Native Plants and Gardening

We live in South Central Alaska.
Among the edible wild plants on the property are plenty of edible berries:  blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, elderberries, cranberries.  Vitamin C is not a problem in the summers or for people who can the berries in the fall. Edible wild leaves for salads or cooked preparations (or medicine) include fiddlehead ferns (which must be cooked), fireweed, dandelion, and chickweed  (Do you remember Euell Gibbons?  He called the last a miracle plant because it is so good for so many things).  I've used spring time spruce tips in shortcake, viniagrette, and tea, based on information that Captain Cook had his men drink spruce tip tea to ward of scurvy during winter explorations.

Below is a list of native and purchased plants that this neophyte gardener and forager has nurtured and how they performed over the past few years.

Tiny House Furnishings



You can enlarge this photo by clicking on it 

Furnishing the cabin long distance, before it was built, and as design elements shifted, was intimidating to me, but the endeavor committed me to the site in a way that my husband's enthusiasm and my maniacal weed whacking of 8 foot grasses and devil's club never did.  The process enabled me to start seeing myself living there.  In terms of décor, I had three priorities:  a) shop once and that’s it, b) don’t crowd the little space, and c) make it inviting and functional. These priorities determined what we bought and how we used them.