Planting the Raingarden

Yesterday, I put in two yellow twig dogwoods, both about 3 ft high, one recently acquired at the Green Elephant Plant Swap in Redmond, the other has been in the front for several years, not growing very well. Also put in two tiny starts of red twig cornus, pulled up from some place last year. Walking in the business park near North Creek, in the Quadrant as we call it, sometimes I see overgrown plantings edging near the sidewalk, often rugosa rose or red twig dogwood, so I just pull up a little start with some roots. It will be cut back anyway. More on Scrounging for Plants later.

Also planted Native Iris, Douglassi, and dayliles, some other iris I had lying around, three starts of sword fern, and on the upper edge, zone 3 which gets the least amount of water, planted two mugo pines, two Evergreen bluberries, and several starts of Euphorbia, red bonnet I think -- all stuff from the plant swap.

The Zone areas areas loosely defined, so far. But I've been able to increase the size of the garden just by loosening the soil around the upper edge, smoothing out down to the wet middle, so there's more of a sloping line from upper ground level to the lower muddy middle.

After the Heat Wave

Now that we have survived the worst heat wave in Seattle history -- only 4 or 5 days really, but enough to make some of us wish we were anywhere else -- we take another look at the raingarden. Today it is lush and green, although I have barely watered it. We had one day of rain in July, I think, so some drain water was available. I may have turned the hose on it occasionally when I was passing by to water the vegetables planted nearby, but no regular watering in the swale of the rain garden. Yet we have lush croscomia, yellow twig dogwood, pieris, hellebore, solomon's seal, sedums, and not too many weeds. The load of arborist wood chips I had dumped in the nearby parking strip overflowed into the raingarden, so thick layer of the chips covered over everything there. No damage, just a thick blanket (3-4 inches) of protective mulch.

Net Zero Water, Seattle Elementary Demo Project

Here's a demo project that gets close to reusing all its water, or net zero water. "The classroom toilet composts and treats waste on site rather than flushing it into city sewer pipes. Water washed down sinks doesn't flow into storm drains but recirculates to a 14-foot-high wall filled with plants, which will eventually soak it all up. For now, excess flows through the wall. Plenty of "green" buildings strive to generate as much energy as they use, but Bertschi School's new science building is one of dozens nationwide taking it a step further. They're attempting to unplug from the municipal water and sewer system to collect, recycle and reuse water and wastewater on site, a concept often referred to as net zero water. The U.S. Army has a goal for several installations to reach zero water, energy and waste use, and last week it designated Fort Riley in Kansas, Camp Rilea in Oregon and Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington, among others, to be...

No More Buying Cheap Salmon

Economical shopper that I am, I rarely buy salmon if its over 6.00 a lb, and I haven't asked recently where it comes from, but odds are its raised in a crowded pen on the edge of a body of salt water, mixing with the oceans. My daughter tells me what's wrong with farmed salmon. Not only does it lack much of the nutritional value of wild salmon, the farmed salmon & their diseases are moving from the farms to the open waters, directly threatening the wild species. Read more about it at Save Our Wild Salmon and Why Wild Salmon , a very informative site from Trout Unlimited. So far, I've learned: -- Its good to eat wild salmon if its caught responsibly, encouraging that fishing industry -- Not good to eat farmed salmon of any kind, shouldn't support that industry --There is no more salmon farming in Puget Sound, or anywhere in the US. It was outlawed due to disease in the fish and other factors. --Salmon is farmed on Vancouver Island, and in northern European...

The Convergence Zone

Search This Blog