Tag Archives: gardening

Pikes/Pines | Capitol Hill garden comrades can start next season’s garden today with a little anti-capitalist seed saving

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A Red Columbine seed head. (Image: Brendan McGarry)

I was doing laundry, dutifully emptying my pants pockets, when I came upon a little cache of seeds. Nestled into the seam was a handful of little roundish dark things that felt like pebbles when I probed the outside of the pocket. I knew exactly where they came from — the Red Columbine, Aquilegia formosa, I planted a couple years ago. At some point, I had walked by them, noticed a few lingering seeds in their cup-like seedheads, and emptied them into my pocket.

Tucking seeds away into any available container has become almost habitual for me over the past couple of years. It’s gotten to the point where I have to remind myself that I don’t need more seeds of certain plants. Now, I stow little baggies and old mint tins in my car and every bag I own. More than once this year I have found myself using a (clean, unused) dog poop bag to collect some choice seeds while walking the pooch.

It would be entirely fair to question this behavior. But it’s not new to me, or people, and it’s not clutchy hoarding — or, at least, not when I reign it in. I have been doing this in the little vegetable gardens I’ve had in my various homes over the years. Letting my kale, peas, and lettuce go to seed and collecting next year’s garden feels like a no-brainer and also supports pollinators.

What plunged humans into agriculture and in turn, year-round habitations around 12,000 years ago, was the knowledge of how to effectively grow plants from seed. There’s strong evidence that the first selective seed harvesting may have begun over 30,000 years ago, long before the dawn of agriculture. The food you buy from the grocery store literally rests on the knowledge our ancestors carried with them for generations. So to some degree I am just being a human.

But, why save seeds and not just buy them? There are many reasons to support certain seed producers — they have higher QC, their scaling and focus on growing seed means you can access more varieties with less fuss, and generally small businesses safeguarding heirloom plants are worth investing in.

In my instance, I am doing it as a low cost way to spread more native plants across my yard. Continue reading →

Pikes/Pines | Three plants you might want to weed out of Capitol Hill ASAP

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Hairy Bittercress, Common Foxglove, and Herb Robert can be beautiful — but you may not want to let them spread

I grew up with a mother who embodied the restlessness of the plant world – always dividing clumps of successful plantings, dealing with sudden uprisings of unplanned seedlings, and generally moving things about as season and biology allowed. If you own or live near a manicured garden, you know that it takes constant input to keep it looking a certain way. Mainly because nature abhors a vacuum and plants grow according to genes, which we only have partial control over. Humans are not masters of our surroundings, we are just a maintenance crew along for the ride of growth and decay.

The part of gardening no one likes is weeding. The end result might be satisfying but the effort involved and the endlessness of it is what drives people to the herbicide aisle. A more refined approach to weeding is trying our best to avoid it by sidestepping situations that lead to its necessity. But that’s not what I’m here to write about this week.

This topic of “weeds” is near and dear to my heart as I work to transform my yard into a more biodiverse space by including a host of native plants. Often what results from my clearing of vinca and blackberries are a host of introduced annuals laying in wait as seeds. I’m after a situation where I can leave things to a native seed bank. This may be a losing battle in a highly altered landscape but I soldier on.

However, knowing who is springing up can be a fun exercise, a way to honor the plants while learning how to usher them away. Keep your enemies close right? I find this lessens my frustration at finding a newly cleared area of my yard seeded with yet another unwanted plant. Here’s a few of the recent plants that have been on my mind and that you almost undoubtedly have seen on the Hill.

Hairy Bittercress (Cardamine hirsuta) Continue reading →

Along streets, sidewalks, and planting strips — planting the seeds of more gardening space on Capitol Hill

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(Image: Capitol Hill EcoDistrict)

(Image: Capitol Hill EcoDistrict)

By Shira Zur, UW News Lab/Special to CHS

Community leaders got together this week for the second annual Earth month celebration Plant Sale & Seed Exchange and highlighted ways for Capitol Hill residents to get involved with gardening, growing native plants, and involving underrepresented voices in growing food in urban areas.

