Conifers and broadleaf evergreen shrubs also help define a garden and encourage wildlife in the winter. A garden would be bleak indeed without their vibrant foliage four months out of the year! The shelter of their branches supports native wildlife, including many winter songbirds like chickadees, Anna’s hummingbirds and juncos.

Conifers and broadleaf evergreens come in many forms and sizes. They are easily found at local nurseries and can be viewed in their mature form at local area gardens. To get information about where to look and to talk more about proper plant choices for your site please contact us!

Evergreen Trees for Urban Gardens

Conifers

• Hinoki Cypress – Chamacyparis obtusa ‘Gracillis’ – A stately, narrow tree with peeling, reddish brown bark, to 20 feet. Twisting sprays of foliage on the branch add texture and motion to the landscape.
• Hollywood Juniper – Juniperus chinensis ‘Kaizuka’ – Unique upright, bold habit.  15 feet tall, 10 feet wide. Another great choice for adding texture and motion with the contorted branching habit of this sturdy plant.
• Tanyosho Pine – Pinus densiflora ‘Umbraculifera’ – Showy cones, mounding shape and usually multi-trunks. Great silhouette plant against a sunset sky. Attracts birds.  Slow growing to 15 feet.

Broadleaf Evergreens

• Compact Strawberry Tree – Arbutus unedo ‘Compacta’ – Lovely peeling reddish colored bark as it ages, with white bell-shaped flowers in fall and red, round, edible fruits following. Can have the current season’s flowers and ripe fruit on the plant at the same time. Grows 6-8 feet tall and 5-6 feet wide.
• Pacific Waxmyrtle – Myrica californic - Upright and shrubby, this native can have an open, loose habit.  Black fruits appear in fall.  10-30 feet tall and wide over time.  Fast growing, plan accordingly!
• Tasmanian Leatherwood – Eucryphia glutinosa - Large white flowers appear in summer, blooms for many weeks. Leaves take on tints of orange and red in the fall. The tree grows up to 25 feet, and can spread up to 15 feet wide. Grow in a spot sheltered from hot sun and wind.
• Tan Oak – Lithocarpus densiflorus - Best in rich, moist soil, can be a tree or shrub, 10-20 feet high. The acorns are oak-like but the flowers are like those of chestnuts, providing wildlife food and nesting materials.
• Oregon Myrtle – Umbellularia californica - Also known as California Bay Laurel. The leaves can be used like those of Laurus nobilis, the familiar bay laurel, in the kitchen. Compact habit, Oregon myrtle looks great all year long. Provides wildlife food and shelter. A large tree both in height and spread, can reach 30 feet in both directions! Plan accordingly. Can be kept pruned and the branches shared for their harvest.

Evergreen Shrubs for Urban Gardens

Conifers

• Spaan’s Dwarf Pine- Pinus contorta ‘Spaan’s Dwarf’ – Small scale pine that introduces the contorted, wind blown shape of larger shore pines into the small urban garden. A slow grower, it may reach 3 feet and 4 feet wide in 10 years.
• Plum Yew- Cephalotaxus harringtonia - Layered branching with thick evergreen needles arranged in a v pattern on the stems make this a wonderful choice for a focus plant in the garden. A good choice for shady areas, this plant requires minimal pruning and can be drought tolerant once established, though a deep watering over dry periods is needed. Grows to 6 feet tall by 6 feet wide.
• Golden Dwarf Hinoki Cypress – Chamacyparis obtusa ‘Nana Lutea’ – A dwarf golden Hinoki cypress that grows in a dense solid form, maturing to a pyramidal shape. Inner leaves deepen to a darker green with the newer, outer foliage remains gold and yellow for a nice contrast. Grows to 3 feet tall by 3 feet wide.

Broadleaf Evergreens

• Silk Tassel Bush – Garrya eliptica - A very attractive shrub, especially in winter when the almost glowing, silky white tassels appear. Attracts beneficial insects, bees, and great for bird habitat and bird food.
• Coffeeberry – Rhamnus californica - Red branches add interest and fruit ripens from green to red to black. The fruit is edible and sweet and also great for wildlife. Profuse flowering make this a great choice for pollinators. Can reach 15 feet high and wide in 20 years.
• Evergreen Huckleberry – Vaccinium ovatum - This native plant is well known to our native fauna with birds relying on the fruit in the winter. Can reach 8 feet in a shady location, but will grow well and more compact in sun. Glossy, green leaves, red new stems and leaves: a very handsome and desirable plant for the winter garden.
• Mexican Orange – Choisya ternata - Large, round habit, can reach 6-8 feet tall and wide but can be pruned easily.  Fragrant white flowers span spring through fall if sited in full sun.  Attracts bees. Easy and fast growth make this a good choice for covering ground in areas where minimal maintenance is desired, especially on a slope.
• Camellia ‘Yuletide’ – A familiar garden plant, this camellia blooms in late November into December. The red flowers with yellow stamens provide showy decoration when little else is blooming in the garden. This plant is attractive to hummingbirds and particularly good for Anna’s hummers, which are present in the northwest through the winter. Can reach 8-10 feet tall and wide. Easily adapted as an espalier for narrow planting areas and as a living fence.
• Russian Olive – Elaeagnus angustifolia - A nitrogen-fixing shrub good for breaking up clay soils. Clusters of fragrant yellow flowers in early summer, followed by edible though mealy fruit. The fruit and thorny thicket-like branches are supportive to wildlife. Silvery leaves add dimension to the garden.

