Author: admin

I love garden surprises and Puget gumweed is a fantastic surprise. The seedlings looked like boring dandelion clones for the longest time, but then suddenly they shot up this year with long stalks and thistle-like flower buds with the gum on top that I assume led to their nickname. And the flowers are beautiful yellow daisies! I am so happy to have started these and to have a few in the native plant garden blooming at a time when almost nothing else is flowering.

Lately, I have seen many opportunities around the city to add native plants. My biggest challenge is having enough plants to share with people and to add to various sites that need natives. I hope to have enough strong starts this autumn to meet the need.

On the Fourth of July, used the holiday time to transplant a few hundred native seedlings. I ended up with trays full of Douglas aster, Large-leaved avens, and fringecup! About 72 seedlings of each!

It is not ideal timing to transplant natives in the heat of summer. I will keep these babies in a shady site and keep them well-watered and well-fed.

In addition to the most recently transplanted seedlings, the earlier Lupine seedlings are growing well and are ready to plant out as soon as the weather cools and rains come.

The Douglas aster cuttings that I took early in the spring have done extremely well and are also ready to plant out.

There are more large-leaved avens left to transplant and also some native violets that I will tackle in the coming weeks. And it is softwood cutting season for the red-flowered currants and other shrubs–so many potential local food web plants!

Moths have been showing up for several months at the porch light. However, the larger, showier moths have been missing. Lately, with warmer weather, I am seeing more and more. Here is a favorite, a small magpie moth.

Here are some flowers from the native garden in June.

Above are checkermallows, fireweed, large-flowered collomia, native roses, Oregon sunshine, and a ladybird beetle and aphid on a Lupine.

My favorite June photo is of a native bee, the orange-rumped bumblebee I spotted in the raspberry patch.

The guardian of the native plant garden is Rafa, our dachshund/wire-haired terrier mix. He is on a constant vigil looking for squirrels, rabbits, and rats! My friend Dean took this amazing portrait–thanks, Dean!

Like the other gardens around our yard, the native plant garden shows growth and color throughout May. Below is a photo dump of some of the great beauty of the native plants.

Dean also has planted some wonderful native plants in his and Brian’s Happy Valley, Oregon garden. Here are a few:

This week, I shared more than a dozen plants with neighbors and friends. I gave Stuart and Whitney down the street a tray of seedlings and cuttings, including lupines, red-flowered currants, Puget gumweed, Oregon sunshine, and checkermallow. I also shared a large Douglas fir sapling in a pot and some seedlings/cuttings with our friends Staci and Eric who are rewilding a stream-side property in Kenmore. When more young plants are ready, I will set some out for more neighbors to take and possibly list some on Nextdoor to see if I can tempt anyone.

The growth in the native plant garden over the last few weeks has been astounding! Every day brings new leaves, new suckers, and new flowers.

My brother and I attended a National Geographic Live presentation this week and the speaker, Alizé Carrère, talked about human adaptation around climate change. My favorite thing that she said is that any step a person takes to fight climate change is worthwhile. She quoted Vaclav Havel, who said: “Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.” My little native garden is not much, but I am certain that it makes sense!

My energy is coming back after a long, lazy winter. The longer days mean more time to work in the garden on the weekdays after work and no excuses at all on the weekends. Well, the rain could be an excuse. But even I don’t believe myself when I try to use that one.

During this week, I took some of the seedlings from last year and planted them out in the garden. These included Oregon sunshine, lupine, fleabane, checkermallows, fringecups, and one western columbine. Besides getting these plants out to their forever homes in the native garden and the memory garden, a welcome bonus is the free space left on the shelves for new native plants.

Today, I took early cuttings of Douglas aster plants. Last year, I tried this softwood cutting technique and it was very successful. This year, I took 18 cuttings–an entire tray.

My aster patch is very healthy and dense. It would not damage the planting at all if I took 100 cuttings. Maybe next year! We’ll see how they do.

