Alaska Hardy Seed Suggestions for your 2024 Alaska Vegetable Garden

It’s time to start planning your 2024 Alaska Vegetable Garden!

It’s that time! When we dream of spring by burying our noses in gardening catalogs. It always gives me hope to see the full color photos of blooming flowers and ripe fruits and veggies.

((Before I forget, we made a handy, FREE downloadable seed starting calendar for you, too! Be sure to download yours here.))

But, it can be tricky to determine which seeds to buy and who to buy from. Although this is not an exhaustive list by any means, I thought it might be helpful to see where we get our seeds for our garden. We grow *most* of our veggies for the year based on this list so if you’re hoping to do the same, this could be very helpful!

Start Local

When we get our garden seeds, we start local and get what we can before we purchase from outside sources. My very favorite local seed store is Seed and Soil Organics in Palmer. Last year was a tough year with so much rain and very little heat but my seeds from Seed & Soil did better overall than the ones from companies in the lower 48.

One thing I love about Seed and Soil farm is that their seeds are all organic. They are also heirloom seeds meaning you can use your plants to save seeds from year to year if you want to. That won’t work with hybrid seeds and since sustainability is so important to us, we try to order as much as we possibly can from them.

Here are just a few seeds we ordered from Seed & Soil Organics this year:

• Beets (I love their multi-color blend for kvass, canning for salads, and freezing for soups)
• Borage (this is a flower that I know has many purposes but I like to plant one here and there to bring in bees – bees LOVE borage!
• Beans (Last year the ONLY beans that I planted outside that produced were from Seed & Soil.)
• Radishes (I plant just a few in the spring for early salads but plant the rest in July to add to my ferments in September.)
• Tomatoes (We are paring back on our tomatoes this year but I’d like to try one or two outside again. Just in case we get a real summer this year.)
• Chamomile to harvest for tea for the winter. There’s just something so cozy about sipping tea from my own garden when winter is settled in and spring feels so far away!
• Edible flower seeds (I got these to plant down in our children’s foraging area in the orchard. Won’t that be so fun for the kids when they come to pick fruit – to also get to grab some edible flowers?)
• And, of course, TONS of herbs for all sorts of things. We’re even thinking of having a small u-pick herb bundle pack for pickers this year – does that sound like fun?

Another favorite that I found out about last year is Foundroot. They are my new absolute favorite company to do business with. They are based in Haines, AK and their business has quite the story! They are incredibly helpful and kind, their customer service is stellar, and their seeds are unique and they all come with a story! Their store opens for seed presale on the 15th of January with seeds being shipped early February. They have so many unique things to try! ((hint: while you’re in there, be sure to check out their homestead goods – what a fun selection of unique items for around the homestead!))

We also love Best Cool Seeds (formerly Denali Seed). Although they aren’t located in Alaska any longer, they still make sure all seeds are field tested in Alaska before they include them in their store. (Coming soon: a podcast we recorded with the owner of Best Cool Seeds – SUPER informative!) Most of the original varieties are still offered as well.

From Best Cool Seeds here are a few things we ordered this year:

• Pumpkins (last year ours did awesome!)
• Celery
• Brussels Sprouts
• Cauliflower (Snow Crown is what we planted last year and we ate a ton, gave a bunch away, and still had over 100 bags to freeze! The heads were HUGE and so so tasty!)

Once I’ve gotten all of my preferred seeds from Seed and Soil and Best Cool Seeds, my next online stop is Territorial Seed. We’ve always appreciated the folks at Territorial Seed, and we even enjoy visiting their store in person when we visit family in Oregon. I usually get a few tomatoes, carrots, lettuce, and other veggies from Territorial Seed.

Final Thoughts:

Finally, we have a few outliers that we order from because when I find something that works, I tend to stick with it even if it gets a little harder to find.

I buy Alisa Craig onion seeds from Johnny’s Seeds. The Alisa Craig onion isn’t a great keeper but they get HUGE and they are so so tasty in our ferments and fresh for as long as we can keep them in the fall.

Our favorite broccoli (besides Green Goliath which I can’t even find in the states any more) is Arcadia. It produces really nice heads and enough off shoots to fill a freezer! It can be a bit tricky to find. Last year we get them from Vessey’s seeds. My daughter-in-law found us some this year to buy.

One thing to note:

Even though we do buy hybrid seeds for some of our needs, I do try to always have a few heirloom plants of everything we love to save for the following year. I’m new to seed saving but I think it’s an important part of sustainable gardening so we’re digging in more every year.

PS – Have you seen our Winter Homesteading Class list?