terrarium class

Ever wonder how people get those big plants into narrow-necked terrarium containers? So did I.
The other night I learned how at a terrarium-making class held at The Palm Room, in Ballard.
It was fun (and educational).

 

Below is a video I like on how to make a terrarium. This video instructs us on how to make a terrarium, using containers with a relatively wide opening (read: a lot easier!).

back yard transformation part IV

I haven't posted about the back yard progress in quite some time now (sorry mom), so i thought that I would do an update.

As a reminder: we started with a concrete pad, which was mostly covered by a weird shed/carport structure

Before

After the shed came down, we hammered and hauled away the concrete.

Jacob spent time regrading and refurbishing our retaining wall, which gained us another 10 feet (or so) of property towards the alley. Given the size of our lot, those 10 feet make a big difference.

I built raised beds for vegetables.

May 2010

Jacob built steps leading from the alley up to the yard... with very heavy stones.

May 2010

We had a fence built. Brandon oversaw the operation, and helped me with design decisions.

July 2010

Brandon and Jacob have continued regrading the slopes, through a process we affectionately refer to as "spirit raking". Planting beds, patio space, and pathways are beginning to reveal themselves.

Now (August 2010)

The veggies have grown in the boxes I built earlier in the summer.

Next steps: 
Continue spirit raking.
Finish steps leading up to yard from gate.
Install lots of rock and gravel for the patio and paths (Brandon would like many of the paths to look like rocky dry stream beds - amazing).
Go plant shopping

Day at the demo garden

Today was fabulous.
As some of you may remember one of my summer jobs is that I designed, planted, and have been tending to a demonstration garden at King County's south treatment plant.

Everything is in bloom and looking beautiful (my babies are all grown up).

 

 

When I got to the garden today I witnessed the most intense aphid infestation. Where do those buggers come from??? I immediately saw that my work was cut out for me. Why was this good news??? This was good news because it meant that I needed to spend the entire day fighting the aphids and nursing my injured plants back to health. That's right, the ENTIRE day in the garden.

These sungold tomatoes made for a
delicious snack at about 4pm.

To combat the aphids I used a STRONG spray of water on the plants. This is an effective way to kill the bugs, but it also beats up the plants a bit. After the water spray I misted the plants with a diluted soapy water solution, which also kills aphids. This works because the aphid's soft bodies desiccate due to the soap.

Lady bugs came in to help me with my work.

South treatment plant (in Renton) is having an open house this Saturday August 7th, from 10am to 1pm. I will be there giving tours of the demonstration garden, and giving away free bags of GroCo compost to the first 50 people who arrive. Please come to say hi and see what I've been up to this summer.

I love honey bees

Dark beauty eggplant

So many cucumbers!

I love the juxtaposition between the beautiful and soft flowers
against the industrial wastewater treatment plant.

garden design

I love watching personalities come out in the garden. While some people are neat, tidy, and controlled, others are wild, weedy, and untamed. Most of us fall somewhere in between.
While I am a vegetable-focused gardener, I feel the need to add flowers and ornametals everywhere. I even pack flowers in and around my vegetable beds. Flowers attract beneficial insects, but I simply plant them because they make me happy.

Two raised vegetable beds surrounded by nasturtiums and poppies (pink Asian and orange California).

Eggplant, tomatoes, and carrot seedlings share a bed with a bright yellow Coreopsis.

Dwarf dahlias hide behind the rosemary-and-thyme-planted terracotta pot.

overgrown squash?

If you have ever had a vegetable garden you have probably fallen symptom to "overgrown squash syndrome". It's okay, it won't kill you or your garden... just make sure you pick those zucchinis before they get too big!
Today I had had enough, and decided to cut back some of my squash plants... just enough so that they weren't shading out my other veggies. Looking at the clipped leaves, I realized just how beautiful they are. I decided to stick a couple of them in my bathroom as if they were cut flowers. The greenery adds a freshness that I really like.

Got away

After posting about all my summer jobs last week, I convinced myself to get away for the weekend.
My husband and I jaunted over to Olympic National Park for a quick one night backpacking trip up to flapjack lakes.
We ate salmon berries along the trail, and wistfully walked past unripe huckleberries. Trailing blackberry and thimbleberry were also ripening.
What was that? No foraging allowed in National Parks? Oh yeah...

Setting up camp

Perhaps we'll come back up around labor day,
when these hucks will be ripe and juicy.
Last weekend they were simply pretty flowers.

Our bear-proof pantry... bag of food hanging on a bear wire.

Bambi came for a visit. Apparently she knows that hunting
is not allowed in the park because she really liked our company.

(All photos taken on the iPhone to minimize pack weight)

Summer jobs

Back in the early spring I decided that this would be a summer of fun... sort of a graduation present to myself... I imagined a summer where I worked only as much as I needed to, only worked on cool and fun projects, and travelled a lot. So far I've been able to work on cool and fun projects, but... I have been working 10+ hour days on average, and often on the weekends. Traveling has been sparse and limited to quick jaunts here and there. The reason is that I found an incredible number of cool and fun projects to work on. Some of them pay, some do not, but I am proud to be a part of all of them.

Here are some photos from my summer of fun work*

***Note to family and friends: these are photos from just a few of the jobs I've been doing this summer. There are more jobs yet! So sorry if I haven't called or written... I've been busy working in the dirt. Come late fall some normalcy should return to my life!

Alleycat Acres is growing like crazy up on Beacon Hill. Come help us harvest on Tuesday nights from 6-8 pm.

Apparently kids love to harvest carrots,
and this one was good at it.

We got about 5 cuttings from that Romaine!

Installation of two demonstration beds at the Goat Hill Giving Garden in downtown Seattle

Filling the beds with either a GroCo/sandy loam blend, or sandy loam + organic fertilizer

Watering in the seeds. We planted potatoes, squash, and bush beans in the demo beds

Collecting soil samples from research plots on Vashon Island

Collecting biomass samples

One day that tall meadow will return to
forest if we have anything to do with it

Veggies and ornamentals growing at the South Treatment Plant demo garden

These Hollyhocks are so romantic

Bright Bandolier Sunflowers

Baby eggplant

Wish my tomatoes at home looked like this

Cucumbers starting to develop

Scabiosa is stunning