How to Attract Bees to Your Garden with Flowering Currant and Other Bee-Friendly Plants

A bee hovers near a cluster of purple lavender flowers with a blurred green background.

One of our favorite plants, the flowering currant, is currently in bloom this month, and we’ve been watching bees and hummingbirds swarm to its flowers. The currant is just one of many plants that attract bees, which do the heavy lifting by pollinating fruit trees, squash, and other plants. Many of you have already heard of the mysterious Colony Collapse Disorder that has wiped out thousands of bee hives throughout the region over the past…

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Paying for noxious weeds

A cluster of green ivy leaves with prominent white veins growing over a rock surface.

One of our biggest pet peeves is walking into a commercial nursery and finding plants for sale that are considered noxious weeds. Washington has a state law that requires citizens to help control noxious weeds, but that doesn’t always mean you can’t find it for sale in various places. In our opinion, no Seattle landscape should have English ivy, English holly, Scotch broom or any of the numerous other weeds that spread like rapid-fire and…

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Paver patios and walkways

Curved stone walkway with gray border leads to wooden stairs, surrounded by mulch, rocks, small plants, and a potted plant on the right.

One of the most requested landscape features we get at Ecoyards are paver patios, walkways and driveways. Pavers offer many benefits over concrete. They come in a variety of rich colors, textures, and styles to fit your landscape design. Pavers are much easier to adjust and repair than concrete slabs that tend to crack over time. They’re also aesthetically pleasing. Take a look at some of our paver patio and walkway photos. At Ecoyards, we’ll…

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Gardening calender: April

Close-up of yellow daffodil flowers with trumpet-shaped centers, surrounded by green leaves and stems, growing outdoors in soil.

You wouldn’t know it’s April, given the snow and cold weather we’ve been having lately. Despite that, daffodils and forsythia are strutting their stuff, tulips are poking through the cold ground, cherry blossoms are in full bloom, and we just noticed some blooming trillium deep in the woods of Schmitz Park in West Seattle. Now is a good time to walk around your yard and give your landscape a good once-over: Here’s what else you…

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