Gardens and Greenhouse

"Pure envy" would describe my feelings about this wonderful property. A green house and a huge garden! We will take a look at the green house first, since in Alaska, the growing season is short and most things need to start there.

Outside the door is this great shallow sink...double duty of a potting sink and a place to clean the wonderful fresh fish that Dave cooks.  The fish carcases go into his compost pile for later feeding of the plants that he grows for his table.

Hardening off a few things before they go into the ground.

The growing side of the greenhouse.  This little chair is far from home.  We saw these everywhere in Belize and loved them.  The green house would be a great place to sit in the winter and dream of spring.

Ready to go into the garden

Every inch is used...notice the hanging plastic plant bags on both sides of the chair on the floor and one on the chair that is hung on the wall.

Flowers and food. The nasturtium flowers will end up in salads.

The working side of the greenhouse.

The workhorse garden cart.

The vegetable garden.

Lettuces we had for dinner last night.

There is a great deal of planting left to do as we are here before their season begins. Tomorrow, I will get my hands dirty as JoAnn has agreed to let me help with that planting. (It is tomorrow now and raining so we are not planting..at least I'm not...this New Mexico girl might melt in the rain.) Years ago I helped one early summer day to plant the gardens at the Yellow Pine Ranch in  Cuchara, Colorado.  They had window boxes at every cabin and purchased the plants from a nursery.  Here the flowering plants have been nurtured from seeds and will share space with the edible plants.

It has been great fun to spend our meals with local residents who love the Gustavus Inn dining experience and who themselves are getting their businesses ready for the hoards of tourists who will arrive in a couple of weeks.  Last night we heard stories of the rowdy early days in Juneau when most folks were just beginning to build their lives in the new-to-them Alaskan frontier and how things have changed in the last fifty years.