Toothbrushes and toilet seats tools of the trade for gardeners

Southeast Alaska's near-constant blanket of clouds and its frequent rains that wash nutrients from the soil make gardening in the region notoriously difficult, even for people with the greenest of thumbs.

However, horticultural afficionados Lenny Peterson and Ginger Overton have learned to work around the weather to create a garden that is as abundant as it is beautiful.

As green shoots begin to peek out of their garden beds this month, the pair gave a tour of their greenhouse and shared advice about how they grow their crops.

The couple's garden is on a small plot of land on Howell Avenue surrounded by a wire fence. There are over 20 raised garden beds and countless smaller pots containing a wide array of edible and ornamental plants. From bok choy to raspberries, carrots to zucchinis, lettuce to ice plants - colorful flowers with bright white centers that are part of the marigold family - Peterson and Overton's garden provides for all their nutritional and aesthetic needs.

In the center of the plot is a greenhouse, decorated with American flags and flanked by two decorative toilets. Peterson uses them as planters for his petunias. The toilets "actually do pretty good" as planters, said Overton. "That's just Lenny for you."

He had the greenhouse built around 2018 when he was living in the Senior Apartments. Then, when he moved away, the greenhouse was moved to the Howell Avenue plot in February 2019, with permission from Todd White of White Enterprises, who owns the land.

The pair live in an apartment on Front Street.

Inside the greenhouse, a speaker plays golden oldies while Lenny runs an electric toothbrush over his tomato plants. The toothbrush works as a stand-in for a bumblebee, he explained, pollinating each plant so that it can produce fruit. The plants line the outer edge of the greenhouse floor and are arranged in a double ring in the center. Peterson refers to his tomatoes, collectively as "the girls."

There are around 55 varieties of "girls," with tantalizing names like "Big Rainbow," "Rose de Berne," "Celebrity," "Goliath," "Jubilee" and "Chocolate Pear."

Each of the girls has a label attached to a piece of string that runs above all the plants. Later on in the growing season, the tomatoes will be tall enough to drape over the string, forming a green canopy inside the small wooden building. "If I didn't prune them, it would be a jungle in here," said Peterson. "Some of these plants get up to the top of the ceiling."

He controls the temperature and nutrient blend of the plants' soil to ensure that they can thrive regardless of the weather. Some he grows hydroponically, with their roots in a water-based mineral solution. He also prunes them to direct their energy away from producing foliage and toward producing fruit. During the growing seasons, the Overton and Peterson spend about three to four hours daily in the garden and greenhouse.

TAs a rule, the couple doesn't usually sell their seasonal bounty. "I've been living in this town off and on for 50 years and I know a lot of people," said Peterson. "We can't eat it all, so we give it away. They give us fish once in a while, crab, seafood, stuff like that. I don't sell anything."

Between their harvest and the food they can get through trading, the couple manages to avoid grocery stores for most of the year.

Peterson is a Navy veteran and Overton made airplane parts for the military when she lived in Tennessee. Both are now retired.

Overton used to garden in the Lower 48, but moving to Southeast presented a host of new challenges. "Down South is different from Alaska so I didn't know anything after I got here," she said. "I grew tomatoes and zucchini squash and beans and flowers, but coming up here it's not the same at all."

If the success of the garden she shares with Peterson is any indication, she's adapted well to the changes in climate.