Wildfires raging throughout the West have gotten us thinking a lot about fire-resistant landscapes and how homeowners can help protect their homes from wildfires. Lightning often start fires but so, too, do people. Wildfires can start from campfires that aren’t properly put out, home sites that aren’t well maintained, and vehicles or equipment that create sparks.

Native kinnikinnick is one of dozens of plants considered “fire-resistant.”

There’s a lot of good information out there about how to protect your home from wildfires. Among the top recommendations is to create a “defensible space” around your home, or a safety zone of about 30-feet around your home and all structures. This is especially important for rural homeowners who live in areas where forests meet the edges of communities. The 30-foot safety zone should be clean, free of dead plant material and lean. Fire officials say to rake up dry leaves around the house and under decks and porches; prune trees away from homes; keep roof and gutters clear of flammable debris; and use fire-resistant plants where possible. Check out this brochure from King County for a good illustration of the different zones you should keep around your house.

The Washington’s Department of Natural Resources also offers these techniques for creating a defensible space around your home:

Use plants with high moisture content (deciduous) nearest the home.

Trim tree branches away from the home.

Prune trees at least six feet above the ground to reduce the changes that a fire on the ground will spread into tree tops. This is important if you have a lot of trees on your property.

King County has a great native plant database where you can search for different types of native plants that considered fire-resistant. Fire-resistant plants are described as ones where you get little seasonal accumulation of dead vegetation; have loose branching habits and are non-resinous if they’re woody plants. (Resinous trees include cedar, spruce, fir and pine). Many fire-resistant plants are also native to Washington, which make them easier to care for and less susceptible to diseases.

Some examples of fire-resistant trees for the Puget Sound area: cottonwood, maple, birch, cherry, flowering dogwood, vine maple, and crab apple. Fire-resistant shrubs include: Oregon grape, serviceberry, salal, mock orange, rhododendron, azalea, nootka rose. Good perennial choices include yarrow, hosta, iris, geranium, trillium, lamb’s ear, beard tongue and coreopsis. Groundcovers in this category include hens and chicks, stonecrop, verbenia, winter creeper and kinnikinnick.

In this video, local gardener Cisco Morris talks about how to create fire-resistant homes.

Contact Ecoyards to setup a consultation if you are looking for help with landscape plans for your property.

Oregon grape, native Pacific Northwest plant. Photo courtesy of heystax via Creative Commons License.

Green Seattle has always been on the forefront of promoting native plants and encouraging the removal of invasive weeds to support a healthier environment. But now, the city is taking it one step further. It is proposing to write such requirements into the city’s building code. Planning officials are in the process of getting public input on potential green code provisions which they say will address climate change.

Apparently nothing is set in stone yet, and the city is taking public input until Aug. 27, 2012. These proposed code revisions could bring major changes in residential and commercial landscapes across the city. The code deals with a number of construction issues, including encouraging building materials to be salvaged and so on. Several provisions in the draft code attempt to create healthier landscapes and encourage water conservation by mandating certain high-efficient irrigation practices and requiring mostly native Western Washington plants be used for new landscapes or those that are replaced. What are your thoughts on these proposed changes?

Specifically, the draft provisions say when you create new vegetated landscapes (or replace an old one), you must submit a plan showing that you’ll remove existing invasive species and “that 75% of all new plantings will be native to Western Washington.” It’s not clear from the draft documents online whether this provision would apply to very large properties or small single-family homes as well. Plants native to this region are better adapted to the local conditions and require less maintenance, water and fertilizers; the city says it wants to create healthier landscapes by removing invasive species and encouraging native plants.

The draft provisions also call for smart irrigation systems that can sense how much rain has fallen, and after about 1/4 inch, have the ability to stop the sprinkler system. It also would require the systems to use certain technology to conserve water, including low precipitation rotary nozzles, sprinkler heads with internal check valves. Landscapes that are greater than 30,000 also have other restrictions, including having a system labeled WaterSense.

