GREEN SCENE

WASILLA — Winter was hardly an idle time for many in the Valley Garden Club.

Hundreds of varieties of perfectly preened plants and perennials were admired and purchased Saturday at the club’s 22nd annual plant sale at the Boys and Girls Club of Mat-Su.

Along with the popular tomatoes, pansies and even nutrient-rich soil, club members had cultivated something that can be useful in just about any garden. What sets the club’s largest fund-raiser of the year apart is that everything is produced by club members, said member Jean Krause.

“These come out of their own gardens or their own greenhouses,” she said. “They grow them from seeds or dig the perennials from their gardens when the spring comes.”

Memorial Day weekend is typically the focal point on the calendar for gardeners to plant, she said. And while this spring has been unusually warm and sunny, Krause still waited for this weekend.

“Conventional wisdom is that you wait until Memorials Day weekend to plant into the ground,” she said. “I waited, because we can always be surprised with a frost.”

Judging from the turnout at Saturday’s sale, Krause wasn’t alone in waiting.

“We’ve had a wonderful turnout,” she said. “We started at 9 a.m. with a throng of people and we just stood out of their way and let them select their plants. And there’s been a steady stream of customers since.”

One of those customers was Valley resident Gini King-Taylor, who used the sale to pick up some starters for a new herb garden she’s planning.

“I’m kind of getting an herb garden going this year,” she said, adding the garden club members produced an impressive variety to choose from. “Here’s my favorite, sweet basil. Also, there are chives and a chocolate mint. And I’m looking at this lovage. It says it tastes like celery, so I thought I might give that a try.”

Saturday was King-Taylor’s first visit to the garden club’s sale, but it won’t be her last.

“The selection is wonderful,” she said. “And there’s also a purple wave hanging petunia I’m buying.”

Joyce Boese has been a club member for about two years and enjoys gardening in Alaska’s mild climate.

“I’m not here all year because we’re snowbirds,” she said. “But summer is the best time to be here. It’s wonderful. There are lots and lots of plants here that are grown all over Alaska.”

The sale is not only a way for gardeners to show off their prowess, it’s also a way to earn back a little of the investment they put into it, Krause said. Each member who grows for the sale sets their own prices, then gives the club a cut from all plants sold. That means all the tomatoes, marigolds, daisies and other plants Krause brought to the sale will benefit her and the club.

A self-professed lover of tomatoes, Krause admits she doesn’t grow many vegetables in her own gardens.

“I don’t do too much with vegetables,” she said. “I let other people grow them, then I prefer to pay for them.”

Contact Greg Johnson at greg.johnson@frontiersman.com or 352-2269.