We have approximately 15 pieces of extra flagstone available for free to the first taker.  These flagstone pieces were salvaged from a landscape project we completed in West Seattle.  If you are interested in picking up the flagstone, please send us an email though our contact info in the right sidebar.  We will update/remove this post when the flagstone is gone.

Update:  the flagstone was snatched up quickly, and is no longer available.

At Ecoyards, we’re always looking for better ways to create beautiful, sustainable landscapes while being kind to Mother Nature. So we were pretty excited when we recently connected with VAST Enterprises – makers of composite landscape pavers. VAST pavers are made of 95 percent post-consumer recycled materials –plastic bottles and scrap tires — rather than traditional concrete or clay. They’re manufactured with zero emissions and zero waste. They’re also the ultimate recycled product since they can be removed and made into brand new pavers.

VAST composite paver

We’ve spent some time looking into VAST pavers, and we’re happy with their natural look and durability. We’re excited to start offering Ecoyards clients another environmentally-friendly option to build their patios, driveways and walkways. The pavers are lightweight but sturdy and have a lifetime warranty against cracking. While the cost of VAST pavers are nearly double that of traditional concrete pavers, they’re much easier to install so the overall cost of a project to the consumer is comparable to traditional installations. The pavers are brick-shaped and come in six different colors.

At Ecoyards, we pride ourselves on excellent customer service. We’re happy to report that the users think so, too. We recently won the top award for quality service from a popular online company Web site. We mentioned the name here once before, but have been advised that we’re legally not allowed to mention it unless we buy the rights to do so. (Without giving it away, it rhymes with Flanjie’s Wrist). We don’t agree with that policy, so it remains the company-that-shall-not-be-named. 

To be eligible for that award, we’ve had 100 percent positive customer reviews. Users of that site can login and search for “Ecoyards” to view our positive customer reviews and read about our award.

We work hard to help our clients figure out their lawn and landscaping needs, whether they’re looking for a complete makeover, a small paver patio, or to renovate a tired Seattle lawn.

One of the most requested landscape features we get at Ecoyards are paver patios, walkways and driveways. Pavers offer many benefits over concrete. They come in a variety of rich colors, textures, and styles to fit your landscape design. Pavers are much easier to adjust and repair than concrete slabs that tend to crack over time. They’re also aesthetically pleasing. Take a look at some of our paver patio and walkway photos.

At Ecoyards, we’ll work with you to choose the right material for your patio or walkway. One of our main suppliers is Bellevue-based Mutual Materials, which produces their brick pavers and other materials locally in the Puget Sound area.

To properly install your paver patio or walkway, we excavate the underlying soil and create a base of compacted crushed gravel that’s a minimum of four inches for regular foot traffic and even more for areas where vehicles will be driving over the pavers.  A good low-impact tip is to keep the excavated soil on-site rather than transporting it across town as fill material.  In some cases the underlying soils can be amended with compost and used in planting beds.

The next step is to place a thin layer of bedding sand, which proves a smooth, level surface for the pavers to sit on. We then set the brick or stone pavers in the style that you like, cutting pavers to fill gaps along the edges. We set edge restraint systems around the perimeter to prevent settling and spreading.

Once the pavers and edging are in place, we compact the pavers down using a vibrating place compactor to ensure that the pavers are set. Voila! Your patio is ready for you to enjoy.

The weekend brought a fair amount of snow to the lowland areas of the Puget Sound, but there was still enough breaks of sunshine and warmth to think about starting your vegetable garden.

This is a great time to plant some cool season crops, or vegetable plants that are best suited for cooler temperatures, an average of 50 to 65 degree F. Cool season crops include beets, lettuce, collards, radish, peas, leeks and spinach and others. They’re grown in the spring or fall, and often don’t thrive during the warmer summer months (they’ll bolt, which means they’ll go to flower, leaving you with a bitter crop).

By contrast, warm season crops shouldn’t be planted until later because those crops require warmer temperatures to thrive. These crops includes tomatoes, potatoes, cucumbers, squash and corn. In the Puget Sound, warm season crops generally shouldn’t be planted until mid-May. If planted too early in soil that is cold and damp, these seeds won’t grow well and may not set fruit for a long while.

I recommend growing vegetables in raised beds, wherever possible. Your bed could be as simple as a large mounded pile of soil, or as fancy as one made from cedar boards or, as pictured to the left, made from RomanStack blocks. Raised beds help drain water better and warms the soil up quicker so that you can extend your planting season. It helps keep weeds out of the bed, and prevents your soil from becoming too compacted from excess foot traffic. Ecoyards has made several lovely raised beds for clients, including the one pictured at left.

The soil in my cedar raised beds is much warmer than elsewhere in my landscape, so I went out this afternoon, added organic matter to the beds (compost and a little alfalfa meal) and dug it into the soil. I was ready to plant. I planted peas (‘Cascadia’ and ‘Sugar Snap’) spinach (‘Olympia),  radishes and a gourmet blend of lettuce from seed. I also transplanted some collards and broccoli that I picked up at Swanson’s Nursery.

Here are some cool-season crops that you can start outdoors from seed: radish, swiss chard, beets, mustard greens, onions, parsnips and spinach. Here are the cool-season crops that do best when started indoors and transplanted (or you can pick up vegetable starts at a local nursery): cauliflower, broccoli, brussels sprouts and celery.

Western Washington University Extension has some great resources for all aspects of gardening.