Gardening Help

Alaska Cooperative Extension has all kinds of free handouts on gardening in Alaska. This is a great place to ‘browse’ around. Gardener favorites include their list of vegetable and fruit varieties for Interior Alaska and an booklet called 16 Easy steps to Gardening in Alaska.

Alaska Cooperative Extension

UAF University Park Building,1000 University Ave., Room 109, Fairbanks, AK 99709.

mailing address: P.O. Box 758155, Fairbanks, AK 99775-8155
Office: 907-474-2427

“A Beginner’s Guide to Successful Gardening in the Fairbanks Area”, by Eloise DeWitt. This is the best book on vegetable gardening in our area. This book is now out of print.

Alaska Gardening Guide, Vol. 1 by Ann D. Roberts is also excellent and in print.

Gardening in the Cabbage Patch by Pat Babcock is collection of gardening articles available online and also from the author.

Calypso Farm and Ecology Center is located 5 miles up the Old Nenana Highway from Ester.  Calypso Farms offers a number of workshops and will offer any gardening workshop if five or more gardeners are interested.

While moose used to be a problem at FCG, we built a fence three times the height of this one and that has kept Mama Moose and her calves out of our veggies!

Cold soils are a problem for many flowers and vegetables and the soil in Fairbanks is cold! In this photo you can see a number of ways to combat this problem. Raised beds can be dug to maximize exposure to the sun’s rays. These beds can be formed by mounding the soil. If they are covered with clear plastic (see photo), this will hasten warm up. Many gardeners use a weed barrier cloth. This fabric lets water through and also warms the soil without promoting weed growth. Fasten the edges of the plastic or cloth with ground staples (available at home depot) or simply cover the edges with soil.

Also in the picture you will see a raised bed made with old tires. Make your raised beds, wide enough so that water will soak in and not just run down the sides of your rows but not so wide that you can’t reach the middle to weed and harvest.

The garbage cans you see are filled with water. The water temperature as it comes out of the ground is about 34 degrees F. After sitting in the sun for a day or two, the water warms considerably. It can be used for watering tender seedlings, tomatoes and squash or any cold sensitive plant.