The Fairbanks Garden Club has been working on gardening projects in Fairbanks since 1953. Last year Friends of Creamer’s Field approached the garden club for some help in restoring and maintaing Anna Creamer’s historic vegetable garden, located in front of the Farmhouse Visitor Center.
Susie Crevensten and Liz Masi took on the challenge of restoring and planting the garden in 2019.
At the end of the Garden season of 2019, a “Plant America” grant from the National Garden Club came to our attention and Doug and Susie Crevensten applied for it. The “Plant America” grant was focused on improving gardens in the community and the Anna Creamer’s Historic Garden certainly fit that description. The grant also supplied a composter which will always be available for soil enrichment.
In 2020, gardeners from the Fairbanks Garden Club became interested in making the Historical Garden a real success. Liz Masi, Carol Slator, Althea St. Martin, Beverly Wright, Marlene Wright, Janet Brower, Susie and Doug Crevensten, Lucy Smyth and Ruth Knapman teamed up for a planting, weeding and watering schedule. “Team Creamer’s” also weeds and takes care of the flowers around the Farmhouse Visitor Center.
The garden is 2/3 vegetables and 1/3 “pollinator” garden. We plant Buckwheat in one third of the garden as a soil enhancer and pollinator along with Borage. We planted the historical strawberries, beets, carrots, Swiss Chard, zuchinni and potatoes in the vegetable garden this year. Along the side we planted bush peas and pole beans.
Many thanks to Seekins Ford Lincoln, who donated a truckload of manure to use in hilling the potatoes.
Thank you to all the volunteers and the Fairbanks Garden Club for the hard work and dedication put into Anna Creamer’s Historical Garden. For more information on the Fairbanks Garden Club, go to www.fairbanksgardenclub.org.