The red-flowered currant cuttings I took last summer look strong. There are five or six of them and I pulled them out of the greenhouse so they can get some rain and wind. One precocious cutting was blooming!

My red-flowered currant plants from the nursery, which were the parents of these cuttings, appear to be a very light-flowered cultivar. They are beautiful, but not as showy as the true red plants. I plan to add a red one this year so I can get cuttings of that going forward, as I think that will be a more popular choice for folks to add to their gardens. These lighter-colored ones will work just fine for guerilla gardening, though.

Today was also a pricking-out day for native seedlings. Specifically, I potted on a few dozen Gilia capitata and fringecups.

The Gilia seedlings, above, were decent-sized and pretty easy to move on. But the fringecups were tiny and delicate. I probably should have waited. Luckily, I have another pot of seedlings that just sprouted so all will not be lost, regardless.

There are other seedlings coming along, too–new ones every day, it seems.

The rain is actually an excellent reason to go out to the native plant garden because I always know the lupines will be sparkling.

It looks like something has been chewing the lupine leaves–maybe the eastern cottontail rabbit I saw in the yard this week. But it looks like maybe some insects are eating them, too.

My favorite animal sighting was this fledgling junco that flew in front of Rafa and clung to the screen of the greenhouse door this afternoon. I was worried that Rafa might find the little guy and eat him so I moved him into the dog yard and blocked Rafa’s access. He seemed fairly unafraid in my hand and flew to a branch in the lilac and called to his mom, who visited him a few times while I watched.

It seemed very early to have baby birds fledging but I had noticed some nesting behavior from the juncos weeks ago. It seems likely they will have several broods this year. I am so excited that our yard provides them the habitat to nest and raise cute little babies like this guy.

The earliest native flowers in my native plant garden are also the earliest ones around the neighborhood, Oregon grape (Berberis aquifolium), and osoberry (Oemleria cerasiformis). Here are some photos of the osoberry in my garden. When I tried to take a photo of the Oregon grape, a female dark-eyed Junco was flushed. She was obviously nesting nearby so I left her to it.

The osoberry is covered with flowers this year and I am hopeful it will set a bunch of berries.

Just when I thought my osoberry was amazing, I walked down to Ingraham High School and saw how spectacular these lovely shrubs can be.

I never really noticed how beautiful Oregon grape flower buds are–they are brilliant even before they open.

The update on native seedlings is that the Gilia seedlings are still doing well and need to be transplanted, the fringecups are also doing well. There are dozens of Geum macrophyllum seedlings that germinated in the last few weeks. The dozens of lupines are getting true leaves at this point, too, so they will need to be transplanted soon. The year-old seedlings are starting to stir from their dormancy, including the Oregon sunshine plants, the Erigeron speciosa seedlings, and probably a dozen Sidalcea plants.

There are some guerilla gardening opportunities in the neighborhood. A bunch of Cistus shrubs in a long stretch of parking strips in a nearby development died last year, likely due to the unusually cold winter. The dead shrubs were cut to the ground but no replacements have been put in. There is a lot of space between and around where the shrubs were planted, too. My intention is to sneak a bunch of natives in those strips since no one seems to really maintain them or care. On the other side of the same development, there is a sloped bank that stretches an entire block which would be perfect for some natives, as well. I will be propagating and planting for years to come. Lastly, the property all around Ingraham is already planted with native plants so I can sneak some of the volunteer Douglas fir and madrona seedlings onto that property.

It can be tough to know what fauna is actually making itself at home in our garden. Trail cams provide some great data and wonderful videos. I placed one in front of the waterfall in the woodland garden and have had some wonderful surprises.

I was shocked to see that some of the seeds I planted back in November have sprouted already. These native plants really are very hardy.

Lupine and Gilia seedlings are braving the January cold and rain. I am curious how they will fare with spring still months away.

