Let’s talk about another pre-season preparation thing that we’re working through. Beyond just ordering seeds, we also need other things to support our 2026 garden.
Typically in January or February, we’re putting in for anything we need to order for the upcoming growing season. Be it fertilizers, additional equipment, irrigation supplies, spare parts or whatever.
At least for us, everything we might want isn’t always found locally. Small towns have their challenges and the nature of Alaska is such that we can’t just “pop in” to the closest major city to grab what we need. That’s a 12 hour round trip for us, minimum.
We find it helpful to work from “shopping lists,” developed from our prior season’s garden journal. That garden journal comes in clutch for times like this, since we know almost everything we need for the upcoming season. Remember that for your 2026 garden journal, you’ll need to know what you need in 2027!
Perhaps surprisingly, market volatility has been a lasting thing, even in 2026. Supply chains just aren’t what they used to be and “out of stock” is something we see way too often these days. That sucks and forces you to change your plans. Also, with inflation what it has been, these days we often think in terms of “buy now, it’ll be more expensive later.”
It might seem like we are “overprepared.” Our garden isn’t negotiable, so we treat it as such.
There are plenty of things we’ll get later, too. Things such as compost, soil and other locally purchased items are highly seasonable. We’ll still be “on it” early in the season, but our local gardening world is still locked in ice and snow!
We can check now our season’s fertilizer off the list. We’re again going with Masterblend, a major change to our practice that we made last season. I’m sure we’ll get into the reasoning behind the change soon enough!
