Author: admin

In my last post I mentioned that I emailed the City of Seattle Parks and Recreation Department and assumed I would not hear back from them. Shame on me for assuming! Instead, by mid-week, I had received a very thoughtful and helpful response from one Eric Sterner, a plant ecologist who is part of the City’s “Green Seattle Partnership.” It turns out Seattle already has a program designed to do just what I was offering: allow volunteers (Forest Stewards) to take the lead on restoring specifically identified City properties. Happily, the Amy Yee Tennis Center property is identified as one of those available properties.

The program trains Forest Stewards and then Green Partnership employees work with those Stewards to help them plan the space, procure plants, tools, and mulch. The Forest Steward is required to hold four volunteer restoration events at the site each year and to do two walk-throughs each year to help ensure the plans are appropriate and the program is working for all concerned.

I immediately let Eric know that I’d like to be a Forest Steward. The only drawback for me is the timing. With COVID, the Forest Steward training dates have not been set; it is possible it won’t be until fall that there is an orientation training I can attend.

Well, I can’t wait until fall to get started on my restoration efforts. Using the plant list and guidance in this guide I will start planning what the Amy Yee property might end up looking like and hopefully, the Green Partnership employees will help by guiding and approving those plans early on. I will prioritize the strips of land next to the outdoor courts as the starting point and build from there. Those strips seem fairly easy to convert since they only have grasses in them and a few other plants.

The number of plants it will take to fully plant that large area is staggering. I want to start some seedlings now that will be ready by autumn to plant.

Originally, I was planning on dumping all of the above seeds in a tennis ball can with seed starting mix and use them as my guerilla gardening seed mix. However, now that I know three is potential that I can legitimately take over the Amy Yee site with native plants, I will work on starting some of the perennial seeds here at home so they will be ready for planting out in the autumn. I’ll put the annual seeds in my Seattle native guerilla gardening mix and will plan to test my new bulb planter method next week.

It turns out my ghost gardening, or guerilla gardening, is an established activity–it even has a Wikipedia page! Gardening on land you have no claim to appears to be popular for food growing, but there are also some native restoration guerillas out there–there is a seed mix on Etsy designed for guerilla gardening! It doesn’t specify what area the plants are actually native to–and I am trying to be fairly strict utilizing locally native plants, but I was happy to see it there. This seems like a fun movement to grow locally here, so I’ll be thinking about how I can do that.

Just before I went to sleep last night, I sent an email to Seattle Parks and Recreation asking what it would take to make the Amy Yee Tennis Center property part of Homegrown National Park. I seriously doubt I’ll hear back from them. People have a lot on their plates right now with COVID and all, so it would surprise me if I found a by-the-books kind of way to plant natives on that property.

So, I was lying awake at two in the morning not able to fall back to sleep–too excited about my hoped-for native plant takeover. And my sleepy brain said, “You don’t really need to wait for permission to start planting native plants in public spaces…” I noodled on that for the next few hours and hatched a new hobby I’ll call Ghost Gardening, where I sneak in and plant native seeds or starts in places I think they won’t be disturbed. Rather than my original plan to have work parties root out all the non-native plants and then restore them with natives, my more realistic and streamlined plan involves some shortcuts.

Using a bulb planter, I can cut small circles of sod out of lawn and weed areas easily. I’ll replace the sod with some seed starting mix and sprinkle some locally native wildflower seeds in the circle and cover with a bit more mix. I can do this on rainy days when no one is near the outdoor courts, so I’m planning to try it this weekend if I can round the supplies up in time.

This will be a fair amount of work and expense. I’m thinking of starting with one circle every square foot, so the strips to the east of the outdoor courts will take about 600 circles each, and there are three strips. But I can just plug away a little at a time–it is volunteer work, after all. I picture the seedlings growing all spring and starting to bloom around the time the maintenance people are thinking about weed whacking. Maybe they won’t cut all the flowers down, buzzing with bees and butterflies. But if they do, the plants will be back. I plan to use perennials and annuals.

