Blog
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 […]
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 […]
Winter Moth on Attack
May 3, 2017 On April 21, I noticed a rolled leaf on the Twinberry at our house. I shuffled over to our apple tree. Hmm. More rolled leaves. I jogged up to the orchard and every fruit tree that had leafed out showed this same leaf damage. What was this small green larvae with a […]
Off With Its Head!
March 3, 2017 The bold Honeycrisp is too tall! “Bring down the height and the apples are within reach, plus the ladder can stay in the shed.” We all nod with approval. Ingela is convincing. Eight of us gathered in February to enjoy Ingela’s annual pruning class. She walked around each tree, backed up, pondered, […]
Planning for 2017
January 31, 2017 Eleven thoughtful volunteers met this month to sketch out a vision for the coming year. The Cider Fest will be our key event, we will add a few more fruit trees and bushes and the food bank bed is expanding. (Note Sue’s gorgeous December lettuce, photo taken just after three periods of […]
Harvest Highlights – Part II – Fruit
December 07, 2016 Now for the fruits of our labor. 2016 was our fifth season and we finally picked a substantial amount of apples, enough to test and to share. For the first time kiwi berries developed and both chestnuts produced fully pollinated nuts. We still need to inspire one or two fruit lovers to […]