Keeping a community garden growing through the summer

FAIRBANKS, Alaska (KTUU/KTVF) – As this year’s growing season continues in Interior Alaska, the community garden being put on by Stone Soup Cafe has seen its share of plants successfully blossom, providing food for the community.

According to Garden Manager Peter Miller, a variety of foods have thrived, including beans, snap peas, nasturtiums, kale, kohlrabi, cabbages, dill, and other herbs.

“It’s been a good summer. The weather’s been good for gardening,” Miller explained. “We’ve had a nice mixture of sun and rain, and the community has really stepped up and helped us out,” Miller explained.

This year, he said, has also been especially good for squash, which he said is thanks to the good weather that Fairbanks has largely seen in 2025.

All of these are available for passersby and interested community members to take with them at their leisure, with some produce going toward organizations around town.

“Usually, the stuff from this garden gets harvested by people who are just hungry and walking by,“ Miller said. ”And then whatever needs to be harvested that hasn’t been harvested, I’ll call around to the Senior Center, Meals on Wheels, or some of the assisted living places like the Golden Towers or Golden Ages.”

A chalkboard along the outside of the garden lists some of the items available for those passing by, and Miller said sometimes he comes by to find that some plants have been harvested by the community.

“I try to plant a lot of stuff that people can just eat right out of the garden without having to cook or do much with,” he added.

A batch of potatoes had some difficulty, which Miller attributes to community members pulling out the plants prematurely, or setting them off to the side, where they wither.

“I don’t think people are doing that maliciously, but I think there’s like a lack of understanding or knowledge with how to interact with the garden,” the manager said, adding that in their own gardens, growers should avoid pulling out or harvesting their potatoes until the plant above the ground starts to wither and die, with potatoes usually harvested after the first frost.

Workload in the garden has settled down for the season, according to Miller — having passed the big planting push in the spring — and with time left before the fall harvest, which depends on when frost starts to hit the Interior.

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