Gardening

Read more about the article Meet City Fruit at Wallingford Spring Clean – April 19

Meet City Fruit at Wallingford Spring Clean – April 19

Do your fruit trees drop more fruit on the ground than into your hands? Do you seek the secret to growing apples organically - without worms? Would you like to help harvest surplus fruit in your neighborhood and get it to those who need it most? City Fruit, a Seattle non-profit that supports care and harvest of local tree fruit, will be expanding into the Wallingford, Fremont, and Ballard neighborhoods this summer to harvest fruit that would normally go to waste.…

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Recycling Challenge – Get A Free Compost Collector

So you live in Wallingford and, of course, you faithfully collect your food scraps and haul them out to the yard waste cart. But do you yearn for a container that's a bit more stylish than that old quart-size yogurt container? Now's your chance. The City of Seattle is offering compost buckets (pictured right) to give - for free - to residents who pledge to compost.  The buckets retail for about $15 and are dishwasher-safe. Pick up your free compost collector…

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Read more about the article Winter is for Pruners

Winter is for Pruners

The long, cold days of winter anesthetize my soul. Apparently they do the same to fruit trees, because we are entering prime pruning season: the time of year when it won't damage your tree's essence if you trim back its branches. Of course, with fruit trees you really want to prune correctly so that you encourage fruit production and reduce the chances of introducing disease. Which makes it lucky that the fine folks at FECO (the Freeway Estates Community Orchard) are…

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Read more about the article Wallingford Greenhouse Seeks New Home

Wallingford Greenhouse Seeks New Home

Editor's note: For several years, generous neighbor Cyrus Appel has hosted the Wallingford Greenhouse in his backyard. You can read more about that here. Cyrus is unable to host the greenhouse this year, but the volunteers who run the greenhouse, the gardeners who grow the starts into food for the hungry, and the organizations that receive the food are all hoping that a new home can be located quickly so that this amazing program can continue. Your personal home, your work,…

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Backyard Mushrooms and More Urban Orchard Fun

Ruth from the Freeway Estates Community Orchard (FECO) let us know that fungi fun will be mushrooming at FECO this weekend when mushroom coaches help future backyard mycologists (that's you!) learn about the art of mushroom growing. Sound Transit recently removed two beautiful Scarlet Oak trees near Roosevelt High School in order to make way for light rail. Rather than let that wood go to waste (and since oak is perfect for growing several different varieties of edible mushrooms), FECO teamed up with Roosevelt…

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Grand Unveiling of Community Orchard Designs

Last month, the Freeway Estates Community Orchard solicited input from the neighborhood to help shape the design process for this new community space. While, sadly, zeppelin dock did not make the final cut, plenty of other great ideas did including: food, flowers, classes, butterfly garden, flea market, exercise/play station, P-Patch, solar panels, sound wall movie nights, berries, herbs, HDA walkways, goats, bees, food exchange, tool sharpening and meeting area. Orchard mistress Ruth wrote to invite the neighborhood to convene again for the…

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Sharing (and Mapping) Fruit

Editor's Note: The following post originally ran last year, but Wallyhood reader, Luna, recently asked us to remind our neighbors about the various ways we can share our ripened surplus fruit. Luna also adds, "If nothing else, suggesting people who won’t eat their crops put a sign in their yards that say something like “help yourself – and leave some for the next person!” Last month’s post about the orchard pruning class resulted in lots of inquiries about what to do with a…

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