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Last year one of our raingarden installations was featured in a small spot with Ciscoe (of Gardening with Ciscoe) and King 5 for Make a Difference Day 2016. We are so proud! Check out more on the construction of this raingarden HERE.
The design for this garden was by the wonderful Jaqueline Cramer of Earth Care by Design Collaborators. Way to go, team! Recently we've done a few client check-ins for maintenance and boy are things looking good! Fall is a wonderful time for raingardens. They certainly do flourish with all the wet. Here is a little peak at one of our long-time clients' garden spaces. The place looks great! Interested in seeing what the space looked like before? Check out here, here, and here.  FREE Rainwise 101 Workshop
Thursday, October 20, 6 - 7:30 pm Columbia Branch Library, 4721 Rainier Ave S Learn about how rain gardens and cisterns help manage storm water, hear from delighted RainWise homeowners, including our client, Sheri Richardson, and get inspired by slides of their raingardens, meet trained RainWise contractors who can offer a free consultation, learn about big rebates from SPU and King County (up to 100% of the total cost), and get set to take the next step. Interested? Registration website: http://www.sustainableballard.org/register This is a major renovation. We are removing three feet of soil from the front yard and relocating it to the backyard. Creating a new entry for the house, and a home for fifty some odd used tires. We'll be replacing the existing support wall due to structural concerns and replacing it with a new sloping terraced wall. We've removed the concrete stairs from the front of the house and are using those in the tiered section of garden in the backyard. Why, you ask? Our client recently moved into this house, though her daughter has owned it for years. It had been rented out by a tenant who worked on cars and amassed quite a large pile of old used tires. In order to reduce waste and to create a more permanent home for the tires without throwing them in a landfill, we will be using them to create a new retaining wall in the backyard. In addition, the giant tree was also taken down from the side of the house due to insurance concerns, and the logs from the tree will be used to create the base of that retaining wall.
Here is a before photo of the house, along with an aerial layout of the property.
And the beginning of the massive revisioning of the space. ATGStores.com is joining Stewardship Partners to professionally landscape one lucky winner’s yard with an eco-friendly rain garden that will help protect Puget Sound! Rain gardens are beautiful features that increase home value while preserving our natural resources. The new rain garden will be fully installed by eco-landscaping professionals, and the winner will also receive up to $1,000 in outdoor furniture from ATGStores.com to make it perfect. For more information and to register: Visit their website! No Purchase Necessary - Ends 9/23/16 
It isn't everyday that we get to see a house and a yard go through such a transformation, but for this client, changing the landscape was essential to drawing the eye into the reframing of the house.
The house sits down in the yard quite a bit below street level. In order to help prevent flooding and to create a natural water friendly environment, we created a tiered, winding, and sloped pathway which brings you to the front door of the home. The pathway is gravel, a permeable surface, to ensure maximum drainage from street level to the level of the house. This river like effect allows the rainfall to naturally seep into the ground, rather than rushing down a hard surface such as the previous sidewalk. We used flagstone on the steps and a complementary paver for the patio outside of the front door. Recycled logs and boulders provide the retaining walls for the tiered beds, and a small flagstone pathway creates a walkway from the sidewalk. We also tucked a small raingarden into the southwest corner of the yard which will provide catchment and further drainage from the tiered raised beds. Our clients are thrilled! I spoke to them briefly when I stopped by to photograph the new digs and they said that it was a lovely space to spend time in. They mentioned that people walking past often stop by to admire the design, and whenever friends or family come round the house they comment on just how nice it is. I'm not sure we can do much better than that. We are embracing the digital age here at Stone Soup Gardens with our mighty new Instagram Account. Come on over and follow us and see what we are up to. Photos from life, love, landscaping, hardscaping, permaculture, events, and more! @stonesoupgardens   Talk about a cute little front yard. These clients were looking to maximize their garden space, while adding interest through the use of arbors. We do so love to build arbors. The arbor running along the side of the house is actually an arborduct. It houses the pipes running from the gutters of the home into the raingarden, which will filter the roof runoff before heading into the Puget Sound. The second arbor is simply to provide a bit of architectural interest to the front yard while mimicking the shape of the windows on the house, and providing a bit of screening from the neighbors. For both arbors, we used the same stain as the garage door, which ties the look of the house and the garden together nicely. Soon we will be returning to finish out the pathways leading up to the house, and from the house to the garage. A raingarden is a fantastic addition to a landscape, and can be customized to fit your needs, your wants, and your budget. Whether you want a small streambed, shallow pool, or a simple swale, these features will reduce toxic roof runoff into the side sewer and help protect our valuable Puget Sound.
Hey! Jake Harris of Stone Soup Gardens was featured on the Seattle Channel! Watch the video to find out more about what the Tilth Edible Plant Sales have to offer, including classes, native plants, organic vegetable starts, and camaraderie with your gardening community! Learn how easy it is to grow your own garden, and how effective it can be in creating a collective impact on our lovely Puget Sound. One raingarden, one vegetable garden, and one cistern at a time!
The next Tilth Plant Sale is in May, you can find out more on our Education Page, or by visiting the Seattle Tilth Website.
Oh yes we did. When our awesome music loving clients requested a David Bowie lightening bolt for their garden pathway, we made it happen. The pathway is made from two different colors of flagstone, with a gravel pathway leading along the edges of the property around the raingarden, and through the front gate. The raingarden, which will be rebated through the Rainwise Program, was heavy and full after a huge amount of rain the previous day. We built the fence to create a dog run area, and decided to run an arborduct to conceal the raingarden duct work. This arborduct is one of our favorites, as it provides complete coverage for the pipes running from the house into the raingarden. Through the gate we created a gravel dog run. It contains dog friendly plants including salmonberry, thimbleberry, and a strawberry tree. This makes the poop easy to clean up, and keeps the grassy area behind the house clean for the kids. The raised beds were constructed out of cut alder logs. Logs are a sturdy and long lasting way to create a nice uniform visual in your garden, and a great place to sit while planting, weeding, or simply enjoying the space. The other areas, including the rockery in the front of the home, contain native plants that will create a pollinator habitat which will be friendly to the birds and the bees once the plants mature. |
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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