Pruning Play

So last weekend I pruned the roses, fairly hardcore. When my roommate saw them she was like - they look so ugly now! I was like it's OK, now they will show a burst of fresh energy and grow even more beautiful. At least that's what I've heard. From more than one source. So I have been watching this all week and this appears true for several of the plants. Although the climbing rose plant does not look too happy. I now have many cuttings being stored in a bucket that I will plant around the property. Here are some before/after pictures.

Lot's of buds and diseased leaves. I cut that down and found:

Pruning leaves you so naked...

With a burst of good energy for the better to come (growth from only a week long!)

In other pruning news, I took care of the berries, and my hair, but not yet the grapes. I also put in all these transplants: red kale, purple mizuna and purple rapa asian greens, golden and red sage, catnip, flashback calendula, imperial star and purple italian artichoke. The purple italian artichoke is choking! I keep it in my thoughts.

Green Eggs &

Tonight I went to a PM class at Ballard Library called "Keeping Chickens In the City" hosted by Seattle Free School. The facilitator was awesome and laid back. She brought green eggs to give us with St Patricks Day stickers on them.

Although I will not be able to start this project until after I have moved somewhere more permanant. I need to save around $400 and start scavanging materials for the coop. In the meantime I can visit places like Portage Bay Grange or Seattle Farm Co-op looking for answers. Two things that I walk away from this class is the need to be more aware of "neighbor relations". I've never really had good neighbor relations in Seattle, I've always experienced the bare minimum. Also to avoid imposing on neighbor's interpretations of noise ordinances I need to carefully pick where I next live.

Also her 2-page handout has directed me to some books and websites I'm not ready to look at. Except for Feather Site. OMG there are so many pictures of different breeds that can be found here, for example the Araucana:

Oh the different kinds of chickens.

And the results report...

Wow, how interesting, what does all this mean? All these codes. A & L Western Agricultural Laboratories just mailed me the results for the soil analysis I requested from King Conservation District (oh, that's who they contract with). That was definitely faster than 3 weeks, awesome. I had sent in 4 samples, 3 from the North Beach space and 1 from the community garden. The community garden sample (BCCCG) was conducted by the kids one day, and I'm stoked to report to them tomorrow what their effort was worth (a piece of paper with a bunch of codes!). No applications of lime because that will just add more calcium.

1. NBGVG (North Beach vegetables) soil has an even keel pH, and very little Magnesium, Sodium or Sulfur (all the samples are low on the latter two - I wonder if it's better that way) yet is (almost overly) abundant in Calcium. An application of Nitrogen is recommended, but not in excess. -> I need to get busy with the nitrogen fixers.

2. NBGNH (soil from the mole hills!)  has a bit more Magnesium than the vegetable beds and a bit less calcium. The pH is more acidic within a buffer between 6.4-6.8. This is what can be found under the lawn, or dandelion/horsetail/red clover meadow, if you will. I was just curious, so I sent a sample in from the mole hills.

3. BCCCG (community garden) doesn't really need applications of anything. I will just emphasize to the kids that the soil is slightly acidic (6.6-6.8) and we can consider what impact that will have on food crops. It would be also worthwhile to run the pH tester from Swansons on the garden's water source.  Just to compare. A fun little science experiment. Also I just read that hydrangeas can be a fallback pH tester method. pH above 6.8 produces pink flowers and below 6.6 produces blue. You mean we don't need labs to figure this stuff out?

4. NBGRB (the roses) are living in slightly acidic soil (6.4-6.8). Which makes sense because roses prefer slightly acidic soil (this article says 6.5) and these particular roses have been established awhile. "Awhile". I also heard at that workshop at Swansons about intercropping roses with other herbacious acid lovers. This web stream recommends planting red clover or lupines. I can definitely get access to that.

Nitrogen-fixers. So that's why the "meadow" is producing red clover.

 

 

Getting Water Wiser...

