Trellis fence by Ecoyards.

Horizonal fence by Ecoyards.

Cedar fence with secret “Hobbit” gate for the kids, Laurelhurst. Custom-built by Ecoyards.

Galvanized steel mesh fence with cedar frame by Ecoyards.

Cedar fence with transparent stain by Ecoyards. Photo by Meryl Schenker.

When we first bought our house in West Seattle, you could walk directly from our front yard into the open space of our backyard. We didn’t have a fence that separated the front and back yard spaces, and for a while that worked just fine for us. But then we got a dog and later a kid, and it seemed appropriate to build a fence to prevent both from running into the street.

We wanted privacy, but we didn’t want to be completely screened from the street, so we settled on a three-foot lattice fence with landscaping to provided added privacy, and an arbor where a hydrangea vine and tea roses could grow.

There are many reasons for building a fence, including to: mark your property line, create privacy in your backyard, add charm and structure to your house, or even add property value by creating more useable space. There are also many types of fence designs (formal, picket, classic), and materials (wood, metal, vinyl, bamboo, wrought iron, etc.). Some clients want full privacy and fences as tall as possible, while others want simply to create a focal point in the yard.

What ever your style or needs, Ecoyards can work with you to design the right fence for your home. We’ve custom built a wide range of wooden fences and arbors to suit clients’ individual needs, tastes and budgets. We specialize in custom wooden fences, and other woodwork, such as arbors, trellises, and raised vegetable beds. We’ll work with you to come up with a style. Contact us to setup a consultation.

We just finished a more formal-style cedar fence in the Laurelhurst neighborhood. It’s exactly the kind of fence you would have wanted as a kid. Built into the fence is a small Hobbit door (look closely and you’ll see the black door handle) that allows the clients’ children and the kids next door to go between their houses. Not everyone would want this, but the client and his neighbor are friendly and used to having the kids tromp through each other’s yards. The fence provides privacy for the homeowner, but is still inviting to the next door neighbors.

Ecoyards is now a member of the Irrigation Association. It’s a cool organization of irrigation professionals who are committed to promoting efficient irrigation and other water-saving efforts.

To read more about ways you can reduce water use in your landscape, read some of our previous blog posts on upgrading your sprinkler system, how to repair and maintain your sprinkler system, and how to conserve water.

Contact Ecoyards to setup a consultation to upgrade your existing irrigation system or to install a new water-efficient system.

Photo by jpockele via Creative Commons License.

They’re squishy. They’re slimy. They have weird spiky things coming out of their heads. Bugs are unsightly creatures, and creepy to boot. But many of them are fairly benign in the vegetable garden; some such as ladybugs, damsel bugs and lacewings are beneficial. The good bugs eat the bad bugs that chew holes through your plants, so take time to figure out which ones you can keep around. The Southwest Community Land Trust has an excellent Bug Book that describes both good and bad bugs, has photographs of the damage they can do to plants and details how you can encourage the good ones and discourage the bad ones. The book also offers recipes for natural homemade sprays (garlic and chili pepper, for example) that can be used as an alternative to insecticides.

The Bug Book lists quite a few good bugs, including lady beetles (or ladybugs), praying mantids, soldier beetles, lacewings and damsel bugs. To attract these beneficial bugs, add nectar- or pollen-producing plants to your garden: daisies, dill, marigold, fennel, calendula, alfalfa, sunflowers, parsley, lemon balm, anise, zinnia, angelica, yarrow and coriander.

According to the Bug Book, here are a few bad bugs and what to do about them in your garden:

Aphids suck the juices off leaves, and sometimes spread plant diseases. As adults, they’re pear-shaped. Solution: control by spraying aphids off plants with a stream of water from the garden hose. Also plant dill, nasturtiums or calendula to attract aphids to those plants and away from other plants.

Cabbage loopers love to chew holes in lettuce, cabbage, celery, collard greens and tomato plants. They’re most damaging in the larvae stage, as green caterpillars. Solution: hand pick the bugs off the underside of leaves and throw them away; use row covers to prevent adult cabbage loopers from laying eggs on your plants.

