Gardening Under the Midnight Sun

With a bit of rain nearly every day this month, we are on track for a bumper crop of mosquitoes!

A painted mural in Palmer, AK.

Now at the end of the month, just after the summer solstice, the sun rises around 4a.m. and sets just before midnight. The extra long days combined with over 2” of rainfall this month has had all the vegetation growing like mad, and the mosquitoes too! This has certainly been a different June compared to the previous years we’ve been here. We had been expecting another hot and dry first half of summer, with regular rains not coming until late in July. Instead, it’s been overcast on many days which has done a great job of keeping the intense sun at bay. It’s been great not having to roast in the dry heat, but trying to do any work when there are mosquitoes the size of hummingbirds swarming all around is almost worse. ​

Apple trees looking healthy.

Water droplets on lupine leaves.

Greenhouse full of life.

Now that the nighttime temperatures have started warming up into the 50°s, the garden is starting to take off. Many (but not all) of the outdoor plants have recovered from the late frost we got in the last week of May. Looking at the tiny plants it still seems like a long way off before we start picking pumpkins, squash, and carrots, but patience is what makes a garden grow! We also got our new DIY high tunnel greenhouse covered and planted. Pete ordered a truckload of topsoil and spread it out as the base inside the tunnel, then mixed in some amendments and a layer of our homemade compost then transplanted out lots of the seedlings we had started in the nursery. Right now we’ve got sweet peas, green beans, and edamame (soybeans, as an experiment), along with peppers and herbs (thyme, sage, basil, and oregano). After transplanting all those, Pete then used the single row seeder to plant carrots, radishes, and golden beets along the edges of the rows. We may have too much stuff planted in there, but we’re paying close attention to all the combinations and trying to see which things grow well together. We’ve also got several bell peppers, broccoli, and celery growing in pots in the nursery which will eventually get transplanted out once they get a little bigger.  ​

Pea blossom.

Having this big new tunnel is so cool and I love the variety of things we’ve been able to plant this year. Before the end of summer we plan on closing in the ends to keep it warmer into September and maybe even October. However, this tunnel is pretty short at only 30 feet, so we’re using this low cost, DIY version to figure out what we’re doing and then maybe some day we’ll invest in a full 100’ tunnel to really pump out some veggies.

Onions....

....and more onions.

We received our annual shipment of baby chicks on the 20th of the month, a week later than usual due to high increase in demand this year. I’m guessing people are getting fed up with high food costs and saying “I’ll just do it myself then!”. We're hoping the rain will let up for a few weeks so when we put them out in their mobile chicken tractors they don’t have to fight against the cool temperatures and damp ground and instead are just able to enjoy the fresh bugs and warm sunshine. Although the extra rain has made the grass grow thick and tall, and they love to hunt around in it as we move them across the field day by day. 

Pete has been working on building a new chicken coop/pig pen combination, which is basically an 8’x12’ shed with a lean-to off each side. This will give our egg laying hens a new home inside part of the shed with an outdoor run along one side and the pigs will live on the opposite side of the building. The idea behind this design is that it will allow us to keep all the food and water for the pigs and chickens in one place and close to the animals as well. We are learning that efficiency is a big priority when it comes to raising animals on the homestead. It’s not that raising the animals is particularly difficult, but when it takes 30 minutes or more every day just walking back and forth carrying food and water from here to there for each group of animals we have spread out, we start to think about how we could save and better use that time. ​

After the land was cleared, Pete did some preliminary measurements.

Foundation beginnings.

Wood frame completed.

Speaking of pigs, we’re picking up our two piglets on the 1st of July! We are so excited to get them back on the homestead as they are oddly entertaining. We are also getting them a week or two later than usual, but we’re not as concerned about it because they will have a nicer place to live this year and we shouldn’t have the issues with keeping their water thawed like we had last year.

Field pea blossoms.

Moth staying dry against the window.

Apple blossoms.

Baby blocks for a custom order completed this month.

My favorite mountain range in Alaska! Over 300 mountains and a handful of glaciers.

Bear patrolling the property.

Feeding the pollinators with the thousands of dandelions in the yard.

The purple lupine always blooms in June. With the rainy and cold weather late into June, it appears that the lupine will be sticking around until July. It's one of my favorite wildflowers here!

Some of the tiniest wildflowers growing in the rocks. Beautiful, delicate details!

Strawberries are joining in on the June blooms too!

Fitting first rafter.

Wild roses. Always a common bloom in June!