The Ecoyards grandparents were in town recently from Michigan, so we decided to take them for a visit to The Bloedel Reserve on Bainbridge Island. There are a lot of wonderful gardens in the Puget Sound area, but this is an impressive 150 acres of beautifully, meticulously landscaped grounds. There’s also a lot of see, so give yourself several hours to wander around and explore the Japanese garden, the moss garden, the French country-style estate home and the reflection pool.

Our toddler had a blast, touching moss-covered rocks, running along wooded paths, checking out the waterfalls and trying to find ducks and geese in the pond. We were impressed by the magnificent and massive rhododendrons that were in bloom, by the woodlands filled with native Northwest plants such as oxalis, viburnum and western azaleas.

Here are a few photos we took on our tour:

A lush carpet of native oxalis.

Rhododendrons in full bloom.

The former Bloedel estate home, now the visitor center. .

Northwest native shamrock-like Oxalis oregana; photo by nordique via Creative Commons License

With St. Patrick’s Day approaching, we thought it would be a good time to highlight a beautiful Northwest native plant that resembles a shamrock. Oxalis oregana, or redwood sorrel or Oregon oxalis, is a small herbaceous perennial that blooms from early spring through summer. They’re native to the U.S. West Coast, from British Columbia south to California. In Washington state, you may encounter them as thick, lush carpets of green in coastal forests, such as those in the Olympic National Park.

Oxalis oregana has three shamrock-like heart-shaped leaflets, with a deep green color. The plants, however, most commonly portrayed as shamrocks are: Oxalis acetosella (wood sorrel), Trifolium repens (white clover), or Medicago lupulina (black medic), or Trifolium minus (hop clover).

Our native redwood sorrel spreads by creeping rhizomes (through horizontal rootstalks), and can spread quickly once established. It’s well-suited for partial shade or deep shade areas;   blooms in spring bearing white or pink flowers about an inch wide; and dies back in the winter in cold areas.

hummingbird; photo by lambatofa via Creative Commons License

Each morning, my son runs to the window to see what little creatures are feasting on seeds, nectar and berries in our front yard. Last week, we spotted a couple squirrels, a raccoon traipsing across our neighbor’s front yard, and several birds on the branches of our bare Japanese bloodgood maple). This week, we watched a couple hummingbirds flitter from branch to branch on the white-flowering currant that is getting ready to explode with its clusters of white flowers. Ribes sanguineum is one of our favorite plants in the Seattle landscape because of its spectacular white and red blooms are magnets for birds and butterflies.

Over the years as we have added to and edited our landscape in Seattle, we’ve added more shrubs and plants that can support wildlife. A typical neighborhood can hold more than 25 species of birds and mammals, such as hawks, raccoons, robins, chickadees, and even an occasional coyote, according to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. You can design your Seattle landscape with wildlife in mind by providing creatures with four basic needs: food, water, shelter, and space. Bees, birds and butterflies feed on flower nectar; squirrels feast on nuts and berries. Have a variety of plants that flower at different times of the year so wildlife have a steady pick of food throughout the seasons. Insects are also an important food source for birds, so develop a high tolerance for bugs and avoid insecticides.

Trees and shrubs, brush piles, groundcovers and plants that grow at different heights provide creatures with various safe places to hide and rest. A good wildlife habitat has many levels of habitat, from the ground on up to the tallest evergreen. Plant groundcovers for bugs and taller trees like western hemlocks for woodpeckers and hawks.

Consider adding a water source for animals, such as a birdbath, stream or other fountain. The Humane Society recommends studying your yard from the viewpoint of an animal seeking shelter and food when you start gardening for wildlife. Learn the habits and tastes of the species you hope to attract, and identify any potential conflicts early enough to head them off before unacceptable damage has been done to your garden.

The National Wildlife Federation also offers tips on how to garden for wildlife and how to certify your landscape as a wildlife habitat. The Audubon Society has a website on Healthy Yards.

Contact Ecoyards if you’d like to redesign your landscape to attract more wildlife.

