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.
Take an interactive tour of the gardens showing in Anchorage's garden tour, with photos and audio commentary from each gardener.
Deadheading and seed collecting
Harvesting herbs from your garden
Municipal Greenhouse Gardeners
Alaska Society of Outdoor and Nature Photographers
Alaska Plant Materials Center:
Fairbanks Georgeson Botanical Garden
Lazy Mountain Woolwood Gardens
Garden sales season - 9/4/2008 4:41 pm
Dahlia Days - Finally! - 9/2/2008 1:14 pm
September Garden Calendar - 8/31/2008 8:14 pm
Another beautiful pumpkin - 8/28/2008 4:06 pm
Plan ahead: 2009 Farmers Almanac is out now - 8/27/2008 1:52 pm
What Does Alaska Grown Mean to You? - 8/25/2008 3:16 pm
State Fair opens - 8/20/2008 5:07 pm
Happy Birthday Nickel! - 8/19/2008 9:30 am
Lunchtime light - 8/18/2008 3:00 pm
Farmer's Markets - 8/17/2008 7:26 pm
Floral carpet in Belgium - 8/14/2008 2:38 pm
An Herb Harvest - 8/13/2008 5:31 pm
An English garden - 8/11/2008 4:55 pm
Free Cooperative Extension Publications - While they last! - 8/7/2008 4:32 pm
The Tomatoes of Summer - 8/5/2008 4:39 pm
Creating Floral Displays - 8/4/2008 12:14 pm
August Calendar - 7/31/2008 3:50 pm
See Big Lake and Willow gardens this weekend - 7/30/2008 3:56 pm
Homer Garden Tour - 7/27/2008 8:49 pm
Dr. Armitage is a self-described plant nerd - 7/26/2008 6:34 pm
So many gardens, too little time - 7/24/2008 12:55 pm
State Fairgrounds in flower - 7/23/2008 9:38 am
Posted: June 24, 2008 - 10:52 am
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A harvestman, or daddy-long-legs, is a good bug to have in the garden! Photo by Fran DurnerCover your ears if you don't want to hear this - I saw the first slug this morning. Yes, dear gardeners, they're baaaack!
I've been on the hunt for the tiny, pearly white, tapioca-shaped slug eggs since the snow barely melted and I've done away with hundreds but I'm not fool enough to be smug about the damage done. I just know there are thousands of eggs I didn't find that are now hatching into miniscule, plant-destructing slime balls. I'm armed and ready for them - jug of Sluggo and five pounds of salt poised to go.
Aphids cluster along a stem of thalictrum. Photo by Fran DurnerIt seems all the bugs are hitting us at once. Aphids clustering on the thalictrum. Leaf rollers invading the cotoneaster. Sawfly larvae chomping on the columbines. Thank goodness the delphinium defoliaters seem to be gone. One pest down, 99 kagillion more to go.
Look for the characteristic J-hook shape to identify a sawfly larvae. Photo by Fran DurnerThe first thing to do when planning a course of attack is to make sure you have properly identified the enemy. It's often difficult to distinguish the difference between a sawfly larvae and the caterpillars of moths and butterflies. One good identifier for the sawfly larvae is their typical J-hook shape. They also tend to chomp along the edges of leaves. A lot of bugs are host specific, so once identified, you'll know it's probably the same bug when you see it again next year.
The tell-tale trail of a columbine leaf miner could have been left by either a sawfly or moth larvae. Photo by Fran DurnerAccording to Michael Rasy, the Statewide IPM Technician with the UAF Cooperative Extension Service in Anchorage, "Effective control begins with the proper ID of the organism. The caterpillars will respond to Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis, a biological control, comes in both powder and spray form) but the sawfly larvae will not. Neem oil and other products like insecticidal soap and horticultural oil are effective against early stage sawfly larvae. As they eat and get larger they are more difficult to control with these products. It may be possible to prune out the infestation if it hasn't spread to the entire plant. Early scouting is very important for effective control, so if you have a problem this year, you are probably going to have a problem next year. Take measures now to minimize the impact and save yourself some trouble next year."
Leaf rollers are the larvae of moths. They will roll the leaves of cotoneasters, raspberries, lilacs among others. Use a spray of Bt on them. Photo by Fran Durner.According to Wikipedia, "formulations made of Neem oil also find wide usage as a bio-pesticide for organic farming, as it repels a wide variety of pests including the mealy bug, beet armyworm, aphids, the cabbage worm, nematodes and the Japanese beetle. Neem Oil is non-toxic to mammals and birds as well as many beneficial insects such as honeybees and ladybugs. It can be used as a household pesticide for ant, bedbug, cockroach, housefly, sand fly, snail, termite and mosquitoes both as repellent and larvicide (Puri 1999). Neem oil also controls black spot, powdery mildew, anthracnose and rust (fungus)."
With aphids you could squish them as you run your fingers along the stem or leaf of the infected area. If that sends shivers down your spine, try a spray of water to knock them loose. Once they are knocked off, they seldom climb back up. Insecticidal soap works too or release some lady bugs (lady beetles) on the plant.
If you use lady bugs, here's a few things to do to help them stick around. Water the plant to give the bugs a source of moisture. Release them as it begins to get dark so they won't immediately fly off and if you have remay or a floating row cover, use it over the plant as well for a couple of days. By then, the lady bugs will have done the job.
Anyone have a home-made bug remedy they like? Please share!
July 20, 2008 - 9:33am | tagalak
Check with our heroes at Cooperative Extension Service
A wonderful thing about Anchorage is we have the services of Cooperative Extension Service experts (located at corner of Norhern Lights/Lake Otis in same building as Charter College - 1st floor) to help with questions/identifications. Bring in a few of the little beetle type bugs to CES during week days and have them identified. (it's FREE - just fill out a short form with all the info you can provide on this bug) and DO write back to the Blog to let us all know! I, in East Anchorage, wish you a good nights sleep, N. LaFleur
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July 17, 2008 - 4:24pm | talkdirt
I'm wondering if you may be seeing root weevils, small, slow moving beetles that play dead when you touch them? Click here for a web page that might answer some questions. I've seen them around and they won't harm you or your home. They seem to be attracted to the inside of homes when it is especially dry, which it had been until yesterday!
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1 July 17, 2008 - 2:16pm | diannehak
Help! Small black tick-like bug infesttion
We are seeing many, many little beetle type bugs all over our house! (Even in our bed - eeeks!!!) My best description would be a small tick (if that's rigtht - but they don't seem to bite!) We live in west Anchorage in a yard with many many birch and other trees.
Has anyone seen these and know how to find out what is the cause and how to get rid of them?
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