Chickens everywhere!

Greetings All...

Baawwwk!.. Yumm, we just had some quiche made from the fresh eggs of our neighbor's chickens. The 4 birds have been happily kicking out quite a few eggs each week and now Penny, my neighbor, decided to make community quiche to get rid of some of the eggs. Was some of their feed bought from City People's Garden Store's new supply of chicken feed? I haven't asked Penny and Brett (the neighbors)about their feed source, but City People's is selling chicken feed and the landscaping department will also put together a fantastic chicken house from a variety of styles. In case you or a neighbor might be interested in the newest craze Seattle's urban to semi-urban residents are seeing. That chicken noise down the block? Yes, it probably is Chickens!...

From the Edibles Team at City People's Design and Landscape!

From Your Yard to Your Plate; bringing locally grown produce closer to home!

It’s a new and exciting time for us here at City Peoples. Many of us have been researching and implementing better ways to reduce our carbon footprint, eat locally, recycle, and learn new ways to do so in an urban environment. We are fortunate to have a team of gardeners, designers, farmers and activists who are helping to expand City Peoples landscaping repertoire to include vegetable and herb gardens. Garden structures, compost bins, chicken coops, and other, more specialty projects are possible as well.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to step into your backyard after work and pick a bowl of bright, crisp green beans for dinner? How about an easy way to get the kids involved by helping to harvest tomatoes for a spaghetti dinner? For the space-challenged, perhaps a well-stocked container of herbs by the kitchen door? I don’t know about you, but I find it hard to swallow spending four dollars at the supermarket for a few sprigs of limp basil that comes packaged in plastic. With minimal time and effort you could be experiencing delicious foods each season, right outside your door.

Our gardeners are ready to help you fulfill this goal by offering three tiers of vegetable garden assistance, depending on your desired level of involvement. For the urbanite who already has a patch of land cleared but doesn’t know what to plant at what time, to the tomato lover who is unsure whether he can grow in a mostly shady garden, we offer our most basic service: a one-hour consultation wherein one of our experienced employees will come to your yard to give advice and to help you lay out a game plan. The second level is a more comprehensive option, with planning, installation, and building included. Those raised beds you’ve always pictured filling that empty corner you’re tired of weeding can be built and planted by us!

If you’re like most of us and already have too much on your plate and not enough time, we’ll do it all; from the plan to the install, the maintenance to the harvest, as well as extra goodies like email reminders of watering schedules. If the process of growing your own food is daunting but desirable, we can coach you, every step of the way.

If any of this is making your mouth water or your garden dreams seem possible, call us and lets get started! Ask for Laura (206) 324-0963.

February and the Garden Mess; Many Projects to do...

As I wandered the garden yesterday under a drizzling gray sky, I saw some excellent signs of the coming season both in plants as well as in the growing list of garden work I have to do. Check out the Witch Hazel Hamamelis mollis "Goldcrest" blooming like crazy! It started about 10 days ago and their still going. Everything seems to love this record warm January!

The Iris reticulata and Crocus and are coming up in full force, so I cleared the leaves away for use as for compost elsewhere and let the little bulbs shine!

In the garden, there's a good deal of cutting back of the leftover perennials, the selective pruning of some shrubs. I have a few overgrown Cornus re-twigs that will need a thorough whacking late in the month as the buds begin to fatten. This year I'll take them down hard to get that bright new red-twig growth as the season progresses. Some gardeners like to do this every year, but I prefer to do it every 2 or 3 years to keep that winter and spring color happening before the leaves come in.

I'll also be taking back the Miscanthus grasses this month, and any other similar deciduous grasses that need their yearly cleanup. To mow them down too early leaves them open to winter rot, but to do it too late causes you to cut into the new growth. In the case of these grasses, I'd err on the side of later, but February, just when you start to see some color on the stems is a great time to give the deciduous grasses their renovation. Also, check to see if perhaps they are in need of division as they often like to outgrow the places in the garden to which they are well suited. You can use a shovel to dig it up and I like to use an old "spent" pruning saw that we call a "root saw" to cut them in half or quarters. Then you can remove parts and reset the smaller sized plants back into the space. Hard work, but satisfying!

