This is my first garden in Fairbanks, and while most of my garden did OK, my sweet potatoes produced nothing. Why?

Because this is Alaska, not Alabama. Sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatas) are not potatoes (Solanum tuberosum), they are vines that belong to the morning glory family. This means they need warm weather lasting at least four months, and deep, warm soil, neither of which is easily found around these parts.

If you insist on trying to replicate your days of yore, order a variety designed to do well in the colder north, such as Centennial, Georgia Jet or Travis. When they arrive, give the slips an earlier indoor start, in sand or compost, so that they are ready to take off when June arrives. Use raised beds or large containers, and think about warming the soil even further by planting through plastic (you are aiming for ground temperatures of at least 55 degrees). At transplanting, use plenty of high phosphorus fertilizer and throughout the season keep the water supply even.

My potatoes did not come up at all this year. What did I do wrong?

It is hard to make the correct diagnosis without actually seeing your patch, but several possibilities immediately come to mind. Did you attempt to grow your crop from supermarket potatoes? Many of the varieties you buy for your table are unsuitable for the garden because they have been sprayed with a chemical that inhibits sprouting. Another possibility is that you planted in a place that you or someone else inadvertently poisoned with a herbicide; if your garden is close to a neighbor who used herbicides, they may have drifted over into your space.

Or did you plant in ground that was too wet, causing your seed potatoes to go to rot? It is true that spuds can be planted several weeks before the last frost, which means mid-May around here. However, that early in the spring the ground often is saturated with water, making growing conditions less than optimum. Next year, try using raised beds, which will expose more soil to the drying effects of the sun, and make sure your potatoes are "cured." By this I mean cut up the potatoes and then let the pieces sit around a few days to air dry.

A severe drought will also reduce yield, sometimes completely shutting it down. However, with all the rain we've had this summer, I doubt that a lack of water was the cause of your tuberless potatoes.

My potatoes grew lush and long, but there were virtually no potatoes at the end of the roots.

You probably over-fertilized with a nitrogen-rich fertilizer. This will detour the growth into the above-ground foliage, rather than below ground. The date your letter arrived, July 18, brings to mind another possibility--that you yanked up the plants before the tubers had a chance to form. Mid-July is too early for a mature potato crop, considering that I hardly got baby new potatoes by the end of July.

The flowers on top of the plant should have died back, and the weather should be regularly smelling of fall before you go digging around. The early bird catches the worm, not the potato.

I'd also like to use your letter as an opportunity to correct a common misconception, namely that the tubers are the roots of the plant. Edgar Anderson, who wrote an essay on potatoes for the April 1955 issue of the Missouri Botanical Garden BuIetin, said it better than I ever could: "a tuber.. is just the swollen coalesced buds at the end of an underground stem. It is not a root; it is part of a true stem though borne underground."

My potatoes look monstrous, all covered with spots and growths. What happened?

The soil bacteria known as scab. According to seedsman Shepherd Ogden, virtually all garden soil carries this fungus, so the idea is to prevent it from flourishing. You can do this by rotating your potatoes so that they don't grow in the same spot more than once every half decade; avoiding fresh manure, which may have scab bacteria that survived the trip down the animal's alimentary canal; refraining from liming your potato patch, as that lowers the very acidity which inhibits scab growth; and using scab resistant seed potatoes.

There is nothing you can do to salvage this year's crop, although you can eat what is left over after you trim off the corky portions. Next year, look for these scab resistant varieties: Anoka, Banana, Russian Banana, Bison, Carola, Early Gem, Erik, Frontier Russet, Gold Rush (AKA Goldrush), Jemsag, Krantz, La Rouge, Mcintyre, Norgold Russet, Norkotah, Norland, Onaway, Ontario, Purple Marker, Red Dale, Rhinered, Sangre, Sebago, Sierra, Steuben, Red Viking and Pink Eye Warba. And, for your information, the popular Yukon Gold is listed as "moderately susceptible to scab."

I don't have the room or the inclination to have a compost heap, but I have friends who put their coffee grounds and egg shells on top of the soil of their potted plants. I'd be willing to do the same, but wonder if it does any good.

Coffee grounds provide nitrogen, but tend to acidify the soil so save it for plants that flourish in acidic conditions. Egg shells add calcium, plus a few trace minerals. While I applaud your desire to participate in recycling, most people do not have enough houseplants to accommodate a daily dose of breakfast remains. Additionally, just throwing them on top leads to an unsightly mess and, eventually, those tiny, annoying bugs that are the bane of indoor plant owners. If you are planning to repot an acid-loving large plant, you might consider keeping a plastic bag in the freezer for your coffee grounds and finely crushed eggshells, mixing them into the new soil when you repot. Or use the thawed mixture in any flower beds you might have growing around your house.

