Gardening on the Homestead
Haines, Alaska
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Since we live a largely subsistence lifestyle, gardening is an essential activity. We are challenged by limited sunlight, thin topsoil, encroaching tree roots, and herbiverous pests from voles to moose. Led by Michelle, we overcome all of these to produce a lot of good food each year from our main garden, greenhouse, and cold frames.
In addition to the cherries, strawberries, and rhubarb that were already here, we grow cool weather crops such as spinach, kale, cabbage, and fava beans. We also grow carrots, beets, onions, and potatoes, from baking potatoes to naturalized varieties grown by the region's Natives, such as Maria's (Tlingit) and Kasaans (Haida). In the greenhouse we grow peppers, tomatoes, and squashes, including pumpkins.
The former owners' rhubarb patch has continued to grow and thrive. "Pie plant"—it's not just for breakfast anymore!
Autumn 2008 we built a cold frame next to the rhubarb patch to extend our greens into the winter, and to put a handy source of leafy vegetables closer to the house.
The main garden and adjoining greenhouse provide the bulk of our vegetables.
Here's how we first saw it, December 2004.
We found a substantial garden area and a lovely greenhouse that had not been used for a couple seasons and had overgrown with weeds.
Our first task was to dig out the tree roots that invaded every inch of the garden. We dug out amazing amounts of soil that the previous owners had carefully created, right down to the large rocks that form the base of our beachfront garden. We then lay down landscape cloth and sifted the soil back into the hole, taking out roots, weeds, rocks and various buried plastic toys as we went. It took two springs to reclaim the original beds.
July 2007
July 2008
Spring 2009 we cut several trees to let in more light, enlarged the fenced area and built three new raised beds. The goal will be to eventually have all the beds “raised” with rock walls or board frames.
We are challenged by winds, normally cool weather and limited light. We have learned to create windscreens with Lexan, keep row covers on most of the time for warmth, and pray for sun in the morning hours when there will be direct sunlight. Thank goodness for our very long days during the growing season!
The successes have been in raising cool weather crops for the most part, and taking advantage of the seaweed that washes up on the beach, and compost for fertility. We have learned a lot about crop rotation and have been able to increase our yields each year.
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Mark Zeiger ©2009
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