Blog
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 […]
Fall Means Festival!
September 28, 2019 Fall is here! On Saturday, October 12th we will be hosting our 9th annual Cider Fest from 2:00-5:00pm. We invite everyone to visit the orchard and enjoy a free cup of freshly pressed hot apple cider. You’ll have the opportunity to watch the cider making process and even take a turn at […]
The Perfect Fruit Tree Owner
August 29, 2019 McIntosh. My favorite. Most will say you can’t grow a Mac here. Well, there is at least one tree in the Seattle area. Lori Brakken, apple sleuth, drives around and slams on the brakes when she spots any apple tree. She saw a Mac in the Seattle area and called me up. […]
Offerings
July 26, 2019 Whatever we offer to the community, a larger offering comes back, in one way or another. Yesterday morning a teen was sitting cross-legged on the bench, reading a book. She stayed quite awhile. The bench is a small offering to those passing by. But a much more significant offering this year was […]
Pollen in the Wind
mobile phone users-you have to scroll to the very bottom to see the right sidebar information July 2, 2019 I am riding my bike around Wallingford, looking for a couple of big Chestnut (Castanea) trees. I know they are here somewhere. Our lonely Prococe tree needs pollen. I have her male catkins stuck on the […]
Welcome to our Demonstration Garden!
May 14, 2019 DONATIONS PAGE LINK The fruit trees in the orchard this year would amaze anyone. They are striking and flush … with pests. It’s true. Come and allow us to demonstrate all manner of pest infestation plus other unsightly disorders. Last year was a record bounty but, this year, we are counting on […]
Talkin’ Tomatoes
April 16, 2019 I am a tomato addict. One of my favorite memories is arriving in rural southwest Ohio at 6 am after driving straight through from the west coast. We stopped for breakfast at a coffee shop and were served a plate of eggs and fresh picked tomatoes, grown by the owner in his […]
Plant Pathogens – Pasteurize? Sterilize? Sanitize? Boil Everything!
March 26, 2019 Recently, I was watching someone rinse a plastic polyethylene plant-potting container in a bleach solution for reuse. I was pretty sure that pot needed to be thoroughly rinsed of organic matter prior to the bleach rinse. The observation made me think of several reasons why a gardener needs to know how kill […]
Get To The Root Of The Matter
February 4, 2019 Last week Sue helped us plan the vegetables for the year. We were thinking of what to plant near the far north olla and we got out our photos of plant root lengths from the summer. The olla best serves a plant with a deeper root system. (See Water Conservation page on […]
What’s in the Air is Fair
January 12, 2019 Is it risky to eat food grown next to the Freeway? Orchard visitors sometimes ask this question. It is an especially interesting question to me, an Environmental Protection Agency retiree and air quality specialist. The two principle ways food can become contaminated from environmental pollutants are through soil and air. In urban […]
Fall Fruit Tree Follow-up
November 30, 2018 Fall is a fine time to do investigative work in the orchard and plan for winter or spring pest management. Confirming that our Harrow Delight pear problem was Pear Trellis Rust (Gymnosporangium sabinae) was an excellent warm-up exercise, since the blemishes on the leaves are so clearly identifiable. I made a leaf […]