Alaska Gardens

​Farmers in the Matanuska Valley are the major vegetable producers for south central Alaska and we visited the gardens in Palmer where we met the lovely Cabbage Ladies seen below.  The town grows beds of vegetables that grow to outsized proportions and the region is emerging as a center of peony cultivation.
 
At home, our gardens are more modest. We had two green houses, six beds, many containers and a fruit orchard to tend to throughout the summer. Our niece runs a small urban farmer growing greens and flowers and I helped out by weeding when I could. 
 
Check out these photos to see what you can grow in a garden in Alaska.

Ginny Lawton (center) started the Cabbage Fairies to liven up the Cabbage Weigh-off at the Alaska State Fair. We found them at the Palmer Garden Show.

In Palmer, vegetables can grow large quickly.

Peonies are emerging as a major crop in the Matanuska Valley and at the Palmer festival this woman posed for artists surrounded with the showy blooms.

Our neice Greta planted seedlings at her small urban farm in early June.

Flowers are the major crop in Greta's garden.

This greenhouse and three raised beds were right outside our apartment window and clearly an attraction for local bears.

Jerome started the tomato plants under grow lights then moved them to the temperature controlled greenhouse. Swiss chard, parslet and strawberries in the foreground.

An abundance of greens.

Onions and lettuce in the side orchard.

Soft-shell peas.

Cukes growing in the side greenhouse.

Janis (in suit) and Jerry tend three bee hives in the orchard.

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