Jane C. spotted Wallingford on This Old House’s Best Old House Neighborhoods 2011: Gardening list, and it’s a pretty little Wallingford they paint:
Colorful kites flying and kids rolling down grassy hills are common sights in south Wallingford’s Gas Works Park, a 19-acre green space populated by early-20th-century coal gasification structures—decommissioned, rust-colored symbols of Seattle’s industrial revolution. Wallingford is a walkable neighborhood with access to Seattle’s Burke-Gilman Trail, a 14-mile path for cyclists, joggers, and skaters. A farmers’ market, an independent movie theater, bars, restaurants, and attitude-rocking coffee shops line North 45th Street, the main drag, and with the University of Washington nearby there is a definite college-town feel.
Well, nothing to argue with there, but where’s the gardening in all that?
Right here on Wallyhood, of course. And, as long as we’re talking about gardening, we’d like to introduce our newest sponsor, Taylor Gardens, specializing in garden coaching in the fundamentals, “providing individualized instruction to help you complete your own garden projects, while making the garden easier to care for and more eco-friendly.” They’ll even shop for plants for you:
Owner Jeanie Taylor has lived near Green Lake for over 25 years and enjoys working with individuals and small groups to save biodiversity one garden at a time. She is available to conduct propagation workshops and garden talks for groups. Jeanie has professional experience in greenhouse management, plant propagation, landscape maintenance, and horticultural instruction. She has worked as a Senior Gardener with Seattle Parks, holds a B.S. in Botany, and an M.S. in Conservation Biology. She blogs about her own project in Oregon to restore endangered plants and rehabilitate 20 acres of Oregon white oak habitat at gophervalleyjrnl.wordpress.com.
We consider wildlife our “other clients” so our approach to gardening keeps the basics in mind:
- Maintaining healthy soil that sustains a variety of protective organisms
- Including features that provide food, flowers, and shelter for humans and wildlife
- Using a sustainable approach to fertility and pest control to support natural processes that keep things in balance
Taylor Gardens can help with questions about plant identification, renovating a shrub bed, starting a vegetable garden, saving seeds, propagating your own plants, lawn care and renovation, finding out what’s eating your perennials, working on slopes, choosing appropriate plants for shade or a wet area, pruning unruly shrubs, analyzing drainage and soils, tidying up a landscape before selling a home, and other gardening skills. For tasks that are beyond do-it-yourself, we can help you work with other professionals to achieve your goals.
We’ve asked Jeanie if she’d be willing to share some of her gardening know-how with us here on Wallyhood as part of a regular column, and she’s graciously agreed. So, if you have gardening questions, please e-mail them to [email protected] and she’ll try to address them in her column or directly. Welcome Jeanie and Taylor Gardens!