Gardening

Read more about the article Celebrate Local Food & Urban Farming at Seattle Tilth’s Harvest Fair

Celebrate Local Food & Urban Farming at Seattle Tilth’s Harvest Fair

Seattle Tilth's annual Harvest Fair can be described as a country fair in the city. It started as the only neighborhood farmers market back in the 1988, connecting city folks to the bounty of food from local farmers. Today it brings together some of Seattle's best qualities: tasty local food, live music, a bustling organic farmers market, urban farm activities and a chance to enjoy one of Seattle's great parks in our own neighborhood with lush gardens managed by Seattle Tilth.…

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Read more about the article City Fruit Orchard Tour Sunday

City Fruit Orchard Tour Sunday

On Sunday, October 4, visit Seattle's historic orchards throughout the city. Each orchard is planning special activities, including cider pressings, historical tours, and more. Your self-guided tour will take you throughout Seattle's neighborhoods to a hidden orchard, a former homestead, and other beautiful community sites. Two orchards are in Wallingford: Good Shepherd Center / Meridian Playground and the Burke-Gilman Trail. Look for the pink balloons along the Burke-Gilman between the University Bridge and Northlake Place west of Gasworks. Get your map of the…

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Read more about the article This Weekend: Good Plants, Bad Plants, Phamarcants

This Weekend: Good Plants, Bad Plants, Phamarcants

If you like to eat, tend or learn about plants, this weekend's Wallingford activities should be right up your alley! Invasive Plants Class 10 to 11:30 Saturday: The community gardeners at the Freeway Estates Community Orchard (FECO) invite you to participate in their invasive plants class on Saturday from 10:00- 11:30 am at the Freeway Estates Community Orchard: 6th Ave NE, just north of NE 60th St (on the west side of I-5, next to the sound wall).  This class will be taught by a representative…

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Read more about the article Hamilton Wants to be Pesticide Free

Hamilton Wants to be Pesticide Free

A few weeks back, when I posted about pesticide use at Wallingford Park, I heard from several families at Hamilton International Middle School. As noted before on this blog, Seattle Public Schools routinely utilizes pesticides at public schools, because it is more cost-effective than hand-weeding. There are so many concerns about the use of pesticides around children and pregnant women that I don't even know where to begin my rant about this short-sighted behavior, so I will point you to the fact…

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Read more about the article Save Seattle’s Apples – even on Mother’s Day

Save Seattle’s Apples – even on Mother’s Day

City Fruit is providing free Pest Prevention Packs to Seattle apple tree owners in Wallingford. What is a Pest Prevention Pack? 25 lightly waxed paper bags, 25 twist ties, and an instruction sheet. As part of their Save Seattle’s Apples campaign, City Fruit wants you to use these organic pest barriers to cover your dime-sized apples this spring so you'll have worm-free apples next fall. Covering apples is an easy and effective way to foil insect pests like codling moth and…

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Read more about the article Pesticides at the Parks

Pesticides at the Parks

Last week, after reading this piece about Wallingford's sewage ending up in Lake Union and the new incentive program for building rain gardens, I contacted the RainWise program through the City of Seattle. My children attend school in the Lincoln High building, which I learned is eligible for the rain garden program due to its proximity to Stone Way N. So, imagine my surprise when I walked past this a few days later: This sign was posted in the shrubbery that…

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Read more about the article Release your Inner Frankenstein – Graft a Fruit Tree

Release your Inner Frankenstein – Graft a Fruit Tree

Jonathan Chapman, aka Johnny Appleseed, would have been right at home in Wallingford. He was a compassionate vegetarian, supremely focused in his 50-year quest to plant apple seeds from Pennsylvania as far west as possible. With Johnny, it was all about the seeds. The problem with planting apple seeds is that the resulting tree usually produces apples that are nothing like the original. This happens because apples grown from seeds are extreme heterozygotes. These seedling fruits display unpredictable characteristics often only…

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