Frankly, this all seems like more planning, work and mess than a compost heap would be, so you might want to reconsider the options. I could not tell from your letter whether you live in a house or an apartment, but even in the latter you could still make compost. A number of gardening equipment and seed catalogs offer cans designed to accomplish composting in a small space such as a deck or porch. They are attractive and odor free, and would accept all those eggshells and coffee grounds and then some.

I have no space for gardening, but would like to have a container or two of herbs. Which two do you recommend?

Why stick to just two? Unless you are making pesto, chances are you will only want a pinch or so at a time of any particular herb. Focus on variety instead of quantity and you'll get maximum usage from your limited space. Start by choosing your favorite herbs and figuring out if they have an upright or a cascading (also known as trailing) growth habit. If possible, select several of both types--you'd be surprised how much you can cram into a small space if half of the plants hang outside the pot. Make sure your container has good drainage and a rich, light soil. It is best to use transplants rather than starting an herb pot from seed, as it is hard to judge spacing, size and habit unless you have the plants in hand.

Now comes the tough part: how to put everything into tight quarters while still leaving room for horizontal and vertical expansion. As a guide, remember that a 16-inch pot can hold eight to 10 herbs comfortably, as long as at least four of the transplants are trailers such as parsley or oregano. Place the plants so that there is a little island of dirt around each one, recognizing that these bare circles will soon be filled in with greenery.

Finally, remember that the plants are being asked to perform in crowded conditions, so minimize all other stress by providing full sunlight, daily watering (especially if the pot is terra-cotta), liquid fertilizer twice a month and frequent cutting or pinching back so that the herbs don't reach flowering stage. Any of the following herbs adapt well to pot-life: basil, chives, parsley, oregano, sage, savory, dill (I have had the most success with the dwarf type called Fernleaf) and rosemary.

I love fresh carrots but can never seem to get those nice straight tapers I see in the grocery store. Mine usually have two tails or are gnarled up. Am I growing the wrong variety?

Since there is no market for maimed or split-tailed carrots, I doubt there is a variety specifically guaranteed to produce ugly and hard to clean specimens. The problem lies in the growing conditions you are providing: splitting or double-tailing is the result of uneven watering, and mangled carrots mean the taproot is being stunted because it is fighting hard or rocky soil. If there is some reason you cannot provide a deep bed of well-worked soil, try cultivating one of the short-rooted varieties, such as Thumbelina, Orbit or Short 'n Sweet.

Root maggots attacked my turnips last year. If I grow rutabagas, which taste virtually the same, will I be able to avoid the same problem?

Not if you don't take other precautions. Root maggots attack not only root crops such as turnips, rutabagas and radishes, they also feast on the crucifers: cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, kohlrabi and Brussels sprouts. Protection lies in rotating in crops that don't appeal to root maggots, completely clearing out maggot infested crops and roots (rather than shredding and rototilling under the decimated plant remains), and sparingly and selectively using an insecticide labeled as effective against these fiends.

Last summer my raspberry patch was host to a bumper crop of stink bugs. They attacked the edges of the raspberries and left unsightly black, sucked-dry patches on many of the berries. (Next year I'd like to spray for these little suckers, but I'm unsure of timing. If sprayed just before the blossoms appear I'm afraid of the effect on the bees. Can you give we guidance as to time to spray, and recommend an insecticide?

I have only kept a raspberry patch for a few years out of the last 20, although I did inherit one last spring when we moved into our new house. During my limited experience, I have never had a similar problem, so I consulted with Michele Hebert of the local Cooperative Extension office.

She agrees that last year was unusual, both in the intensity and the timing of the stink bugs. Customarily they appear early in the season; last year they were at their worst in August and September. All of which is to say, you may not have a similar problem this coming summer. However, if you do, spray immediately with pyretlirum. This will kill the worst of the lot but should not effect the bees and pollination. Stay away from malathion, another insecticide favored by home gardeners. while it is effective, it will kill the bees.

Pyrethins are derived from ground-up flowers of the chrysanthemum family and are thus considered "natural pesticides" that are even recommended as a last resource by the Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening.

Aside from insecticides, my resource books offer little advice besides making sure that the canes arc not surrounded by weeds. One author had some success using a full-force hose on the canes, but raspberries are a fragile crop and you could well damage the plants and severely reduce the harvest.

I had potato scab last year. I don't plan to replant potatoes in the same area, but is it safe to plant other root vegetables?

