Gardening in Alaska presents big challenges, whether it's the extra effort in finding plants tough enough to survive our Zone 2-4 climate, communicating with like-minded Alaska gardeners, or keeping up with the latest trends, issues and solutions. We'll try to help with that. We'll also tour gardens from Homer to Anchorage to Wasilla to Willow whenever we get the chance, and post the best garden photos around. Presenting a forum about cold-weather gardening and for cold-weather gardeners is what we are all about. We hope you'll join us on the Talk Dirt garden blog.
Photographer and gardener Fran Durner (fdurner@adn.com) writes the blog.
A member of the Garden Writers Hall of Fame, Jeff writes a weekly column on gardening in Alaska.
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Posted: June 28, 2009 - 3:14 pm
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The Backyard Homestead, edited by Carleen Madigan (Storey Publishing, paperback, $18.95)
By Cheryl Chapman
Anchorage Daily News
For those struck dumb by the grocery price on fresh green beans, for those thinking, “I bet I could grow more out back than dandelions,” The Backyard Homestead, edited by Carleen Madigan (Storey Publishing, $18.95, paperback) is the starter book for you.
It will get your toes wet. If you want to dive in, the free and ever- helpful University of Alaska Cooperative Extension Service is the place to go, but this readable, useful overview drawn from other Storey books at least lays out ways to start thinking about turning as little as a quarter-acre into a food factory.
Bear in mind, it’s not Alaska-centric, but many of the suggestions would be sensible from Maine to Mongolia: Map your property on graph paper and plan where you want the garden(s), the chickens, the rabbits, the two goats (they like company); decide up front how much time and money you’re willing to plow into it; and when it comes to livestock, realize that chickens, for instance, are charmers and have a way of becoming pets instead of pot pies.
The planning maps of gardens are adaptable, lush and tidy, and everyone seeing them will want one. The text, though, glosses over how much sweat equity they’ll take to make reality, and the time and labor to keep them pristine. There’s not much mention of the constant war against pests or disease, either, though the imperative of constant weeding gets a rolling drumbeat.
Only a glance is given to dubious neighbors, or restrictions such as city codes, other than advice to find out if you can keep it before buying that steer. Many city-dwellers squash against other city- dwellers; a pair of piglets by the back fence may not be welcome, nor the beehives.
Raised beds are suggested for vegetables, great for Alaska because they warm up faster, giving crops a jump. Intensive cultivation and succession planting, too, can keep something in production for our entire brief growing season, especially for those who start their own seeds, and the chapter on that is easy to understand and complete, as is the alphabetical rundown on popular vegetables. Apartments get attention too, and a chapter on gardening with containers, including self-watering containers, though I’m not sure how common such containers are here.
Harvest bounty can be eaten fresh, of course, but also frozen, dried, brined and pickled, canned, fermented, or put in specialty storage – beets, it’s said, can be kept in damp sand in a cool, dark place – and clear how-to sections can ensure that nothing goes to waste.
Other sections cover herbs, berries, fruits and nuts, making wine and brewing beer, and raising grains (complicated) before moving on to chickens and turkeys, ducks and geese, goats, sheep, cows, pigs and rabbits. Three suggestions are given for the sad day of death when your animals must be turned into main courses, though no advice on comforting the weeping kids: 1) Ask a friend who knows how already to help you do it; 2) read a book; or 3) truck them to the slaughterhouse.
Later how-tos cover sausage; smoking meats; yogurt, butter, cheese and ice cream; and beekeeping, foraging and making syrup.
Associated Web sites and phone numbers, arranged by chapters, are listed at the back, as well as an index, bibliography of related Storey books and marginally helpful credits for the illustrations and text. It’s nice to know that six Storey books contributed to Chapter 1, but if you’re hunting the source for a particular bit of advice, good luck, because it won’t be attributed.
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