Sprout Garden Design Blog

March Maintenance

2011-03-08T22:15:39Z

Spring is slowly (and this year especially) coming around the corner. If you can capture a sun break, it's time to venture into the garden and start planning for the year ahead. Here is a nice little list of places to start:

Pruning
- Remove dead branches. This helps by removing fodder for rot and also revealing the living shape of the plant.
- Prune you fruit trees before they leaf out while you can still see their structure.
- Help nudge your tree or shrub towards their most harmonious shape. This doesn't mean cutting it back from a walkway or the house, but rather helping it show off its best features and stay healthy.

Fertilizing
- As Spring rains come and vegetative growth resumes, it is the perfect time to give your plants a little boost. Especially if they are blooming or fruiting plants.
- We prefer to use organic granular fertilizers, as they leach slowly into the root system and there is very little chance of overdoing it.

Weeding
- Even through the soil is a bit wet, moving through beds and finding leftover weeds is a satisfying way to spruce things up. Be sure to get the crown or root of the weed, otherwise it will be back in short order. Try using a pitch fork or trowel to pop the weed out!

Planting
- Get some annuals going in pots and hanging baskets. If you still have the potential for a hard frost, wait a bit more.
- Perennials planted now have a leg up on the entire year.
- Staking plants that tend to flop now means you don't have the wrangle the plant when it's already big.

Veggie Beds
- Start by softening up the beds with a pitch fork and adding a little organic matter like compost or mulch.
- A few weeks later, some raking will even out the soil and prep the bed for seeds.

- Some chill tolerant veggies are ready to go in - Peas, Spinach, Turnips, and hardy Lettuces can all be planted.
- Take 30 minutes to plan out your planting calendar, so you don't get behind on getting your seeds in on time.

Design (In Pencil)

2011-01-29T22:04:16Z

Here's a new drawing for a soulful Northwest heritage property. With old fruit trees and lots of space, the grounds are ready for a long term plan. Chicken coops, vegie beds, and a stream side restoration with native plantings are sketched and explored. (Control-click on image to open it larger.)

Two New Books to Recommend

2010-11-29T14:43:32Z

Finally, a book about biochar and planting trees! The author presents the case for Carbon Farming, the process of restoring life in the world's soils, as likely our only chance to reverse global warming before it's too late. (That is, if it isn't already.) Terra preta soils left behind by populous and complex Amazonian cultures now gone tell us a secret to sustainability found nowhere else in history. Biochar and trees are our best carbon-negative tools. Describes ongoing work around the world in the fields of biochar, permaculture, and green energy. A glimpse into the heart of the Biochar Movement.

This book takes a close look into the subtle and complex biology in the soil ecosystem. Descriptions and definitions of soil bacteria, fungi, protozoa, nematodes, insects, and gardeners and how these interact with plant roots, soil nutrients, and one another in the soil food web. Instructions for using compost and compost tea to "team with microbes". Written for backyard gardeners.

FALL ACTIVITY: COVER CROP!

2010-09-16T14:27:31Z

Why take the time to cover crop? Seeding your soil with a cover crop is like tucking your garden into bed for the winter. Besides seeing carpets of green where you might just stare at bare soil for 4 months, there are a number of reasons to take an hour or two to prepare your veggie beds for winter.

First, and most importantly, our Northwest winters deluge our soil with a battering of rain and wind. In short time all the soil amendments and organic matter you worked so hard to incorporate during the growing season are leached out of the soil. By the time spring comes you need to start all over! The rain also slowly but surely compacts the soil, squeezing out hard earned aeration and leaving you with compacted soil. Unless, of course, you've been amending with biochar - which aids nutrient levels and prevents compaction.

While the cover crop is busy protecting your soil from the elements it also crowds out weeds and other invasive space-grabbing plants. Additionally, cover crops create a "green manure" that you fold back into your soil come spring. These organic materials act as a natural fertilizer that microbes and worms hungrily devour. By the time you are ready to seed your annual vegetable garden you'll have a supplemented, weeded, and aerated soil ready to support a growing season of nutrient needy vegetables.

Cover cropping is not something that just market farmers do - in an hour or two you can cast some seed, rake it in, and get busy waiting. There are a number of good combinations, but we are partial to a red clover and small seeded fava mix. The clover produces a large quantity of biomass while the fava fixes nitrogen. The bushy clover helps to support the leggy favas, which tend to flop down in the spring. Together they look great, especially if let to flower in the spring (but not go to seed!).

The ideal time to sow is at the tail end of summer, that narrow window when the weather switches over. This gives the seed time to germinate and get established before the days get too short. If you miss the window, try anyways, since seed is cheap and you can always use a backup plan of leaf mulch or straw to protect the soil for the winter months.

Clover + fava seed:

Sprout! (see the bits of biochar?)

Winter blanket:

native wildflower seed mix

2010-09-07T00:22:57Z

Often, our native planting and restoration projects include wildflower meadows. An efficient way to resolve large areas, seeding with native species is ecological and self-sustaining, not to mention beautiful. Attracts birds and wildlife too!

The seed mix itself makes a beautiful pattern of color, hue, and texture.

Think of the millions of flowers dreaming inside....

The mix contains:

baby blue eyes

blanketflower

blue flax

common cammas

gilia globe

heal all

large-flowered phlox

oregon iris

plains coreopsis

rose checker mallow

sea blush

sickle keeled lupine

small-flowered lupine

sticky blue-eyed mary

straight beaked buttercup

tall wild hollyhock

white yarrow

cherry wood bowl by woodturner david earle

foliage

2010-09-04T11:00:00Z

The peak of summer is past. The air is cooler and the colors and textures in the garden are getting moodier. My favorite time of year. These pictures are from our beloved Windermere gardens.

crisp

2010-09-03T11:00:00Z

An ipe (ironwood) deck we designed and built last summer. We recently went back to do some follow-up planting.

Detail, deck and steel planter

Detail, gas fireplace

nursery trip

2010-09-02T13:43:55Z

The serried rows and fields of thousands and thousands of plants at the nursery have an architectural beauty of their own.

Acorn Treehouse

2010-09-01T04:39:54Z

Children love to have their own private corner of the garden, a secret, separate place to play freely and let imagination take the lead.

At a recent Sprout project the site provided the perfect opportunity to build a little fairy treehouse for a few small occupants. An oversized bay laurel with spreading branches makes a citadel in which layers of reclaimed wood spiral around until a small acorn shape appears. Small touches like a skylight, pulley bucket, curling ladder, and a trap door, complete the fairy house.

Urban Chicken Coops

2010-08-29T23:03:52Z

A recently approved Seattle city ordinance is yet another indicator of a growing trend. With the increasing popularity of farmer's markets and the noticeable differences between farm fresh eggs and conventional, factory produced eggs, more urbanites are trying their hand at raising a brood of hens. The key factor in keeping your urban hens happy is the quality of their dwelling. Since urban coops often run into space limitations, strong site-specific design solutions become much more important. Hens with ample space, enough shade in the summer, and adequate protection from predators will continue to lay eggs for several years.

Sprout's solution for an urban coop was based on Britton's own experience with his family flock in Fall City. Easy access to storage bins, proximity to the compost pile, toddler friendly egg collection nest boxes, secure from raccoons and possums - all these parameters influenced the final design. Combined with a cheerful palette of reclaimed materials like yellow doors and patterned red carpentry, the surrounding plantings called back the cottage gardens of homesteads in years past.