The story of a first time gardener...

A bit late to be showing off my garden, but I still want to do so.... so here it goes. I know it's not too impressive, but it was my first year gardening and we had a record cool summer here in Alaska which made growing stuff quite difficult. But I enjoyed the experience and am excited to do it again next year.

I origionally started a bunch of stuff from seed and well, I went away for a week in May before they went in and well, someone didn't water them and a lot of the stuff died. Some stuff did come back though after I got home and gave everything a good watering. I ended up getting a bunch of plants. It all worked out well.

Stuff I bought as Plants:

tomatoes (4)

peppers (4)

marigolds (6ish)

strawberry (5ish)

zucchini (3ish)

romaine lettuce (6ish)

buttercrisp lettuce (6ish)

What I started from Seed:
carrots
parsnips
green leaf lettuce
marigolds
sunflowers

Some of the buttercrisp and leafy green.

My carrots in October. I had to pull them all out since our ground was starting to freeze. Oh they sure are tasty.

Leafy green... yum! I was surprised to find that the lettuce survived several frosts. The few I had left in the garden died once we got snow (which by the way was very early this year... our average temperature for October was 29 degrees).
Parsnips. Didn't grow too large at all, but the ones I got sure were tasty.

Okay, so what did not do well?

sunflowers (they were so sad looking, although I did get a few flowers toward the end)

tomatoes (one or two tomatoes, but they didn't get picked in time before the frost)

zucchini (huge disappointment, especially since they are supposed to do well here!)

peppers (nadda)

strawberries (i got some berries but not too many at all!)

What did well?

lettuce

carrots

parsnips (sort of, see pic)

marigolds (my seedlings actually had flowers)

What do I want to grow next year possibly?

lettuce

carrots

parsnips (maybe)

broccoli

garlic

marigolds

summer squash

herbs (parsley, basil, thyme, rosemary, some others too probably)

I have to do some more research and find out what will grow well here in this part of Alaska, and then decide for sure. We have a short growing season, but we get so much sunshine throughout the summer months and that is what helps plants to thrive here. I need to get stuff in the ground a bit earlier too. And I'm really hoping for a warmer summer next year (we only had a handful of days in the seventies, nothing 80 or above... seriously). I'm excited to start planning what will be my garden next year.