Co-hosted by the Capitol Hill EcoDistrict and Seattle Audubon, the event earlier this week emphasized the need for gardening in Capitol Hill and the importance of shopping native plants. The sale continued its partnership with Black Star Farmers, the Black Farmers Collective, and the University of Washington’s Society for Ecological Restoration Nursery.

“This is the soft-launch of our effort to get people into the planting strips along the corridor and to really identify places where people can garden,” Erin Fried, the EcoDistrict Deputy Director, said.

But the sale was only a small part of the opportunities around Central Seattle for people to help make the area green and growing.

While Capitol Hill is home to around 40,000 people, there are only a few handfuls of community gardens, according to Fried. These community gardens are highly sought-after — the wait times to join can range from half a month to two years.

To address the issue, Ecodistrict, in collaboration with Seattle Audubon and Seattle Bird Conservation Partnership, introduced the Nature of your Neighborhood website. The online guide provides Capitol Hill residents information on where they can plant a garden, apply for a gardening permit, and contribute to the biodiversity of the neighborhood. Continue reading →

Seattle Central culinary student launches gardening program in the middle of Pike/Pine

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IMG_0951Trey Philpot is wearing overalls. He is also merging the gap between biology and culinary students and inviting anybody else who wants to learn about urban gardening to join him at the Seattle Central’s Plant Sciences Lab on Boylston Ave.

Philpot, who grew up gardening in his hometown of Greenville, Alabama, began culinary school at Seattle Central in January. Shortly after starting, he launched Green Thumbs Up as a way to bridge the gap between growing food and cooking it.

“I found out that a lot of culinary students have no gardening experience at all,” Philpot said. “They’re from the city, from a place where that wasn’t something that they did.” Continue reading →

Capitol Hill Community Council wants to help Green Your Space

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A Seattle Seed Company workshop (Image: Seattle Seed Company)

A Seattle Seed Company workshop (Image: Seattle Seed Company)

One of the ongoing missions of the Capitol Hill Community Council is helping the area foster and manage its growth in the best possible way for the people who live and love the neighborhood.

In March, the council’s monthly gathering will be dedicated to another type of growth — flowers, plants, and gardens for your space “whether your home on 22nd or your studio apartment on Pine.”

Green Your Space will be held at the Capitol Hill Tool Library on Crawford Place the morning of Saturday, March 18th. You can RSVP here.

The event will bloom forth with help from the Seattle Seed Company. CHS wrote here about Sander Kallshian’s shop dedicated to gardening at a smaller, more micro level that moved onto 12th Ave below, yes, microapartments earlier this year.

https://www.capitolhillseattle.com/event/2067216332/

Seattle Seed Company finds new space to grow on 12th Ave

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Sander Kallshian became interested in gardening and the environment as a kid.

His family had a garden, and he started an environmentalist club with a neighborhood friend. With some humidifiers and forest wallpaper, he transformed his room into a rainforest.

“I was kind of the environmentalist of the family,” Kallshian told CHS.

That interest has now grown into an online and in store wholesale and retail seed and garden business that recently relocated to the retail space below a new microhousing development at 12th and Yesler. Continue reading →

City People’s has plan to stay in Madison Valley through 2017

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(Image: City People's)

(Image: City People’s)

For Central Seattleites who buy their season’s greetings greenery at Madison Valley’s City People’s, a visit for the holidays won’t be quite as bittersweet with news the garden store is working on a lease that will keep the much loved retailer in its longtime home for another year.

Here’s the announcement made to customers this weekend:

We wanted to let you know that future City People’s Garden Store owners, Alison Greene and Jose Gonzales, are in negotiations for an 11-month lease to remain at our current location through 2017. The redevelopment project at the site has been delayed, providing this opportunity. The agreement is in the works with the property owners and developers, and they are hopeful this will go through. Their goal is for the store to reopen in February, with many of its current employees, business as usual — as they continue their effort in finding a more permanent site. We will keep you posted and appreciate your continued love and support! Stay tuned!

