Time for Worms!

Posted on March 27, 2009 by amyp

With the threat of charging to haul away household kitchen waste in King County, it’s time to get serious about worm bins. Worm bins are the new compost pile, people. I promise.

Nine out of 10 clients ask me about setting up a system for home composting. The biggest issue with composting on a small(ish) city lot is that we often don’t have enough ‘browns’ and ‘greens’ to make up a successful hot compost. And cold compost just takes so long! The quick fix solution? A worm bin. It’s cheap to set up, easy to store outdoors and will pepper your beds with nutrient rich worm casings. Turn your trash into something useful!

More details on how to get set up to follow.

Pruning in March from Gardening GaGA

Posted on March 10, 2009 by amyp

Michelle Meyer is my garden co-hort, and she’s got GREAT tips for pruning here and below.

Pruning

I get lots and lots of questions about pruning trees and shrubs. There is no single rule for what should be pruned and when, but I just want to remind you that, in general, there are very few reasons to prune. There are so many more useful ways to spend time in the garden, so let’s talk about why you shouldn’t be spending a lot of time pruning.

First: Right plant, right place. Before you plant, carefully consider what the full size of the plant you’ve chosen will be. Plants in our area can grow to their full size in just a few years. If you already have a plant in the ground that is too big for its spot, take it out. There are so many lovely plants to choose from, there is no reason to wrestle with one that is too big for the space.

Next: When you prune a plant by topping or shaping it, what you’re really doing is stimulating its growth. Prune the top of a plant that naturally wants to grow tall and it will end up growing wide, wide, wide and thick with water shoots/suckers. It does not honor the plant and its natural beauty to try to make it conform to artificial dimensions…..READ MORE

Installing Rain Gardens

Posted on March 10, 2009 by amyp

A great local non profit I work with is looking for a demo garden. This could be you! Read on…..

Stewardship Partners is promoting Low Impact Development (LID) practices to the building community throughout central Puget Sound as a means to reduce polluted stormwater runoff and protect fish and wildlife habitat. Our current focus is a series of rain garden design and construction workshops for homeowners, facility managers, landscapers and the general public. Rain gardens are an effective method for infiltrating stormwater while also enhancing habitat and beautifying the landscape.

As part of our Rain Garden Project, we have obtained funding to install six demonstration rain gardens around King County. We are currently seeking potential sites for the installations to take place. Criteria include: adequate area for the rain garden (approx. 600 square feet), proximity to a building or other impervious surface that could drain into the rain garden, visible site with public interface, willingness to participate in basic maintenance after initial 2 years, and educational mission and/or interest of the host (optional). Potential recipients may include schools or universities, corporate campuses, public buildings, libraries, parks, or private residences. The recipient will not incur any costs for the installation.

If you have suggestions for potential host sites, please contact me! They will be making selections over the course of the next several weeks.

You Say Tomato…

Posted on March 9, 2009 by amyp

I’m stealing this post from Shelley Lance over at Tom Douglas Restuarants because she is one of the most well-written voices in Seattle.

An article by Barry Estabrook, about the way many of the field hands who pick tomatoes in South Florida are treated, published in the March issue of Gourmet magazine, is a real eye-opener. The subtitle, ” if you have eaten a tomato this winter, it might well have been picked by a person who lives in virtual slavery,” will make you think twice if you’re tempted by those firm and tasteless globes sold in the supermarkets this time of year. Even more horrifying is the thought that this virtual slave is laboring in the United States of America. Ninety percent of the fresh, domestic tomatoes we eat come from South Florida, and the largest community of farmworkers live in Immokalee, which, according to Douglas Molloy, the chief assistant US attorney based in Fort Myers, has become ground zero for modern slavery. In Immokalee, frightened, often undocumented field hands from Mexico and South America are grimly exploited by “independent contractors called crew bosses.” Continue reading here……