Welcome to the Central Peninsula Garden Club

We are especially pleased to welcome Rusty Swan from RustyRavin Plant Ranch as our guest presenter! Rusty will draw upon years of operating one of Alaska’s distinctive greenhouse/nursery operations near Kenai. His talk will be rich with hands-on strategies, lessons learned, and techniques our members can take home and try themselves.

RustyRavin Plant Ranch is run by Rusty and Ravin Swan, situated near Kenai at 35680 Boronof Street. What began largely as a flower starter and ornamental plant business eventually expanded into edibles and food starts, adapting to increased local interest in growing one’s own food and food sovereignty. Over more than a decade of growing seasons, they have weathered Alaska’s challenges — short springs, variable winters, frost risk, and the pressure of meeting demand in a tight window.

But RustyRavin is not a traditional greenhouse. It welcomes visitors, offers a petting zoo of animals, and is the site of Rock’n the Ranch, their annual two-day musical and cultural festival drawing vendors, bands, and community members. This blend of horticulture, education, and entertainment gives them a deeper connection to our community.

During his presentation, Rusty will share techniques on greenhouse operations, timing, variety selection (especially for our climate), soil mixes and fertilization, pest and disease management, hardening off seedlings, and more. He will also touch upon the business side, what scaling up means, pitfalls to avoid, and how to engage the public or run events. Rusty’s insights come from years of fully living this work, and I believe his presentation will be a highlight of our season.

Mark your calendars, and come ready to learn, ask, and be inspired by one of our region’s homegrown greenhouse success stories.

CPGC highly endorses listening to "Growing a Greener Kenai" on radio station KDLL 91.9 FM. Its hosted by Larry Opperman, master gardener and former CPGC board member. Tune in 11 AM to noon the first and third Saturdays of the months April to September. If you miss a program, KDLL posts podcasts on their webpage. Larry always does a great job and speaks about timely gardening topics for the Kenai Peninsula!