No. Wait four or five years before you plant potatoes, beets, radishes, turnips, rutabagas or carrots in the infected plot. If you want more information on scab, stop by Alaska Cooperative Extension and pick up a one-page handout on this topic.

I have good luck with zucchini, but my winter squash are often just in the flowering stage when the first frosts hit. Is it possible to grow winter squash here?

Winter squash actually grows quite well in the Interior. As a matter of fact, I just last week finished using the last one I'd stored in the garage. Look for the shortest maturation dates, plant in maximum sunlight, and water and feed well throughout the season. My former neighbors planted in mounds and covered the mounds with clear plastic.

Cooperative Extension recommends Danish, Hubbard, buttercup, butternut, spaghetti and sweet mama. Butternut does well when the summer is cool; Delicata and Gold Nugget mature particularly quickly. I grow spaghetti squash, as well as several pumpkin varieties that are not so sweet and therefore lend themselves to dinner rather than dessert use.

You wrote that you have no windows to speak of, so it will be difficult to start seeds inside. However, you don't need to start squash seeds until 3 or 4 weeks before transplanting. By then it is warm enough to put them outside during the day once they sprout, bringing them back in at night. You cannot direct seed them in early June and still expect a crop, so if you don't want to start them from seed in early May, buy transplants.

I have the customary seed catalogs, but I am wondering if you know of any more obscure companies I can write to. I am specifically interested in places specializing in seeds appropriate for cold climate gardening.

Try these places: Early's Farm & Garden Centre Inc. (2615 Lorne Ave; Saskatoon, SK Canada 573 055); Gurney's Seed & Nursery (110 Capital St; Yankton, SD 57079); Ed Hume Seeds (P.O. Box 1450; Kent, WA 98035); Lindenberg Seeds Ltd. (803 Princess Ave; Brandon, MB Canada R7A OP5); and Allen, Sterling & Lottirop (191 U.S. Route #1; Falmouth, ME 04105)

Q. Tell me again how to save tomato seeds.

A. First, make sure you are working with an open-pollinated or heirloom tomato, not a hybrid. The latter will not produce offspring that are true to the parents, and probably not as hardy either. Your seed packet will tell you whether what is in the garden is heirloom or hybrid. If you have lost the packet, try to remember the company from which you purchased the seeds. Certain purveyors, such as Seeds Blum, virtually never sell hybrids; others, Burpee for instance, sell only a small percentage of heirlooms.

Second, use only plants that have self-pollinated. This is not usually a problem with tomatoes: individual plants dont need to mingle with neighbors to get fertilized, so they very seldom do. (There are a few varieties with protruding styles, but most commercially available breeds have totally retracted styles so cross-pollination is rare.) If, however, you felt compelled to use a brush on each blossom to assist in their reproductive efforts (something I used to do, not out of ignorance but obsessiveness) then you may not get seeds that will be true to the parents. If all you did was shake the plants to aid pollination, then there will be no problem.

Third, make sure the tomatoes you select for seeds are very ripe. You don't want them rotten, but leave them on the vine past the point where you would consider them prime eating.

Now for the actual process: slice open the fruit and squeeze or scoop out the seeds into a bowl or a clean cottage cheese container. They will be covered in a slimy coating that needs to be soaked off in water--adding about half again as much water as you have pulp will be about right. Every morning and evening for three days, stir the mixture. It will look and smell progressively more vile, as the fermentation process that destroys the coating progresses. Keep it away from pets, because the more disgusting it gets, the more they will long to lap it up.

By the third evening you should have a bubbled scum covering the top of the mixture. Add more water, this time doubling the mass, and stir it up. If all has gone according to intentions, the viable seeds will settle to the bottom. Pour off the scummy liquid, and rinse what is left a few more times with clean tepid water. I pour the cleaned-up mixture into a strainer and rinse thoroughly in running water. Dump the seeds out into a glass or ceramic plate or pie pan. Stir with a fork to break apart clumps of seeds and put in a dry area like a storage cupboard. Don't try to dry the seeds in sunlight or an oven. Stir the seeds a couple of times a day so that all surfaces are exposed to air. When the seeds feel dry, put them in an airtight container and preserve for next year.

Q. I know you can eat squash blossoms, but what other types of flowers are edible?

A. Plenty of herbs produce tasty flowers, including sweet basil, rosemary, chives, borage and oregano. Among the flowers that can go from garden to table to plate are calendulas, day lilies, nasturtiums, roses, pansies (and the related violas and Johnny jump-ups), corn flowers and lavender. And, finally, don't forget that many vegetables produce flowers that are edible and tasty.

Linden Staciokas has gardened in Alaska for more than two decades and writes a gardening column for the Fairbanks News-Miner newspaper.