permaculture

["Donna Jones" <djones@kodiak.alaska.edu>]

Dear Mark,

Thanks for your comments.  Yes, the local would be best, and I would check
the farmer's market if there were one closer than (maybe) Anchorage,  250
air miles away.  I don't think that ramps grow wild at all in Alaska.  I
have found a seed source for the wild Alaska onion, which is basically a
variety of chives.  My idea in trying ramps is that this is a member of
the allium family that might do well in the extremely limited ecosystem
here.  

Kodiak Island can grow a limited number of plants; limits are imposed by
temperatures (70F is a very high temp in summer, and the soil never
reaches warm germinating temperatures), acid soil (4.5), an 8 inch
compacted layer of volcanic sand from the Katmai eruption in 1912 under
1-2 inches of spruce duff, and the most remarkable number of slugs you
could possibly imagine.    I am having to look to nonnatives for
biological diversity and things to eat.