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
Palmer Hay Flats State Game Refuge
Pyrahs Pioneer Peak U-Pick Farm
South Anchorage Farmers Market
This Week... - 10/5/2008 4:50 pm
October Garden Calendar - 9/30/2008 10:35 am
Alaska Botanical Garden Temporarily Closed - 9/25/2008 9:57 am
Take it Outside! - 9/24/2008 3:50 pm
Welcoming the Autumn Equinox - 9/23/2008 4:59 pm
Don't forget to RECYCLE pots on Saturday - 9/18/2008 5:26 pm
Where Did the Fireweed Go? - 9/18/2008 5:14 pm
Fireweed Bonds Mothers and Daughters - 9/17/2008 3:39 pm
Beans In the Bean Stalk - 9/14/2008 7:07 pm
Master Gardener Classes - 9/9/2008 5:27 pm
Dear Gardeners - 9/8/2008 9:12 am
Fall bounty - 9/7/2008 5:01 pm
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
Posted: August 5, 2008 - 4:39 pm
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J.D. Megchelsen holds a "GH 656" tomato prior to a tasting. Photo by Fran Durner.
A visit to J.D. Megchelsen's Nikiski nest, the home of the Alaska State record holder for largest pumpkin (1,019 pounds in 2006) gave way to a viewing of the current champion in training (an estimated 610 pounds and growing on July 25) and to a tasting of one of J.D.'s other crops - tomatoes.
J.D. Megchelsen hunts for a tomato to share with visitors. Photo by Fran DurnerGrown in a fish tote filled with compost enriched soil inside a small visqueen wrapped greenhouse, J.D. says his family already ate the tomatoes that were "as big as a grapefruit." He grows 'GH 656', a variety, I hadn't heard of before, that matures in 75 days.
Slicing one of the current ripe fruits for his visitors, J.D. was constantly surrounded by his three small dogs, who obviously wanted a piece of the action as well.
J.D. Megchelsen slices up a 'GH 656' for visitor Rosemary Kimball of Stirling. Photo by Fran DurnerPopping a thick, mid-section slice of the tomato into my mouth, I immediately tasted summer! Warm, delicious, blue-sky summer - no other way to describe it.
I've been visiting the Farmer's Market here, in Anchorage, on the hunt for tomatoes and fresh basil. With salt, pepper, olive oil and a couple slices of toasted rosemary bread, that's been my dinner as often as I can do it. Right now, I think I could live this way forever.
J.D. and the pumpkin-in-training. Photo by Fran DurnerKeep your fingers crossed for some of those blue-sky days to appear between now and the end of August. The giant pumpkin-in-training needs a few of them to put on the most pounds to surpass the state record. J.D. thinks he can do it. We hope he does!
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