Native plants that did better than survive the chilly temps and snow cover include the checkermallows and the lupines in the native plant garden.

The first two photos are of Lupine species and the last three are Sidalcea. They were all started from seed over the last two years.

Speaking of seeds, winter is a time when invasive plants really come into focus as I walk around the neighborhood. There is an unusual English holly tree a few blocks away that demonstrates why hollies are so successful in spreading everywhere. Usually, hollies have berries in clusters of just a few but this tree has huge bunches of berries.

Not surprisingly, this tree has a lot of starlings and American robins around it, picking berries and dropping seeds for miles around.

When I walk our new puppy around the neighborhood I use the Merlin Bird ID app’s sound identification feature to identify what birds are around. Our north Seattle neighborhood is unusual in that it features a bounty of old, large native trees. There are large Douglas fir trees in many yards, some large western red cedar trees, and less common are Pacific dogwood, madrone, red alder, and bigleaf maples. Most of the landscaping here features non-native ornamental imported plants and lawns.

Birds that have been confirmed in our yard or within a few blocks of here include:

American robin–lots of these–dozens in small flocks mostly around berry- or fruit-producing trees, including cotoneaster, holly, mountain ash, and others.

Dark-eyed junco–always common here now (they used to be rare twenty years ago), they feed in small flocks and have nested in our yard the last few years.

House finch–many of these birds in the neighborhood the last month or so; they do not come to our suet or seed feeder, thankfully, as they are susceptible to highly contagious avian diseases. They nest in shrubs on our fenceline with the neighbor to the north.

Pacific wren–I was not aware that these birds came to our neighborhood until this year with the sound identification app. I have seen them before, I’m sure, but they look similar to the Bewick’s wrens that next in our yard every year

Song sparrow–already singing around the neighborhood, these cheerful sparrows have a lovely song. They feed on the suet in the yard sometimes but the songs are not heard in our yard yet.

American crow–pairs of crows seem to have staked out every block in the neighborhood. We have our own Half Beak and Full Beak that we have been feeding for more than ten years in the front yard.

Chestnut-backed chickadee–common in our yard and around the neighborhood. They stay here year-round and their sounds are slightly different than the black-capped chickadees that are also common here. A pair was nesting in a nest box in our backyard two years ago.

Black-capped chickadee–common, tame, smart little birds that feed at our seed feeder and suet feeder, caching seeds around the neighborhood. They also nest in boxes in our yard.

Red-breasted nuthatch–gorgeous little tree creepers with distinctive calls. They eat seeds from our feeder in the fall/winter mostly. I hear them in the big Douglas fir trees mostly.

Golden-crowned kinglet–gorgeous, tiny birds that seem common here in the winter this year. The sound identification app helps with these little birds because they are usually in deep cover and in flocks with other small birds.

Yellow-rumped warbler–another winter resident, there are quite a few of these birds around the neighborhood and they feed at our suet feeder every day. Elegant birds with great camouflage colors that include brilliant yellows underneath.

Bushtit–flocks of these tiny birds descend on our suet feeder (up to eight at a time on the small feeder). They are very tame and go about their business picking bugs off all the plants in the yard no matter how close they get to me. They are common year-round and have nested with their hanging basket nest in our Douglas fir several times over the year.

Steller’s jay–it is tough to miss these noisy jokesters as they scream and call out loudly. These are year-round residents here and they travel in pairs or small family groups. They will feed at the suet feeder occasionally.

Northern flicker–how these spectacular woodpeckers make a living in city neighborhoods is a mystery to me. Yet they do. I remember twenty-seven years ago when we were looking at houses that I heard and saw a flicker in the trees around this house and I took it as a good omen. They are still here year-round and eat at the suet feeder most days.

Bewick’s wren–sassy little birds that travel individually or in pairs here year-round. They feed at the suet feeder but only in spring. They nest in boxes in the yard.

