It is hard to describe to Outside gardeners what it is like to live in Alaska right before the outdoor planting season. I am not referring to all the daylight hours we have this time of year. What I mean is there are plant starts everywhere.
Alaska gardeners can wander from one favorite nursery to another, into a box store and then to its neighboring competitor, into grocery stores, wholesale warehouses as well as farmers markets, all offering annual starts, a whole rainbow of colors and varieties. There is really no other place that affords a spring gardener such an opportunity.
Couple this with the recognition that everyone visiting your yard gets a lot of information about you starting from your driveway up to, and onto, your porch. Do you feature hanging baskets from a nursery, planters full of annuals, perennial beds, tuberous begonias or fuchsia? Are you a lollipop planter or like things more “bushy”? Do you plant mixed or single colors?
The point I am trying to make is that we have an awful — perhaps the wrong word since we are talking flowers — lot to choose from, more than any other place I have visited. This being the case, it really does make sense to have a plan before you buy plants and that you take the plan with you when you shop — and stick to it. I know most of us are impulse buyers, but shouldn’t you at least know how many plants you will need?
Buy starts now. Yes, the traditional planting time is the last weekend of May, but you have to leave time to harden things off. Indoor-grown stuff needs to acclimate to wind and sun; the individual cells in indoor-grown plants need to thicken. This process of hardening off induces stress in plant cells, and that helps the plant survive as it grows.
Fail to harden off plants and you risk burning your plants’ leaves and having your plant dry out and perhaps die. I suggest just finding a shaded spot protected from wind and leave plants there for five days. Don’t forget to water your plants if they dry out.
OK. Anything you see while shopping should have a label. We are going to have to find a way to make them out of something other than plastics, perhaps some biodegradable material or a sticker on the containers. Anyhow, read them to see what you are buying. Look for height and light requirements, i.e., shade, sun, and see if there is anything special the plant needs.
Best of all, rejoice that you have so many places to buy starts, and celebrate the huge variety of plants offered. In the Lower 48 it is often what the sole box store in the area sells and nothing else. It is not often we get to be the envy of Outside gardeners.
Jeff’s Alaska Garden Calendar
Alaska Botanical Garden: Check out hours and events at www.alaskabg.org. If you garden or just want to have a place to park summer visitors, join. If you join or renew your by May 31, you will be entered into a prize drawing based on your membership level.
Chickweed: Those white flowers appearing now are followed by seeds. Get ‘em.
Dandelions: They are here. Do not spray with poisons. Accept them or hand-pull them.
Podcast: The Caffeinated Gardener and I will return soon. Stay tuned.