Getting the garden ready for winter is often enlightening. As you are out cleaning up old stalks, raking leaves, or picking up wormy apples, you might also find some interesting ground beetles or other insects searching for food on a semi-dry or warm day. It’s often the first clue that there is more going on out there than it seems. This is a good time to think about how your garden serves the creatures who stay here for the winter –…
I haven’t received any urgent garden questions from Wallyhood readers lately, so I decided to take a tour around to see if there were any notable horticultural wonders. Sure enough, I spotted something. More on that below, but first, a reminder to send your garden questions anytime to me, Jeanie, at [email protected]. So, the horticultural wonder: when they're not in bloom Chilean fire trees (Embothrium coccineum) blend in to the green background we Seattleites are used to. They tend to be…
Moss update: after the post on Wallyhood about moss, there were two more mossy articles – one in the Seattle Times, and one in the NY Times. However, we can proudly say that Wallingford residents had their fingers on the pulse (also Ciscoe, who mentioned moss in his column on the same day) because our moss articles came out first! Marina writes: Could you write a beginner's guide to growing herbs (ideally on a porch) here? Are some herbs better than…
(Ed. Note: Wallyhood welcomes Jeanie Taylor as our new contributing writer, focusing on gardening. Jeanie owns Taylor Gardens, a gardening coaching service and Wallyhood sponsor, holds a B.S. in Botany, an M.S. in Conservation Biology , and teaches workshops for home gardeners on propagation and sustainable gardening. If you have questions on gardening, please e-mail her at [email protected] and she'll try to answer them here. Welcome, Jeanie!) Welcome to the inaugural Wallyhood Garden Questions column. I am pleased to be taking questions that will…
Can you think of a better location than Wallingford to become the newest home to a 4-H club? Well don't think twice, this Lynnwood-based club is heading our way and is seeking Seattle urban kids, ages 5-18 to become new members, and for adults to enroll as leaders. Wild 'n' Woolies will hold their first club meeting on January 2, from 9am-11am. If you're interested, contact Nina Finley for the location: [email protected]. 16 year-old Nina gave us the scoop as to how she…
Mike Ruby needs your help. Recent studies show that tree cover in Seattle has declined dramatically, and Mike’s been working on a project that, once complete, will hopefully shed some light on how the trees of Wallingford have changed over the past two decades. Using two existing lists that inventory trees in the neighborhood, he wants to determine which of them are still around. To give you a little bit of history, back in 1992, two tree-minded people—Arthur Lee Jacobson and…
Is there any air sweeter than the gusty blow of a lightning storm? Maybe it's the ionized air, maybe it's just the primal power of it, but when that wind blows, we can't help but tumble out into it. And wasn't Thursday night a doozy? Around 8 pm, we pulled a rainsuit on Baby Z and wandered out into the bluster, stopped to chat with our neighbor John, ambled over to the John Stanford School and generally opened our nose to…