Rainier Valley Gardening Blog

Found a great article in the Seattle Times about native pollinators and the honey bee crisis, Native bees play bigger role as honeybees decline. The part that I find really cool is the idea of a “Pollinator pathway.” Wouldn’t it be a great thing to work on with your neighbors?! I do definitely keep beneficial insects and pollinators in mind when planting, but never thought about actually working with neighbors to extend the pathways.

From the article: “The adage proves true: Build it, and they will come. Sarah Bergmann got a $6,000 grant from the city of Seattle last year to transform the parking strip in her Central District neighborhood into what she dubs a Pollinator Pathway, planted with the help of 50 neighbors last November.

Once a desert of grass with a few maples, the 108-foot-long, 12-foot-wide strip today blooms with plants selected to attract pollinators. It’s buzzing with life that has spilled over to plantings all around the neighborhood. An orange trumpet vine festooning a fence out back is mobbed with bees too busy to bother anyone, some stacked two to a flower.

She hopes to eventually extend the pathway to a mile, in all. “It’s so basic,” Bergmann said. “I consider it local ecosystem support.”

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Well, the Garden Tour is in full swing, I am writing this during lulls in traffic in my garden. Thanks to everyone who is stooping by and supporting us!

I wanted to post a few pics of my veggies for people to see–they are doing great! I harvested my potatoes this week and planted winter onions in the newly empty whisky barrel.

Chard, Kale, cucumbers (lemon, pckling & slicing), tomatoes, kiwis – can’t keep up with them!

Rainbow Chard

What should you NOT do right before hosting a garden tour?

1)Tear all the gutters and old fascia boards off your house to prepare for a new roof.

2)Remove your chimney and store all of the busted masonry in your driveway.

3)Dig up a 7×3 foot section of lawn and lift it up 4 inches.

4)All of the above.

Well I managed to get into all of these projects just in time. I didn’t think about it until I was lifting up the lawn section at 3 o’clock Wednesday afternoon in about 90 degree heat. It crossed my mind that it might look like I laid sod down in strips so I stuffed the cracks with dried grass from raking. The lawn has not been watered other than where Lila’s pool is and we try to move that around fairly often.

Dapple Dawn

The roses are coming back into full bloom just in time. One of my favorites is Dapple Dawn. It is a beautiful single pink rose that flowers most of the season, kind of loose open flowers. And of course the lovely Sally Holmes, a blushed pink single flower in huge bunches covering the shrub.

I do plan on having the place cleaned up for the Rainier Valley Garden Tour this weekend so please stop by and take a look!

See you on Saturday!

Gregory Smaus

Native Root Designs

sustainable garden management, design, and exploration…

206.227.4458

www.nativerootdesigns.com

August 10th 2009

Just under two weeks until the Garden Tour. The rain came and wet the earth nicely. Thirsty roots in hard clay soil waiting patiently through our hottest days on record. There is no irrigation system that is adequate when it gets that hot and dry for so long. A couple of good soakings with the hose help immensely to water the back sides of shrubs and in between spaces that the irrigation doesn’t reach. The rain came last night, so by 8 pm tonight the ground was perfect to go and weed. Nice and moist but not saturated, dandelions coming up with nearly full roots in the loose soil. I used the evening as a chance to go at the Morning Glory along my fence line again. That is the second time this year but I should have done it two weeks ago. It is very good at wrapping around stems so tight you pull a plant apart just while trying to get the morning glory off of it. My next strategy will be to plant larger shrubs and small trees so they won’t get covered up so quickly and they will be easier to free. The best method is to cut the Morning Glory vines every 12 inches or so along the stems of other plants so that you can pull it off in sections without stripping the leaves off or breaking the preferred plant.

Soon I will be getting around to cutting most of the burned foliage out of the garden. Despite watering fairly consistently I ended up with many burned plants. The plants I put in about a month ago have done very well with regular watering and all the sun and heat. The garden will be a good representation of a Seattle August garden. The Asters are just getting started and most of the Fuschia’s have come through unscathed. The Sedum look great and the ornamental grasses are full and billowing. The burned and dry leaves begin the transition into our true Western climate Fall Season. The Summer drought stresses the plants so that many of the natives are already going dormant. 

