I don't really "garden", per se, but I do very much like to grow things. Plants are easier to grow than animals so it's plants mostly for me these days. I grow stuff in pots on my deck, and I have a modest pair of planters (about 3' x 15' each) outboard of my patio. I have more permanent plants in my patio planters: A rhubarb bush on one end of each planter and gooseberry plants on the opposite ends of each planter. In between the gooseberries and rhubarb my wife plants some vegetables like, bok choi, and summer squash, and I plant things like chives and nasturtiums. This year I've let the volunteer sunflowers from the bird feeders on the deck continue to grow. But it's the deck plants that get most of my attention. There are some 'standards': birch trees, nasturtiums (so I don't have to go downstairs to 'graze'), pansies, basil, sage, and zonal geraniums (cultivars, not wild types). I usually try some 'new stuff' each year. Of the 15 or so years I've had the deck 'garden', this year has been the worst as far as 'success' goes. Too bad really, as this has been a record-setting year for heat. Nevertheless, I have had some success, and I'll post some pictures.

Not included in the above list of "standards" are some that I have grown off and on over the years: Cilantro, mint, thyme, lupine (AKA "blue bonnet"), poppies, rattlesnake grass, and snapdragon. In addition to those, are some new experiments: Fig trees, three species of oak, four baobab (Adansonia sp.), sweet peas, columbine, kumquats, bristlecone pine (supposedly one tree being the oldest living thing on earth at 4,773 years old), Peruvian daffodils, persimmon, black spruce, red cedar, wild Alaskan iris (from seed), white spruce, apple (from grocery store-bought apple), "potatoes in bucket", and continuing for it's second year, black coral pea (Kennedia nigricans from Australia). It's supposedly a biennial, and doesn't produce fruit (flowers) until its second year. I started it last summer and nursed it through the winter in my house in south-facing windows. It has grown 'enthusiastically' so far this summer, but no sign of fruit/flowers yet. I'm keeping my hopes up for that one to bloom.

Here are the pictures. (Not all of them are good pictures as I left my DSLR in Oklahoma when I visited my cousin, and I'm having a difficult time getting it back, so these pictures are all from my cell phone.) I'll start with the 'standards'.

Pansies - I love the yellow ones as they have the most wonderfully sweet (and strong) fragrance.



Zonal Geraniums: Very difficult to get digital cameras to get "red" color right.





 
  One of my little birch 'clumps':



Mint, thyme, and cilantro:
June 24th


July 11th






Nasturtiums.
June 24th


June 26th




July 11th


"8-Ball" zucchini:
June 24th




June 26th






July 11th



Sage:
June 24th


July 11th


Columbine:
June 24th


July 11th
 




 Lupines:
June 24th




June 26th


July 11th







 
Now for the 'experimentals'.
 The only baobab that germinated - so far.
July 11th



The Peruvian daffodils.
June 24th



June26th



July 11th - Still no flowers.



The figs! REALLY hoping to get some fruit from these next year!

 





Rattlesnake grass:
June 26th




July 11th



The oaks! I planted 5 acorns, only three came up. Actually a fourth did 'come up', but died.

June 24th - this is the one with the biggest, greenest leaves:




June 26th - Still just the one with big leaves.




July 11th - Her are the three survivors:










Persimmon. This is the ONLY seed that germinated out of SEVENTY-TWO that were planted! No apple, no black spruce, no white spruce, no cedar, no iris, no kumquats and no bristlecone pine.



Snapdragons:
June 26th



This is a picture of the black coral pea back on June 26th. Didn't take one of it yesterday, but there has been significant additional growth. Just no flowers yet.


And finally, the potatoes! They are growing like crazy! Looking forward to a good harvest.
June 26th






July 11th







Whew! Lotsa pictures.



Paul

I am gobsmacked!

Paul, it all looks good. I'm surprised  some of the plants would grow in your area.  I practically have no garden this year. We didn't have a spring this year. It rained so much I couldn't work the garden. Now the temp's are hovering around 90 to 98 degrees F almost every day with no useful rain in sight. The ground is so dry the cracked earth looks like quake zone. The lawn is so dry it could catch fire. I have 53 tomato plants and that's all. .......Paul H

Quote from: Paul Hoskins;153518Paul, it all looks good. I'm surprised  some of the plants would grow in your area.  I practically have no garden this year. We didn't have a spring this year. It rained so much I couldn't work the garden. Now the temp's are hovering around 90 to 98 degrees F almost every day with no useful rain in sight. The ground is so dry the cracked earth looks like quake zone. The lawn is so dry it could catch fire. I have 53 tomato plants and that's all. .......Paul H

Same here. I slopped the sunflower in, only 2 tomatoes survived the heavy and constant rain fall and now we have gone 18 days without a drop of rain. I have a great sunflower crop going but the 10 day forecast shows only one day with a 30% chance. I'm not sure they can survive 28 days with no rain.... have never experienced this before.

