We have updated our website to include the presentations on hugelkultur and fruit growing. Feel free to download them (they are 20MB each, though) and bring them with you to the workshop. We have also decided to use a video monitor to display the presentations tomorrow. Here is a link to our website.
See you all around 3pm!
Saturday, March 22, 2014
Sunday, March 16, 2014
Gardening Workshop Agenda
Well, I think it is all settled.
1. Victor Johanson (world traveler) will be presenting on hugelkultur
2. Kurt Wold (Pingo Farm) will present on construction and use of root cellars
3. I (Solitude Springs Farm) will provide an introduction to growing fruit (with assistance from Victor)
4. General gardening Q&A session
You don't want to miss this information-packed session. Remember to mark it on your calendar!
Sunday, May 23rd, from 3pm to 6pm at the Ken Kunkel Community Center (next to the Goldstream General Store and Ivory Jacks).
We have yet to put handouts on the website. Hopefully, they'll be there before next Friday.
Over 2000 page views reached!!
On Wednesday, March 12th, our blog received its 2,000th page view!! The first 1,000 took two years, but the second 1,000 only took one year. Thanks to all of our followers for making this happen!! It is probably fitting that this milestone occurred just before our free gardening workshop next Sunday. The workshop is our way of thanking our supporters that live in the area.
I spent about an hour this morning talking to a fellow grape grower in Minnesota. He is one of my sources for grapevines and a real wealth of information. We exchanged experiences and he gave me some ideas to try in my quest to ripen grapes in our challenging climate. We also spoke about getting to meet each other face-to-face in Nebraska City, Nebraska, at Vitinord 2015. While I most likely won't have wine to share at the conference, I will have more valuable experience to share than I did at Vitinord 2012. I can't wait!
I spent about an hour this morning talking to a fellow grape grower in Minnesota. He is one of my sources for grapevines and a real wealth of information. We exchanged experiences and he gave me some ideas to try in my quest to ripen grapes in our challenging climate. We also spoke about getting to meet each other face-to-face in Nebraska City, Nebraska, at Vitinord 2015. While I most likely won't have wine to share at the conference, I will have more valuable experience to share than I did at Vitinord 2012. I can't wait!
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
Workshop details
Well, we have finalized the discussion topics for our upcoming gardening workshop. For the main event, we have asked Victor Johanson to share his knowledge of hugelkultur. He has traveled around the globe studying this innovative gardening philosophy and has had great success using it in his own garden. Other topics will include an introduction to root cellars, growing fruit, and our usual Q&A session on gardening in the area. We will provide refreshments and some interesting door prizes. This is an event you don't want to miss out on!!!
We will post a notice here as soon as we have presentation materials available on our website. Feel free to print them out and bring them with you to the workshop, or pass them on to someone you know that can't attend.
See you there!!!
We will post a notice here as soon as we have presentation materials available on our website. Feel free to print them out and bring them with you to the workshop, or pass them on to someone you know that can't attend.
See you there!!!
Friday, March 7, 2014
Gardening Workshop Is All Set Up
We finalized the location of this month's gardening workshop. It will be held at the Ken Kunkel Community Center near Ivory Jacks in Goldstream Valley. Be sure to save the date of March 23 from 3pm to 6pm on your calendar. It will be an information-packed event and as always we will have door prizes (including a few peony roots). Unfortunately we won't be able to give away a hugelkultur bed (that would be a bit messy), but you will definitely be able to build your own this summer! We will post an updated topic outline soon.
Sunday, March 2, 2014
Gardening workshop is coming!!
Just a quick update on the gardening workshop. It is tentatively set for 3 to 6 pm on Sunday, March 23rd. We have not received confirmation of the reservation yet, so we are hesitant to post the location. As soon as we know for sure, a new post will be added here and an advertisement will be put on Craig's List. It will be an information-packed afternoon, so be sure not to miss out!
Wednesday, January 1, 2014
Website is updated!!!
Well, we finally got around to updating the website. The variety list now includes some discussion on the merits of different varieties and a little on this past year's successes and failures. We have yet to schedule the next workshop, but it will include a presentation by Victor Johanson on hugelkultur, a representative from the cooperative extension on the construction of root cellars, a little about growing fruit in our area, and as usual a Q&A on gardening in the Goldstream Valley and surrounding hills. I hope you find it well worth the Sunday afternoon to attend!!
