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Talk Dirt To Me

Do you love to make mud pies, grow a houseplant, eat veggies, or stop to smell the bouquet on your co-workers desk? Everyone enjoys a bit of green growing around him or her and then there are those that are passionate and needy when it comes to dabbling in the dirt. With this blog, we'll try to satisfy those needs and tell you about what's going on with the Anchorage gardening scene. You know, as I finally learned, it's all about the dirt.

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

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2008 Anchorage garden tour

Take an interactive tour of the gardens showing in Anchorage's garden tour, with photos and audio commentary from each gardener.

April Bits and Pieces

Posted by talkdirt

Posted: April 3, 2008 - 12:03 pm

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"Harvest of Sunflowers" by Susan Ellis, at Artique, Ltd.First Friday April 4th at Artique Ltd, 314 G St., from 5 to 7 pm, for the opening of "Garden Variety", an invitational multi-media show of garden related imagery. Featuring the artwork of oil painter Deborah Porter and many others til April 18.

Community gardens are open for business to folks interested in having a summer garden plot at C Street or McPhee Street gardens or a brand new garden site at Fairview Lions Park. Check the Muni Parks & Recreation website for sign-up information.

Request for Submissions for New On-line Native Plant Directory. The State of Alaska, Department of Natural Resources, Division of Agriculture, Plant Materials Center, is accepting free listings of your business - if you sell native plants! Alaska is in need of native plant seed and plants for revegetation and landscape projects. This native plant directory is used by agencies, contractors, and individuals to find suppliers of native plants. If you produce and sell native plants, please contact the Alaska Plant Materials Center to be included in the directory. Please refer to the old directory on line. Submissions need to be received by April 18, 2008 for inclusion in the Directory. Please send them to Peggy Hunt via e-mail (peggy.hunt@alaska.gov), fax (907)746-5316, phone (907)745-4469, or mail: Alaska Plant Materials Center, 5310 S. Bodenburg Spur Rd., Palmer, AK 99645. This is a free service. This directory is viewed by thousands of people annually.

Here is a proposed logo for the a handful of five weeds invasive weeds focus program. Visit the Alaska Committee for Noxious & Invasive Plants Management (CNIPM) website. Please comment on the proposed logo below!

Some members of a "Meet Up" outdoors group are talking about gardening in each other's yards. Great idea! Read about it
here.

Read the ADN Sustainability Blog regarding planting a Victory Garden.

TREErific is looking for plant donations for both Habitat for Humanity as well as the new rain garden to be created at Central Middle School on 15th between C and E Streets. Some plant suggestions are: lady and ostrich ferns, yellow and blue iris, hostas and perennials. For more information or if you want to help: Contact Patricia Joyner at patricia.joyner@alaska.gov or 269-8465 or Stephen Nickel at stephen.nickel@alaska.gov or 269-8466.

World potato photography contest launched
Highlighting the role of potato in the fight against hunger and poverty
12 March 2008, Washington and Rome - A world photography contest to highlight the role of the potato as a source of food, employment and income in developing countries was launched by FAO and the United Nations. The contest is being held in conjunction with the UN's International Year of the Potato (IYP) in 2008.

IYP aims at raising global awareness of the potato's key contribution to agriculture, the economy and world food security, and at fostering improved potato-based systems to help countries achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

The IYP World Photography Contest, "Focus on a global food", invites photographers to capture the spirit of the International Year in images that illustrate potato biodiversity, cultivation, processing, trade, marketing, consumption and utilization.

"Potato is the world's number four food crop, after rice, wheat and maize, with annual production of more than 300 million metric tons," said FAO's NeBambi Lutaladio, the IYP coordinator. "It is grown in more than 100 countries, from the Andes and China's Yunnan plateau to the subtropical lowlands of India, on the plains of northern Europe and the steppes of the Ukraine. Photographers who explore the world of the potato will find plenty of subject matter."

Sponsored by Nikon, the IYP photography contest is an opportunity for photographers to showcase previous work or to capture new images that depict the many activities related to this vital crop.

The contest has separate categories for professional and amateur photographers, and will accept single digital images or "photo stories" of four to eight related images, in either black-and-white or color. Participants can submit their digital files by uploading them directly via internet or sending them by normal post on a CD-ROM.

The winning photographs will be chosen by a selection panel that includes some of the world's leading professionals in the field of photography. Winners in the professional and amateur categories will be awarded cash prizes totaling some US$11 000 as well as Nikon cameras. The deadline for entries is 1 September 2008.

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