Still Shining November 10, 2009

This is one for the flower-lovers (you know who you are, and aren’t).

A year or so ago, a simple raised bed appeared in the parking strip a few blocks from my house. Good soil went in, things were planted, I didn’t go past for a while, but when I was out for a walk the other day, we’re talking almost-mid-November here, I almost fell over when I saw this.

What are they feeding those things? The good stuff, obviously.

My cosmos are long gone, at least I think they are – maybe I should look again! These ones are not only still blooming, they are forming new buds even as the evening temps dip toward freezing.

Massive orange dahlias abound:

Guess I’m not the only one who plants stuff and forgets what it’s called (this was attached to one of the massive dahlia stalks):

I loved this tattered but still-glowing zinnia, its charms a bit faded but still cheerful on a cold fall day:

My sunflowers are long gone too, and yet here are these, still standing proud and topping out at probably 11 ft. How they survived the previous night’s wind storm, I have no idea.

Well, mostly survived:

This gardener chose not to rip up the entire parking strip, just a small patch of sod for the raised bed. But man, you can fit a lot of loveliness in a small space if you get it right. I can’t wait to see what they get up to next year!

Just one house over, strange things are growing in the lawn…

Parking Strip Raised Bed Update July 25, 2009

A few months ago, I wrote a post about a row of raised beds that had suddenly appeared in the parking strip of a house on our route to school. If you have a spare second, click here to see the “before” photos.

The other day, I was back by that way and almost crashed the car when I saw the transformation that had taken place. I guess the question of whether raised beds with good soil assist in the growing of delicious veggies in a tough spot has now been definitively answered. Check it out!

Tomatoes and nasturtiums with a simple wood frame trellis:

Carrots, lettuces and marigolds galore:

Broccoli, chard and a bunch of squash that is going to have to colonize the sidewalk if it gets any bigger:

One bed left, maybe for fall veggies?

The narrow bed on the arterial, no raised planter box but things still look pretty happy:

The furry farmer, who came out to see what I was doing:

The Seattle Times had this article on the front page of its online edition today, discussing the newly relaxed rules for growing veggies in our city’s parking strips. The revolution is underway!

School Garden in Summer July 6, 2009

We’ve been spending a lot of time at the nearest school playground this summer, since my daughter wants to keep her monkey-bars skills on the upswing. I hadn’t looked at the school garden in a while, but last week I peeked over the fence and saw what they’ve been growing.

This giant teepee looks like it was pretty easy/cheap to make, just super long bamboo stakes and some twine, plus some plastic edging material to outline the circle, keep the stakes seated, and hold the good soil and maybe even a little water in.

Peas are beginning to wind up the stakes, while beautiful purplish cabbage and broccoli expand to fill the interior.

Nearby, another bamboo structure, this time an A-frame trellis for tomatoes. I’m more used to seeing tomatoes in cages or trained against fences, so this open structure is a little different. I wonder if it will do the trick of keeping them from falling over? I guess it depends on how tall the tomato varieties are.

A few little hills of squash (or are they cukes) amidst the only weedy patch, with calendulas (edible flowers) in the background:

I’ve shown this concrete-block raised bed before, since it seems pretty easy to build and has the nice touch of a mosaic top. This summer, it contains many varieties of lettuce, so lovely in their contrasting colors, a pot of mint, and many many daisies. Those last may have crept in there as self-seeders, they do that in my garden at least. The big white barrel looks to be a rain collector – so they are teaching conservation and sustainability too, nice to see.

I’m kind of curious to see what happens at harvest time – do the kids at the summer programs eat salads and broccoli, or is it all just educational/ornamental?

I dream of having the time/energy/wherewithal to write a successful grant for our own school to become an Edible Schoolyard. We have the space, but I don’t know how much longer we’ll be in it since the district wants to shift things around in our part of Seattle – it’s hard to think of starting something like that and then having to leave it behind. Alice Waters started this program in 1995 at a public school in Berkeley, CA. The kids help plant, grow, and learn about where their food comes from. And then they get to eat it! Sounds pretty wonderful to me.

Streetside Potato Farm June 22, 2009

A couple of weeks ago, I took a stroll to the public library to return some overdue books and on the way I saw a raised bed in the parking strip I hadn’t notice before. It was a biggie, most of the width of the property, and pretty much a monoculture.

As of a few months ago, I might not have recognized this crop, thinking it looked a bit like tomatoes but not quite (they are both members of the nightshade family, along with tobacco, peppers and eggplant). Now that I am a potato farmer myself, on a much smaller scale, I realized right away that this gardener is gunning for a really big crop o’ spuds.

They were all planted in nice neat rows and hilled up (the new potatoes form between the original seed potato and the top of the hill).

Potatoes do take up a bit of room, so I can see why the streetside planter box was tempting to build. OK, it wasn’t quite a monoculture – there were some really massive rhubarb plants at the end of the rows.

I’d seen rhubarb on the street before but not potatoes. Urban farming is really catching on in Seattle, as is parking strip gardening. I love it when I see people combining the two!

(Oh, that whole signing off for the summer thing didn’t last long, did it? I guess I must be addicted to blogging. Not going to be a daily thing but when I can get to it, I will.)

Raised Beds Sprouting in the Parking Strip May 23, 2009

I saw this while driving home from the school run last week. I had to stop and take photos, the sight warmed my heart so much.

This is a corner lot on a fairly busy thoroughfare, but the beds are located on the side street. Five of them! No idea what’s going in but I’m going to be keeping a close eye on them to see how they are planted.

Looks like the sod was maybe smothered with cardboard and then stripped and turned over in the spring.

Then, in with the black gold!

