Gardening

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TALK DIRT TO ME

The dahlias are blooming -- finally! And none too soon.

Whats blooming in the Alaska Botanical Garden

Fall is upon us with cool nights and mornings in the Alaska Botanical Garden. The birch are turning yellow and dropping leaves everywhere. The next few week will be all that is left of our summer that never warmed up. So this is a last call to see the garden before it's too late and the snow falls.

JEFF LOWENFELS

Take steps to save cherished plants from first frost

Aw, do I have to write about saving plants from the doom of frost? I feel like Ann Landers copying former columns.

Fatal flora

The sled dog wagged his way around the yard, sniffing here, nibbling there, hitting the entertainment jackpot in the rhubarb patch. He chewed through the stems and, holding them tight between his paws, shredded and swallowed fans of leaves.

Reader-submitted: Garden Gallery

What's blooming in the Alaska Botanical Garden

Late bloomers is what it's all about now. If your garden is over or void of color, check out the late bloomers at the Alaska Botanical Garden. These are what you need in late summer to make you garden beautiful until winter.

TALK DIRT TO ME

Dropping temperatures signal time to harvest for the freezer

Produce is beginning to arrive in abundance at farmers markets around the Anchorage bowl. As the weather cools, it's time to begin thinking about what to put up in the freezer and on the pantry shelves for the winter. If you don't already grow what you want to preserve, you can usually find it at one of the markets.

Video: Seed collecting

Gardening Blog: Talk Dirt To Me

INVASIVE PLANT WATCH

Pull, mow or dig these beautiful late-blooming bullies

In the same devious way a black widow entices and then kills her mate, purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) woos with attractive spikes of pink-purple petals splayed around an amber center while slowly strangling and poisoning other native garden beauties.

JEFF LOWENFELS

Fall is best time to transplant, divide peonies

The other day I was asked about collecting seed from the pods that develop after the peony blooms fade. If you have peonies, you too may have wondered if you could use these seeds to grow your own plants.

ASK THE EXPERT

Keep weed seeds, diseased plants out of compost pile

Do I need to keep diseased plants out of the compost pile this time of year?

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JULIE RILEY

Fertilizer with nitrogen makes a lawn greener and hardier

Q. My lawn is not as green as it used to be. Can I fertilize this late in the season?

TALK DIRT TO ME

A taste of summer from a Peninsula greenhouse

A visit to J.D. Megchelsen's Nikiski nest, home of the Alaska-record pumpkin (1,019 pounds in 2006), included a viewing of the current champion-in-training and to a tasting of one of J.D.'s other crops -- tomatoes.

Talk Dirt to Me

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What's blooming in the Alaska Botanical Garden

The Alaska Botanical Garden's ligularia collection is shooting up floral displays in the upper perennial garden like rockets, which is the name of one variety.

JEFF LOWENFELS

Adaptable sweet peas love organic soils

There is one plant you can always count on to do well no matter what the weather hereabouts, and that is the sweet pea. No wonder the English gardener refers to this flower as the Queen of Annuals and that it has been in serious cultivation, captivating gardeners around the world, for more than 300 years. And no wonder so many Southcentral gardeners plant them.

Power pumpkins

Last year, the biggest pumpkin in Alaska blew up just days before the state fair.

Audio Slideshow: Lord of the gourd

What's blooming this week at the Alaska Botanical Garden

The Alaska Botanical Garden plant collection is maturing nicely, and all beds are lush and full. The peonies are finally starting to bloom beautifully, and they are emitting wonderfully sweet aromas throughout the gardens.

ASK THE EXPERT

Don't panic over spittlebug goo

What is causing the spitlike foam in my garden, and is it damaging my plants?

TALK DIRT TO ME

A pretty bit of England in Anchorage

I suppose you could say this wet, cool weather is as close to an English summer as we could get. It certainly hasn't seemed to hold back the garden of David and Edith Goodgame, who are famous for their English cottage-style borders of mixed perennials and annuals.

Gardening Blog: Talk Dirt To Me

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