main bed from the deck. Behind my SidexSide is my sorta potting shed which is by the garlic bed and herb bed. The birches to the right of the bed is where I have a small bed for peas you can just make out, and near where my horseradish is thriving.
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I have to get to canning some of greens, but I do love working out here. Just wanted to share a bit of what is happening…not all by a long shot! Lots more spuds and onions and flowers, plus working on new raised bed next to this one — dirt collecting under the tarp. Repurposing a couple of old feeding troughs and other things I can use for more container gardens next year. Plans already under way for that …hope to have another successful season saving seeds again.

Have a happy Saturday all! <3
 
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AlaskaSue

North to the Future
Everyone has nice gardens
They do, you are right! I just thought folks would want to see how it’s going up here. We have just between 75 and 80 days for a growing season and temps mostly in the 60s - with a day in the 70s here and there…so a bit of a challenge, especially since I basically have to make the dirt, lol. ;)
 
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Kathy in FL

Administrator
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They do, you are right. I just thought folks would want to see how it’s going up here. We have just between 75 and 80 days for a growing season and temps mostly in the 60s - with a day in the 70s here and there…so a bit of a challenge, especially since I basically have to make the dirt, lol.

You make me jealous. My son got nematodes in his raised beds and took them apart last year and haven't put them back together. I do have a couple of pineapples growing but the drought we had earlier this year pretty much shortened a lot of my winter and spring fruit. I've been so busy all I'm doing is drying things that I pick up at the restaurant supply place since they are already prepped. I keep wondering how is it I have less time now than when all the kids were younger and I was homeschooling them. I'm down to one and it is his senior year. Life should not be this busy and this chaotic. I miss the pleasure of simple. I miss it a lot.
 

AlaskaSue

North to the Future
You make me jealous. My son got nematodes in his raised beds and took them apart last year and haven't put them back together. I do have a couple of pineapples growing but the drought we had earlier this year pretty much shortened a lot of my winter and spring fruit. I've been so busy all I'm doing is drying things that I pick up at the restaurant supply place since they are already prepped. I keep wondering how is it I have less time now than when all the kids were younger and I was homeschooling them. I'm down to one and it is his senior year. Life should not be this busy and this chaotic. I miss the pleasure of simple. I miss it a lot.

Kathy, as I build each one of my new containers and raised beds and fill them and then finally get to plant in them, I just keep telling myself, “Well, at least you don’t have to wheel them into the Florida room and away from Zombies every night!” (….not that I have a Florida room but the garage would do in a pinch, lol.). ETA: I’ll have to look up what a nematode is, I think it’s another critter we don’t see up here.

;)
 

Wildwood

Veteran Member
You make me jealous. My son got nematodes in his raised beds and took them apart last year and haven't put them back together. I do have a couple of pineapples growing but the drought we had earlier this year pretty much shortened a lot of my winter and spring fruit. I've been so busy all I'm doing is drying things that I pick up at the restaurant supply place since they are already prepped. I keep wondering how is it I have less time now than when all the kids were younger and I was homeschooling them. I'm down to one and it is his senior year. Life should not be this busy and this chaotic. I miss the pleasure of simple. I miss it a lot.
If I had them in a raised bed, I'd do exactly what your son did. I got them bad on one of my tomato rows last year. I tilled in yellow corn meal this year, planted purple hull peas on that row and they are the best looking peas I've ever had. Nematodes only hit certain plants.

I will no longer plant anything in my garden or raised beds started by another individual unless they used store bought soil and I trust them. I'm pretty sure those nematodes came from a local man that sells starts every spring. Year before last I wasn't able to start my own tomatoes so I bought from him.
 

dioptase

Veteran Member
"Florida room"????

Nice garden, Sue, very educational too... I would not have expected that you could grow a lot of things up there in Alaska.
 

AlaskaSue

North to the Future
"Florida room"????

Nice garden, Sue, very educational too... I would not have expected that you could grow a lot of things up there in Alaska.
Interestingly, Fairbanks - quite north of me - grows peonies for fresh-cut worldwide. There is also a fantastic barley farm near there in Delta that provides a lot of really excellent commercial products, at least in state.

