Blog
February 23, 2026 In the mid 1980s, prices for Sun Crest peaches plummeted. Fruit brokers advised farmers to dump their peaches. Aghast at the idea, Mas Masumoto, a Japanese farmer in the Central Valley of California, sold his boxes of peaches for 50 cents each. From Japanese Buddhism, you say Itadakimasu before you eat. This […]
Will The Weeds Save Us?
January 21, 2026 Can you name the plant genus that includes a huge percentage of our cool weather food crops, and includes the third most important oilseed crop in the world? Also in this genus is an invasive weed that starves out all competition, common throughout our Southwest, California, Utah, and Mexico. The genus is […]
Bach Or Black Sabbath – Which Concert Would The Plants Attend?
December 28, 2025 Our friend’s new cat, Nora, won’t come out from under the couch. I wanted to help so I gave Nora the CD, Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1, hoping to reduce the cat’s tension. Why this piece of music? Because in the reading that I have been doing on sound, music, and […]
A Pernicious Problem
November 30, 2025 I need a plan to solve a pest-related problem at FECO. So, I gathered more information and thought through alternative strategies – a good exercise for problem solving in general! San Jose scale (SJS) is a hemipterous (true bug) insect (Comstockaspis perniciosus). Perniciosus … get it? SJS is among the most invasive […]
The Rapacious and Rowdy Rodent
September 24, 2025 You might be thinking this is about rats No. It’s about squirrels that are driving us bats The squirrels are fat pigs They ate all the figs They are basically behaving like brats To Ravenna Blvd, I pointed the way Hoping that there the squirrels might stay The oaks fill the street […]
Stamina, Patience and Generosity
August 13, 2025 One of our goals at FECO is to honor and learn from the First Peoples who lived on and cared for the land where we garden. Volunteering at the 2025 Tribal Canoe Journey presented a good opportunity to take in characteristics of these Indigenous Peoples’ world view and learn more about their […]
Eldering versus Skills Dump
July 26, 2025 SYEP (Seattle Youth Employment Program) is a City of Seattle program that offers qualified youth, ages 16-24, summer employment. The goal is to increase young adults ability to pursue careers that are meaningful to them. The youth that apply are from communities that experience racial, social, and economic disparities. When I applied […]
Mulch Madness
June 26, 2025 Mulch Madness It’s my goal to cover bare soil at FECO, both in the garden beds and in the tree guilds. You can see a variety of living and non-living mulches at FECO. See photos of of various plants and other materials: Hazelnut shells, early-flowering borage (Trachystemon orientalis), straw, leaves, prunings and […]
The Facts of the Bracts
May 27, 2025 The Facts on the Bracts I don’t even own a copy of Hitchcock’s Flora of the Pacific Northwest. (Different Hitchcock but just as scary.) However, now and then I dive down the rabbit hole, determined to figure out the species of a native plant. I scooped this lovely plant (see photo) out […]
Plant-based Resistance
April 29, 2025 A friend said to me, “I am not doing anything for the resistance.” But, when I think of what they spend time and energy on, I think they are! After all, these days it doesn’t take much to be rebellious. What plant-based activities might demonstrate resistance? Which ones might be interpreted as […]
Purchase, Plant, and Prosper!
March 28, 2025 The FECO Fifth Annual Plant Sale! Coming up Sunday, April 13, 1-4pm. Veggie starts, flowers, native and ornamental plants, dahlia tubers, other misc. bulbs, fruiting plants, fairy furniture, free seeds and more. You’re a gamer? We can offer Plant ID Bingo and a Native Plant Quiz! Meet nice people. Take a tour […]