Things Growing in My Garden

The garden is at it's peak right now, blooming and fruiting and I'm beginning to think about how many raspberries I'll get this year. Here's a tour:

1. Crab apples. I have a tree in back and a tree in front which are my handouts to the local moose population. I'm like the quadruped's version of McDonalds here, a local fast food restaurant. The tree in the fenced back looks beautiful and we get enough fruit to make jelly in the fall but the one in the front gets eaten down every winter and has suffered terribly--almost as if shrieking in pain from all the bark that's been stripped and the branches that have been broken off. I'm going to have to give in and wrap it with netting this fall to save it from an untimely death.

2. Nepata. Also called cat mint, which the cats incidentally LOVE. Stay away from the garden cats! When I went to the nursery to buy the the plant I asked if they had any ne-PA-tuh. The woman looked down her nose at me and said, "It's NE-puh-tuh." Pardon my French.

3. Hostas. Or if you were our fine Governor Schwarzenegger you'd call them Hosta-la-Vistas. Okay sorry, that was really bad. But they grow fabulously in my shaded areas (such as along the north side of the house) and look so beautiful with beads of rain on the leaves.

4. Lilies. I really love how showy lilies are, I have several yellow ones, one white and a brand new pink variety. I used to have this gorgeous one that my mother gave me from her garden that was huge and peach-colored but clashed horribly with the other colors in the garden. Every year for five years I was torn about keeping it--loved the beautiful flowers and how well it was growing but hated the color combination it produced. I finally broke down this spring and dug it up, gave it to my sister and planted a pink one that matched. Don't mess with me, I'm one tough gardener. Lillian has always been thrilled to find a flower named just for her--we haven't bothered to burst her bubble by telling her the flower was there first, and I don't know that she'd believe it anyway. She's rather confident in her place at the center of the universe.

5. David Phlox. And speaking of flowers named for my children . . . It's actually just called Phlox and the variety is "David" but I call it my David Phlox because it's more fun that way. All I need is some Spencer Mint and some Gracie Daisies and I'd have a full garden of children. Phlox smells so lovely--it normally isn't blooming this early in the summer but the plant you see pictured is a new one I just planted this spring purchased from a nursery so it's ahead of the others.

6. Lavender. Even though you can find this at the nurseries all over Anchorage in the spring, claiming to be a hardy perennial strain don't believe it. They're lies I tell you and I've never seen lavender that can winter here. Maybe if you brought it indoors you could save it but that's your only hope. I tried wintering mine inside last year under grow lights in the garage but it just didn't work well. But darn it, I love lavender enough that I'm going to try and save them again this year. Maybe this year I'll get lucky.

7. Petunias. I'm afraid Alaskans can be rather limited in their flower selections--you get a log of pansies, marigolds, geraniums, begonias, snap dragons. The basics. So I hate to mention my little petunias because they're so common but I'm kind of funny in that I'll only plant white petunias. I saw it in a container-gardening book years ago, a box bursting with white petunias that trailed over the side in white cascades and I've never planted any other color since. Especially not the (gasp) striped varieties. They look like genetic aberrations to me (forgive me if you're a fan).

8. Geraniums. Another Alaskan staple but I prefer to plant the scented varieties. The smell on a hot day is like incense--right up there with tomato plants on my Divine Smells list.

9. Pineapple Sage. And speaking of smells, here's where we get to the herbal section of the tour. I love herbs and can get my chives, mint and woolly thyme to come back each year and I have myrtle inside the kitchen but everything else has to be in pots on the back deck where I can bring them inside each fall. Rosemary, tarragon, dill, anise, hyssop, two kinds of lavender, thyme, parsley, oregano, marjoram, lemon balm, sage, cilantro and pineapple sage. If you haven't smelled pineapple sage don't worry you know how it smells--just like a pineapple. It's so fun I just love it. Anyone know what I can do with two big pots of pineapple sage? Any suggestions?

10. Curry plant. And my curry. Curry as a spice is a blend of other spices like turmeric, coriander, cumin, etc. But a curry plant smells just like the spice--though I don't think you can eat it or cook with it. Nonetheless I have it growing alongside the herbs so it can get the sun it needs. Rather ironic that my mother, now living in India, hates curry. . . .

11. Strawberries. I planted half a dozen plants five years ago and now have a mound big enough to produce a quart a day. We made 8 jars of jam last night from the pickings and still have another gallon of berries in the freezer. The smell? I don't dare say how good they smell for fear you'll try licking your screen.

12. Cucumbers. Shhhh! Don't tell but I've been able to grow cucumbers in Alaska for a couple years now. Impossible you say? Not when you have a Chugach Electric Association utility box hiding in your garden. That baby soaks up all sorts of sun and produces a bit of heat of its own so that the clay pots of cucumbers get all the heat they need and produce honest-to-goodness Alaskan cucumbers.

13. Kiwi. The crowning fun of the garden is my kiwi vine growing over the south side of the house. Not a tree that produces the fuzzy fruits you see at the grocery store but still a kiwi nonetheless--the small, round variety. The vine is hardy in Alaska and grows quickly in the right conditions. I've had mine for four years and it's never done well until this past year when it finally took off and I've had flowers for the first time. You need a female and a male plant to produce fruit and the leaves are tipped with white. In the fall they turn a lovely red. Kiwi anyone?

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