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!  



Postcards From the Edge

 

While we in the Pacific Northwest have been experiencing a warm and dry spring and posting about our gorgeous green gardens and copius blooms, my niece Alison, who lives in Wasilla sees this when she looks over her front garden.   

Although the snow finally melted, night temperatures are still in the 20's.   Alaska is experiencing the coldest spring on record.  Read more about it here.

Besides the conifers, the only green Alison could find in her garden was in this picture.  Hooray for tough as nails Bergenia!

You can imagine that this is having a rather deleterious effect  on the mental well being of gardeners in the area.   Thinking to cheer herself up a bit, Alison visited a nearby nursery which had put out some of their perennials.  After looking at the offerings though, she felt that she already had a sufficient representation of this color palette in her garden and left empty-handed.

On May 18th, this was the view from her front door.

I guess barbecue season will be a little delayed.  The visiting moose don't seem to mind especially since they are often what's barbecued.

Moose, it's what's for dinner!

 

I guess it's true what they say in the song, "When it's Springtime in Alaska, it's 40 below!"

 

Meanwhile inside the house, the corn and tomatoes are nearly four feet tall  and plants started from seed are filling every available window space!

It's too cold to put the newly hatched chicks out with the other chickens and ducks because, even being in a shelter with a heat lamp, when temperatures are as low as they currently are, the chicks cannot be kept warm enough. 

So the chicks are in these wading ponds inside the house along with the ever larger plants.   Talk about cabin fever!  Or is this being cooped up?

 

 

Anyway, when I look out my kitchen window and see this

 

I feel sorry for my friends and family who are experiencing such a cold spring.  I feel grateful that we're having our  first warm spring in several years. (And that I moved from zone 3 to zone 8.)   Of course, these pictures were taken  closer to the first of the month while the magnolia was still blooming but one doesn't really want to gloat, right?

Comedian Sam Kinison used to advise starving people in desert areas  to simply "GO WHERE THE FOOD IS!"  It is in that spirit that I advise my temperature impaired (climate challenged?) relatives to MOVE WHERE THE WARMTH IS!  Seriously though, sorry about your extended winter!  This probably wouldn't be a good time to say that I turned the furnace off for the season quite a few weeks ago, right?   Just checking.

 

Winter color in Alison's Alaskan Garden

 

It's been years since I gardened in a cold climate.  While it's wonderful to have green and blooming things year round, there's something special about being able to put the lawn mower away and hang up the garden tools for several months a year.  When the ground is frozen solid, there's just not a whole lot of gardening that needs to be done.   While there are no blooms in my niece's garden at this time of year, there certainly is color like this venus fly trap by Fred Conlon.

 

Getting tired of waiting for this flowering crabapple to produce fruit, Alison hung these several years ago.  You can see that the tree now has fruit but the golden apples still look festive and fun.

While there was some snow on the ground, there was no new snowfall while I was there which allowed me to explore the garden beds.  Here you see the lush ferns that grow to six feet or so.  Well, um, they were lush just a couple of months ago!

Further along the garden path we see the rose garden (rosa rugosa.)  The saxifrage on the left is still green.  The coldest it got during my visit was 5 f  -15c but I've heard that this tough plant remains green even at -40. 

Caragana arborescens or Siberian Pea Shrub.

The stream Alison created is not so much flowing right now.

Look at this Bergenia.  While it is lying on the ground, it is still green and come spring, although it'll look a little worse for the wear, it'll stand back up and begin blooming.  A wondrous plant!

Beautiful birches make up quite a bit of the woods here.

No need for pesky clematis pruining here as they die to the ground each year. 



Brown is a color, right?

 

You probably guessed that koi cannot stay outside in the winter. 

I wish I had space to grow these!  Pyramidus bowlingballus 'Eight ball'  provides great color year round even in the most frigid temperatures.  However, snow does cover these for most of the winter.

 

I hope you enjoyed our little fall walk.  BTW, if your camera batteries get too cold, the camera won't function.  You learn something new everyday!