We do have very long days in the summer, so despite the short season I can grow all the spuds, cabbages, greens, and root veg I want. It’s the other things I want (tomatoes, peppers, okra) that present a challenge.

Flowers are easy though, cuz I mostly do annuals from seed and make at least 2 dozen hanging baskets plus the beds. A day like we had today is why we put up with the long, dark, cold months. So warm, blue skies, many birds….sigh. I will have to remember this day come January ;)

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AlaskaSue

North to the Future
…THREE WEEKS LATER…
long shot down the raised bed starting with carrots, beets, late radishes.then the greens I haven’t gotten to yet, among which are the best celery, squash and pumpkins ever!

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39 degrees this am so not quite frost on the pumpkin. Have a few of these sweet pie pumpkins that should ripen pretty quickly now

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…..and my favorite, though I am completely happy with everything…this year’s cauliflower, an orange-colored variety. This guy is getting ready to come inside for dinner :)

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Tomorrow I have got to harvest and can up some beets, freeze my enormous leeks, and can more greens. Pulled one early tub of potatoes.

Pic for those interested in this way of growing spuds. I don’t plant in the same place 2years running…this was last years herb garden. This is the final digging of the last half bucket the other day. Pretty rose & gold.

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One bed of onions was robbed since yesterday, about a third gone. And ALL my garlic is gone. Turnips and rutabagas look good, won’t pull til after frost, just a couple weeks away :)

I have never used any kind of pesticide…I think my birds I feed do help keep the plants healthy, at least so far.

I learn a lot every season. The main one for me this year is yard security. Had no idea someone would do this here in the Mat-Su Valley — so, yes -a wake up!

One more, just the nasturtiums on the path into my woods…I put my seeds saved from last year into this pot late June :)
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AlaskaSue

North to the Future
Well, when things are ready to go, they do it in a hurry. I just harvested the cauliflower shown in my last post; that pic was taken just a few days ago. Prettiest cauli I’ve ever grown, just fixing to cut it up :) Everything is going to come in quickly now!

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summerthyme

Administrator
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Just gorgeous, Sue! Our weather has been too darned hot for the Cole crops to do much. Hoping I can keep the broccoli going until cooler weather hits., at least.

Summerthyme
 

Displaced hillbilly

Veteran Member
So beautiful! All of it! We had a bumper cucumber crop this year, potatoes did fairly well. Tomatoes kind of got a late start in the new greenhouse and are slowly coming. The weather in NH has been kinda wonky, but we have done okay. Not allot to put back, but we are trying and learning more each year.
 

seraphima

Veteran Member
Interestingly, Fairbanks - quite north of me - grows peonies for fresh-cut worldwide. There is also a fantastic barley farm near there in Delta that provides a lot of really excellent commercial products, at least in state.

We do have very long days in the summer, so despite the short season I can grow all the spuds, cabbages, greens, and root veg I want. It’s the other things I want (tomatoes, peppers, okra) that present a challenge.

Flowers are easy though, cuz I mostly do annuals from seed and make at least 2 dozen hanging baskets plus the beds. A day like we had today is why we put up with the long, dark, cold months. So warm, blue skies, many birds….sigh. I will have to remember this day come January ;)

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Looks a lot like the area at the start of Hatcher Pass?
 

AlaskaSue

North to the Future
No pics this post, but yow! Not quite frost on those gorgeous pumpkins but I’ve been up since 1 am and the temp went as far south as 36…it’s now 9:45 am and we are back up to 39, looks to be a pretty sunny day so I hope I can get the acreage mowed before the next rain. Canning everything like crazy, just hate seeing the garden diminish as I harvest, but -well - that’s why I put in all the work to grow it!

Have to dig several more spots today in that glacial-cement matrix to put in more cottoneasters, and ready to start next year‘s garlic in a new area in the next couple weeks.

I know it’s not quite September but this is where I’m heading just now…. <3

Giant Ember…Last Days of September. It really feels like fall today but I’ll hang onto to the very last shred of summer….those leaves are falling fast tho ~~~

rt: 4:17

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llkcDQ39D3g
 
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