The store’s management says the plan would be for City People’s to finish up the holiday season, close for January, and then reopen in the new year for another 11 months in Madison Valley.

City People’s had been heading into what was expected to be its final holiday in Madison Valley doing the kinds of things it has done to help connect Seattle to its dirt since its 1979 founding on Capitol Hill at 19th and Republican. In late October, plans for the four-story PCC-centered, mixed-use development lined up for the property got kicked back in the design review process helping to give the retailer a longer lease on life along E Madison.

In March, CHS broke the news on the plans for the City People’s ownership to sell the land to developer The Velmeir Companies, a Michigan-based “full service commercial retail development company.” This fall, Dianne Casper, one of the longtime owners of City People’s and its unusually large tract of E Madison land, said the company held out for the right partner despite interest from developers of luxury condos and pharmacy chains. “This time we are leaving a legacy to be proud of,” she said.

CHS Pics | Turning apples into cider, City People’s enjoying one last fall in Madison Valley

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As neighbors await the next round of design review for the four-story PCC mixed-use development destined to replace it, City People’s is heading into its final fall season in Madison Valley doing the kinds of things it has done to help connect Seattle to its dirt since its 1979 founding on Capitol Hill at 19th and Republican.

Sunday, CHS stopped by an old-fashioned cider pressing with a new-timey twist — the apples being squeezed were provided by City Fruit, the urban fruit gleaning community dedicated to putting the bounty of Seattle’s edible forests to good use. Visitors to City People’s got to help with the press and walked away with $5 growlers of fresh city apple cider. Continue reading →

With small space, Niche Outside will share garden inspiration inside Pike/Pine’s Chophouse Row

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Hanging planters like these could be among the offerings when Niche Outside opens this fall (Image: Niche Outside via Instagram)

Hanging planters like these could be among the offerings when Niche Outside opens this fall (Image: Niche Outside via Instagram)

The food and shopping component of Chophouse Row, the Melrose Market cousin  taking shape on 11th Ave just off E Pike, will be known for its small parts combing together for a greater whole. One shopping experience planned to be niched into the Row’s retail plaza and pedestrian alley connecting through the block between 11th and 12th is already beginning to bloom.

“It’s going to be a garden inspired little boutique,” Nisha Kelen tells CHS. “It’s not a nursery.”

nicheNiche Outside is the first non-food and drink tenant to be announced for Liz Dunn’s Chophouse Row project, a mixed-use development that will preserve and transform the old auto row garage where Chophouse Studio once lived into part of a new dining and shopping complex beneath new office space above. Continue reading →

CHS Pics | Volunteers build community garden for Capitol Hill seniors

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IMG_8044IMG_8075The Just Garden project has excellent timing. On a gorgeous day sandwiched between a few weeks of rain and another bout of gray approaching, the Seattle Tilth-powered group set about work Thursday outside Capitol Hill’s Reunion House, a low-income senior housing community on 10th Ave E just off Broadway.

Volunteers created a set of garden boxes and started the process of setting the planting cycle in motion.

Organizers say the Reunion House garden will yield $250 of fresh produce for the senior residents to enjoy on a weekly basis.

Seattle Tilth also reminds the rest of us that it’s time to get to work in whatever patch of land we might have access to — Compost Days should help make your garden a productive one:

To support these community gardens and thank residents for diverting 350,000 tons of food scraps, yard debris and food soiled paper by composting at curbside, Seattle Public Utilities, King County, Cedar Grove and Waste Management are teaming on Compost Days. Starting on March 15 – April 15, residents can get deep discounts on compost. And this year, Compost Days will host an inaugural Big Garden Give, a community compost drive to provide FREE compost to more than 150 gardens that feed the hungry.

You can learn more at justgarden.org.