Gardening in Alaska : Reflections of the past summer

Talk Dirt To Me

Gardening in Alaska presents big challenges, whether it's the extra effort in finding plants tough enough to survive our Zone 2-4 climate, communicating with like-minded Alaska gardeners, or keeping up with the latest trends, issues and solutions. We'll try to help with that. We'll also tour gardens from Homer to Anchorage to Wasilla to Willow whenever we get the chance, and post the best garden photos around. Presenting a forum about cold-weather gardening and for cold-weather gardeners is what we are all about. We hope you'll join us on the Talk Dirt garden blog.

Photographer and gardener Fran Durner (fdurner@adn.com) writes the blog.

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Jeff Lowenfels

A member of the Garden Writers Hall of Fame, Jeff writes a weekly column on gardening in Alaska.

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Reflections of the past summer

Posted by talkdirt

Posted: November 18, 2009 - 4:46 pm

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Now that we've had some time to reflect, what would you say have been your successes and/or failures of the past summer?. Please share your experiences in the comment section below.

Success was making significant progress on landscaping. A learning experience came from setting up a temporary green house. The tomatoes and cukes did really great, however we were over run with slugs. We didn't think to put a barrier between the ground and the greenhouse so they had full run of the place. They compeletely decimated the basil. Never in my wildest imagination would I have thought slugs would eat basil!! - Nancy Racek, Wasilla

My greatest successes were weeds and broccoli. Another success was the tomato 'Black Cherry.' Very productive and the flavor is more lush compared to 'Sweet 100' which I will only grow one of next year just to have the color contrast in pasta. Will grow 3-4 'Black Cherries' just so, after greenhouse snacking, I'll have enough for pasta at least once! - Rosemary Kimball, Sterling

Grasses in front of Teena Garay's home. Fran Durner photoAll the ornamental grasses I have planted on my steep and wet to dry hillside. They have proven invaluable in terms of fast rooting, holding back the soil and absorbing the wet seeps that happen when it rains and after winter melt. I also like the way they look with shrubs and perennials and especially in the fall landscape. - Teena Garay, Homer

Success would be in our beautiful fall weather. Having time to finish up gardening chores I've never had time to do in the past. Failure in letting the pests get out of control in the greenhouse .... have to stay vigilant all gardening season long. - Nickel La Fleur, Anchorage

I would think the best thing about this summer was the bonus time. It seemed like we were blessed with extra time to do chores; little things we wanted to do for ages with our gardens. We were able to make more pavers for our paths and removed the sawdust we've had for years. My biggest success was extra time to really do some serious weeding of not just weeds but self seeders that had overstepped their boundaries. We had time to dig up and divide some of our more rare primula so we will be able to offer those to our wonderful primula gardeners. It was a great summer and even greater fall. - Rita Jo Schultz, Fritz Creek Gardens, Homer

My successes were: adding more primulas to my garden. I fed most of my plants with some compost & manure; we'll see if it helps next year. I converted part of a raised vegetable bed into an asparagus bed. I got a row of honeyberries planted in the ground. And I managed to plant some more crocus this fall. - Gina Docherty, Anchorage

Success - wonderful crop of carrots. Failure - more moss in the vegetable bed I did not rototil! - Mary Shier, Anchorage

Successes: Creating a cohesive look in my flower beds (for the most part) that looked good all summer and into our wonderful fall. It’s a huge compliment when cars slow down or stop and the passengers roll down their windows for the long look. Getting my 3 big new yard “structures” built that will accommodate vines next summer and lights this winter. Failures: Still have a messy, unorganized bunch of plants on one side of the house. Planted way too much ground cover in a few areas, some of which will go to other homes next summer. Had too many smaller containers with mixed flowers that should be all one color or variety. - Marion Nelson, Soldotna

'Black Cherry' tomatoes were a success and very tasty, at that! My attempt to grow a giant pumpkin was a complete failure. Its way to cool up here, especially in the evenings when the growth happens. - Jeff Lowenfels, Anchorage

Calamagrostis 'Overdam' during late summer. Fran Durner photoMy biggest success was not killing anything with neglect this summer. I also planted some grasses - Calmagrostis 'Overdam' and Deschampsia 'Northern Lights' that I am thrilled with. Now just keeping my fingers crossed that they will make it through the winter. Failure was not having the time to do a thing about slugs this year! - Fran Durner, Anchorage

Success: I planted bush beans directly into the garden, and also started seeds in the greenhouse. As it turned out, about half of the beans in the garden didn't grow, and I plugged the spaces with the starts from the greenhouse, and that worked out quite well. I do know that I planted two types of carrots, and one did beautifully and the other was all malformed. I think it was 'Nantes' carrots that did well, and 'Sweetness' that bombed, but I should check my file. Failures: The raspberries didn't do well, I think because a bear broke the canes last fall, and it was a hard winter, too. Caterpillars decimated my red currants, and I didn't do a thing about it. Basically, the bear ate them last year and caterpillars this year. Is it wrong to stop caring? - Maryellen Lambert, Anchorage

This year was so long and lovely for gardening I had some great success with carrots. They grew long and sweet and since I did keep them thinned I had a very nice crop. Also, what a great year for Brussels sprouts, kept mine fenced off from the ever hungry moose and am enjoying a bounty of brussels. Another good thing that worked for me was to use remay (row cover) and nematodes to keep the root maggots out of my garden completely this season, and there were fewer slugs also. Perhaps that is due to crop rotation and more motivation to kill them. - Janice Chumley, Nikiski

After coming through six Willow winters, Kirengeshoma koreana has made it onto my list of hardy perennials. It has maple-like foliage, and soft yellow, shuttlecock blooms that are most welcome in September. - Les Brake, Willow

My biggest success of the season would have to be getting to know all of the wonderful people involved with ABG. The surge of volunteers was amazing. Not just at the garden, but all of our events and activities too. My failure would be that I didn't get the opportunity to convey how much I appreciate each and every one of them face-to-face. - Lacey Ott, Alaska Botanical Garden