Later, I can do the same thing with shrub and tree seeds and starts that need to go out in the autumn. And if I develop a system that works, I can apply it to other properties and land that doesn’t get used. I can come up with a Ghost Gardener tool kit, seed mixes, hardwood cuttings and a Ghost Gardener manifesto; it won’t be long before we give Seattle back to the insects, birds, and other animals that we displaced so long ago!

I know that the City likely has very strenuous and obnoxious rules about park plantings, which is another reason to bypass their bureaucracy. I feel fairly certain that planting native seeds doesn’t break any laws. It will seem like such a silly idea to people, no one will care. But maybe if one of these 100-foot-long strips of wasted space turns into a spectacular blooming oasis for native pollinators and all their predators.

My own native plant seeds have started to pop up, even the ones I had given up on.

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The Osoberry that I added to the native plant garden last spring is blooming! I didn’t expect it to have flowers when it is only a few feet tall. The grace of the drooping flower buds below expanding leaf buds never fails to impress me.

I also found larger plants blooming in my travels this week.

Another beautiful native that I stumbled upon at Shoreview Park is the salmonberry.

My own salmonberries are likely too young to flower, but maybe next year.

I played tennis at the Amy Yee Tennis Center today and I got there early and couldn’t go inside due to COVID protocols, so I wandered the grounds. This City of Seattle facility is on a big piece of land that is only partly being utilized for outdoor and indoor courts. Years ago a plan was made to expand the outdoor courts and add a parking lot on the upper level, but it hasn’t happened yet.

There are some great spaces right now that are just overgrown grass and weeds and a few native/non-native shrubs (Mahonia, Arctostaphylos, and Berberis). My grand idea is to talk to the City to see if these barren spaces could be upgraded with native trees, shrubs, perennials, and annuals. I’m not sure there would be any City budget money to do this, but I know I could drum the money up from grants or donations. And there are a lot of compelling reasons for the City to do it–less maintenance, more beautiful, nature-friendly space, and maybe an educational element could be added for kids.

I’ll start researching this possibility and we’ll see how hard it is to make changes to park’s properties, since there are a LOT of them locally that could be added to Homegrown National Park.

I’m committed to growing as many native plants as I can so that my own native garden is full of beneficial flora and I can give lots of plants away to friends and neighbors. The least expensive way to propagate native plants is to grow them from seeds, but this is a big investment in time and effort. Luckily, growing things from seeds happens to be a favorite hobby of mine.

Today was a typical March day of mixed sunshine, cold wind, and pouring rain. I was able to sneak out during some dry breaks and get a bunch of seeds planted. The list of what I planted today follows:

The following seeds were placed in a container today and will be mixed with seed starting mix tomorrow and spread all over the front of the native plant garden. I’m hoping for something like a woodland edge/meadow garden from this megamix.

When I type all those plant names, it seems overwhelming! But the reality is that only a fraction of all those seeds will germinate. And the last, long list, are easy–just sprinkle them on bare soil and hope for the best.

The direct-sow seeds that I’ll plant tomorrow are the last of my 2021 native plant seeds. Depending on how the different species do, I hope to create my own native plant seed mix to share with neighbors in the coming years.

My hope is that in two to three years, to have a system in place for growing enough seeds, cuttings, and divisions to give away a hundred plants every year to Haller Lake neighbors to make Haller Lake the best Homegrown National Park in the country.

With the snow melted and mild weather in the forecast, I pulled the two little pots of Collomia grandiflora seedlings out of the cool greenhouse and transplanted them on so they can get more growth on before they go into my garden or someone else’s.

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In these two little pots, there ended up being 84 Collomia grandiflora seedlings! I’m excited that I should be able to have a nice stand of them in my native garden and also give a bunch to neighbors and friends, assuming most of them make it to adulthood.

The other native plant seeds that are showing signs of life are the Camas seeds, Camassia quamash. I planted quite a few of these seeds over the past year, as well as planting hundreds of the bulbs directly into the garden. The seeds didn’t come up last spring, but some came up over the winter. I’m curious if the effort to raise these plants to adulthood will be worth it, given that bulbs are available fairly inexpensively.

