greetings from Alaska
I just found this site and it certainly looks interesting. I have not been in a garden room for some time although I am an avid gardener. I live in Alaska and plant for zones 3/4. Will look forward to reading what all these wonderful gardeners have to say.
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(post #12032, reply #1 of 15)
As a zone 4 gardener in upstate NY, I'd love to hear about your garden. What plants do you grow? What thrives? Do you have to cope with moose browsing your garden?
(post #12032, reply #2 of 15)
Nice to hear from you. As a matter of fact I can grow an abundance of different perennials in my garden. I used to try and have a vegetable garden but the moose would go along and top off my veggies, and the morning I looked out the window and saw one ripping my beautiful stand of sugar peas down I decided I would give up on that. For awhile I had a hotbox up on the deck but finally gave that up.
The moose walk through my garden quite often and the amazing thing is I have only seen them step on a plant one time. That is amazing! I see their prints between my perennials. One day I was on my knees working in my garden and heard this noise, and looked around and a moose was walking across the yard right behind me. I couldn't believe it. I stood still and he passed on.
Some of the things I grow: bleeding hearts, hostas, dianthus, achilla pearl, snow aneomes, persicaria, astilbes (these are my favorite) oriental poppies, spireas, maltese cross, bee balm, lythrum(which is blooing beautifully right now), dicentra, lungwort, ferns, lamium, hermans pride, lillies, astrania, malva, lilac, cranberry, painted daisy, columbine, minature columbine, geum, sedum (dragons blood), hops, several different ground covers, ... that is about all I can think of just off the top of my head. I am in the process of now beginning to shut down my garden. Have not seen the termination dust on the mountains yet, but it won't be long.
Would love to hear about your garden also.
(post #12032, reply #3 of 15)
ML -
welcome to the forum! I love the term "termination dust." Is that your name for the first snow, or is that a common expression up there?
Marty
"The plants have been good to us." Lester Hawkins
Marty
"The plants have been good to us." Lester Hawkins
(post #12032, reply #4 of 15)
Yes, termination dust is sign of the first snow on the mountains. But I saw a robin in the yard just a few moments ago and they usually know more than we do, so maybe we have another week or so. We shall see.
(post #12032, reply #5 of 15)
At least I (or my dog) can chase off deer. I'm glad we don't have moose.
Jeana
Never try to baptize a cat.
(post #12032, reply #6 of 15)
From what I have read about deed in certain parts of the country sounds as if the population of deer way outnumbers the moose that we have. They don't both you unless you get in their way and disturb them. I was looking out my kitchen window early this summer (during moose calf dropping) and saw a mom and two babies that looked as if they had just been dropped. The mama walked through the back yard and then out to the right of way and her little ones followed her obediently. My son got a picture of her hind end and the two babies right behind her. It was a nice picture.
Edited 9/15/2009 12:55 am ET by mooselady
(post #12032, reply #7 of 15)
My husband's brother and his family live in Homer, and my husband's aunt and uncle are in Anchorage. We have been there visiting in September a couple different years, and really enjoyed it. The aunt and uncle own a lake-side cabin off the grid about 45 min south of Denali National Park. We stayed there for 4 or 5 days and went up to the park for one of the bus tours. The park was of course breath-taking in beauty, but everywhere was remarkable: the flight into Anchorage over the water and mountains, the school of whales we saw driving down from Anchorage to Homer, the glaciers around Homer, and the most amazing night sky full of more stars than most people can imagine.
I remember gardens in Homer with the largest delphiniums I'd ever seen. Do you grow them too? Here we have had warmer winters the past 4 years, more like a zone 5. I don't think we're done with zone 4 winter yet though. Everyone thinks this winter will be bad, just judging from the really cool, wet summer we've had. If we get a lot of snow, the gardens will be mostly ok. We typically get some bitter cold before the snow though.
I live at 2300 feet on a nice-sized parcel of land in the foothills of the Catskills. I have large perennial gardens with a lot of shrubs, and my husband and I do a large vegetable garden. We have raspberries and blueberries also, and there's a lot of old apple trees on the place. We have a small flock of chickens also, and 3 Chesapeake Bay retrievers. We have a lot of woods with hiking trails (ie, old logging roads), a pond and creek, and some natural springs. We're about 8 miles from Oneonta, a small college town, but it's all uphill so it feels like we're very remote.
