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: July 26, 2008 - 6:34 pm
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Dr Allan Armitage talks about Brunnera 'Jack Frost" during a walkabout at Fritz Creek Gardens in Homer on Saturday, July 26, 2008. Photo by Fran Durner.The weather was crappy but the company was divine.
World reknowned horticulturist Dr. Allan Armitage charmed, amused and taught a group of eleven devoted gardeners at a walkabout at Fritz Creek Gardens in Homer today.
Dr. Allan Armitage describes the characteristics of Lamiastrum 'Herman's Pride' to a group of Alaskan gardeners during a walkabout at Fritz Creek Gardens in Homer, Alaska on Saturday, July 26, 2008. Photo by Fran DurnerDespite a persistant drizzle and the fact that he had only arrived in Alaska yesterday, Dr. Armitage gave an almost two hour tour of a garden he had never seen before and was full of interesting factoids and stories about the plants he came across. He had his audience fully engaged and laughing out loud with fun tales about the source of plant names, such as the iris.
Dr. Allan Armitage give a botany lesson on an iris flower as he does a walkabout with a group of Alaskan gardeners at Fritz Creek Gardens in Homer, Alaska on Saturday, July 26, 2008. Photo by Fran DurnerThe iris was named after the Greek goddess Iris who was a messenger for the Olympians and was a goddess of sea and sky. After snapping off a bloom from a nearby plant, Armitage held it out to the group and said, "Iris went from the stars to the moon and dropped every color of the rainbow. Iris come in every color."
He said over and over not to take gardening so seriously. "Another fear we have to dispel immediately - that's pronunciation - who cares?! It just doesn't matter. Here's the Armitage theory of plant pronunciation: get the syllables in order and fire away!"
His walkabout was defintiely an interactive tour - he would often stop and say "GKQ - General Knowledge Question!" and then put it out to the group - "Why are pinks (dianthus) called pinks?"
Dr. Allan Armitage has a stranglehold on a coreopsis plant. "Plants are tough and gardeners should be too," he said. Photo by Fran Durner."Plants are tough and gardeners should be too," Armitage said to laughs as he held out a coreopsis with a stranglehold around the neck just below the blooms. "You're a gardener, by definition you are foolish!"
At the end of the walkabout we had all learned a lot and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Looking forward to his talk tonight, "Crazy Plants for Crazy Gardeners," and also to his appearance in Anchorage on Monday.
If you haven't gotten a ticket to his Anchorage walks and talks - you'll be missing a good thing!
Dr. Allan Armitage points out the characteristics of a dianthus while giving a botany lesson to avid gardeners during a walkabout at Fritz Creek gardens in Homer on Saturday, July 26, 2008. Photo by Fran DurnerOh, and pinks are named so because the flower looks like it's been trimmed by pinking shears!
July 28, 2008 - 6:44am | tagalak
Pigs squeak???? amazing things you can learn by hanging with a gardener.... Weather should be great for today's tour.. and tonight's talk. Thanks to Homer Garden Club for getting Armitage to town/to the State and to ABG for getting things organized for us Anchoragites.
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1 July 26, 2008 - 7:27pm | tagalak
Can tickets be gotten at the door on Monday
Fran,
Thanks for the update. We look forward to having the plant nerd/guru in Anchorage, too. Please confirm that we can still get tickets at the door for his talk at the Museum on Monday..... Or do we have to get tickets beforehand? wondering in the rain in Muldoon, Nickel
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July 26, 2008 - 10:51pm | talkdirt
I would imagine that if there are seats available there will be tickets. The best thing to do is to go online at the ABG website, www.alaskabg.org or call them at 770-3692. Hope you get to go on the walkabout - it was worth it.
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July 27, 2008 - 8:36am | tagalak
I called ABG at number you provided and left a message to find out if there is space available on the Anchorage Walk About... fingers crossed Mother Nature cooperates!
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July 27, 2008 - 8:39am | talkdirt
The walkabouts at the Alaska Botanical Garden are on Monday, July 28 and the first one is at 12:15. Second one is at 2:15pm. If you don't get an answer in time, it may be worth it to go directly to the garden.
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2 July 27, 2008 - 9:29pm | rosmarinus
pig squeak
Went down to Homer on the walkabout and it was GOOD. So I'm coming home to pick a berginia leaf and make the pig squeak. (but then I like words inordinately...)
Armitage makes learning fun.
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