Alison's Wasilla Garden

Summer gardens in Alaska  seem greener than those in my neck of the woods.  Perhaps because of the cool nights, perhaps because they actually have rain in the summer.  The foliage by the side of the road is still green there while our grasses have long since set seed and turned golden.  (That's a euphemism for brown.)   Here is the first of several gardens that I visited during the first week and a half of July, the garden of my eldest niece, Alison.  Let's see what's growing in this zone three garden.

 

 Tanacetum coccineum with a Polemonium bloom leaning over to get into the picture.

Polemonium in white and blue.  Shall we call this the blue border?

Wanting to inspire this oak she planted to make acorns, Alison added some to show it what they look like.

And more at the base of the tree.  With such great expectations, I'm thinking the oak might get a little nervous about it's ability to measure up!

 

Even in zone three, bishop's weed, Aegopodium podagraria, grows well!  Hope this doesn't give you nightmares, Loree!  To read about the virtues of Bishop's weed, click here. To read a post calling it a most hated plant, click here.

 

 

This is obviously some sort of UFO communication.  

It was probably placed here by the ancient aliens!  Cool though, isn't it?

Stonehenge deux is made of really cool petrified  wood.  The black parts on them are where they'd started turning into coal. 

Bergenia is an amazing plant!  Here it is in July

 

 

Here's the same clump in November at 15 degrees (a crisp autumn day, winter gets much colder!)

 

 

The Rosa rugoas were just beginning to open their gorgeous flowers!

 

Chives with one incredibly large bloom!

Iris setosa

Who needs tree ferns when these grow so tall in a single season?

Meanwhile, out in the vegetable garden.  Birches are in abundant supply and many needed to be cleared from the back of the property so...

The magic of the long days (22 hours of visible light while I was there) is that these seedlings will grow very quickly into edible sized veggies.

Here's a view of part of the front garden taken at a little after midnight, no flash and no long exposure time, it's still light so one can garden 24 hours a day in the summer.

Campanula glomerata

Don't have a clue. Do you?  It's a perennial, hardy in zone 3 and has a velvety appearance that this picture doesn't adequately convey.

Centaurea dealbata or Zweifarbige Flockenblume  in German (more interesting than two toned knapweed.)

Lychnis x arkwrightii is the plant with the cool purple foliage and bright orange flowers, a great color combination!

The rose walk.

More of that gorgeous Lychnis, it's orange color echoed by the lilies on the left and accentuated by by the purbles in the background.  I was sure not to crop out a rare sighting of Alaska's only snake, hosus waterum.

Angelica gaining height.  Won't it be spectacular when their blooms tower over this bed?

Beneath an ornamental crab apple tree is this statue contemplating the plastic apples on the ground. I asked who it was.  The answer was, "think about it."  

(It's Sir Isaac Newton) 

 

We do like to have fun in our gardens!