(post #12032, reply #8 of 15)
I didn't know you were that close to Oneonta. I spent some wonderful time up there in my 20's, visiting a good friend from high school. It's a gorgeous part of the country.
North Carolina - zone 7
North Carolina - zone 7
(post #12032, reply #9 of 15)
I remember telling a customer in NH that we were moving here from PA, and he immediately said fondly "There's 42 bars in Oneonta." Back in the 70's and early 80's this was apparently a major party town, with bus loads of college kids coming in from all over for the St Patrick's day drinking. It's calmed down some since then, and the 21 year old drinking age and open container law are enforced pretty stringently. No more bus loads of partiers either.
We really love it here. Everything except the NYS tax load.
(post #12032, reply #10 of 15)
Well, I was there in the 80's but didn't see that side of town. Maybe because it was summer and the student population would have been down. My friend grew up there except for the few years in high school when her family moved to FL so her mom could go back to school. They had a big old house in town with a huge front porch and lots of kids. It was amazing.
North Carolina - zone 7
North Carolina - zone 7
(post #12032, reply #11 of 15)
Sounds as if you have a good feeling for Alaska having been here several times. We have not been down to Homer for a few years. We are driving to Soldotna sometime this week to visit friends before the snow flies. We have our RV sitting out in the front yard just waiting to go. We have not been to Denali Park for some years. The last time we were there it was in the fall and when we woke up in the morning there was snow on the ground. Yes, winter was on the way. But we had a good time sitting around the camp fire.
Yes, I do grow delphiniums. In fast, have two sitting on the front porch right now, and also a primula, that I bought from a nursery that is going out of business. They are in full bloom and I need to get them in the ground. I got up at 7 this morning and can just see the edge of the sun coming up. Been having some back trouble and am getting a steroid shot this morning. Has slowed me down some in the garden so I am hoping that this will work.
My lythrum is in full bloom and I have other things that are still beautiful but my huge astilbe bed is on the wane now. I have not looked at the weather this morning but I think it is going to be another nice day. We have a May Day tree right outside my study here and it is covered with the black berries. The May Day tree on the north side of the house has already been picked clean but this one here by our window as yet has not been. When the birds come they are all over it for several days eating the berries on the tree. It is just amazing! Hundreds of little birds all over that tree. It should be any day now as they have cleaned the other one.
Nice talking to you. You have a big piece of property? We just have a half acre in a subdivision. But we have lots of trees around us so we seem to be isolated in our own world. I have a huge perennisl garden. One of my friends many years ago said to me "you know you are creating a monster here". LOL Well, maybe she was right. But it is a monster I certainly love to be in. We did build on the corner which does give us seemingly more room, however, it also gives us more lawn to mow.
(post #12032, reply #12 of 15)
Half and acre in a subdivision...that reminds me of TX (my original state). The two largest states in the country and houses on small lots. I just shake my head any time I get back to TX, seeing all those houses crammed together and so much land that sits fallow. Here in TN, I have about 3 acres in a subdivision. There's something to be said for smaller lots.
Jeana
Never try to baptize a cat.
(post #12032, reply #13 of 15)
Yes, we have 210 acres, mostly woods but about 40 of it is open fields. We usually get our first snow flurry around Oct 14. Are you in Anchorage? I remember when we were in Denali in the 2nd week of Sept, it was the last week they were open before closing for the winter. They already had termination dust on most of the mountain tops there, and the short tundra plants around us were brilliant colors of red and orange. One regret is that I didn't get to see the northern lights while we were there.
(post #12032, reply #14 of 15)
yes we are in Anchorage. Lower hillside area. Have a lovely view of Denali and the inlet. My husband loves to watch the airplanes taking off and rising up over the mountains. Sorry you missed the Northern Lights. We look down into the city lights so we look to our right to the mountains when they are out. And they truly are a sight to see.
Hi there, mooselady. Are you (post #12032, reply #15 of 15)
Hi there, mooselady. Are you still around? I don't visit this forum much any more since it degraded so much, but I hate to lose touch with you.