With the hours of daylight becoming more precious by the day, Fall seems so strong in the air. I was out until I could not see the thorns on the rose as I removed the weedy vines from it’s fragile branches, joined of coarse by an evening chorus of tickling mosquitoes and, a shame, it was just past nine o’clock. Not yet ready for Fall I will thoroughly enjoy the coming weeks of warm sun and burned gardens, Morning Glory and Mosquitoes because one of my favorite things about Seattle is it’s entirety of Seasons. Every Season is so full you are ready for the next when it comes time. Now is the time of Summer. Fruit is ripening and faces are red. Warm skin, white wine and so many things to do sleep is just another thing on the list.

Gregory Smaus 

Native Root Designs

sustainable garden management, design, and exploration…

206.227.4458

www.nativerootdesigns.com 

The fuzzy kiwis are producing like crazy for the first time in almost 5 years. They are almost ripe! last year we got one kiwi fruit and a squirrel ate it right in front of me the moment it ripened.

Fuzzy Kiwi (almost ripe!) and Cayenne Pepper (Green but HOT)

Slicing & Pickling

Lemon Cucumber

Left to Right: Sun Gold Cherry, Black Cherry, Urbikany

Peas and beans are starting to pick up (yeah, i planted peas WAY too late, but no powdery mildew this year). The sugar snaps are delicious and the Scarlett Runner beans and Kentucky pole beans are tiny but delicious.

Scarlet Runner and Kentucky Pole Beans Sugar Snap Peas

Eggplants are getting ready to harvest, but are so pretty on the vine that i can’t bring myself to pick them yet. The broccoli is producing its second harvest of tiny, tender florettes. I’ve been gathering the potatoes that rise to the top of the bin and they are delicious.

Eggplant

Brocolli

Potatoes

Back Raised Vegetable Bed

Got four new chicks today, I forgot how adorable they are when they are little.

Clockwise from left:

• Rhode Island Red (red, on left)
• Barred Plymouth Rock (black & white with white dot on head)
• Silver Lace-Winged Wyandotte
• Golden Sex Link

New Chicks!

I just ran across this blog entry on the AngelineHouse blog and must pass it on. They documented ‘hiring’ goats to clean up the blackberries in the yard of a Seattle house. Check it out here: http://angelinehouse.blogspot.com/2009/05/goats.html 

Goats! Angelinehouse blog

On Saturday we finally got the new raised veggie bed filled with dirt and the top rails put on and a second coat of non-toxic water-based stain (”Green Tea” tint, my favorite for the garden, also used on the chicken coop run). Filled the bed with a mixed yard of topsoil and compost from Sayer’s Fuel, then added several bags of Gardner & Bloome Soil Building Compost and Harvest Supreme, and mixed and mixed and mixed. I’ve had trouble with the compost from Sayer’s being too hot, although it is supposedly from Cedar Grove. This batch seemed awfully hot as well, but I’ll keep my fingers crossed.

In the veggie bed, I planted:

• eggplant
• several varieties of hot peppers
• lemon cucumbers
• slicing cucumber
• pickling cucumber
• bright lights chard
• nasturtiums (these I use to attract aphids away from the veggies, then pull and compost them)
• scarlet runner bean
• snow peas (will go in this week, I had to go buy inoculent on Sunday)
• kentucky pole bean (will go in this week, I had to go buy inoculent on Sunday)
• brussels sprouts
• broccoli
• more that I can’t remember right now, but will update later this week)

In 7 large pots I planted the following starts:

• Urbikany tomato
• Early Girl tomoto
• Black Cherry tomato
• Rubus lineatus raspberry
• Pantano Romanesco tomato
• zucchini (unknown variety!)
• Fantastic tomato

All of the tomatoes have Wallo Water around them. Next year I want to upgrade to red Kozy-Coats, I’ve heard the red season-extenders are better.

This week I need to get the beans and peas inoculated and planted, and some additional bean and pea trellises built from the salvaged bamboo, and the two large raised beds in the front yard planted (mostly lettuce, spinach, kale, chard, beans, squash, leeks, and onions.

Pantano Romanesco

Kozy-Coat