It's a new year, and those of us at Stone Soup Gardens are right back at it. Before the end of last year we started on a challenging project involving a concrete backyard. The previous owner of our client's home put in a basketball court in the backyard, great for some, but not great if you are a lover of gardening or green space. In December we began jackhammering out the concrete and setting it aside. This is hard work on the body, so it was great to be able to finish that task and have a nice break over the holidays. Here are a few before pictures to give you an idea of what we were facing. Once the jackhammering began, things got messy and loud quick! We started by pulling out large chunks of concrete where the growing space would be, and set aside those pieces to use as a retaining wall around the raised beds. We also carved out a winding concrete path from the existing concrete pad rather than having an added expense of installing a walkway. Here's a few images of us playing with power tools. Now that the holidays are over, it's back to work! This week we are working on building out the raised bed area, as well as continuing to pull out concrete, installing grass, and sculpting the pathways. We've even planted a tree. It's shaping up to be a lovely space. Next, we'll be installing a small swale to catch the roof runoff in the front of the house, doing a bit of planting when the weather is more predictable, and finishing up with some lovely touches in the back. It will be a wonderful garden retreat once finished. Stay tuned for more images!
As many of you may know, I teach about mushrooms. Foraging them, how to find them, growing them, and eating them. Recently, I've done a couple of classes on mushrooms, and have had a great response from clients who would like mushroom patches of their own. Often times in landscaping, there is that awkward space under the stairs, or a completely shady corner where nothing grows. Well, today is the day, folks. Stone Soup Gardens has been doing mushroom patches galore the last month or so, and we are thrilled to see such an abundance of soon-to-be-shrooms! One project that I'm proud to share is in the Columbia City neighborhood, not far from my own awesome patch. These clients are near and dear to me because of their deep love of all things permaculture. Our fabulous designer, Jacqueline Kramer of Design Collaborators, created an amazing space full of northwest edibles. We built them a lovely hugelcultur bed, an herb spiral, and a lovely backyard patio with steps down to a gravel gathering space. We also inoculated an area under the stairs with turkey tail mushrooms, put birch bolete spores under the birch tree in the front yard, and added a sawdust patch for our clients to do their own experiments in mushroom cultivation. In addition to all that wonderfulness, we were able to use all the materials we pulled out of the yard, to build the yard back up! This includes logs, branches, and sod for soil building for the hugelcultur bed. The best kind of recycling! The clients also had a mushroom class in their own yard so that they would know how to tend their new mushroom patches, what to look for when harvesting, how to harvest, and how to prepare the beds for winter. Are you interested in growing mushrooms? Do you want to learn more about hugelcultur beds and soil building? Contact Stone Soup Gardens today. We would love to show you all the wonderful joys of our northwest climate! Stone work is something we find ourselves doing more and more often here at Stone Soup Gardens. From retaining walls, to rockeries, to patios, we do our best to fit our client's needs with something beautiful, long lasting, and creative. One such project is in the Mt. Baker neighborhood. Our client was in the process of putting on a new deck, and wanted to create a more useable space in their backyard. While the yard is fairly small and rectangular, it had a good deal of space for a couple of raised beds, a nice area for a hummingbird habitat, and the perfect spot under the stairs for a mushroom patch. We installed two beautiful raised beds with extended planks for outdoor seating. Once those were completed we started on the patio. Since the backyard is generally in shade, the client's wanted something permeable but walkable during our long wet winters. The client had a decent pile of used bricks from a previous project, so we rounded up a selection of used brick from our local salvage store to complement the design. The client also asked that we make room for a lovely Buddha statue and fountain, which we also installed, to create a quiet meditative place that will flower and bloom during the year. We are still putting the finishing touches on the place now, but I think it will be a wonderful garden retreat for our clients in the years to come! Our class this weekend was a great success. We had mushroom lovers spread out all over the living room. Each had a unique reason for coming, and all of them left a bit more confident in farming and finding edible mushrooms.
Some of our attendees are having mushroom patches installed into their own yards, and attended the class to find out more about what they will be growing, how to get started, what to expect, and how to harvest. Each got to take a tour of the wine cap patch we have at Stone Soup, as well as see what a shiitake looks like growing on a log. Others were more interested in getting a leg up in mushroom identification for foraging in the wild. We talked about a few varieties that I find particularly delicious, and discussed best practices for identifying them, how to harvest, and what conditions they grow best in. I had also foraged several different types myself the weekend before, and had those on hand for a bit of show and tell. There were lots of great questions and comments, and I look forward to hosting the class again in the future. If you are interested in hosting a mushroom class, or would like more information on how to grow mushrooms at your home, contact Stone Soup Gardens. We love to talk mushrooms. Happy growing and happy hunting!
Just today I went out to check on my logs and prepare a water bath for them as the rains come, and look what I found. My first oyster of the season. I can't wait!
Are you interested in growing mushrooms at your house? Contact Stone Soup Gardens today. We can help you get started. Or, come to our upcoming class: Growing Mushrooms at Home October 11, 10:30 - 12:00pm 4804 S Snoqualmie Street, Seattle 206-661-7628 -- gardenergnome@gmail.com https://www.facebook.com/events/646535972131479/
Fencing is a great way to keep things out or in, depending on your point of view. In many cases, we love to tear down fencing, as it helps create a more shared space between neighbors, which certainly builds better neighbor relations. However, sometimes we need to build a fence to help protect our friends, be they of the feathered or the four-legged variety. For this project we built a hog wire fence to help contain chickens in the backyard, which provides a much safer environment for them. The client also wanted to protect her plants from her scratching hens by installing an arbor. This approach allowed her to net out the chickens, while providing her climbing vegetables and plants with a bike wheel trellis and arbor to climb. It looks great and compliments her clapboard chicken coop. |
This is how Stone Soup Gardens rolls - check out our blog for current, upcoming, and past projects, events, and other super cool stuff worth mentioning.
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