Native Garden Planning and a Willow

Leon was able to get a large part of the brick wall moved to its new location. This part is mostly finished.

I ordered twelve cubic yards of soil to be delivered Tuesday, hopefully right on the lawn in this spot.

After the soil is delivered and used to even out the area and transition from the higher Douglas fir flower bed to the lawn area, then I will order some bark chips and logs to be delivered.

I worked a little last weekend on designing the garden itself. Here is an early draft.

There is a native plant nursery nearby (Seattle Native Plants) that delivers, so once everything is ready, I’ll place the order and get the plants in the ground this spring, or at least any plants I don’t think I can grow myself.

I went for a run this evening and near a restored wilderness area I saw a big old willow tree that has seen better days. But the trunk was amazing and had a lot of character. It doesn’t have leaves yet, so I couldn’t identify the species. Since willows are tops in the food web and my garden plan includes one specimen, I approached the tree and found only one small twig within reach. I jumped up and grabbed it. I now have four little cuttings of what I hope is a native willow tree.

I have some birch trees seedlings that could be added to the native garden, as well, but I need to identify them, too–no idea if they are native or not. My botany knowledge is going to have to grow by leaps and bounds for me to do a better job of identifying all these species specifically.