Prepare for Climate Change – BIPOC Gardening Lessons
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…
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,…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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.…
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…
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…