SFG in Alaska

I'm trying to get started here in Sterling AK what is the composting and most thing are grown in our hot house I want to be ready for next year got one box built and have ground covered with typar is the mixture the same for here or do I have to do somthing different things here are way different than the lower 48 very excited and I love your book. Oh yes the weather is never the same. This year all rain and no I mean no sun so far only a few days and summer is gone. CAN IT BE DONE HERE What region do I look at?

Hi there !! I dont know what zone you are in but I did find a hardiness zone map of Alaska, this might help you find yours.
Alaska Zone Map Link Here

Hope this helps I like to think SFG can be done anywhere Let us know how it goes
Ha-v-v

Hi Esther
I think I got all your sun
My growing season is from May 1st to mid-August I would say. Potatoes, carrots, calebrese, spinach and cabbage are all possible.
The garden centres here sell cabbage, lettuce, swede, chinese leaves etc pre-grown in pots ready to plant out in May/June. Can you buy that sort of thing? Or grow your own?
I'm a bit further north than you so slightly longer summer days but I think our summer temperatures are usually quite similar (I say usually because this year has been 2°C above average which makes a huge difference).
This is my first year of sq foot gardening and but I know from normal gardening that the years vary a lot - it makes a huge difference to be able to get the seeds in earlier even if they don't seem to grow much at first. I think sq foot should help there as the beds are raised and will warm up faster. I covered my beds with white fleece until the days got properly warm.
You must have a real expert closer to you than I am, but for what it is worth I reckon you can use the same mix and methods - but forget the tomatoes and squash

Esther wrote:I'm trying to get started here in Sterling AK what is the composting and most thing are grown in our hot house I want to be ready for next year got one box built and have ground covered with typar is the mixture the same for here or do I have to do something different things here are way different than the lower 48 very excited and I love your book. Oh yes the weather is never the same. This year all rain and no I mean no sun so far only a few days and summer is gone. CAN IT BE DONE HERE What region do I look at?

Howdy Ester and Welcome to the SFG Forum and family. Mel's Mix (MM) works the world over and is in use on every area of the earth except maybe Antarctica and it may be used there, but, we don't know about it. So yes, Mel's Mix can be used in Alaska with great success.

God Bless, Ward and Mary.

Ha-v-v
Thanks I'm in zone 4a & 4b gets pretty cold here -40 degrees in winter.

Icemaiden
We cant put out till late May-cause of frost witch can go down 6ft-most things are started in the green house around Jan-Feb. Tomatoes & cuks are hot house always.
Experts are all phd and acided testing related not sf gardening.

Wardin Wake
I want to use the mix but pricing it it comes out to be to expensive $40.oo for 1 thing of moss way too much for me so want to try the compost--?????

God Bless Esther

Welcome Esther


You must be a person who loves a challenge. First off, living in a place with no sun for days on end would be the end of me and then you have the courage to garden in Alaska!!! WOW, what a great testament to the human spirit. Please let us know how you do and we are always here. Might not have all the answers all of the time, but....we certainley try. Glad to have you!!

Kari

Late May is a bit later than here I admit - though I used to have a veg garden which was in the shade for most of the winter and it still had clumps of ice at spade depth in early May. Never down to six foot though (shivers).

You are near Anchorage aren't you? Your daylight hours are very close to ours but Iceland is surrounded by sea which makes all the difference for climate! But it cuts both ways and though you suffer in winter you do get warmer summer days than I do (in a normal year).

I can find photos of summer flowers in Anchorage and they look fantastic so I am sure you can grow veg too.

The advantage of the raised bed is that it will thaw much faster than a normal bed in the ground. If it is empty of plants in the spring then you could warm it up by watering with warm water so it would be ready for planting a bit earlier. And if you cover it with agricultural fleece then you can raise the temperature a bit and keep off some of the frost. I think covering with black plastic for a few days prior to planting is a way to warm up the soil too. I only had two 4x4 beds this year anad watered them by hand to begin with. I put some boiling water in each can of water so it was slightly tepid, I think that can be kinder to the plants once they come up - our cold tap water is pretty chilly.

It is going to be really interesting seeing how you get on. Hope the cost of the materials doesn't put you off. What do the greenhouse growers use?

Hi Trustinhart:
Yes I do like challenges and its not always no sun we are just having some strange weather this year like a lot of places.It's just beautiful here and I love all the great animals you can see here!!! Thanks I will try and keep everyone posted on how the garden grows hope to learn how to post picks.

Icemaiden:
I got one sfg in it's with my own mixture, did find some things on sale cause it;s the end of season so now I have 5 different compost 1 moss I need one more moss and some vermiculite yet trying to figure out how to post picks. The green houses use there owne mix,s they make up and they all want you to do soil testing baaa sure am glad I found the sfg book ya!!!