Greetings from the Last Frontier

[AKCharle]

Hello

AKCharle here. I live in the Matanuska (matt-a-new-ska)Valley in Palmer Alaska. This is livin'. Here's Palmer looking into downtown. Can you believe people farm on the side of the mountain to the left. Lots of hay fields, carrot and potato fields.

Here's just a small portion of the Matanuska Valley looking down from Hatcher Pass, a gold mine that is now a favorite spot to hike, pick berries and sight see. That's the Matanuska River below.

Here's the mountain overlooking the south of Palmer, Pioneer Peak. At the base of it flows the Knik River where I get the sand for my chickies bedding. It's a glacier fed river so I can only get it in certain areas or it's too dusty for my use.

Here's the Creekhouse looking from the back road past the garden to the house. This was a couple of winters ago. Last year we started putting up these high tunnels in front of the blue tarp covered garden shed you can see in the middle of the picture.



This was in October and we had to cover them for NRCS to inspect. Later that night we had to take the covers off and stow for the spring.

I retired last February for my birthday

and these and my chickies are my new job. I am so loving it.

Well, that's the tour. Come visit if your up this way.

I'm real happy I found this site, I enjoy it very much as do a lot of the members of FB page Alaska Farm and Food. I'll share as much as I can as I find on it and I know I'll glean a wealth of information to share from here.

 

[seedcorn]

I thought outer space was last frontier? Star treck?

Welcome, will enjoy learning of your world.

 

[so lucky]

Hi! Welcome. What is NRCS? Are you growing something to sell that needs to be inspected? Beautiful scenery there.

 

[canesisters]

Welcome

Do you garden under the big tunnels? What sort of garden season do you have way up there?

 

[digitS']

Hi! I'm glad you found TEG. It will be interesting to learn about Alaskan gardening.

Thanks for sharing Palmer with us. As I often do when people share their location, I took a Google streetview drive through their town. Lovely setting!

I got a little turned around and showed up at Fred Meyer instead of the town center. Nice park where Colony turns into Alaska. You probably feel like you have an awful lot of open space in Alaska. Don't let local government turn any of that park into building sites, no matter how "grand" one of their buddies idea for a hotel or whatever is!

Modern buildings will look bad in 20 years and no one will be able to stand the sight of it in 50! Open space, green grass and trees can always be open space, green grass and trees!

Steve

 

[lesa]

I am happy to welcome someone with a shorter growing season, than me! Welcome! Welcome!

 

[Smart Red]

WOW! Lovely scenery there in Palmer, Alaska! @AKCharle, it would be darned right beautiful if I wasn't just coming off one of the coldest, snowiest winters to hit south-est, central-est Wisconsin in more than a decade. Right now snow is on my 4-letter word list of naughty things to say.

NRCS? Is that a federal program I've heard of to help build more high tunnel growing areas? I looked into that, or something like that, a while back. Perhaps you can share how you managed these lovely beauties sometime as we become better acquainted here on TEG.

Forgot! Welcome, welcome, welcome, AKCharle! If you enjoy gardening you're gonna love it here! Gardening facts, friends, and fun abound at The Easy Garden (even if the name is a tad understated. I have found gardening loads of fun, but never easy.)

A belated congrats on your recent retirement from a nine-year retired educator, wife, grandma, mother, and happy gardener from Wisconsin. You will quickly wonder how you ever had time to work with all that you have to do now. I know that our wonderful digitS has already researched and "visited" your town, but not me so I'm going to ask -- are you close enough to the coast to have warm currant winters or far enough away to shiver with the rest of us?

From the looks of your property, you are in the right place. Enjoy!

 

[ninnymary]

Welcome AkCharle! For some reason, I am really getting into Alaska. Two of my favorite shows are Alaska the Last Frontier and Selling Alaska. I don't know if you've heard of them or not. The first one is about 2 families living and homesteading in Alaska. The last one has 3 properties shown to a buyer and they select one. You get to see a lot of beautiful scenery and a chance to see how people live there.

I really want to learn more about gardening there. What do you grow? Do you have chickens?

I'm so glad you joined us. We are a group of really nice, friendly people who enjoy gardening and helping each other out.

Mary

 

[journey11]

Welcome, AKCharle!

What beautiful landscapes you get to enjoy! I'm looking forward to hearing about the challenges of gardening in Alaska and seeing how you put your high tunnels to use. Thanks for the tour!

 

[baymule]

We are on opposite ends of the USA! LOL I am in southeast Texas, about 75 miles from Houston. We have plenty of HEAT here, if you want some next winter, let me know now and I'll put a fruit jar out on the driveway in August, sneak up on it, and clap the lid on and screw it down tight. I'll be happy to send it to you so you can open up the jar and get a hot blast of air!

Welcome to TEG! We have a lot of fun here and love talking garden, posting garden pictures and recipes for all the yummies.