It's seems appropriate to write about water on a wet day in Seattle with this hot cup of tea next to me. I have been kind of researching water in Seattle, because I'm curious about what I continue to drink from the tap, and what extent the claim that Seattle boasts some of the safest drinking water in the nation, is real. The city is legally mandated to annually report on the state of Seattle's water and the latest report available online is from 2009... In addition to this you can find tips for keeping water clean, information on the RainWise program (residential stormwater pollution prevention), and smart watering tips for the yard. Another resource is the Saving Water Partnership. The West Point Wastewater Treatment Plant, located at Discovery Park, offers free public tours. I can't believe, despite having volunteered there, I haven't been yet. Some "conservationist" I am. I'm totally finally doing that. Information on the public tours can be found here.

I recently purchased a pH Tester from Swansons to get a better sense of the water I am feeding this garden. The results are photographed below. The lighting is not superb.

The jar on the left is a water sample from our kitchen sink, reflecting the water I constantly obtain from the tap. According to the chart it's pH falls somewhere around 6.5, so is slightly acidic. The jar on the right is from the outdoor spigot we attach the hoses to. It's obviously a bit closer to 7, which is encouraging, because the plants are atleast obtaining a relatively balanced, happy water source. I'm curious what is causing the discrepancy. I'm not sure if I may obtain further plumbing information about this house. I should probably consider getting my drinking water from another source.

Irrigating Gifts

Really the only watering system at the North Beach home is via soaker hose. While I'm living here (until June) I'd like to make some minor improvements. The berries and roses, for one, would prefer an alternative to overhead watering - or so I've heard. My aunt gave me a series of gardening books back in December - one on the subject of "Water" - that I'm finally cracking open. When I went to Swansons I couldn't find materials for drip irrigation, nor at Re-Store. But then again I didn't ask for assistance. So today on this cloudy day in Seattle, with intermittant rain, I'm sitting down with a good book.

Go figure I'd google search "Installing drip irrigation systems in Seattle" I'd get so many resources. My first exposure to installing such systems was on a farm in New Mexico, where water was a precious commodity. Although much more abundant here in the PNW, I still think the North Beach garden could benefit from wasting less water. Rain, rain, don't waste away. It looks like in terms of expert advice, I'm going to have to make a little trip to the eastside.

"The Gardeners" Take "The Garden"

At BCC, we now have an official "special interest group" to last us through the rest of the school year in the form of a garden club. On Tuesday we met, and the winner of the rock paper scissors contest decided our club is called "The Gardeners" and the name of the garden is "The Garden". The way he put it was, "it's just really simple, and really good". I couldn't agree more. On Friday, we passed notes in the back of the room while Dr Suess was airing on the TV and came up with a flyer for The Garden. I said I would pull it together on my computer at home and have it ready for the next Tuesday meeting. Check out the logo below! The kids love making flyers for various clubs and activities, they typicaly handwrite them with pencil. This will be the first computer generated flyer (mostly) designed by the kids since I've worked here, and it will be interesting to observe what the response is.

But I really don't appreciate this computer-generated logo. I like what the kids designed by hand. So maybe the lettering on the flyer should be typed and leave a blank circle for them to draw the logo.

The Evil of Ivy

Any plant trying to grow where it doesn't belong is a sad story. When I volunteered at Discovery Park doing youth restoration programs I watched the kids go crazy ripping English Ivy out of the ground. I was first introduced to the invasiveness of this plant while volunteering on a farm, where I was asked to pull out ivy around some trees. Although it was just maintenance work because you never really get rid of that stuff. I was annoyed to be handed the least desirable farm work, but I guess you just have to "do your time". I was told to cut the thick, fibrous vines around the base of the tree, and that everything growing above would eventually die. The tree is given some breathing room. Death cannot be avoided only staved off.

Why is this ivy so intense? In WA it's a Class C on the noxious weed list (with a bunch of other plants less complained about, many with medicinal properties). But no one likes to be dominated. Ivy is said to move in, take over all the space, pushing out biodiversity, creating ivy "deserts". This incredible plant can even choke out trees, taking then down. But what is to be afraid of? Could ivy take down an entire woodland? Probably not. Ivy is more the gardener's bane, or the naturalist's achilles heel. People aren't happy observing domination, regardless of how much threat is actually present.

The ivy in our North Beach yard is intimidating, though. It's starting to creep up the neck of the plum trees.

It's doing what it needs to do, laying it's groundwork for an offensive.

It's staging area across the slope is building rank. I think I will need to host a work party, and prepare for battle.