Remember this from last February? Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor this week’s cold snap can deter Edmonds gardeners. They are already outside preparing their veggie beds and pruning roses. In that spirit, Edmonds Floretum Garden Club presents its February meeting on raised-bed vegetable gardening Monday, Feb. 28 at 11 a.m. via Zoom. Visitors are welcome.
Master Gardener Mark Hawley will talk about raised beds, construction, soil, plant selection, nutrition, maintenance and integrated pest management.
Hawley experiments at home with different gardening methods. He has a huge hugelkultur garden, one where he mounds up leaves, branches, logs, grass clippings, straw and other compostable materials, lays soil on top, and plants veggies in the soil. As the mound decomposes, it aerates the plant, releases nutrients, and retains moisture. He also works with raised rows, raised beds, veggies in pots, and passive system hydroponics.
Hawley grew up in Port Townsend in an extended family of subsistence gardeners, ranchers, hunters and fishers. In his other life, he has a doctorate in clinical psychology and is a member of the Coast Guard Auxiliary’s Edmonds Flotilla.
For the Zoom link, email edmondsfloretum@hotmail.com. Floretum is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. To celebrate, club members have planted 6,000 daffodils around Edmonds, and they are just starting to bloom now. The club website and a map to the daffodils are here.
I also do this. I am all in herbs for the raised beds now. We let out front yard grass sleep during summer so it is like straw but No water wasted. I have been playing in my gardens for 28 years now. I find I have no insect issues at all really. Like you I use pots all thru the gardens for flowering and annuals. I use the soil thru the remainder for perennials that are native to our area. I believe this is why I have no insects at least not of destructive insects. No herbicide no insecticide so bees abound. I love my garden. I feel sometimes that this garden has done more for me as far as peace, relaxation. After a shower I sit and I just stare and I feel whole. I talk to the garden, Yes. I even use tropicals but in large pots with rolling wooden trays we built. Then in the fall in they come and become part of my home decor. I have a hibiscus that is blooming and has been since I brought it in this fall. So you can have these things and just bring inside. Divide for more. It has been a wonderful 28 years my trees which are 40-or so feet were babies and now they are full grown. I chose red maple, dogwood, plum and another maple the name is escaping me but it is not a spreading sort but lean and smaller clump like leaves. IT glows in the fall with a deep rust color. I am so glad I chose these as they are now recommended for our on property trees. I slope my beds from fences surrounding property, vines align the entire fence all around the property. I have never once had a soggy yard as it all goes back into the earth with the slanting and the almost tiny creek like finishing at the fronts. I put paths thru the garden a few, I use octagon concrete for this. I want to join Edmonds Floretum Garden Club??