By doing this, we were able to take advantage of the natural slope of the yard in order to create better drainage to street level. This slope will also assist in retaining moisture for the plants as it moves through the subsurface and into the water table. The water from the roof is now being captured by a cistern which is connected to the side sewer, while also outflowing through a raingarden along the side of the property. This keeps rainwater from overflowing into Lake Washington and the Puget Sound during the wet months, and will provide a great way for the owner to water her new landscape during the summertime. Soon we will be installing a lovely variety of native and edible plant varieties including echinacea, sage, lupine, rosemary, lavender, red flowering currant, nodding onion, bunchberry, and many more! Stay tuned as we continue our work on this project. More photos to come! This cute little bungalow needed a facelift for their fence. The backyard is such a sweet little retreat, and our client wanted to accentuate that, without hurting her existing mature plants. Our carpenter, Trevor Madsen, went to work and created this lovely stained picket fence! It is a wonderful addition to the home, and creates a quiet sunny space for the backyard garden.
Project overhauls are often some of the most fun and challenging to do. This Columbia City home owner was looking for a modern update on their existing back deck. The homeowner was looking to capitalize on the cistern rebate which they were eligible for through the Rainwise Program, and opted to install a cistern next to the house. They also asked for a raised bed to be incorporated into the design, to provide them a bit of growing space which could be accessible from the deck. Our designer, Aaron Buchholz, went to work and came up with a cedar deck with an L-shaped raised bed, new stairs into the home, and of course the pergola! The design also included an elevated base for the cistern, along with an arbor duct which runs from the guttering on both sides of the house, directly into the cistern. Once the design was approved by our client, our team went to work! Thanks to our carpenter extraordinaire, Trevor Madsen, along with the rest of our fabulous crew, we completed the deck, the staining, and the details despite the weather challenges. The result was this lovely pergola which will provide a patch of shade in the summer, a cistern which will collect the rainwater for the garden while helping with storm water overflow, and a deck that will be a wonderful gathering spot for the family for years to come. Sometimes it is nice to look back through the year and see how our projects have progressed, not to mention reflecting on all of the positive changes we've made for people in our community, as well as for our regional environment. Several of these projects include raingardens, which help alleviate the water flowing into the sewer, and filter the water before it flows to the sound. They also include permeable surfaces which allow for filtration and provide a comfortable surface to live on during our wet winters.
This week we completed the installation of 6 cedar raised beds for our permaculture client. While cedar is a more expensive material to work with, it is rot-resistant, holds up well to weather extremes, and is easy and light to work with. Our team member Trevor was the lead on the bed construction. He did a fantastic job with the help of Joe, and the rest of the crew who filled and prepped the beds with garden soil. Next up is the installation of the desert stone patio around the sides of the home. Stay tuned for more pictures!
Over the last month, Stone Soup Gardens has been immersed in a new construction job on the west side of Seattle. We came to the project when the new house was 90% complete, and began working with the owner and designer to create a gorgeous garden and outdoor retreat. The design was done by Jenny Pell, a well known and respected founding member of Permaculture Now! When we began, the landscape was a giant dirt pile. Our first week on the job involved grading and prepping the area around the house for the Desert Stone Patio installation. We prepped and installed a flagstone pathway from the driveway to the front door, and we began the process of grading and prepping the different areas of the garden, including a rockery, raingarden, and raised beds. Next up is laying the Desert Stone patio, completing the rockery and log accents for the beds, as well as building the cedar raised beds for the side of the house.
There are more pictures to come as we progress on this awesome project. Stay tuned! One of our designers, Aaron Buchholz, had a great idea for this contemporary space. The backyard was simply a patch of grass, but our clients wanted something that spoke more to the design of the home. By adding a brick patio, we created a more useful area for year round entertaining, while the addition of the raised planting beds will give an accessible way to incorporate different levels of planting space. Taking the boxy shape of the house, Aaron created the patio using hexagons and gently curving paths to create a more eye-catching landscape. To mimic this, he included a couple of seating areas in the hexagon shape, while also creating rectangular beds with a similar hexagon point. Now that we've completed the patio and beds, we'll plant out the space to enhance the curves and angles which will create a dynamic new backyard oasis. As many of you know, now is the time for planting vegetables and getting your garden growing. For many of our clients, raised beds are an ideal solution for producing food. Whether you are new to gardening or have been at it for years, raised beds are an economical yet impactful element to any space.
Raised beds are great for many reasons. They keep pathway weeds from your garden soil (less weeding!), they prevent soil compaction, provide good drainage, and serve as a barrier to pests such as slugs and snails. Raised beds can also be made out of many different materials including finished wood, logs, cement blocks, or composite materials. At Stone Soup Gardens, we can design and install a raised bed for any style garden. Here is an example of a clever way to get the most out of limited space for gardening. We just completed these wonderful beds for a client in Columbia City. It is a wonderful focal piece for the property, and provides a lovely space for sitting and relaxing with neighbors, friends, or for tending your plants without having to crouch. Interested in having raised beds for your garden? Contact Stone Soup today! Back in February we were working on a cute bungalow in Columbia City (see posts HERE and HERE). We installed a raingarden and swale in the front and side of the home, and took out a huge concrete pad in the backyard. One of the last projects the clients wanted to do was complete the fence. We'd torn out the old fence due to its crumbling ways while we were renovating the backyard, and the owners wanted to move forward with enclosing their cozy new backyard space. Here's a look at the backyard before the work started, and during the fence construction. Overall all it was a really great project. There is nothing more satisfying than getting rid of concrete and providing our clients with a wonderful yard space that they can enjoy for years to come! Happy Vernal Equinox! The first day of spring is officially upon us. The Stone Soup Crew has been busy this spring, in fact, it is our busiest spring on record. All of this fine warm weather provides lots of opportunities for garden improvements. Recently, we were approached by a client who had already imagined and designed his garden space, and brought us this illustration to execute. As it turns out, the client had several family heirloom stained glass panels in his possession, and he had a very specific vision of how the stained glass would fit into his existing landscape. The windows had originally been a part of his dad and stepmom's outdoor cabana. The cabana was built by his dad, and the stained glass windows were made by his stepmom. They were both in their 90's when they passed away in 2013, and the people who bought their house offered our client and his brother the stained glass panels. It was a wonderful gesture, as the new home owners were redesigning the home and wanted to ensure the windows were safely returned. It also provided our client and his brother a chance to decorate their own spaces while keeping those beautiful family memories alive. Here are the glass panels in the cabana built by our client's father. The client has a very specific Roman style for his garden space, and he wanted to build the arbors as a way to safely display the stained glass, while staying true to his design aesthetic. It was a wonderful project to be able to walk into and complete. Here is the original garden space, as well as the start of the arbor installation. The lovely finished arbor, complete with a grape kiwi on one end, boxwoods in the containers, winter jasmine on the other end, and columnar cypresses to lend height and drama to the column effect of the arbor. These plants will help provide privacy along the fence line with his neighbors, and attract some fluttering friends to the garden.
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