For years, gardeners had to wait until late spring to get their hands on some of the most prized vegetables starts in Seattle. Now eager gardeners can get a jumpstart on an amazing selection of vegetable starts, perennials and herbs at Seattle Tilth’s Early Spring Edible Plant Sale on March 20. The sale features plants that are proven performers in the Northwest, including ‘green globe’ artichoke, pac choi, fennel, lettuce, beets, cabbage, cauliflower, chard, and eight kinds of broccoli such as the very funky-looking Romanesco (pictured below). Check out the full list of available vegetable plants here. I’ve had great success with many of the vegetable plants I’ve bought from Tilth, and count on the wide selection of Tilth tomatoes, melons and other veggies to add variety to my garden.

'Romanesco'

The event takes place Saturday, March 20 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Magnuson Park, Hangar 30, 6310 NE 74th Street (off Sandpoint Way NW).

Seattle Tilth is also looking for volunteers to help with the sale. I’ve helped out in the previous two years. If you’re interested in volunteering, sign up online. The organization will also hold its annual May sale on May 1-2 as well as an additional summer veggies sale on May 22. All proceeds go to support the group’s educational programs.

1. This is a good month to prune your roses to remove diseased canes, stimulate growth and encourage the best blooms. Make sure you have good clippers and gloves. A small pruning saw is helpful to cut out old canes.

2. March is also a great time to move trees and shrubs — when the plants are dormant and haven’t leafed. You want to minimize the amount of stress to the trees. Read more from WSU expert Mary Robson on how to transplant trees and shrubs successfully.

3. Consider getting your soil tested for heavy metals, pH, soil texture and organic matter. It’s a good way to help determine and prevent growing problems in your garden. By knowing what’s in your soil, you not only improve the nutritional balance but help reduce fertilizer use. You should get your soil tested every two or three years. Many local Master Gardeners like to send their soil samples to the University of Massachusetts to get them tested. A simple pH test cost about $5, while a general soil test runs about $9.

4. Plant cool-season crops, such as peas and lettuce.

5. Consider how you’ll improve your lawn through an organic care program that reduces the use of water, pesticides and fertilizers. Ecoyards can help you thatch, aerate, top dress or overseed your lawn. Give us a call at 206-770-7879 for a consultation.

At Ecoyards, we try where possible to salvage plants, along with concrete, soil, bricks, pavers and nursery pots for reuse. When we redo landscapes for clients, our clients will sometimes ask us to remove or replace certain trees and shrubs. We always try to find new homes for these plants. We either give them away to friends or plant them in our own yard.

King County has a terrific program that rescues native plants from construction sites to replant later at salmon habitat and wildlife restoration projects around the county. The county salvages the plants from sites slated for development and provides them at a low-cost for revegetation projects throughout the state. Native plants such as the evergreen huckleberry (pictured right) attract native wildlife, require little maintenance and water, helps control erosion and runoff, survive better than ornamental plants and are truly Northwest. At Ecoyards, we use native plants in virtually every project we do. Some of our favorites are evergreen huckleberry, flowering currants, and mountain hemlocks.

The next King County salvage event is on Saturday, March 6, from 9 a.m. to 12 noon March 6 in Black Diamond. Volunteers who help with the effort are allowed to keep some of the plants to plant in their own yards.

PlantAmnesty also has a great “green share” program with an active on-line adopt a plant list. You need to be a PlantAmnesty member to view the list, but anyone may list a plant for adoption.

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.

You know it’s time to prune your roses when forsythia in the neighborhood start to burst with yellow flowers. That’s happening right now around Seattle. Late winter/early spring is the optimum time to prune because new buds are easy to spot.

There are many reasons to prune roses, including keeping the size and shape in check, removing diseased canes and producing the best blooms. Pruning also keeps roses healthy by allowing more light and air to flow to the plant and stimulate growth.

1. Start by removing all dead, diseased and damaged branches on the plant. You’ll know it when you see it, but typically they’re black, blown, and discolored. Prune sections about 1/4 inch above an outward-facing bud. Prune down the cane until the pith (the substance inside the plant) is cream colored. Sometimes this may mean removing the entire cane.

2. Prune out weak or spindly canes (typically smaller than a pencil in diameter), suckers and canes that cross or rub others. Each year, you can also remove the oldest cane down to the crown (regardless of its health) to encourage new cane growth.

3. Trim the remaining canes, pruning out no more than half of the original cane height to give it a nice overall shape.

For more detailed information on pruning hybrid tea roses (which most of us have), check out PlantAmnesty’s Web site. The Seattle Roses Society also has this simple guide to pruning roses.

We have six large swords ferns available for free.  These ferns were salvaged from a landscaping project on Mercer Island.  If you are interested in picking up the ferns, please send us an email though our contact info in the right sidebar.  We will update/remove this post when the ferns are gone.

Update on 2/23/10 – the ferns have found a new home and are no longer available.

sword fern

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.

Prolonged mild, wet weather tends to bring out mushrooms on lawns, so you can expect to see lots of them poke through lawns during the fall and the spring in the Northwest. Mushrooms are the “fruit” of fungi that live on underground dead or decaying matter, such as rotting tree roots or buried logs. In the soil and under bark, you’ll find a cluster of thin, white threads called mycelium. Because the mushrooms are only the “fruit”, removing them won’t kill the underground mycelium.

Some fungi such as fairy ring fungi can damage lawns, while many others are beneficial because they break down organic matter and release nutrients for other plants. Mushrooms that develop from decaying tree roots or other organic matter are generally harmless to lawns. Still, many people like to get rid of them because of their unsightly appearance, or they worry that children or pets may eat them. 

To get rid of mushrooms, rake or pick them off the lawn, or dig out the buried tree root or logs. The Washington State University Master Gardeners also suggest drenching the area with detergent and water in the early spring. The group advises: poke holes about 6 inches deep, about a foot apart, through the surface, and drench the area daily for a month. Use 1 to 2 quarts of water per square foot, with 1 to 2 tables of liquid detergent per 3 gallons of water. 

Removing excess thatch and aerating the soil to improve water penetration may also help. 

For more information on how to control fairy rings, which are circular or semi circular rings in the lawn, read this Master Gardener handout.

Azaleas are poisonous if ingested.

Some of the most common and ubiquitous Northwest plants such as azaleas are also toxic, especially to children who put all kinds of objects into their mouths.

Poison control experts recommend knowing the botanical names of plants you have in your house and in your yard, labeling them, and supervising children near them. With some plants, just one bite could be dangerous, or only the seed, leaf or bark are toxic. Meanwhile, some plants require ingesting the entire thing to cause serious concerns.

Some of the prettiest plants in the yard are also the most toxic and can cause serious illness or death if ingested, according to the Washington Poison Center. Call the center immediately at 1-800-222-1222  if this happens. The center rates plants on a toxic scale of 1 to 4. Plants that are most toxic include daphne, foxglove, lily-of-the-valley, as well as castor bean, elderberry, periwinkle and yew berry.

lily of the valley

Some plants such as amaryllis, juniper and skunk cabbage rate a “2″ because they may cause minor illnesses such as vomiting or diarrhea if ingested. For other examples of non-toxic and toxic plants, go to the Washington Poison Center list.

Experts provide these tips:

• Know the names of your houseplants and trees and plants in your yard. It’s very difficult for someone to know plant names from a description over the phone.
• Teach kids not to put leaves, stems, nuts, mushrooms and other garden objects into their mouths.
• Never eat a wild berry or mushroom unless you’re certain of its identity.
• Supervise kids near poisonous plants.