The guy who made them was in his garage, headphones on and table saw blazing. I didn’t have the nerve or heart to hover and stop him to ask about the raised beds, but it looks like either he or someone else there is already an avid structure-builder and gardener, judging from the house-side street garden.

A little leftover good soil, dumped into the arterial side of the parking strip. Guess maybe something’s going in there too!

Extra wood, board ends or fodder for the next garden building project?

I know, I’m a freak, but stuff like this just sends me over the moon. There are so many folks in my neighborhood adding raised beds, ripping up sod, and otherwise making more space for gardens right now. It’s a revolution!

Agent 0001 May 10, 2009

On the way home from the Tilth plant sale last weekend, I made my family do a pull-over so I could go back and photo a planter box on the street that I’d spotted. It was in a rather sad and lonely stretch of cemented-over parking strip, just placed on top with a square-foot-gardening overlay. I thought it was pretty brave of whomever had put it out there, they must really really want some extra space!

Of course, once I was out of the car, I had to look across the street and see what was going on over there, where the cement was confined to the sidewalk and the parking strip was completely planted up. I was admiring this kind of naturalized-looking garden on the corner…

when the biggest parking strip planter bed I’ve yet to see in my entire life caught my eye, just one plot over:

I didn’t do a very good job of capturing the immensity of this thing – it’s easily 20 feet long, and probably a good 18″ high, fully planted with a tree, flowers, veggies… like a mini farm right there on a semi-busy street.

Basic but super sturdy construction, using 2 X 6es and posts, nailed together. This is quite a pea patch for a street garden! Collards too.

Salad greens galore, plus marigolds to keep the baddie bugs away:

The iris, tulips and tree are permanent residents, with veggies and annual flowers rotating in and out with the seasons:

Looking down the street, it seems the neighbors have gotten into the act too, with similar, although smaller, beds.

While I was out there admiring and photo-ing, the owner happened to walk by. I always feel a little funny when my stealth missions turn out not to be so stealthy, but this fellow was friendly as could be and actually seemed excited to talk about his street garden. Turned out his story was pretty interesting, so I’m really glad I happened by at that exact moment and met Gary.

When I asked him about his really impressive raised bed, he said it used to be even bigger, and stretch all the way from the sidewalk to the street. This was many years ago, before planter boxes in the parking strip were anything but extremely rare. Someone from the city saw it, didn’t like how cars couldn’t open their doors if they parked next to it, and cited him and requested it be removed. He said okay, how can I get a permit and do it right? The city didn’t have a permit for sidewalk raised beds at that time, only some rules which weren’t so easy to work within. So Gary helped get the permit process shaped up and ended up with Seattle parking strip raised bed permit # 0001. To me, that makes him a legend.

Why does he garden on the street? To get more space and sun, to make something beautiful, to have more home-grown edibles, to meet neighbors and passers-by, to spread the word on gardening in this way. How cool is that? I hereby dub him Agent 0001, Licensed to Till!

P is for… November 9, 2008

… parking strip gardens, the ostensible focus of this blog! The other day on a walk, it was also for

pyrecantha berries,

pampas grass, aka feather grass, aka Cortaderia selloana, which can be invasive in some areas,

pathway,

palm tree,

planter boxes,

and pebbles, massed in a flowing “river” under a stunning Japanese maple.

Can you tell I’ve been working with my 5 year old on her letters?!

More Planter Box Ideas November 2, 2008

If one of the items on your winter project list is to make a raised bed planter, here are a few more design options, all spotted on one street’s parking strip in my neighborhood.

This simply constructed but fairly deep (approx. 2 ft. high) bed has plastic webbing strung across attached supports and acts as a trellis for climbing veggies, not sure if it was peas or beans, since they were all done by the time I saw this.

A second, identical planter box was just down the hill. Note that these are deep enough for root crops like the carrots that were still growing in this one in early October.

There was also room enough for some mini squash plants next to the carrots, or maybe they were cucumbers?

One gardener favors veggies, another likes flowers. This low bed was full of fall bloomers such as dahlias and penstemon, and surrounded by wood chips with nary a weed in sight.

Tidily tended flower planter bed:

I really need to get myself organized and make something similar, especially for carrots. My soil has a thick clay layer underneath the compost I’ve added and root crops are just not happening for me right now. What about you, any construction projects in your near future?

Funky Trellis September 14, 2008

This bamboo-cane trellis with an interesting shape is constructed in a small raised bed on a major street near my house. Not sure what type of tree it’s supporting, but I really liked the simple, elegant form and it seems like it would be really simple to put together.

For more information about the art of espaliering trees and shrubs, click here.

Another creative trellis I saw a while ago but don’t have a photo of at the moment – two sets of old downhill skis, one pair at each end bolted together at the tips, supporting a wire-line raspberry trellis. Genius!

Globe Thistle September 13, 2008

Another one on my must-buy list for the parking strip garden is globe thistle, or echinops. I like how the botanical name sounds like a kind of dinosaur, or maybe a Greek philosopher. And the leaves are so lovely and dark green and pointy, with those cute, totally spherical, purple spiky flowers that look like exploding fireworks. It grows in poor soil and full sun (although it can supposedly take better soil and part shade), and the flower heads are still interesting even after their color fades.

Here’s one I saw in a neighbor’s street garden. It was planted in a raised bed, maybe to help with drainage. I’m going to guess it’s echinops ritro, or small globe thistle, but I could be wrong there.

Supposed to make great cut/dried flowers, and to be a good one for the bees and butterflies too. Also good for xeriscaping as it doesn’t require much water once established.

Hm, if echinops was a dinosaur, would it be a meat-eater or a vegetarian?