Many of the deck plants won't "grow in Alaska" over winter. If they're perennials, they have to be brought in for the winter. There's a funny irony about doing that. The vast majority of plants start growing when the ground temperature reaches 50F. If you have a plant that can't handle the Alaskan winter, but needs a dormant period where the temps are less than 50F, (like the oak trees), it's actually tough to achieve without a greenhouse! In the winter here, it's tough to find a place that's below 50F but above 32F (freezing). I keep my garage and shop at 55F. No help there. If plants that need a dormant period don't get it, they get 'leggy' (grow long and spindly trying to reach for the sun). Sometimes you can get them through the winter, sometimes not. Two good examples of plants that I have been unable to overwinter indoors are mint and rosemary. (I LOVE rosemary bushes. Just don't like to eat rosemary.) Mint grows crazy long and spindly, then dies. Rosemary just can't handle the lack of sunlight. We'll see how the oak will do. I am not optimistic. On the other hand, I was able to get the black coral pea to overwinter. It got leggy, but when I pruned it back this spring, (outdoors), it took off. Here's a picture of it this morning.



The little blue planter in the picture has grape hyacinth bulbs in it. (I love those little plants too.) They grew, but produced no flower spikes. I'm hoping the bulbs have survived and will produce flowers next year. I purchased A BUNCH of bulb plants. The ONLY ones that came up were 4 of the grape hyacinth (in another spot that produced flower spikes AND SEEDS :D), and the Peruvian daffodils, which have not produced any flower spikes.

Here's a picture of one of the patio planters. If you look closely, you can see the gooseberry on the left, the rhubarb on the right, the few sunflowers, and if you look REALLY close, you can see the one garlic chives plant that over-wintered. (It's just to the left of the nasturtiums.) Most of what you see is nasturtium and chickweed. I do not intentionally grow the chickweed!





 Here are pictures of a couple of things that didn't make it into the batch of pictures yesterday. The first is some basil that I REALLY had to baby. Normally, basil is very hardy, but I bought 'starts' from a local box store. They were infested with aphids. I really had to work to keep this plant alive, but the aphids are finally gone and it is thriving.


And here's one of my other birch trees. This tree is at least 10 years old. I trim it back aggressively, and of course it's in the 'pot', so it remains stunted. I have plans to make a bonsai out of it. Someday...


We had 6 weeks without rain, and set record temperatures. It wasn't bad until it got up to 90F. We had about a week or so of those temps. I wasn't complaining... but I WAS sweating like a... (You can finish it.)

Like I said in the OP, this has been the year of most 'failures'. I'm still hoping that the black coral pea and Peruvian daffodil will flower. AND that the oak will make it through the winter. Oh yeah, AND that the figs will make it through the winter 'indoors' AND produce fruit next year.

Paul

Nice work Paul. Perseverance must be the key to growing things in a climate like Alaska.

That's a large part of it, Jorge. There's a considerable dose of luck needed as well.

Paul

Since it's started to rain... and I have a couple of 'corrections' to make, I thought I'd post an update (with pictures) on the "garden".

First, the corrections:

The "Black Coral Pea": I don't think that is what this plant is. Primarily, the leaves are REALLY dissimilar in comparison with the leaves of black coral pea plants I see posted on the web. I thought maybe the seed packet got mis-labeled.  However, when I look up the seeds for black coral pea on the web, and compare them to the seeds I have left from the original packet, they are identical. That leaves an error on my part when I planted the seeds and labeled them. Since it was now over a year ago that I started these seeds, that 'operator error' is possible. BUT I DON'T THINK SO. What makes me doubt my own labeling is that these leaves DO look like some banksia leaves, and I have banksia seeds. Only time will tell.

Second, the Baobab tree. It's not. I forgot that I changed pots and put some ginger in this pot. So what I thought was a sprouting baobab tree is in fact sprouting ginger. That's good news of a sort, but I would have preferred the baobab tree.

Now for the rest of the plants:
Here is the coriander, thyme, and mint "boxed set":





Next, the 'upright' fig tree:




This is the geranium rooting. I don't know what color it's flowers will be yet.




This is the big pink geranium:



This is the salmon-colored geranium. You'll just have to "trust me" on these colors; digital cameras have a hard time with reds and shades of reds.



Here's that ginger. If you look closely, you can see a second sprout.



Here's a picture of my horseradish. If you look to the left and right of it, you can see the two gooseberry plants. They got hammered by a caterpillar. Not sure they'll survive the winter.



One of the lupines bloomed again:



And the seed spike on the other one is maturing:




Here are the nasturtium on the patio planter. Note the difference in size of the plants and leaves from the ones in next pictures.



Here are the "boxed" nasturtiums. Finally in bloom. Again, problems getting correct color renditions of red flowers.



Here are pictures of the oaks.








The potatoes:



The summer squash. This is only about 1/2 the plant.



The 8-ball zucchini plant. Note how anemic it looks. From being in a pot.




8-ball zucchini fruit.



Basil that the aphids tried to kill:



Rattlesnake grass is going to seed:




Some oak "art":



The Peruvian daffodils; still no blossoms.



Rhubarb. Those leaves are between 2 and 3 FEET in width.

And finally, the potted sage:

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Paul