Cucumber beetles as adults are very damaging to squash, melons, eggplants, tomatoes and peas. The adults are striped or spotted, and are yellow with black stripes or spots down its back. Solution: Hand pick the bugs off plants, spray with a garlic and pepper spray mixture; remove all weeds and plants from the garden at the end of season.

For more information (and photos) of good and bad bugs, here’s another good  detailed guide. 

Photo by Ecoyards

It’s a sure sign of spring when you can spot the explosion of white and pale pink blossoms on cherry trees throughout the Northwest. There are no shortage of places to view cherry blossoms, which are in their prime from about late March into early April. The University of Washington’s Quad is one of the many places where you can walk under a canopy of pink and white blossoms. The 31 Yoshino cherry trees that line the campus quad start blooming in late March and go for about three weeks. According to the UW, the Washington Park Arboretum bought and planted these Yoshino cherry trees around 1939. In the early 1960s, they were brought to the UW campus when State Route 520 was built.

If you’re looking to plant ornamental cherry trees at your home,  Yoshino cherry is one of the best bets for the Seattle area. Yoshino cherry, or prunus yedeoensis, is a Great Plant Pick, which means it is well-suited for growing in the Seattle area. Once established, the plant is drought tolerant. It’s also disease resistant and loves our cool, wet weather. The tree develops golden yellow and orange colors in the fall. It is originally from Japan and has been widely planted in the U.S., including in Washington, D.C. Great Plant Picks also recommends three other ornamental cherry tree varieties that do well in the Seattle area, including Akebono, Japanese Flowering Cherry and Cornelian Cherry.

The exchange of cherry trees between Japan and Washington, D.C., has a long and interesting history _ with a Seattle connection. In 1909, First Lady Helen Taft backed the idea of planting cherry trees in the nation’s capital, according to this National Park Service timeline. That year, Japan donated 2,000 trees to Washington to be planted along the Potomac River. The trees were shipped from Japan through Seattle on Dec. 10, 1909. When they arrived in D.C., agricultural inspectors discovered that they were infested with insects and nematodes, and President Taft agreed to have them burned to protect American growers. The NPS timeline shows that in 1912, Japan donated another 3,020 trees to D.C.; again they were shipped through Seattle and included about 1,800 Yoshino cherry trees, as well as other varieties. Those 1912 Yoshino cherry and trees propagated from that stock still draw thousands of visitors to D.C. each spring. Over the years, cuttings were taken from those 1912 trees to help preserve the tree’s genetic lineage; some were even sent back to Japan to help maintain the tree’s lineage in that country. Yoshino cherry trees are the predominant cherry blossom tree found in D.C., mainly along the tidal basin.

Hands down, one of our favorite Northwest native plant is the evergreen huckleberry. Vaccinium ovatum is an edible plant unique to the Northwest, and also a Great Plant Pick for Seattle landscapes. It has beautiful foliage (leaves with a tinge of deep waxy green and red when mature) and purple-black berries in the fall. This plant is a must in any Seattle garden because it tolerates a wide range of light levels, from full sun to shady woodland environments, and provides year-round interest. Evergreen huckleberry is fairly disease-resistant and drought-tolerant; once established, it require little pruning or water (though a bit of water during dry weather can help flowering and fruit production).

Evergreen Huckleberry, West Seattle

The erect shrubs can grow tall; some of our clients on Mercer Island have older, bushy shrubs that are about 6-feet tall. The berries ripen during the late summer to fall; they’re slightly tart, about one-third the size of a typical blueberry and make great jams or jellies. My son is crazy about them and loves to eat them right off the plant, his fingers and lips stained red-purple by the juices. Add huckleberries to muffins or pancakes; they’re also easy to freeze. One of our clients, Lisa in Ballard, makes a killer huckleberry pie, filled with berries she picks from her garden.

Sprinkler over-spray; photo by jellaluna via Creative Commons license

Ever walk by a sprinkler system where everything but the plants are getting irrigated? The sprinkler unintentionally sprays water all over the sidewalk, pavement or building, rather than directing the water to the base of the plants. That’s over-spray, and there are many ways to fix it if you have a sprinkler system.

The first thing to do is to make sure the sprinkler nozzles are clean, properly aligned, and pointed in the right direction. Sprinklers can become misaligned over time as parts vibrate during operation, or get bumped by mowers and foot traffic.

