Blog
October 21, 2024 The 2024 14th annual Cider Fest was the most successful to date. On Saturday, October 19, 180 visitors sipped hot fresh-pressed cider. A record for attendance! We fretted all last week about the rainy, windy forecast. Knowing that the winds would be out of the south, we set up the Fairy Furniture […]
The Ant Rant
September 12, 2024 The Ants Go Stinging One By One, Hurrah, Hurrah?? Ants exploded out of the gravel and dashed in all directions. In no time many scurried up my glove and onto my skin, blasting formic acid from bottom of their butts. Trying to solve an irrigation problem, I had disrupted an ant colony. […]
Place based, Kids and Curiosity
August 28, 2024 For eight years, several times each summer, children from the nearby KidsCo summer camp have been visiting FECO. When we see them march around the corner we rush up to the shed to greet them. They range from five to 12 years of age. They are delightful. Often the older kids help […]
A Gift of Doo from the Zoo & Composting Careers
July 22, 2024 Jennifer secured an appointment for a ZooDoo pickup recently so off we went, Philippa and I, to the Seattle Woodland Park Zoo even though the temperature was 93 degrees! We actually didn’t notice the heat much, mostly because we had a fascinating conversation with Aarin Wilde, the new Dr. Doo. Phillipa started […]
A Taste of Ethnobotany – Yarrow for Tomorow
June 29, 2024 The 2024 Washington Native Plant Society (WNPS) Study Weekend took place on the traditional lands of the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe. Many plant enthusiasts were privileged to participate in field trips led by Tribal Citizens. On Sunday I attended a field trip on ethnobotany – the scientific* study of the traditional knowledge and […]
Public Spaces As Meaningful Places
May 21, 2024 Last week, Nancy and I wedged ourselves between students in a small room at Gould Hall. We heard Amelia Kazunas present a 10-minute summary of her Capstone project. The project aimed to discover how Seattle residents convert wild spaces into meaningful places. Following the public presentation at Gould Hall, she was grilled […]
Not to Whine over the Columbine
April 24, 2024 “I can do this. I’ll take a seed tray of Western Columbine (Aquilegia formosa) home and watch over it,” I announced to the native plant nursery co-chair at Magnuson Park. It was late November, when we propagate native plants by seed. The nursery leader makes a delicate, moist seed-potting medium. You push […]
Gardening for the Greater Good
March 26, 2024 Geurrilla gardening is an ancient practice that began centuries ago when property became a commodity, versus a community resource. It is practiced all over the world! These days, you can ask permission to plant on a site or you can just do it and hope that you or your plants don’t go […]
WSDOT Has Poor Vision
February 27, 2024 Something is missing at the north end of our orchard. Before December, 2023, when I walked around the north loop, there was vegetation on the north side of the WSDOT fence, including our beautiful Deodar Cedar that we transplanted in 2015. I didn’t realize how that sweeping tree added a peaceful touch […]
FECO Native Plant Mini-nursery Socked by ‘Dry Storm’
January 18, 2024 April 7 is our annual plant sale and we plan to have some fine offerings, that is, if the plants survive the recent dry freeze. These last two weeks of unusual Seattle weather challenged many plants. The air over our area has been extraordinarily dry, due to the frigid low-moisture Arctic air […]