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.

If you’ve been interested in learning to how build a rain garden, the city of Bothell is hosting two free rain garden workshops on Wednesday, Sept. 16, 7-9 p.m. or  Saturday, Sept. 19, 10 a.m. to noon at the Bothell Police Community Room (18410 101st Ave. NE, Bothell). No registration is necessary.

What are rain gardens? They’re simply shallow depressions in the soil landscaped with perennial flowers and native vegetation that soak up rainwater and slow the flow of runoff into our lakes, streams and other water bodies.

Why is this important? Rain gardens, along with other tools such as rainwater harvesting, compost-amended soils among others, can help filter out pollutants such as grease, pesticides, oils, fertilizers and others before they flow into storm drains and then drain untreated into our waters. Residents can create a rain garden on their property and divert the stormwater from their roof, driveway, or sidewalk to this garden. Another benefit of doing so is to slow the flow of runoff and help prevent flooding, while also increasing the amount of water that seeps into the ground and recharges local groundwater.

Here’s a comprehensive booklet on rain gardens by Washington State University Pierce County Extension. And a brochure on rain gardens and how to build one.

Every year, thousands of pounds of fruit fall to the ground and rot. Homeowners who grow apples, plums, cherries, pears or other fruit often find that they can’t keep up with their fruit harvest, and they can only give away so much of their bounty to neighbors and co-workers.

The Seattle Times has a good story in today’s newspaper about a volunteer group called City Fruit that helps homeowners deal with the overabundance of fruit growing on their trees. City Fruit offers an added twist — helping homeowners better care for their fruit trees, including how to deal with worms, proper pruning and other tree tips. The Times writes:

City Fruit goes beyond harvesting by offering homeowners instruction in pruning, pest control and harvesting as well as workshops in canning or jam making. The organization also hopes to create a neighborhood network so that anyone seeking harvesting help or workshop information can consult its Web site for citywide options…

There are plenty of groups in Seattle that help homeowners harvest fruit and deliver them to food banks, so there’s no excuse for letting those juicy apples or pears fall to the ground and rot. Solid Ground, a nonprofit in Fremont, for example, runs the Community Fruit Tree Harvest. The group posts a list of food banks and other programs that will accept fruit in 2009 (PDF).  You can sign up as a volunteer to scout neighborhood fruit trees that can potentially be harvested, provide storage for fruit or picking buckets or be “on call” to harvest fruit in your neighborhood.  You can also organize your own harvest party and donate your fruit by calling Seattle Tilth’s Garden hotline at 206-633-0224 or email help@gardenhotline.org).

If you’re looking for some ideas on how to transform your yard into a spectacular garden, mark July 19 on your calendar. This is the date of the 15th West Seattle Garden Tour. Eight residential homes will be open to the public for viewing. Tickets are on sale for $15.

You can preview some of the homes online, including “Chez Hugh the Yew” which makes fabulous use of low-maintenance, drough-tolerant plants for year-round interest.

Ciscoe Morris will be lecturing from noon to 1 p.m. at the Kenney Retirement Home. Cost is $10, though children 12 and under are free.

The June pest of the month is the earwig. This is their peak time of the year. They’re ugly little suckers, and distinctive in their look: dark brown long body with light brown legs and forceps at the rear. (Those pincers are harmless to humans). They’re nocturnal pests, so they come out at night. During the day, they tend to hide in moist, cool shady spots, including under leaves, garden pots, wood or compost piles, mulch. Some feed on aphids, insect eggs and mites, which is beneficial, but they also tend to snack on seedling plants, fruit crops such as strawberries, and flowers such as dahlias, zinnias and marigolds. You’ll find tiny irregular holes in the leaves, or you’ll notice that the leaves have been chewed around the edges.

How do I get rid of them? Trap them. Set out several homemade traps in your yard. One suggestions is to fill an empty tuna can (or other shallow can) with about 1/2 inch of vegetable oil. When the earwigs fall into the oil, empty the cans, refill with oil and set it out again. Another option is to use a moistened rolled-up newspaper or short piece of rubber hose. Put them out before dark and when you get catch some earwigs, shake them out into a pail of soapy water.

Try to eliminate areas where earwigs like to hang out. That means making sure you don’t have piles of yard debris, leaves, wood or other hiding places, especially near your vegetable beds.

Growing herbs indoors or outdoors is one of the most economical benefits of having a garden. Some herbs are no-brainers, like rosemary, Italian parsley, oregano and mint, because they require very little attention and buying sprigs of those herbs can be expensive. Other herbs such as basil and cilantro are a bit more finicky, but not impossible.

oregano

Most herbs require some amount of pinching/pruning to keep them full and happy. Make it a regular part of your harvest and it won’t seem like work at all. I regularly cut back rosemary, mint, parsley and basil as I need it, but sometimes even when I don’t. I want to keep the plants full and bushy.

Rosemary, thyme, sage, oregano and savory can tolerate dry conditions. They’re also great low-maintenance plants for your landscape because they require little water. Basil, lemon balm, dill need a bit more moisture. Mint likes wet soil, and should be planted in containers to prevent them from taking over your garden.