I found a Hellebore Orientalis' salvaged from a yard last fall. I had tossed the poor remnant into a five gallon container with a bit of soil and just left it there under a spirea. There it sat all winter, on it's side, but when I found it, it was on the edge of blooming and ready to go. I cut off the old fronds and tucked it into a container on my step while it blooms. I'll find it's new home during the spring cleanup.

Another Hellebore foetidus (below) has a nice home near my overgrown phormium, but as you can see if you look closely at the damaged leaves -- Damn, the beastly slugs or snails!! You won't win! I'll be getting the coffee grounds out there as the first hopeful line of defense.
The Phormium (New Zealand flax) behind that hellebore, that had just barely made it through the previous winter '08-09, looks, well, not so good. While they thrived in our record warm summer (with just a little irrigation), they did not like the record cold temps of December. Just after taking this pic of the hellebore, I took it down all the way. Soon, I'll probably be digging the whole thing up, shrinking it's root ball size and re-setting it for the spring and we'll hope for new growth. I am not too sure that Phormiums will be the mainstay in the Northwest that they have been for so many years, but we'll see how it goes this year. They will probably need to be phased out as the climate changes. I can cautiously say that we're thinking they will still work for well-drained, sunny and protected spots in the garden. But don't quote me on that...

And here's the first happy Camelia japonica bloom in my garden. It comes from an ancient shrub that was terribly "pruned" prior to my moving it and so far I've only done some minimal thinning and shaping. I've been waiting for it to recover for years and this year might be the time I go ahead and attempt to restructure it.

February Focus:

* Cut back deciduous grasses, divide if needed.
* Cut back remaining perennials (if any). I had some daisies and perovskia to bring back to the new growth. I'm going to go ahead and cut back a few of my fuchsia's as I am already seeing some strong growth down low. If there's not sign of new growth, leave them alone for a while.
*Begin to uncover the winter survivors (hellebores, bulbs, etc)
*Lightly prune any maples (if needed) and other deciduous ornamental trees.
*Shape and prune fruit trees.
*Remove anything that has, for sure, not made it through the winter. Anything that might still be viable you'll want to wait until March for that final decision.
*Plant some winter color to add to the spring cheer!

Finally, if questions arise, feel free to call or email us here at City People's Design and Landscape. You might walk through your garden, see how much work there actually is and realize that this is the perfect time for a quick, efficient garden cleanup. Call us we'll send a crew to get you all set for the coming spring!

Thanks for reading and Happy Gardening!

It won't stop raining this week, but in the nursery there's some non-gray color coming in. I took a few shots with my phone today... Here's Jose one of the plant buyers saying "Come on in, we' got all kinds of ... Primroses!" Cool color!

Is that the extent of it for winter color? I mean primroses are a great "workhorse" for winter color here in the northwest winter, but come on, is that all?

Not so fast!
I found a few cool things outside the primula family!

A few nice Hellebores that have a variation of bloom color as the bloom matures. Hellebore Niger 'Jacob' is a newer variety known for being an early bloomer with a tight growth habit. Our designer just used a grouping in a container last week and mixed it with a red-twig dogwood (Cornus Alba), a small purple-leafed Rhododendron "Thunder" and a golden Juniper pfitzeriana. It makes a nice hardy display. We'll be seeing how that new Hellebore goes works here in the shifting northwest climate.



Of course, for those cool, but sheltered areas, there's always the Cyclamen for bright reds, whites and pinks. As long as the wet freeze doesn't hit them for too long.

Color!

January Decisions...

Happy January!!

Out in the field, we are often tempted to do that late winter pruning as these January days hover in the 40's to low 50's. But hold back the pruners a bit from things like the Red-twig dogwood and Cotinus and don't go whacking that Miscanthus grass down quite yet. The swing from freeze to thaw and back are inevitable. Some selective cuts can be made, but the big work should be done in a month.

