THE U-Pick GARDEN will be closing August 20th. This will be the last year the garden will be open to the public. Next year I'll be operating as a CSA, supplying about 20 regular customers with weekly boxes. Thank you for your support over the last 8 years, but it's time to try something new.

To get a copy of my book, "How To Grow Vegetables In Sitka, Alaska" just give me a call....The books are $20 plus tax. If you live out of town and want me to mail you a copy, you can mail a check for $25.60 to:

Lori Adams
P O Box 6021
Sitka, Alaska
99835


Down To Earth U-Pick Garden is located at 2103 Sawmill Creek Road in Sitka, Alaska. It is open usually from mid-June through late August. Hours are Monday-Saturday 12:00 to 6:30. On Farmer's Market Saturdays I am not open until 2:00. Children are welcome but may not run through the garden or chase the ducks. If you have any questions you can contact me, Lori Adams, at 907-747-6108 or 907-738-2241. My email address is downtoearthupick@gmail.com

Friday, November 29, 2013

Thankfulness

It's Thanksgiving....and there's lots of good smells coming from the kitchen...








  don't ask

And look who came home!!!!!




I'm grateful for so many, many things......

Thank you for the world so sweet, 
Thank you for the food we eat. 
Thank you for the birds that sing, 
Thank you God for everything.
-- Author Unknown
I hope you had a nice Thanksgiving too.

Monday, November 25, 2013

A Little Bit Of Intervention Please

All I want to do is crochet. It's cold and dark and windy outside, but inside the house it's warm and cozy, the Christmas lights are on, and I have piles of yarn just waiting to be made into mittens.....


So, while I should be doing this....


I've been doing this....


Help!!!!  I've started to crochet, and I can't get up!!!





Someone might have to plan an intervention.

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Oh, Come On Now!!! I'ts Not A SPA!!!!!

The temperature in Southeast Alaska has gone down considerably this past week. The wind has been blowing and it's been downright chilly!!



The first cold snap of the year always seems to take me by surprise, and this year was no exception.....the hoses hadn't been disconnected yet and there's still stuff out in the garden that's now buried under about 7 inches of snow. But the most important thing that needed to be done to be officially ready for Winter was to rig up the stock tank heater for the pool in the duck hutch.


This is the model that I use...and then I wrapped some chicken wire around it to protect the ducks legs.


I have fresh water running through the pool year round, and most of the time that's all it takes to keep the water in the pool from freezing. But if it's 25 degrees or less I plug in the heater. 


I know ducks are insulated from the cold thanks to their feathers and down, but how can they stand to have their legs and feet dangling in that cold water? Imagine water that is colder than 32 degrees that can't freeze because there's fresh water running through it 24 hours a day. THAT'S COLD!!! But the ducks seem completely unaffected.

Now, this particular stock tank heater has a built in thermostat, and it works great, but I think it's set just a little too high.....what do you think?


Here are the ducks before I let them out for the day....


And here they are again.......later in the day when I went out to check on them....





I think they're just a little bit too comfortable......don't you?

Monday, November 18, 2013

Warning: I Brake For Buckets

If you asked me which of my gardening tools I find the most useful, I'd have to say.... my buckets. It seems like no matter what project I'm working on, the first thing I do is reach for a bucket. And although I have a bazillion of them, I always feel like I need more.....


Buckets are useful for schlepping things up the beach, like starfish....


Seashell sand....


Herring eggs....


Seaweed....


Salmon Carcasses....


And fish bones.....


Sometimes I haul bucketfuls of stuff up to the truck and dump them out directly into the truckbed, but most of the time I just stack the buckets in the back for easy unloading and cleanup at home.


Buckets are useful when you need to move things from one part of the garden to another, like wood chips....


Duck pond sludge......


Dirt, and rocks, and weeds.


 And most jobs require at least 2 of them...so you always have one within reach!


They're handy when I'm gathering vegetables....


Butchering ducks....


Making gift baskets....


Hauling tools, or picking huckleberries....


 And they're an absolute must for hauling spent grain from the brewery, and ground up fish gurrey from the processing plant.


Even when buckets are upside they're useful..... I sit on them when I'm weeding....


And cover plants with them in the Spring to protect them from frost.


But watch out! Buckets have a mind of their own......when I'm not using them I try to keep them all tucked away neatly under the shelf alongside the house....


But I notice that when the wind blows and they get restless, and wander all over the garden....


 And they're sneaky.... there's almost always one lurking in the shadows in every photo I take....





I never throw a broken bucket away....when they start to leak I use them to hold plants that are waiting to be transplanted.....


And when they get big cracks in them I cut off their bottoms to use as trays under potted plants...


Buckets come in many different sizes, shapes and colors....


Round or square.... tall or short.....red, white or blue or anything else you can imagine.  I especially like the little ones. They are just perfect for little jobs and small loads....


A lot of people don't realize how handy buckets are. They bring random bags and boxes to gather vegetables....


Or only own a couple of buckets which limits the amount of stuff they can get from the beach. I still get a chuckle out of hearing Willow mutter under her breath as she hauled seaweed for the first time this summer..."I'm going to have to get more buckets."


So you may be wondering just how you go about getting yourself some buckets. Well, you never buy them! Buying them goes against the gardener's code! You have to COLLECT them. This involves some ingenuity on the gardener's part. You have to get creative, and always be looking out for that stray bucket that everyone else has overlooked. I have found them at the recycling center, in the free piles at garage sales, by the garbage cans down at the boat harbor.....and yes.....I've been known to stop my car in the middle of the road to grab one that's in the ditch. .....This may surprise you, but I am not alone. The last time I stopped to grab one, the guy going the other way stopped too, and as I hurried back to my car I heard him say something like, "Hey, I was going to get that!"


And I may or may not have said something back like...."Too bad, loser!"