Sometimes, over-spray is just a result of an improperly designed system. Sprinkler heads may be positioned in poor locations or incorrect sprinkler nozzles may be installed.  Variable arc nozzles are available for those spaces with unusual angles of sprinkler coverage, but care must be taken to match the precipitation rates with other sprinklers on the zone to ensure proper distribution uniformity.  Some sprinklers may need to be relocated, or, in some cases, simply removed and capped.

Converting shrub and planting beds to drip irrigation will eliminate over-spray in those areas because it delivers water directly to a plant’s root zone.  Drip irrigation is efficient and will help you save water, and ultimately lower your water bills. In fact, it’s so efficient that many cities that put restrictions on home watering use during droughts often exempt drip irrigation. You’re able to water the plant’s roots, rather than spraying its leaves, foliage and branches, and you’re also able to water the plants more deeply because the drip system releases water more slowly than a sprinkler or spray.

If you have an existing sprinkler system that needs a tune up or you want to convert sprinkler zones to drip, contact us at Ecoyards.

Getting water from the rain barrel

My toddler son loves to dig around in the yard, so I decided to put him to work a few weeks ago when I needed to weed our landscape beds after a winter of neglect. After watching me dig up a few weeds in our raised beds, he grabbed his little metal shovel and began copying me. He put the shovel into the ground, pushed it down with his feet, and then hauled up a few weeds — which he promptly dumped, along with a scoopful of good dirt, into the gravel walkway. Oh, well. At least he was having fun digging. I gave him an empty bucket, and he spent the next 20 minutes filling it with compost.

There are different ways, large and small, to get your toddler or older kids interested in gardening or being outside. Toddlers love to imitate, so you don’t have to have a planned activity to get them excited about gardening. If you pull weeds, ask them to help you put them in the yard waste bin. Find worms together, and show your kids how to handle the insects gently. Look for birds in your trees. Smell different plants in your garden.

Here are some other ideas to get your toddlers out in the garden:

Visit children’s gardens and let your kids explore. The Bradner Gardens Park, Magnuson Children’s Garden, and Good Shepherd Children’s Garden are some of our favorites.

Sign up for a children’s gardening class, if your school doesn’t already offer gardening in the classroom. Seattle Tilth has a 2012 Summer Garden Camp for kids 1-14 in Rainier Beach and North Seattle neighborhoods. One day sessions for young tots including “Don’t Squish that Bug” and “Wiggle, Squiggle, Giggle.” Other classes teach about ladybugs, let your toddlers plant seeds, and explore other creatures.

Keep your kids safe. Supervise young ones when they’re using tools or planting seeds that could be potential choking hazards. Keep fertilizers out of their reach. Avoid using pesticides! If you’re concerned that your soil may have lead or arsenic, get it tested; King County explains how you can do that.

Get your kids good-quality tools that fit small hands, rather than having them wrestle with adult-sized tools. Practice safe handling of those tools, and teach them how to put tools away. My son has a blue metal shovel, a yellow hoe, and a bamboo shrub rake. Each cost between $5 and $10. We bought all three at the West Seattle Junction True Value Hardware store; check your local hardware store. 

Plant a garden, but keep it simple. Pick a few vegetables that are easy to grow, that grow fast, and are visually cool. Sugar snap peas or snow peas come to mind; the seeds are easy to handle for small hands. Radishes and lettuce also are great for the impatient toddler. Plant root vegetables that are fun to dig up, such as potatoes. Plant weird stuff, like purple carrots.

Later in the summer, let toddlers help you harvest tomatoes, carrots and snap peas, or pick raspberries and huckleberries (though teach your kids to only eat foods after asking for permission). Get a small watering can or spray bottle, and let them water your plants. My son likes to fill up the watering can at the rain barrel, and water our potted plants.

Grow seeds indoors. Kidsgardening.org has some great articles that caregivers can do with their young ones, including planting a windowsill herb garden, gardening with creative containers, or garbage-can gardening.

Read books about gardens and bugs. The National Gardening Association came up with this list of gardening books to read with your toddler: Growing Vegetable Soup by Lois Ehlert; Pumpkin Pumpkin by Jeanne Titherington; Tops and Bottoms by Janet Stevens; This is the Sunflower by Lola M. Schaefer; Whose Garden Is It? by Mary Ann Hoberman; The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss; The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle; Oliver’s Vegetables by Vivian French; Stone Soup by Marcia Brown; Alison’s Zinnia by Anita Lobel.

