Gardening Gone Wild hosts a monthly photo contest, Picture This. March’s theme is Awakening. I chose to enter this photo because it captures two arugula seedlings that have just sprouted—they almost look like they have awoken from a long winter’s nap. These little plants appeared in my garden with hardly any work on my part. In fall, I always allow arugula to flower and set seed. The tiny self-sown seeds lay in wait over the winter and then germinate in spring all on their own, often giving me a very early crop. Finding self-sown vegetable seedlings is one of my favorite things about gardening because it reminds me that I play only a small role in making my garden grow!
Since we bought our house four years ago, Jon and I have slowly chipped away at the massive amount of lawn in our yard. This past weekend we took out a 700 square foot chunk of grass that looked particularly horrible in our backyard. The idea was to install a path between our house and the garage/alleyway, create more vegetable garden space for me, and build a little woodland garden in the side yard. We are also going to install a screen to hide our ramshackle chicken coop. All things proceeded smoothly until we realized that the north side of our yard is about six inches taller than than the south side. This is bad news for our gravel path, which slices right through the slope.
After briefly considering the idea of digging out the extra earth, we settled on building a mini wall to hold back the soil and create a level terrace for the vegetable beds. For the wall we need a material that is affordable, attractive, and long lasting. We rejected wood (it rots too fast), landscaping bricks (too ugly), and stone (too expensive) and have decided to build a gabion wall.
A gabion is basically a wire mesh basket filled with something heavy, usually stones, but recycled concrete, gravel, and even wine bottles have been used.
Gabions are popping up in gardens as benches, retaining walls, screens, and stone pillars.
My friend Chris from FreshDigs gave me a hot tip that Second Use (a store in South Seattle that sells reclaimed materials) has hundreds of old locker baskets from Nathan Hale High School. They are the perfect size (11 inches by 13 inches) for repurposing as a gabion, but at ten dollars a pop, I’m not sure I can afford 32 two of them. So, unhandy me is going to attempt to make my own baskets out of welded wire mesh. Wish me luck! If you want more ideas, Studio G has an awesome roundup of gabions used in gardens across the globe.
March 10, 2010
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The problem with so many edible plants is they are just so green. Dark green. It makes for a pretty boring color palette in the kitchen garden. I like to liven things up with vegetables like ‘Ruby Streaks’ mustard and scarlet runner beans, but I’m always on the hunt for edible plants with more color.
Enter ‘Golden Alexandria’ strawberry. A gorgeous, runnerless alpine strawberry that will be playing a starring role in a new bed I built last weekend. I’m planning on planting several ‘Golden Alexandria’ plants along a berm with a mix of basils (’Lettuce Leaf’, ‘Genovese’, ‘Ararat’, ‘Mrs. Burns Lemon’, and ‘Purple Ruffle’s) in the mid-ground, and a row of pole beans trellised on black bamboo behind. ’Golden Alexandria’ supposedly produces sweet, small berries all season and grows well in light shade, too, which is good news for all of you with sun-challenged gardens!
I first spotted this strawberry at Flora Grubb Gardens in San Francisco last March. Regretfully, I did not buy any plants to bring home and by the time this spring rolled around I couldn’t remember the name. Luckily, Clarke de Mornay, Flora Grubb’s vegetable expert, knew exactly which plant I was talking about! I haven’t been able to find any ‘Golden Alexandria’ plants in Seattle, so I’m mail ordering from Annie’s Annuals nursery.
March 9, 2010
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