Dirt Divas

June 10, 2007

By Brooke Heppinstall

Nature: 1, Gardeners: 0

Radio alarm clocks are instruments of torture, half the time you lie between your dreams and reality when the dang thing goes off, blasting you with the news or the weather report. I was dreaming about a warm beach when my dream sand turned into snow.

&#8220Snow at the 3,000 foot level” was the mantra intoned by the local news diva on KSKA this morning. Needless to say, I rolled over and pulled the pillow over my head to drown out the parts about the wind speed and tonight's expected low temperatures in the high 30s.

Well, at least it's sunny outside.

It's dry as toast, windy and way too cool to be June. Who wants to garden in this weather?

Ugh. By now gardeners are moaning about losing this or that favorite plant. &#8220Last winter was too long and too cold.”

&#8220Didn't we do this gig last June?”

Last year we had gale force winds for the first week of June. Our last frost that year was June 4 with frosts on the two previous nights as well. It was dry, cool and windy. Then it rained and stayed cool most of the summer. The net affects this spring? Dandelions are healthier and more robust than ever.

With our climate's tendency toward fickle behavior I've been questioning our penchant for pushing the plant envelope; trying out new and exotic plants is getting to be too expensive and too much work. Perhaps we need to get back to the varieties many gardeners shun as common or invasive. These perennials are common because they're tough as nails and are able to withstand just about anything Mother Nature throws at them. They propagate like rabbits, run underground, and hunker down for the long haul. So, why do we consistently avoid using them in our sub arctic gardens?

White yarrow, that ubiquitous weed along our byways, is hot in the lower 48 with folks who grow plants on the roof. Yarrow, Achillea millefolia, a popular plant with many upscale garden designers, likes it dry and isn't fussy about fertilizer. It comes in a range of beautiful colors from lavender to dark wine red. A very promiscuous perennial, the reds cross with the yellows and surprise you with an orange sherbet volunteer in the driveway.

Every gardener loves to hate purple bellflower. Chimney bells, purple bells, lady bells, it has roots like parsnips, spreads, goes to seed, and will volunteer to always be in your garden whether you want it or not. Is it a Campanula rapunculoides or an Adenophora confusa (or lilifolia, even)? Can't grow this? You need to grow rocks instead.

Mountain Bluet or Centaurea Montana is a perennial blue bachelor's button with a great lush bushy structure. It needs caging to keep it upright if it rains, but, is stunning planted next to that tomato red Maltese Cross.

Plant the yarrows and purple bells in large drifts by them selves for a dramatic effect. This is a good idea for most of the muscular, invasive perennials. Deadhead most of them and you can slow them down, but, always leave a few seed heads just in case.

If Mother Nature grows it, you know it will survive. State agronomist and neighbor, Peggy Hunt, loves native plants for their natural beauty and hardiness. She didn't laugh when I told her about my beautiful Devils Club planted in my rock garden by the front door.

&#8220I love them,” she assured me. Their large architectural structure and leaves are perfect in a Japanese-style gravel garden. Native wild Delphiniums, Ostrich fern, and those lush cushions of Saxifrage are good partners for a shady garden and are not invasive. The Devils Club will cut down on uninvited guests as well.

To find out which plants will thrive in our climate take a trip to the local botanical gardens where the beds are filled with perennials that you can grow. The perennials planted at the visitor's center in downtown Palmer thrive in a garden constantly buffeted by wind. The Alaska Botanical Garden's annual Fair in Anchorage is June 23 - 24. The Garden and Art Festival at the State Fair grounds in Palmer is July 21. These events will have knowledgeable gardeners willing to answer your questions and the plant specimens are clearly labeled. Take a notebook and a camera along. You'll see a wide variety of cold hardy perennials that will keep coming back for more torture and thrive. The plants. Not the gardeners, dears.

Brooke Heppinstall is an artist, writer, and the owner of WoolWood Studio & Gardens, a small specialty nursery specializing in winter hardy Alaska Grown perennials on Lazy Mountain in Palmer. Contact her at WoolWood@chugach.net or 746-3606.