Blackberries, shade gardening, snakes? Imagining a warmer climate for Alaska gardens
Change is coming to Alaska’s plants, animals, insects and microbes, and gardening practices will need to change too.
Gardening
Here’s what’s going on with those blotchy brown spots on your lilac bush
We are experiencing a lilac leaf roller plague of biblical dimensions. Look at any common lilac in your yard and you will see what that means.
Hilling potatoes, flowering lettuce, and other reader questions
Also: When is the day to recycle plastic pots this year?
Love the warm weather? Your plants will too - but only if you water them enough
Get huge berries and glorious delphinium flowers when there is not just 18 hours of sunlight, but also hot sunshine.
How to make your lilacs bloom like crazy next summer
And whether to thatch your lawn, ants on your peonies and eating carrot tops.
Your Alaska summer weeding strategy is right here
Chickweed, we’re coming for you - and the dandelions too.
I insisted on keeping a tight grip on the garden. Then I let my wife help.
Time has taught me sharing a garden with family is better than having a perfect garden.
These are Alaska farmers’ favorite vegetable starts. Plant them this week.
Plus, the Airport Heights farmers market has returned, among other market news.
Here’s what you should be doing in your garden right now (but leave the lawn alone)
Chop the horsetail, mulch around perennials and head off the pests naturally.
I’m not spraying for spruce beetles. I wish you wouldn’t either.
Jeff Lowenfels: There is no guarantee your sprayed tree hasn’t already been infected or will survive even if is coated with poison.
Want to plant vegetables? Think outside the old-fashioned garden bed
It’s planting time. Here are tips for container gardening and making raised beds.
Hey, you with the chemical fertilizer. You’re just making more work for yourself.
Guess what fills your lawn with moss and your garden beds with chickweed. (It isn’t compost tea.)
Ready, set, plant your Alaska garden
Now is the time to visit the nursery, harden off seedlings and get seeds in the soil
Winter’s over. It’s time to get your seeds growing.
Snow or not, this is the time of year when there are so many things to start from seed, you just have to ignore the weather.
Wait to plant outside, newbies, until birch leaves are the size of this animal’s ear
Plus more info on spruce bark beetles, fertilizing beds and hardening off plants.
You don’t have to fertilize your lawn. Really.
“Yardening” columnist Jeff Lowenfels also tells how to start “exotic” seeds and how to avoid freaking out over snow mold.
It’s early spring in Alaska. That means it’s time to plant something indoors.
Jeff Lowenfels: You are not a real gardener unless you start something from seed for the season.
Bears probably aren’t ready to raid your bird feeder (and answers to other spring garden questions)
Sometimes answers beget more questions, especially as the days get so much longer.
All your Alaska springtime garden questions, answered
Can you use last year’s seeds? How about soil?
Alaska gardeners take a lot of pride in the size of their begonia tubers
There are lots of tricks to making one of Alaska’s favorite basket plants multiply.