Visit farmers markets throughout the year and talk to your kids about what’s fresh at the market and growing in gardens. Visit farms where toddlers can pick their own strawberries, blueberries, pumpkins, and so on.

Check out this National Wildlife Federation guide for other helpful tips.

Find more lessons or activities at the KidsGardening website.

Tulips peeking through recent snow

Despite the snow in the Seattle recently, there are still signs of spring everywhere. Forsythia branches are showing their signature yellow color; flowering currants and magnolias are starting to bloom; and the most enjoyable, distinctive sign of spring – tulips – are emerging after a winter spent growing underground.

Tulips are native to central Asia and were first commercially cultivated as early as 1000 AD by the Turks, long before a botanist named Carlos Clusius widely introduced them to the Netherlands during the late 16th century. Tulips are now synonymous with the Netherlands, and regionally, with the Skagit Valley, where visitors can catch thousands of tulips blooming during the spring Tulip Festival (April 1-30, 2012).

Tulips are hardy bulbs and easy to grow in the Seattle area. They can withstand cold snaps without much problem; so no need to worry about the recent snowfall. Plant tulips and other spring-blooming bulbs, such as daffodils, in the fall so they can bloom in the spring. For the showiest blooms, buy the biggest bulbs and buy them as soon as you start seeing them in the garden store (avoid ones with roots growing from them). Tulips require a good dose of sun — about 5 to 6 hours a day — and well-drained soil. Plant them a few inches deeper than the packet instructions tell you, about 10 inches or so.

Ecoyards’ youngest employee with tulips, planted two years ago.

In the Ecoyards garden, our tulips are starting to peak out of the ground (pictured above) in early March. Some people plant tulips yearly for the best blooms and show, but most high-quality tulip bulbs will continue to bloom for three years with good results if you put them in a sunny spot with good drainage. (Check your bulb variety; some very showy blooms are sold as annuals and are only meant to bloom for one season). From year to year, tulips split into smaller bulbs, and eventually those smaller bulbs may not produce a flower. The tulips pictured here were planted about three seasons ago, so we will probably divide the bulbs later this fall or plant new ones.

Now is probably a good time give your bulbs a bit of fertilizer. You should fertilize as foliage (about an inch or two) emerges and again after flowering (there’s no need to fertilize if you’re treating the tulips as an annual, or good for one season). If you want to cut the flowers for indoor use, do it when it’s just past the tight bud stage. Cut it in the morning, put the stems in lots of water and store in a cool area.

Once a tulip has bloomed, remove the dead flower so it doesn’t set seed, which can reduce bulb growth. But resist the urge to pluck the leaves. Let the leaves get good and brown before removing them. The foliage is working hard to photosynthesize nutrients and to recharge the bulb so it can send up a healthy flower stalk next spring. Once the leaves are withered and brown, cut them back and leave the bulbs in the ground for next spring’s bloom.

At Ecoyards, we pride ourselves on our professionalism, knowledge, and high standards in the landscape industry. This year, owner Andy took the extra step to become a Landscape Industry Certified Manager through the National Association of Landscape Professionals. On Sept. 21, the National Association of Landscape Professionals announced that Andy has successfully earned his certification. He is now a nationally-certified landscape manager in Seattle. the National Association of Landscape Professionals is an international association serving lawn care professionals, maintenance contractors, installation/design/build professionals, and interiorscapers.

To get his certification, Andy underwent an exhaustive written examination that tested his knowledge, skills and theory in all aspects of working in the landscape industry. He had to demonstrate mastery of seven topics covering leadership and corporate citizenship; production operations/horticulture; sales and marketing; strategic planning; human resources; risk, law, and contracts; and corporate financial management. The program requires that he maintains certification through mandatory continuing education.

For our customers, it means you can expect the same high quality and professionalism that you’ve come to expect from Ecoyards. Andy’s certification, however, means he’s taken the extra step to validate his skills and knowledge in the industry.

For more information, visit landscapeprofessionals.org. 

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.