Here’s why a soil thermometer is a must for your Alaska garden this year
Jeff Lowenfels: You can find them for as little as $6. (Throw in a good outdoor thermometer while you’re at it.)
Gardening
High maintenance? No — orchids can be easy and fabulous Alaska houseplants.
Lowenfels: Why do people keep saying orchids are difficult to grow?
In the mood to experiment? Try loofah, pawpaws or artichokes in your Alaska garden this year
Gardening: These crops may succeed in the north, or they may not, but things are warming enough to warrant trying new stuff.
Okra, apple trees, outdoor tomatoes: Alaska gardeners have widening options in 2020
Alaska is being affected by earlier thaws and later first frosts. It’s time to admit that it is warmer and incorporate that into the growing calendar.
The world is changing fast. It’s time for Alaska gardeners to try hügelkultur.
Gardening: In the past, it made no sense to me to suggest using dead trees and limbs to create raised beds. Then we started to lose cottonwoods like crazy.
The best gift for a gardener is to volunteer your time. But here are some other options, too.
Gloves, gift certificates, magazines, microbiometers: here are some last-minute ideas, regardless of how advanced a gardener she is.
Your cat shouldn’t be outside unless it’s on a leash. There, I said it.
Jeff Lowenfels: Bird populations are having a tough enough time as it is. (Except for magpies - don’t even get me started on those.)
What to gift a gardener? Funny you should ask.
All gardeners have a desire to protect the environment. And, at least among my readers, the motto “do no harm” had better be at the forefront.
In Alaska, dark winters are a constant. That’s all the more reason to string lights.
Today, there are all manner of string lights to give your yard some pizzazz and brighten up our winter darkness.
Introducing kalanchoe, the perfect houseplant for November in the north
Just push yours up against any window in your Alaska home and you should be able to meet all the requirements for blooming.
Alaska’s climate is changing fast. Garden accordingly.
Who would have imagined that you could still plant bulbs on the third weekend of November?
Get the most out of this warm November for your lawn and garden
Gardening: With the nonexistent snow cover come opportunities.
These flowering houseplants add cheer to colder Alaska months
November is when we really notice the darkness. Fortunately, many houseplants can help.
It’s time for indoor plants. That means it’s time for indoor plant lights.
Bottom line: If you are going to have houseplants all winter in Alaska, let them perform at their best by imitating ideal conditions. In almost every case that means supplemental lights.
Have you noticed flies swarming by your windows now that it’s getting cold? Here’s what’s going on.
Trust me, there’s a gardening connection.
Answering reader questions: Feeding birds, replacing dead spruce trees and getting poinsettias to bloom again
Also, it’s time to get those indoor lights for plants up and running. If you don’t have any, go to one of the state’s fine, indoor grow stores, and get the best you can afford.
The autumn leaves drift past your window. Now leave them alone.
Alaska gardening: This might sound harsh, but it’s no longer acceptable to rake leaves off your lawns and garden beds, from your containers or from underneath and around trees and shrubs.
If you haven’t noticed bird populations dropping in Anchorage, you’re not paying attention
There are no longer any yellow legs, lesser or otherwise. There are few nesting geese and fewer ducks.
Gladioli, dahlias, begonias: It’s time to consider packing them up for winter
Also, cannabis won’t make it to harvest, probably, due to frost, so consider moving inside.
Here’s what you should do this weekend to prepare your garden for winter
The gardening mail keeps pouring in -- with some good ideas and one very, very bad one.