Apartment Courtyard Renovation

Here is a before and after of another relatively quick project. This client was renovating the front of this apartment to bring it into the 21st century (or the 50s depending on how you look at it) and needed a quick fix for the front court area which had previously been grasses and periwinkle. This site faces east but gets plenty of sun part of the day so we decided on a mid-century, Palm Springsesque planting scheme of a Washingtonia palm, river rocks (nicely provided by the client from their own home), ajuga and a hedge of heavenly bamboo. The owner found the palm on Craig's List! They rented the one unit that was available immediately after this renovation was finished.

Container Plants Fundraiser and A Newfound Yard

MARCH in Seattle!

...started out pretty warm and now it's roaring through like a lion! We've had two days of nights in the thirties. It actually snowed two days ago. I know the plants can take it but I'm not sure I can. I'm preparing containers for a fundraiser on March 20th for the Interfaith Family Shelter in Everett, WA. It's at 2820 Oakes Avenue from 1-5PM if you'd like to come. Lot's of gorgeous native and perennial plants in pots for sale! Check out www.interfaithwa.org for more information about the shelter.

And, I continue to work on a pretty significant renovation of a garden on Mercer Island. We are pulling 10 years worth of blackberry and ivy out of an area that also has a beautiful old dogwood tree, lots of forsythia, a couple of rhodies and lots of narcissus. We will find the inner garden shortly (about 14 hours of work so far) and make it into a beauty! The photo of last week's work shows the old tires and and old riding lawn mower we also found under all the undergrowth. Treasures for sure! The bottom photo shows the 'before' and the top photo shows the 'after' of this renovation. It took me about 30 hours of work by myself to clear this area out enough to hire someone to come in with heavy equipment to take out a dangerous oak tree (over 50' tall!) and then push the soil around to smooth it all out and get out about 60 blackberry bushes. Now it gets sun! We are going to plant native plants only in this area.