Blog
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 […]
Good Soil Biology – The Perfect Recipe For Plants
December 19, 2017 It’s time to honor our important volunteers who live in the soil – the nematodes, protozoa, microarthropods, fungi and bacteria. All these fellows work tirelessly underground, decomposing organic matter and pooping out the nutrients in the form that plants can use. In fact, organic matter is the only food we have supplied […]
Hot! Hot! Hot!
November 6, 2017 Last week, three of us poured our energy into designing a proper thermal compost pile. Today was the critical third day after the initial turning of the pile. Did the center stay above 131 degrees F? Drum roll. Both thermometers read 155. We did it! A proper thermal compost includes the following […]
A Nod For Natives
October 16, 2017 These days I hang out with volunteers of the Washington Native Plant Society (WNPS). I don’t tend to say much. I know my place (right field). These are pleasant knowledgeable folks and I am learning a lot. One member coaxed me to sign up for a native plant propagation class at Oxbox […]
New Watering System Is On Tap
October 1, 2017 It’s fascinating how one mulberry or one thornless blackberry can sustain me while I work in the orchard. Just that brief sweet juicy explosion can satisfy, nourish and make me smile. These two fruits are new to the orchard and they have proved their worth. It will be several weeks before we […]
Working With Weather When Watering
August 28, 2017 It’s dry this summer. It seems like we are either watering, or obsessing about whether we are watering too much or too little. Nobody wants to over water fruit trees. Why waste water. Excess water creates more tree growth, not more fruit, and results in nutrient leaching. Ideally, we are watering just […]
The Case of the Knife in the Watermelon
August 6, 2017 Well, no. Actually, the case of the missing spaghetti squash. Laura and Mitch, new gardeners in the orchard, plopped in some squash starts Memorial Day weekend and by the end of July their garden bed was busting with yellow footballs. We were all under the assumption that they planted summer squash. (Winter […]
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
July 22, 2017 The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Dog days of summer are here. Tomatoes are ripening, zucchinis are looking like footballs and aphids are blanketing the vegetables and flowers. With no rain to help wash the pests off, what’s a gardener to do? In order to grow plants organically, the first step […]
Determined about Indeterminate
June 28, 2017 I put down my scythe and walked over to Sue’s tomato area, hoping for a quick lesson. She moves as quickly as she speaks so I had to dart around to keep close enough to hear her. She slowed a minute in order to carefully wind the new tomato growth around the […]
Pity the Poor Path
June 5, 2017 Our gravel path is full of unwanted vegetation. Now is the perfect time to weed since the ground is still nice and moist. Bring a friend for a weeding date! Renew yourself with contemplative work in the sun. Any friend of FECO can help us, at any time, with this task. Stop […]
It’s May! The Busiest Month at the Orchard
May 24, 2017 Don’t blink. You might miss something. Everything is growing and gardens are glowing. Welcome new gardeners Mitch, Michael and Stuart. Michael and Stuart got an early start by protecting some plants with saran wrap. Sue has a second food bank bed, and not surprising, it looks professional. We took nine pounds of […]