Arctic Gardens: Solving the challenge of no soil

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - Many Alaskan communities face different challenges when it comes to gardening, including short seasons, cold nights, and in the case of Seward, not enough dirt.

Seward is built on an “alluvial fan”. This is created from sediment being washed down from the mountains and fanning out in a triangular shape. What it means for Seward, is poor soil.

“We don’t really have soil here. In Seward, it’s like gravel,” said Callie Bacon, a co-founder and current Finance Coordinator of the Seward Community Garden by the Bay.

“It’s really hard to grow food in Seward, right? Like most people do not have soil that’s suitable for growing at their house and so the community garden becomes that place for a lot of people,” said Bacon.

When Bacon moved to Seward in 2011, she found it was difficult to get fresh, organic produce.

“I really thought for a long time, like, the reason I’m going to move away is because there’s no ability to grow food,” said Bacon.

During an event called Seward Strong in 2016, the community garden was chosen as a project.

Seward Community Garden by the Bay provides 30 plots. Five of those plots are monitored by volunteers and the produce given to the local food bank. The other 25 plots are for members to plant...like first time gardener Dominic Gjurasic.

“This is my first time ever growing anything and so I just like the idea of knowing where your food comes from,” said Gjurasic. “And I’m not also not the biggest like vegetable or like greens kind of guy, but I think it’s just cool to know that we planted these as little seeds. Like they are in my hand and then you get to see it grow and then you water it and you reap your own rewards. I like the idea of that.”

Members of the community garden get a raised bed of soil that’s tested and amended every year as well as education opportunities to learn more about gardening and how to grow more.

“There’s definitely been a lot of trial and error over the years. Seward is not the sunniest or the driest. It is pretty windy in this location, a lot, and so what we can grow well is definitely dictated by our local climate,” said Bacon. She says they do well with kale, lettuce and carrots but have challenges with cabbage because of slugs.

Gjurasic is also planting some kale this year.

“I think that would be fun, because I’ve also heard it’s like really easy and it grows really well, so I’m hoping that we can get a lot of that,” said Gjurasic. “We’re just trying to do the easiest stuff, so then we’re like excited about it next year and then we can come back and like kind of build on that and try a little bit harder stuff.”

“When we envisioned this community garden, we were really looking to create a gathering space,” said Bacon. “A place where people could share knowledge. They can just come and enjoy, like the beauty and peacefulness of the space. And then in addition to that, like have a supportive environment to grow their own food. And, you know, going into year nine, I really feel like we found success with that. We have a really thriving garden community, and I’m so happy to be a part of it.”

See a spelling or grammar error? Report it to web@ktuu.com