Here are some other tips to growing herbs:

Basil: Likes sun! Pinch out stems to create side shoots, and encourage full, bushy growth. Keep the plants well picked. When flowering starts, pinch off each flowering shoot and the leaf pair directly below. This Oregonian article has a good illustration of where to cut.

Cilantro: Perfect herb for Northwest climates because it doesn’t like hot weather. Cilantro prefers cool but sunny conditions. Too hot and it bolts (flowers). The flowers produce coriander seeds, which are also used in cooking. I seeded some a few weeks after I planted my peas earlier this spring, and have periodically re-seeded it with good success. Great for that guacamole!

Parsley: This herb is easy to grow from seed, but are readily available as starts.

rosemary

Regularly prune parsley and don’t allow them to go to seed. Trim large stems every so often.

Rosemary: A must have in the northwest.  Regularly prune rosemary, cutting off about a quarter or so, to prevent the plant from growing woody. Rosemary loves full sun, and can tolerate dry conditions nicely. In my opinion, you can’t prune rosemary too hard.

It’s tempting for many of us to pull out the heavy-duty bottle of pesticide when we find insects, diseases or weeds in our landscape. We want the problem to go away, and go away fast, whether it’s powdery mildew on our squash or aphids on our roses. But before you bust out the sprays, consider that pesticides are toxic to pets, birds, bees, and fish, and end up in our waters. (Check out the Washington Toxics Coalition site to read more about it).

You can adopt a more gradual approach to dealing with pests and plant diseases by identifying the problem and then trying less-toxic methods of getting rid of it. You’ll often hear people call this process IPM, or Integrated Pest Management, but really it’s about using common sense to tackle the problem.

First, identify the problem. It’s possible that it’s not a nasty disease attacking your plant, but symptoms that you’re watering too little or too much. Or you may find out that the bugs in your garden are actually good, beneficial insects such as lady bugs and lacewings that eat bad bugs.

Once you’ve identified what’s wrong, find the least toxic way to get rid of it. Aphids, for example, can be controlled by hosing the plant down with water. Other pests and weeds can be removed simply by hand-plucking them from the plant.

Prevention is also a good way of keeping these problems at bay. Pick plants that are disease resistant, thrive in your climate, and grow well in the site you chose for it. Reduce plant stress by watering, pruning and fertilizing properly. Use barriers like mulch to suppress weeds or floating row covers to keep bugs away. Check out these fact sheets on less toxic ways to deal with snails & slugs, spider mites, roses, and more.

One of our favorite plants, the flowering currant, is currently in bloom this month, and we’ve been watching bees and hummingbirds swarm to its flowers. The currant is just one of many plants that attract bees, which do the heavy lifting by pollinating fruit trees, squash and other plants.

Many of you have already heard of the mysterious Colony Collapse Disorder that has wiped out thousands of bee hives throughout the region over the past several years. In Washington state, the loss of the bees have fruit tree growers particularly worried since they’re dependent on bees to pollinate their apple, pears and other trees. You can read more about Colony Collapse Disorder here.

You can do your own part to encourage bees to come to your garden. Create a landscape that encourages honeybees by growing flowering plants with plenty of nectar and pollen. Bees feed on the nectar for energy, and collect pollen to feed their young.  Some of our favorites bee-loving plants include lavender (pictured above), salvia, penstemon, black-eyed Susan, sunflowers, thyme, mint, purple coneflower, and rosemary. Herbs that attract bees and do double-duty in the kitchen include: basil, oregano, mint and sage. Bees like annuals, too, including zinnia, marigold, sunflowers and poppies. Other plants that attract bees (and that we often use in Seattle landscaping projects) include: flowering currant, verbena, barberry, lilac, and sedum.

Try to keep the bees interested throughout the season by planting flowers that provide nectar and pollen year-round. Landscapes that have a variety of plants, particularly native ones, will encourage more bees.

One of our biggest pet peeves is walking into a commercial nursery and finding plants for sale that are considered noxious weeds. Washington has a state law that requires citizens to help control noxious weeds, but that doesn’t always mean you can’t find it for sale in various places. In our opinion, no Seattle landscape should have English ivy, English holly, Scotch broom or any of the numerous other weeds that spread like rapid-fire and choke out our native plants and take over natural landscapes.

Ivy in particular is vicious because it’s well-adapted to our climate, grows year-round West of the Cascades, and can cover everything in its reach. It’s hard to get rid of it once it has taken over your landscape, so we recommend the next best thing: prevention. Don’t buy any ivy (or other noxious weeds) if you can help it, even if you find a tiny little plant at the nursery and think it can’t be that harmful.

Milk thistle is a noxious weed.

King County has a noxious weed control program that tries to keep noxious weeds like Himalayan blackberry and Italian thistle, just to name a few, out of our streams, parks, and public lands. Don’t know what is a noxious weed? King County has a terrific photo index to help you identify which ones are noxious. Some are nasty-looking, like the milk thistle pictured right, but many have pretty yellow or pink flowers. Find out more by reading this citizen’s guide to noxious weeds.