In 35 years of columns, world of gardening has changed

A lot has changed in the gardening world since Nov. 13, 1976. For one thing, is there a columnist in the country who doesn't use a computer? And, I dare say insofar as garden columnists are concerned, not one drives copy to the paper. We have the Internet now, a technology that Kay Fanning and I could not even imagine when we went over my advice on getting Christmas cacti and poinsettias to bloom.

Some things never change. Poinsettias and holiday cacti are still, literally, perennial topics for all garden writers. There are other topics that have cropped up each year; planting spring bulbs and amaryllis care come to mind. Here in Alaska, storing fuchsia, tuberous begonias, dahlias and pelargoniums are "must fare" every year.

Other topics have changed. The Internet is part of the cause. Lists of garden catalogs no longer include snail mail addresses. In fact, I call them web-o-logs. There are literally hundreds of thousands of gardening blogs -- though why, I am not sure -- to read instead of garden magazine articles. And if you want to know what a plant looks like or how to do something, all you have to do is type in a few words and your answer is revealed. You don't need to wait until Thursday mornings.

Annual poppies are no longer in the lawns around here. They used to be so much prettier than the dandelions that have taken their place. (I wonder why they went the way of the dodo in our lawns and our gardens.) The standard Alaska hanging basket used to be filled with a fuchsia, a tuberous begonia or a pelargonium -- which we used to incorrectly call a "geranium" -- a bit of lobelia, and that was that.

Now we use hanging baskets with plants we never even knew existed 35 years ago, and some probably didn't. In fact, hard to believe as it is, there are homes in Southcentral that today actually don't have one single fuchsia or tuberous begonia. That would have been unimaginable -- horticultural heresy -- 35 years ago.

There is also no doubt that we have, as a group, become much more sophisticated at what we love to do. We've evolved from using lobelia in baskets to planting ligularia in perennial beds. There is an extremely sophisticated palette of plants from which to choose and our gardens have become more than just a quick showcase of annual colors. We have flowers in our yards from the first thaw until the first snow.

Dare I say that we have also changed our practices and most of us are now organic or trending heavily in that direction? (Yes!) It used to be next to impossible to rent a rototiller the week before Memorial Day weekend. Now I am not sure they're used enough for rental shops to carry them. And speaking of Memorial Day weekend, that used to be the earliest traditional date for starting outdoor gardening. Even that has changed over the past 35 years due to warmer and earlier springs.

In the old days of this column, there were pleas to landscape bare yards. Today, landscaping is included with a house -- and if it isn't, no one seems to need to plead with a new owner to get things in the ground. Even our local governments have come to recognize the need for landscaping plants and they are included when a road is built, not added on later as an afterthought.

I will finish, however, by noting one thing that hasn't changed and that is the wonderful nature of Alaska gardeners. Our gardens are the remnants of the Last Frontier, the last bit of unexplored territory where we can push the envelope out further than anyone realized. They connect us and ground us to a community. We may argue about gas lines, occupying Wall Street, Title 21 revisions and oil taxes but we don't argue about gardening. We all do it, we share in it and we all relate to one another in a positive way because of it. That, I am quite sure, will never change.

I could go on and on but space is limited and I need to thank you all for allowing me to be part of your gardens for 35 years. It is the highest honor of my life. Thank you. Thank you.

Jeff Lowenfels is a member of the Garden Writers Hall of Fame. You can reach him at teamingwithmicrobes.com or by calling 274-5297 during "The Garden Party" radio show from 10 a.m. to noon Saturdays on KBYR AM-700.