Am I His Garden Legacy?

I have faint childhood memories of my grandfather’s garden.  Climbing the steps to the upper yard adjacent to the sprawling garden, the pride, and joy of my grandfather’s summers.  

1519 B Street taken in 1998 when my grandmother sold the house

Their home that once stood at 1519 B Street in Omaha, Nebraska, was built in kind of a hillside with an exterior staircase leading to the upstairs apartment where my great grandmother lived.  The big garden my grandfather was so proud of was of those stairs.  I wish I had photos of his garden, it's its glory days.  Unfortunately, it's all gone, the house was torn down and the gardens are no more.  The lot is vacant, the google earth view shows me a grassy green lot where the house once stood.  

My grandfather was a solemn man who rolled his own cigarettes and sat with his cats watching the world go by from the back porch of this house.  He started seeds in old cotton socks he cut into small squares and kept moist until the seed sprouted. He grew white tomatoes, the less common black raspberries, and any other unique varieties of fruits and veggies he could get his hands on.   

My grandfather in his flower garden on the lower level of his yard

Maybe that’s where I get my affinity for the unusual varieties.  Lemon cucumbers, whatamellon hybrid, kikuza squash are a few of the varieties that have made a home in my collection of seeds.

We planted our first garden in 2008. We were newlyweds in a new town, in a new state with a shoestring budget. We ordered our first seeds from Baker Creek and The Seed Savers Exchange. We dug raised beds in the middle of our back lawn. We planted tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, and peas.  We even cut the phone line twice digging a bed for corn, where we planted the three sisters for the first time.   Growing things in Missouri was easy, maybe almost child’s play.  Growing a garden in Alaska is a whole other matter. 

Our first garden in Alaska 2015

We moved to Alaska in 2012 and planted our first garden in 2015.  Growing in Alaska comes with challenges of weather, root maggots, rabbits, and the largest garden pest of all MOOSE!  We've lost any number of garden crops to the roving moose.  they love cabbage and broccoli, will eat pumpkins and beans, and even level tomato plants.  

The first year using our Greenhouse in 2018

We've progressed from growing everything outside in small raised beds to building a greenhouse in 2017 and building a larger garden spot in front of the greenhouse.  Every year we evolve and every year we try something new.  I like to think my grandfather would have been proud of the gardener I've become.  It's left me wondering if I'm his garden legacy?