Last year when I started my native plant commitment, I started looking for sources of native seeds. It is tricky to find quality sources of seeds for any unusual kind of plant. For example, I ordered Trillium ovatum seeds from Amazon and I received a little bag of rice. More recently, I ordered Crataegus douglasii seeds and strangely, they arrived from Turkey. They look alright, but will I invest a year or two before I find out they are another species?

While a slow process, I find growing plants from seed to be very rewarding and cost-effective and I intend to do a lot of native plants propagation from seed in the coming years.

One source that worked out wonderfully is Northwest Meadowscapes. They have a fairly extensive listing of perennials and annuals mostly designed for meadow growing, but many would be welcome in any home landscape.

I listen to Margaret Roach’s “A Way To Garden” Podcast and she is a big fan of native plants, and more specifically “locally native” plants. HERE is a recent episode talking about native early spring perennials. She is east-coast based and focused, but her thought processes will work for gardeners anywhere. She talks a lot about range maps. It can be very challenging to find accurate range maps for native plants.

When I am trying to determine if plants are locally native to King County, I look at the range maps provided by the Burke Museum Herbarium. I search by genus name and click on the specific plant to see the range map. I just placed an order with Northwest Meadowscapes for some locally native perennials to add to the many other seeds I’m starting.

I will stretch the map to fit my vision of what Washington looked like prior to being developed. Many plants seem to surround King County but haven’t been found inside it. It seems likely many have been extirpated in this highly developed County. So, I will give them a try in my garden and see if any pollinators or other insects find them a welcome addition to the garden buffet.

We had about 8″ of snow here at the house this weekend. I think the seeds I planted earlier are getting plenty of stratification from the weather finally. I did move the Collomia seedlings into the greenhouse to be sure they didn’t freeze. The snow is melting now and will likely be gone tomorrow. It was nice to have a few days of pure winter weather, though, with temperatures in the twenties. The tennis cans I planted my Quercus garryana acorns in were covered with quite a bit of snow.

We are in the heart of winter in Seattle, but you would never know it without going outside–it was sunny and bright today, but the high temperature was only 41 degrees.

I planted several pots of native plant seeds about a month ago, hoping to give them enough cold stratification on shelves outside to coax them to germinate this spring.

Today, I planted a batch of seeds of native plants from Chiltern’s in the UK.

These seeds were planted in simple potting soil in 3″ square pots. They will get watered in tomorrow when the rains come back.

As I sat these newly planted seeds on the shelf, I was shocked to seed that the Collomia grandiflora seeds I planted a month or so ago have germinated! Talk about hardy annuals! It is still mid-winter and these seedlings don’t seem fazed at all by the cold.

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I’m nervous for these little guys, but anxious to have them grow quickly into healthy seedlings that can get planted in my native plant garden when the weather warms (or even before).

When walking in a park in Happy Valley, Oregon last week with my good friend Brian, I saw a LOT of licorice ferns (Polypodium glycyrrhiza). These tree-clinging plants have an interesting growth cycle. They grow on the trunks and branches of deciduous trees–big leaf maples are a favorite. In order to maximize their own growth, their active season is fall and winter when the leaves have dropped and the ferns have access to the sunlight they need. The bonus for humans is that when the trunks and branches have dropped their leaves you can clearly see the vibrant, robust licorice ferns.

The licorice fern name, as well as “sweet root,” which is another common name, refer to the flavor of the rhizomes. Native Americans used them as sweet treats and medicine to treat colds and sore throats.

I hope I have a habitat someday that will host a hundred licorice ferns on mossy trunks and logs.

If you are unfamiliar with our local Garry Oak (Quercus garryana) trees, let me tell you a little about them. These are those strong trees full of character that you see off of I-5 as you pass between Tacoma and Olympia, particularly around Joint Base Lewis McCord. They look different from any of our other Washington trees–very distinct, with thick trunks and wide crowns–they all look weathered and old.

Garry Oaks were a major part of the indigenous people’s lives before Europeans came. They are also very important to wildlife. Over 200 different butterfly and moth caterpillars feed on them!

Read more about their importance HERE. Watch a fun video with a beautiful tree HERE. See a photo of an ancient tree HERE.