The other day, one of our landscape crew-leads was hovered over a few seed catalogs with highlighter and pencil in hand making some decisions about her spring vegetable garden. Despite what some may think, I've been reminded that early to mid January is the prime time to be purchasing (in store or on-line etc) those seeds that you'll want to have growing in April. If you want to do some veggie gardening, now is the time, especially if you are going to be one of the ambitious ones and start them in-doors. Many early vegetables need to be started in mid-february. So get started!

After the freeze there is Life...

Back to work from a busy holiday season and in my garden today, I saw the heads of the first crocus peaking up! It was a good thing since the rest of the place looks like a flopped mess. THere are a few hebes around town that look worse for the ware, but we're just leaving them in (mostly) for now as January moves along. The really dead ones are coming out, but some could survive a hard late spring cut-back.

All day long the sky is a gloomy gray. Under the dirt its all sleeping. Or is it?...

Here's another dispatch from the desk of Sara Lawrence....

Hey everyone…It’s really winter! Yesterday there was sunshine all day and then last night the first frost (on the first of December)! Walking to work I had to knit my fingers into my coat sleeves to hold my new kitten inside my coat at chin level. (Yes, we’ve rescued a new kitten at City People’s! Come in to the landscape office to meet this little two month old tiger darlin’.) Winter is really the time for puffy down coats and kittens. It’s also the time to celebrate warmth, color, and gathering together. I’ve just finished the containers for the store and you’ll have to tell me if they radiate the warmth of winter indoors. I wanted to capture the fun of being surprised by the silver lining in life... I chose colors in a brighter rang and higher contrast than usual, brilliant yellow, lime, silver, orange, and purple to cut through the grey days and put us in the mood for parties!

I’ve labeled most of the plants so if you like any of the combinations you can step inside the store and find what you like on the shelves… but some of my favorite moments were those references to silver lining… placing Dryopteris erythrosora ‘Brilliance’ (autumn fern) by the edge of the pot so the fronds wave to reveal their orange stippled seeds on their soft underbellies. The pink delicate skin of Bergenia ‘Winterglut’ (elephants ears) blushing underneath, or the multicolored yucca f. ‘Color Guard’ standing out like a ribbon bow on a present. There is Leucothoe fontanesiana ‘Scarletta’ creating a dark purple waterfall against an orange container and a kind of negative space on which the Yucca recurivifolia ‘Pendula’ can splash across.

Calluna vulgaris ‘Gelb Maassen’ is not normally a heather I would choose on its own but paired with Helleborus ericsonii ‘Silvermoon’ and Hebe ‘Quicksliver’ I love how it looks like lamp light blazing against carefully wrought iron work. Euonymus fortunei ‘Emerald N’ Gold’ creates a buzz of variegation to draw the eye into the magic of a subtle fanning motion near a Carex ‘Cappuccino’ as well as a yucca. Helleborus foetidus ‘Gold Bullion’ and Mahonia x media ‘Winter Sun’ are the only flowers in bloom besides the heathers but they are the explosion from which all the other motion in the containers flow. Maybe we’ll get a humming bird to visit the Mahonia since I added this at Anne Janisse’s suggestion and our landscape designer has added a few of these into her stunning new sidewalk planting as well. We’ll have to keep our senses tuned for their quick movements and small chirpings amongst the newly planted grasses. Luckily we’ll have the kittens natural instincts contained behind store windows!

Ahh… to sit back and enjoy ones own creations. This particular container design was so fun to come up with! Heathers were my first point of inspiration then I found the Helleborus foetidus ‘Gold Bullion’. Once I had those few pieces and some of the evergreen components of the containers that had been already established I started to get really excited to fill in the extra spaces. I hope you have a great time exploring nurseries and finding just the right plants for your winter pallet. Be sure to share your beautiful creations with us… ‘tis the season!

Sara