Author: Rachel Arteaga

The Seattle Times’ “At Home” magazine recently ran a nice story about the importance of planting native berry bushes for birds to feast on in the Fall. The trouble is, the story was taken from the Washington Post and most of the plants referenced were east coast natives. That’s like telling a gardener in England to plant bushes native to Russia! Birds switch in the Fall from preferring bugs and worms, to bulking up on calorie-rich berries, especially important for birds embarking on migration. Native berries seem to provide higher levels of nutrients, so what are some of our pacific Read More …

As my neighbors rake up their leaves and tip them into their yard waste bins, I am out and about raking and bagging leaves from wherever I can find them, and bringing them home for my flower beds and shrub borders. Most of the trees near me are Big Leaf Maples, and their leaves are just too big, and too slow to break down, to form a highly desirable mulch. So instead I keep a mental inventory of arterial roads planted with mature trees with smaller leaves, such as the beautiful ash trees on 35th Ave NE in Wedgwood, currently Read More …

October is the time to plant spring-blooming bulbs, and after cold grey Fall and Winter days, there is nothing that lifts the heart like a burst of color starting as early as February and going right through April. And spring bulbs are so easy! The most popular early daffodil is the miniature Tete a Tete, growing to only 6-8 inches and forming slightly larger clumps every year. They really do start in late February and bloom for six weeks, and I have them dotted here and there throughout the garden, along paths and in the front of beds. You can Read More …

Madame Cecile Brunner Roses Jacqueline Houston is a member of the Wedgewood Garden Club, and also a Master Gardener of King County. She has been gardening in Seattle for over 30 years. Wedgewood Garden Club always welcomes new members – contact Jacqueline at tppoems@comcast.net for more information on our monthly meetings. Nothing beats sitting out on your deck or patio in summer and breathing in the delicious fragrance of the scented plants you have thoughtfully planted around your favorite seating area. Of course, not all fragrances are created equal. I recently saw a list of plants recommended for fragrance that Read More …

Jacqueline Houston is a member of the Wedgewood Garden Club, and also a Master Gardener of King County. She has been gardening in Seattle for over 30 years. Wedgewood Garden Club always welcomes new members – contact Jacqueline at tppoems@comcast.net for more information on our monthly meetings. Are you fed up of endless weeding? Fret no more! Here is how to stop the cycle and improve the look of your garden. I have a large flower and flowering shrub garden on a double lot, and nowadays I hardly have to weed my beds at all. (The lawn is a different Read More …

About the author: Jacqueline Houston is a member of the Wedgewood Garden Club and a Master Gardener of King County. She has been gardening in Seattle for over 30 years. Wedgewood Garden Club always welcomes new members – contact Jacqueline at tppoems@comcast.net for more information on our monthly meetings. How can you get your freshly-bought nursery plants off to the best possible start? These two simple steps can make a big, big difference to whether they thrive, or merely survive. Let’s assume you have already enriched your soil with some compost, if needed, and dug a nice hole. Now fill Read More …

About the author: Jacqueline Houston is a member of the Wedgwood Garden Club and a Master Gardener of King County. She has been gardening in Seattle for over 30 years. Wedgwood Garden Club always welcomes new members – contact Jacqueline at tppoems@comcast.net for more information on their monthly meetings. What zone are we actually gardening in, here in Seattle? The answer usually given is either USDA zone 7 or 8, but one of the single most useful pieces of advice I got from our Wedgwood Garden Club presenters was to play it safe and garden as if we are zone Read More …

About the author: Jacqueline Houston is a member of the Wedgwood Garden Club, and also a Master Gardener of King County. She has been gardening in Seattle for over 30 years. Wedgwood Garden Club always welcomes new members – contact Jacqueline at tppoems@comcast.net for more information on their monthly meetings. What should we be doing now to make our gardens more welcoming to pollinators? If you grow fruit, vegetables, or ornamental berries, or just want to help the struggling bee populations in our city, you can help by providing a varying buffet of bloomers for your bees from early March Read More …

The Seattle Redistricting Commission is currently examining how to redraw the boundaries of Seattle’s seven City Council Districts and is inviting community members to learn about the process and provide feedback at upcoming public forums. Individual forums are scheduled for each City Council District. At these meetings, Seattle Redistricting Commissioners will educate community members about the redistricting process and present interactive maps that detail examples of boundary changes and how they may impact specific districts. Meetings will be hybrid (available both online and in-person) and members of the public will have the opportunity to ask questions and provide feedback directly to the Read More …

Congratulations to our friends at Think Big, Wedgwood, on winning a grant from the Department of Neighborhoods to develop new street light pole banners on 35th! Please take a moment to fill out a brief, anonymous survey to help this neighborhood group design and produce banners for our main street. You can make a difference by sharing your thoughts on Wedgwood’s community identity and public art. Learn more about the project below: Think Big, Wedgwood is a community group that cares about bringing big ideas to our little corner of the world.  You may know them from activating the future Read More …