Like the plot of some 1980s Hallmark special starring Marie Osmond and Richard Thomas, my brother and I had the same gifting idea for my birthday/Christmas. I ordered a pound of Garry Oak acorns from Etsy and my plan was to pot them into tennis ball cans wrapped with festive acorn fabric and gift them to family and friends for a Very Garry Christmas. I thought this was exceedingly clever. When apprised of this plan, Leon, my more honest half (played by Morgan Fairchild in the above-mentioned movie, or possibly Joan Collins), reminded me that just because I am very Garry crazy, no one else is… And then, for my birthday, my sweet brother ordered a Garry Oak tree for my yard! So, I’m even more Garry-addicted.

Time and cursed reality squelched my enthusiasm for creating fancy Garry gifts. However, today I planted ten acorns for myself.

Why tennis ball cans? Well, I play tennis a lot and it seems a waste to throw these away without using them for something. They have the deep shape that tree roots should like. And I can check the progress of acorn roots through the clear sides.

I don’t need ten Garry Oak trees in my yard, but I will gift them or guerilla-garden them into some parks or open places that could use a keystone tree species. I’ve already forced some acorns on my good friends, Brian and Dean in Happy Valley, Oregon. They are being good sports about adding native plants to their new garden. And after all, Garry Oaks are also called Oregon White Oaks.

Tomorrow, I plan to package the rest of the acorns three or five to a bag and then post a notice on Nextdoor offering them free to neighbors who will pick them up, contact-free, from a box on the porch. I can’t think of a better way to end 2020 than to plant a mighty oak seed with all the promise that it holds for the planters and for wildlife for miles around.

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I’m not Johnny Appleseed, but maybe I am Tony Acorn…

Garry Christmas, Everyone!

There are very few places that resemble the ecosystems that existed prior to human intervention. Some friends took me to a nature park this week that hinted at the beauty European’s would have found in the mid-1500s when they first started exploring Oregon. Mount Talbert Nature Park is an oasis near Portland, a new wildland undergoing restoration, with second-growth native trees, streams, and ponds. There are handsome young western hemlock trees (Tsuga heterophylla) along the paths, some 100-foot Douglas firs (Pseudotsuga menziesii, and impressive, thick stands of western red cedar trees (Thuja plicata).

In December, you don’t expect to see buds or blooms, but the beaked hazels (Corylus cornuta) and the red alders (Alnus rubra) had catkins breaking out and already showy.

My favorite plants in this native plant nirvana were the sword ferns that carpeted acres of land under those tall conifers. They looked perfectly natural in that setting and provided a luxurious understory in dry shade.

Ferns are not prioritized as a major food web plant in the books I’ve read about restoration, but they aren’t completely lacking in their food web contributions. And it seems likely that more insects and animals use ferns than even scientists know about. It seems unlikely that plants could evolve so successfully without having hungry bugs and critters evolving right alongside to eat all those luscious fronds. I did some digging and found out that deer, rabbits, and insects do eat sword fern leaves. Interestingly, creatures eat fern spores, including mice, birds, and bats! What amazing, useful plants!

Wandering in a foggy Lower Woodland Park, I took a path I hadn’t taken before. Looking up a small hill, I could see some big tree branches had fallen, so I climbed up to get a closer look.

The morning’s heavy fog added a mystical quality to this exceptional tree. It had rotted in the center and then two large branches had peeled away from the main trunk. The tree is not dead, despite the significant damage. I wouldn’t be surprised if one of the fallen branches finds a way to cling to life and keep growing.

I have been worrying and fussing about which trees to plant in my native plant garden. Specifically, I didn’t want to plant a tree that might get too big for the yard. But I realized that I’m worrying too much about something that won’t matter to me. If I plant a tree in my yard that’s destined to become a giant, that won’t happen in my lifetime. And the reality is that when we sell this house, it is highly likely that it will get razed and a McMansion will take its place, with the yard becoming something else entirely. So, I decided to plant whatever I want.

For example, the magnificent big leaf maple shown above was probably at least 150 years old before it fell apart. And these trees can live up to 300 years. Garry oaks can live 500 years, and even shorter 30-foot trees can be 200 years old!

Here are some other beautiful big leaf maples from the foggy park. How can I resiste planting one of these?

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