Anna’s hummingbird–another surprising year-round resident. Hummingbirds never used to spend the winter around Seattle but they have adapted to spending all winter here in the last twenty or thirty years. This time of year I mostly notice the males who are issuing their metallic calls from treetops and fighting for territory.

European starling–we do not see starlings here all year but I think they are probably around. In winter, I see them around food sources like berry- and fruit-producing trees and rarely on the suet feeder. They are noisy and are often heard before they are seen. This species was introduced in the 1890s and has spread throughout the US.

Spotted towhee–beautiful, big sparrows that are around all year here, though not as frequent in our yard in winter. They will eat the seeds that fall from the feeder. We had towhees nesting in the yard the last few years.

Less common birds that I have seen (or heard) lately in the neighborhood include a varied thrush, purple finches, red crossbills, brown creepers, and hairy woodpeckers.

This list of species seems like a wonderful baseline from which to grow our biodiversity. If we plant more native plants, the number of native birds will increase as well as the number of species represented in the neighborhood.

The University of Washington has recognized the need to utilize more native plants and treat its landscapes with more respect for nature. One change is to leave the trees that get cut or fall near where they fell.

These large cottonwood trunks have been left to rot in place an they are already attracting moss and lichens.

Ingraham High School has an area dedicated to native trees and they are taking similar steps, leaving some large trees on the forest floor that have fallen in the last few months.

The last few weeks I have noticed the native blackberry vines, Rubus ursinus, have colored up to an incredible red in the cold winter weather. I need to add some of these to my native plant garden to replace the English ivy vines I am removing. So beautiful and I have heard the berries are delicious though I have never seen one in the wild. The photos show the colorful vines mixed with bracken ferns and salal.

It can be difficult to convince people to plant native flora because we all have so many amazing choices of non-native plants from around the world for every possible use and to match any possible theme. When people say natives are boring, though, I want them to look closer at our native plants.

Here are some simple photos of Cornus sericea leaves that have flared up in the last week.

Rafa, our new puppy, has led me on some walks lately and I found a stand of salal that doesn’t appear to belong to anyone that is loaded with berries. Every time we go by, I grab a handful of berries. I sprinkled some in the native plant garden to see if they will sprout on their own. Today, I also planted some salal berries in a pot and put them with the other seed pots on the shelves outside the greenhouse. The native roses in the native garden have lots of hips this year so I grabbed a few of them, too, and put them in pots. The recent rains have watered the seed pots nicely. I can’t wait for spring!

I found SeaDance Nursery on Etsy and ordered a bunch of native plant seeds. In addition to those seeds, there were some in the refrigerator that I had collected over the last few months. It is supposed to rain in a few days so today is the day I planted all the native seeds in pots and then sprinkled the remaining ones in the native garden.

My seed-planting process is not at all fancy. I dump a bunch of dirt in the trays/pots, mainly previously used potting soil/seed starting mix. For trays, I used some aluminum frozen food containers from the food service we subscribe to (Mosaic).

The plant types include two types of lupine (Lupinus polyphyllus, Lupinus rivularis), dog violets (Viola adunca), fringecups, piggyback plants, scurf peas, Columbian lilies, globe gilias, bleeding hearts, largeleaf avens, Douglas aster, vine maples, and osoberries.

The hope is that the seeds will germinate next spring. The seedlings will remain in their trays/pots for a full year and be planted out in the early spring of 2024. I have a fair amount of seedlings and cuttings that will be ready to plant out in the spring of 2023, as well, including Douglas aster, Lupinus polyphyllus, Oregon sunshine, fleabane, and Puget gumweed.

The best part of planting seeds today is that I had lots of help from an old friend, Halfbeak, the crow we have been friends with for ten or more years.

And even better, my new friend, our new dog, Rafa. He wandered around the area and explored and wondered why I am so fascinated with dirt.

Ultimately, with all the new activities in his third day from the shelter, our little Jack Russell/dachshund puppy got worn out.