Alaska is a BIG state and with some pretty divergent climates. I once was asked to prepare a landscape design for a property in Craig just based on a few photos (since I live some 700 miles further south). The only reason I accepted the commission (other than it was my boss asking as a favor for a hunting friend) was that it was USDA zone 7 growing zone so the same zone 7 plants that worked in my area would theoretically work as well there. And they did!!

But further north and more into the interior is a different story :-) If you get few responses here, you might want to try posting in theFar North Gardening forum, which deals specifically with zones 1-3.

Thank you! Yes it is very big with varying zone climates.

The one thing I would suggest in regard to the landscaping is look to the native flora of where your house is. The plants themselves can be placed and arranged as suburban or as natural looking as you like.

I am right there with you! Our house is at a zone 1b in the middle of Fairbanks. We're slowly working on planting the yard, but had to basically start over this year as the basement flooded and we had to tear up the whole front lawn to waterproof. We have, so far, concentrated on edibles. We have red currants, cute little bushes and we make wine from the fruit in the fall. We have raspberry, honey berries, high bush cranberries and blueberries. We have a couple crab apples and just this past year put in an aple tree. The tree lady we bought it from has a bunch of different varieties, all graphed onto crab apple stock to improve the heartiness. We were fairly limited in our selection because we're in a colder area of town, but she had a lot for the warmer hills. Of course, with the apples, you also have to worry about the moose, haha.

My Fairbanks relatives have had good luck with lilacs. Also wild type roses such as Nootka rose. Various spruce and hemlock species, and siberian crabapples. I would try plants with “siberian” or “alpine” in the name or any other word that implies far north or high elevation.

VVall and Sackingj, those are all great ideas!

I love the wine making idea :)

We have a gooseberry bush that is borderline zone 2-3 so we will see if it survives the winter. Siberian honeyberry and Saskatoon. We also have some apple trees on crab apple root stock. These are edibles, the wild Irises sound great as ornamental as well. A neighbor was saying how the birds ate all her berries and voles chewed her apple tree roots and a few tips for preventing that (mothballs apparently). I was toying with the idea of hardy kiwi (climbs like a vine with mini kiwis) and I do like lilac trees as they seem to do well here. Right now we have it all in a fenced in enclosure and a few malemute dogs outside to discourage moose but I am disappointed the birds ate all of our berries- having a net over them isn't too aesthetic but we will have to make do :/

I’m in a zone with lows of -40C, so warmer than you, and I love to try new plants. If you want to go with flowers, my recommendation would be this: for plants that bloom early in the season (ex: tulips, iris), go with late varieties. This will lower the chances of buds being damaged by a late frost. For plants that bloom later in the summer (ex: hydrangeas, daylilies), go with earlier blooming varieties. You'll get a better chance of getting blooms before first frost hits.

Hope this helps!

Thank you so much! Great tip mazerolm!

Hi again,

You are probably familiar with Jeff Lowenfels and his gardening column in the Anchorage Daily, but there's a great story on him in today's New York Times. He talks about the warming of Alaska and a whole new range of plants you could grow. Sorry if it's behind a paywall for you, but maybe you can see this one:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/28/magazine/gardening-column-climate-change.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

Interesting JoJo I hadn't heard of him till now!