Thursday, May 14, 2009

Alaskan Gardening for novices

My first Alaskan vegetable and flower garden

The garden plot (or a miniature graveyard)

This is going to be very interesting to see what I can grow. Our growing season is so short most locals use greenhouse starts. I was able to plant snap peas because they can withstand frost, but have to wait until June to plant the rest. I've got what my neighbor said is a very "different" assortment of seeds and not what Alaskans normally grow. It's not even an exotic mix, maybe it's all the peppers that aren't so popular up here. I grew lovely peppers in Vegas. :) Next year I need a gertee greenhouse.

I'll be trying:
Carrots
Radishes
Green Onions
Lettuce
Zucinni
Summer Squash
White Lisbon Onions
tobacco
herbs
assorted peppers

The only additive I have for the soil is the ash I mixed in and the veggie/coffee slop I poured into the space all winter (no idea if it will help or hinder either). Put the dirt into mounds on a slight slope so it has good drainage anyway. Two robins moved into the cottonwood tree I almost cut down and have been picking in the dirt, so I'm assuming there's something live in the soil, although I haven't seen one worm yet.. no beetles... just gnats, flies and skeets and LOTS of spiders this year. Very few bees and no wasps yet either.

Feels great to have my hands in the dirt, it's coinciding with getting over this virus and I feel healed. I am still very amazed at how much better I felt this winter having my EarthPad and how much more endurance I have for heavy chores in sub-zero temperatures. I'm 52 years old now and I'm very grateful for my good health and strength. My teeth may be falling out but my bones and muscles are still in pretty good shape. Sometimes I do wish I'd have started this lifestyle in my 30s at least, but 20 years ago I would never have imagined this is what I'd be doing in my 50s. It still looks like madness to the people who knew me when I lived in houses and I have come to realize that the ideal gertee set-up needs to include plumbing. But I'm glad I know how to live without it just in case it beomes something we all have to do. I keep thinking that even if I end up in a concentration camp I can see myself building gertees in there too.

It is such a reward to feel the sunshine and watch the earth come alive again. So many more bird and animal sounds at night now, can't always recognise them... eep. Not too many bears out yet, Tim saw a griz by Tonsina and his grandson and dad saw one when they were out flying around the other day. My biggest animal concern lately has been the horseshoe rabbits but the fox family living under the Community Hall pretty much took care of that for me.

Started a new webwriter contract for kennylakechalet.com, another venue in our growing city. I'm trying to just keep going in spite of all the dire predictions and worsening conditions around the world. It's not even like I have any hope that the global government will fail to assume power. I don't know how much longer I'll still be free to do whatever I want, say whatever I think and go where ever I can afford to go. But I've been blessed with some of the best conditions for living independent of government intrusions, and I think I have an obligation to be present in every moment that I have left as a "free" woman. I hope all of you have found a way to live and love in spite of your knowledge and pain. I don't know what else to do anymore. I create in order to become closer to my Creator.

Here's a real gift somebody created:

Egg box wax firestarters with sawdust fill,
an ingrediant I forgot all about until
sister Kathy reminded me. Makes the
wax go further and it burns longer.
One "egg" will get a fire going quicker
than any way I've ever seen, and when
it's fifty below zero, every second counts!


Beautiful Graveyard on Old Edgerton Hwy

Here's a new article by Mary Rizzo that will ring familiar to many of you. I haven't spent much time on forums but I sure admire the people I know who can hold their own on them.
http://palestinethinktank.com/2009/05/13/israeli-%e2%80%9cpeace%e2%80%9d-discussion-groups-common-pitfalls-and-how-to-recognise-them/

2 comments:

Stop Common Purpose said...

Hi Niki

Will be interesting to see how your garden project works out.

John

Lark said...

Can't wait to find out how well your tobacco grows.;) The way the do-gooders keep taxing my smokes... to fund their precious 'new health programs'... will soon enough... force us all... to grow it on the sly... like it was the devil weed itself!

[I tell everyone the mucous lining my lungs - now happily co-existing after the 30+ years of relentless toxic factory tobacco smoke I've inhaled - actually protects my lungs... from all those chemtrails... and other nasties... someone keeps puttin' in the air.]

Say Niki, can you get a steady supply of wild salmon belly flaps? Like pretty cheap? Man, I still remember when I lived in Seattle I fell madly in love with a salmon sausage (made with chopped fresh lemon verbena, a few spices, maybe some grated onion) - grilled over an open fire... and served with a lite honey-mustard sauce... on a homemade roll - now that's what I called... one "hot diggedy-dog."

Do you think there's a market for organizing wilderness survival excursions up there along with campfire cookouts? If so, I've got a great plan to do away with some smart-ass communitarians - check with Tim; I'd bet his dogs... or else the wolf packs... could stand some fresh pork.;)