Thursday, June 3, 2010

Its a little wet out there...

We're finally getting some much needed rain!  Unfortunately its a typical Alaskan rain, where it drizzles all day but without any major accumulation.  Regardless, it will help with the many wildfires burning right now, and my garden is VERY happy.  I did have to leave the hoop house closed up today, to maintain a more reasonable temperature.  It has been in the mid 80's for over a week, and today it never got higher than 55.  My Brussels Sprouts are happy for the shower, growing twice their size in the last 24 hours, and the cabbages are chugging right along themselves.  The beans are sprouting like crazy, and the lettuce is absolutely singing out there!

Mom and I went to Northern Fruits Nursery in Palmer today.  She got 2 Evans Cherry Trees for a very decent price, and I got a 3 color Peony.  The owner is a lovely woman who was even kind enough to invite me into her home to show Lily the cutest little gosling!  I have been going to this greenhouse for trees and perennials for about 12 years now, and she never disappoints!  I just created a new flower bed where the remains of the first compost pile was and I will add the Peony to that, planting it amongst the Iris and Columbine.  I'll take a picture when the sun comes back out!

7 comments:

  1. Good for the rain, those fires up there are scary. Been following the one blog that was to close for comfort, the couple living off grid in a tent.

    Is it because of the trees/pine that have been killed from those beatles?

    You got a good lookout view to keep watch incase one starts up.

    Check back later and have a look at your garden pic's

    happy gardening,linda

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  2. The beetle killed trees are definitely a big part of the problem, but a lot of it is that we just haven't gotten much rain this spring, and its much hotter than normal. In 1996 we had the "Miller's Reach" fire here in Big Lake, which consumed tens of thousands of acres, and hundreds of homes (including my own). This year's weather has been strikingly similar to that year. Alaska always has LOTS of wildfires in the spring, mostly started by lightning strikes.

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  3. I feel your pain Jamie. I was in Chitna with our fish wheel and it was dry, hot and the wind was kicking something horrible. Occationally I could smell a fire, but couldn't place it.

    This is going to be a bad fire season for sure.

    Hey... have you got chicks yet? I am looking into chickens as well. Nothing better then fresh eggs.

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  4. No chickens yet... I need to build a place to keep them and the new raised beds were more important to me this year. But I WILL get them, its only a matter of time!

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  5. Well Jamie, let me know. I am not going to get mine this year either as I am moving out to the valley! YAY! But we are looking for a little land and no restrictions on at least chickens on the property.

    I am asking some friends about cold weather varieties of chickens and reading up on the nice Chicken mama in Kotz. But I want a larger chicken stock.

    Oh and let me know if you like peppers. Looks like I am going to have some serious hot jalopeno's this year which i dehydrate and will have WAY to many.

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  6. Oh believe me, when I get chickens... there will be LOTS of pictures! And yes, I would LOVE some peppers! Every time I try to grow them, all I end up growing is aphids! What part of the valley are you looking at?

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  7. I am looking all over. Probably going to have it built by the Hall Homes guy since I haven't heard one really bad word about his houses.

    And we are looking around Wasilla, even though I love Palmer.

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