We have been babying some Vitis amurensis (grape) seedlings that we sprouted last spring. Most made it outside midsummer and acclimated quickly to our climate. A few were too small to put out, so we left them inside the house. They finally went dormant in October. When I was looking around two weeks ago, I saw some green buds on one. This is what is so interesting: most plants require a certain number of hours of cool temperatures (between 45F and 25F) to break dormancy. This "trick" allows plants to weather warm and cold periods during the winter without budding out prematurely. However, V. amurensis doesn't require very many such hours. It evolved in southern Siberia, where winters are notoriously cold and long, with very few midwinter warm spells. On the other hand, the southern Siberian summers are short and come on quickly. It is beneficial for V. amurensis to break dormancy quickly as soon as the temperatures begin warming in the late spring. Such conditions have been the norm here at the farm and we have been looking for grape varieties that bud as soon as things warm up. Unfortunately, most grape varieties are bred for warmer climates where winter temperatures fluctuate quite a bit. With the rapid decrease in temperatures in the fall and rapid increase in the spring, plants at the farm (and around Fairbanks in general) do not accumulate enough hours between 25 and 45 degrees fahrenheit until sometime in June. Consequently, grapevines are slow to bud out in the spring. We have found a few that do well, but most just sit and do nothing until mid to late June. By then, summer is half over!!! The other five seedlings that have been in the house as well are either just starting to bud out or have not budded at all. So, we will keep an eye on this early one and see if we can use it to breed new varieties of grapes.
Now for a quick climate summary for 2013. The high was 85F on June 25th and the low was -31F on January 27th. The average temperature was 30.1F. We accumulated 1049 growing degree days (GDD; base 50F), which equates to 583 GDD base 10C. This was well above our average of 750 GDD base 50F. Our growing season extended 117 days from May 21st to September 15th. There were 8 days where the temperature rose to 80F or higher, and 70 days where it fell below zero. Winds exceeded 60 mph during the week before Thanksgiving and exceeded 50 mph the first week of December. Rainfall came out to about 6 inches for the summer (down from about 8 inches), but snowfall was about average at 100 inches. Our current snow depth of 23 inches is also average.
We are looking forward to the new year and what we will learn next summer. Be sure to follow along as we continue on with our great experiment!
Now for some pictures: (1) Duke this summer, (2) Leon Millot after veraison in September, (3) early bud break on V. amurensis, (4) 2 ft of snow on the bramblery.
We have been babying some Vitis amurensis (grape) seedlings that we sprouted last spring. Most made it outside midsummer and acclimated quickly to our climate. A few were too small to put out, so we left them inside the house. They finally went dormant in October. When I was looking around two weeks ago, I saw some green buds on one. This is what is so interesting: most plants require a certain number of hours of cool temperatures (between 45F and 25F) to break dormancy. This "trick" allows plants to weather warm and cold periods during the winter without budding out prematurely. However, V. amurensis doesn't require very many such hours. It evolved in southern Siberia, where winters are notoriously cold and long, with very few midwinter warm spells. On the other hand, the southern Siberian summers are short and come on quickly. It is beneficial for V. amurensis to break dormancy quickly as soon as the temperatures begin warming in the late spring. Such conditions have been the norm here at the farm and we have been looking for grape varieties that bud as soon as things warm up. Unfortunately, most grape varieties are bred for warmer climates where winter temperatures fluctuate quite a bit. With the rapid decrease in temperatures in the fall and rapid increase in the spring, plants at the farm (and around Fairbanks in general) do not accumulate enough hours between 25 and 45 degrees fahrenheit until sometime in June. Consequently, grapevines are slow to bud out in the spring. We have found a few that do well, but most just sit and do nothing until mid to late June. By then, summer is half over!!! The other five seedlings that have been in the house as well are either just starting to bud out or have not budded at all. So, we will keep an eye on this early one and see if we can use it to breed new varieties of grapes.
Now for a quick climate summary for 2013. The high was 85F on June 25th and the low was -31F on January 27th. The average temperature was 30.1F. We accumulated 1049 growing degree days (GDD; base 50F), which equates to 583 GDD base 10C. This was well above our average of 750 GDD base 50F. Our growing season extended 117 days from May 21st to September 15th. There were 8 days where the temperature rose to 80F or higher, and 70 days where it fell below zero. Winds exceeded 60 mph during the week before Thanksgiving and exceeded 50 mph the first week of December. Rainfall came out to about 6 inches for the summer (down from about 8 inches), but snowfall was about average at 100 inches. Our current snow depth of 23 inches is also average.
We are looking forward to the new year and what we will learn next summer. Be sure to follow along as we continue on with our great experiment!
Now for some pictures: (1) Duke this summer, (2) Leon Millot after veraison in September, (3) early bud break on V. amurensis, (4) 2 ft of snow on the bramblery.
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