A gazebo is situated precisely where the 6 o'clock evening summer sun hits it, for alfresco dining. Her small greenhouse has a hidden storage shed that keeps hoes and rakes out of sight.

And, seemingly, out of mind. As polished as this place looks, it's easy to maintain -- Crittenden spends about half an hour a day gardening. More important, hers is a livable, family-friendly landscape that invites you to hit a croquet ball or take time to smell the roses.

"We like to live outside. I want it to be a beautiful space as well as a welcoming space," says Crittenden, whose landscape is included on a Sunday tour to benefit the Alaska Breast Cancer Advocacy Partners.

(The ABCAP tour is not to be confused with annual Anchorage Garden Club tour, which takes place July 30. An article about that tour and a map will be printed July 27.)

This tour, a first for the organization, features five gardens in Turnagain and Spenard and on the Hillside. Tickets cost $10 each, and all proceeds benefit ABCAP, a nonprofit, all-volunteer group that advocates for breast-cancer legislation and education and offers help to women who have been diagnosed.

The homes on the tour offer something for everyone: annuals and perennials, vegetables and herbs, unusual plants and proven favorites. Carla Williams, ABCAP's president, came up with the idea when she realized that her own landscape was nearing completion.

Many other gardens were suggested to her, but she decided to limit the number so visitors wouldn't have to rush.

The tour is a good chance to learn how other gardeners deal with local challenges such as sloping lots, less-than-perfect soil, shady spots and, especially, weather that doesn't always cooperate. Thanks to the cool spring, flowers that should be blooming by now are taking their sweet time. Friday's pounding rain took its toll on some specimens, such as the Himalayan poppies and ribbon grass in Nancy Groszek's Turnagain backyard.

Her yard encompasses many gardening styles: raised beds, containers, perennials, annuals, vegetables, herbs, roses and even what some people would call weeds. An expanse of fireweed, cow parsnip, monkshood, tansy, lilacs and raspberries obscure the back fence in the pleasantest possible way. However, beds in front of these semiwild stretches boast floods of forget-me-nots, trollius, delphiniums and other thriving perennials.

Annuals rule the ground-level patio, which is all but filled with containers exploding with color: pansies, lobelia, daisies, schizanthus, osteospermum. The effect is that of a cottage garden in a pot. Lots of pots -- there's barely room for the cafe table where Groszek takes meals and legal work she has brought home.

The tour takes place from noon to 3 p.m. Tickets can be purchased at any of the gardens. Descriptions of the gardens and their addresses follow:

• 3202 Woodland Park Drive: A small city lot seems bigger due to smart use of space, including multiple decks, a small greenhouse, an outdoor fireplace and fish smoker, numerous containerized plants and small beds of lavateras, petunias, marigolds, cosmos and other annuals and perennials. A former sloping driveway has been transformed into a terraced lawn. Watch for the lily garden, named for a beloved pet. Directions: North on Minnesota Drive to 36th Avenue; right on 36th; right on Woodland Park.

• 2512 St. Elias Drive: Many containerized annuals, raised vegetable beds, mature perennials, herbs, a pleasant patio and wide expanses of lawn. Directions: West on Northern Lights Boulevard; right on Turnagain Parkway; right on Knik Avenue; left on St. Elias.

• 2501 St. Elias Drive: Excellent use of backyard space for dining, play and quiet contemplation, plus a cleverly designed (and owner-built) greenhouse/storage shed, covered gazebo and a water feature that attracts many birds. Vegetables, herbs, perennials, a "see-through" privacy fence, containerized plants, a small memory garden and succ
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