Our neighbors to the south in the city of Portland are doing some great things with rain gardens as well. Seattle has led the way, but other cities have been doing their part as well in stormwater controls. The Portland Tribune has this cool feature explaining how one couple in Portland, Ore. saved money on their utility bill with their three rain gardens.

Rain gardens — essentially sunken areas filled with plants to collect surface water — absorb rainfall coming off the roof of the Hubatches’ one-story home.

That eases the burden on Portland’s oft-overloaded sewer system. As a result, the couple get a discount on the storm water management portion of their water and sewer bill.

The article lists some great ways that homeowners can help manage rainwater runoff, including installing rain barrels or cisterns to capture and hold rain for later reuse. In an earlier blog post, we explained how Seattle rain gardens can help keep pollutants out of Puget Sound. We can help you design, install and maintain your own rain garden. Give us a call at 206-770-7879 or email us.

This is the weekend to end all weekend plant sales. There are two incredible plants sales in Seattle: the King County Master Gardener plant sale at the University of Washington and the Seattle Titlh edible plant sale in Wallingford.

We’ve volunteered at the Master Gardener plant sale in previous years, but will be out of town this weekend. The sale runs from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday, May 1 and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday, May 2. You’ll find a wide selection of perennials, ornamentals, shrubs, trees, vines and edibles, including famous tomato starts, from Master Gardeners and local growers. 

The second plant sale is one that vegetable gardeners can’t miss. Seattle Tilth’s annual plant sale is one of the best in town. You can choose from over 50 varieties of tomatoes and 20 different kinds of peppers. I always leave this sale with a handful of edibles, including rare pumpkin, eggplant, cucumber and other starts that you just can’t find anywhere else.

Here are a few photos of plants currently blooming in the Ecoyards garden.

Planting camas attracts the native Western bumblebee

The tiny insects that do the bulk of the work to pollinate trees, shrubs and other plants have been in steady decline across the country. But one Seattle project is trying to change that by creating a continuous pathway for native pollinators, including Western bumblebees, orchard mason bees and butterflies.

The Pollinator Pathway project envisions a mile-long stretch along Columbia Street near downtown Seattle where plants friendly to these insects are planted in the strip between the street and sidewalk. On the bookends of the path are two existing green spaces, one at Seattle University and another at a small park called Nora’s Woods. The organization will provide homeowners along the pathway with simple designs and plant lists to create a garden that invites these native pollinators. The gardens would ultimately be maintained by the homeowners or groups that volunteer to take care of them.

We love the idea behind this project. Ecoyards uses native plants whenever possible to provide habitats for native bees, butterflies and birds. Native plants not only attract these pollinating workhorses, but they often require less maintenance, water, and fertilizer. Over time they’ve adapted to our climate and growing conditions, and native insects have come to rely on them for food, shelter and other needs.

The Polllinator Pathway Web site has a wonderful plant list with photographs of both native and non-native plants that attract bees, birds and butterflies. The native plant list includes trillium, deer fern, sword fern and Oregon grape for shade gardens, and nodding onion, lupine, yarrow and tiger lily for sunny gardens.

At Ecoyards, we try where possible to salvage plants, along with concrete, soil, bricks, pavers and nursery pots for reuse. When we redo landscapes for clients, our clients will sometimes ask us to remove or replace certain trees and shrubs. We always try to find new homes for these plants. We either give them away to friends or plant them in our own yard.

King County has a terrific program that rescues native plants from construction sites to replant later at salmon habitat and wildlife restoration projects around the county. The county salvages the plants from sites slated for development and provides them at a low-cost for revegetation projects throughout the state. Native plants such as the evergreen huckleberry (pictured right) attract native wildlife, require little maintenance and water, helps control erosion and runoff, survive better than ornamental plants and are truly Northwest. At Ecoyards, we use native plants in virtually every project we do. Some of our favorites are evergreen huckleberry, flowering currants, and mountain hemlocks.

PlantAmnesty also has a great “green share” program with an active on-line adopt a plant list. You need to be a PlantAmnesty member to view the list, but anyone may list a plant for adoption.