Planting season is upon us and whether you are a new gardener or a seasoned sourdough, the annual plant dance—what to start when and when they can move outdoors—is one of our greatest challenges as northern growers.
The main plants Alaskan gardeners start indoors are tomatoes and peppers, also some herbs and flowers depending on your plans. When we lived in Palmer, Alaska, I would start tomatoes between March 15 and April 15 based on when we anticipated the snow melting and our last frost. This spring in Haines is feeling much more like those springs further north.
Even as farmers, we have very limited indoor space to start our plants and timing is everything. The idea that the earlier you start your plants, the further along they will be when it is time to transplant them outside, and the more production you will get out of them is an obvious one. What many people don’t remember year after year is that if your plants stay inside too long, they become unhealthy and weak. They can get leggy, diseased, malnourished, and if they are too big, many plants will go through transplant shock, also making them susceptible to pest and disease. We prefer to have small, stout, healthy plants and have found that they catch up surprisingly quickly.
So please, for the love of plants, stop saying you’re “too late”. Most plants we grow in Alaska will get seeded in May. Look at the back of your seed packets. Does it say “direct seed”? Those plants do not need to be started indoors and, in fact, most of them shouldn’t be. Beets? Carrots? Arugula? Never ever would I dedicate my precious indoor space to plants that prefer to be seeded directly in the soil. Our packets are specifically written for Alaskans. If they can be direct seeded, don’t drive yourself nuts, just wait, spring is on its way and you are doing great.
If you don’t have a planting schedule, that’s your homework this week. Take all the piles of seed you have and separate them into “indoor” and “outdoor”. Then take the indoor stack and put them in order, counting back from when you anticipate snowless, defrosted soil. For those tomatoes and peppers though, you’re certainly not early but if you get them in this week, I would claim that you aren’t late either.
Growing food, no matter the scale, is our safeguard. If you are planning to grow food this year, you are engaging in a brave and radical act in the face of a great adversity that none of us have ever seen. You are our food security. Haines is uniquely poised to be one of the most food secure places in Alaska. We have land, local resources to build compost, vast local knowledge, wild food to supplement, and, if I say so myself, a pretty epic seed bank. We don’t need any drastic measures, just a spirit of sharing and cooperation. We are doing great.
Life has been complicated and overwhelming enough lately. Let’s not add to it by fighting losing battles or lamenting what we have or haven’t done. You aren’t late. You’re right on time. You’re perfect. Let’s do this.