Garden clippings and food waste are usually trucked across the county where they are then composted. So making your own compost, at home, reduces your carbon footprint! Here are several ways to compost, whether you live in a house or apartment, in an urban, suburban, or rural setting.

Yard Waste Composting

• City of Seattle Composter: A low-cost, simple bin that can be used to hold compost materials for passive decomposition, or can be turned to produce compost more quickly. Also great for piling full of fall leaves to make leaf mold, one of the best soil amendments on earth.
• Three-Bin System: For those who want to produce several batches of hot compost concurrently and quickly, building this system makes it easy and neat to turn the batches.
• Wire fencing or other containment: As the saying goes, “compost happens.” You can create a simple holding bin from welded wire fencing, chicken wire, or old pallet boards and your compost will turn out just as great.

Food Waste Composting

• Green Cones: The cones do not require turning or the addition of worms, so it’s an easy system. Just dump food scraps into the cone until it is about 3/4 full. Then let it sit for about 9-12 months to decompose while you start filling a second green cone.
• Food Digester: These are simple and easy, used much like a green cone, but a do-it-yourself project made from a small galvanized steel trash can.
• Worm Bin: These produce compost much more quickly than green cones or food digesters, but require a little maintenance to retain your worm populations while you harvest the “black gold” that they’ll make for you. You can build your own indoor or outdoor bin, or purchase one.

As you probably noticed, none of these methods recommend combining food waste with yard waste. Food waste has to be composted in a closed system in order to prevent problems with rodent populations. It is much easier to prevent problems than to remedy them!

Regular Maintenance

• Mowing: Mow the grass when it needs mowing. Cutting too short or too long stresses the grass.
• Watering: Water the lawn only as needed. If you have an automatic sprinkler system, invest in a smart controller system which will not water on rainy days. Allow the lawn to become dormant in the summer; grass is adapted to a drying out period.
• Nutrition: Use an organic lawn fertilizer to feed the soil and nourish the grass; apply lime to sweeten the soil in the fall.
• Grasscycle: Leave your trimmings on the lawn-to reduce fertilizer applications.
• Reduce Compaction: Aerate the lawn in the fall or early spring and then top-dress with good compost. Remove built up thatch periodically. Compacted and calcium-deficient soils encourage weed and moss growth.

Proper Culture

• Exposure: Grass likes the sun! Establish lawn in those areas of your yard that can support grass. Give up on growing grass under conifers and grow groundcovers and native plants there instead.
• Soil Conditions: Don’t expect lawn to grow in wet, compacted areas. Build healthy soil to encourage good drainage and deep roots. If an area of your yard always stays moist, consider a raingarden or plants that tolerate wet roots.
• Access: Avoid growing lawn in difficult to maintain areas like steep hillsides; plant groundcovers instead. You won’t need to mow them!

Tolerance

• Diversity in the Lawn: Adopt a different perspective-tolerate certain plants other than grass in your lawn. Clover seed, which increases nitrogen availability, was at one time a standard addition to lawn seed because grasses thrive in nitrogen-rich soils.
• Weeds: Hand-remove weeds that colonize in mats and apply corn gluten for seed control. Do not use chemical herbicide and fertilizer combinations that can be tracked into your house–especially by children and pets–and deposited in your carpeting.
• Moss: Accept some moss in the lawn; a healthy lawn can tolerate some moss. Moss will naturally die out when the weather warms up and in the meantime provides nest-building material for many species of native birds.
• Insects: Monitor for crane fly larvae; treat naturally only when the larvae reach a threshold of thirty to forty per square foot. Or wait for natural predators to find them; starlings do somewhat redeem themselves by eating crane fly larvae!

Renovation

• Site the Lawn: Consider shrinking the lawn to the areas that will support a healthy lawn; have fun introducing new plants to those areas not suited for grass.
• When to Renovate: Plan for a fall or spring renovation when the weather is conducive to grass growing.
• Build Soil: When renovating your lawn, build your soil too. Healthy soils grow healthy lawns which require less maintenance in the future!
• The Wrong Choice: If your lawn is too shady, if your dogs are too tough on it, or you don’t want to spend time caring for your lawn, then consider alternative landscaping ideas.

Please call the hotline at 206-633-0224 or email us for more lawn and landscaping ideas. We have a range of information to share and brochures we can send to help in your quest for a sustainable and healthy yard.

Determining the Right Amount

• Get to know your soil to determine how much and how long to water. Sandy soils retain less water than clay soils.
• Add compost to help sandy soil retain water and clay soils to drain.
• Both over-watering and under-watering cause problems for plants.

Best Watering Methods

• Group plants together based on their watering needs.
• Water only when soil is dry below the surface. Check with your finger or a soil corer.
• Directly water the soil, and not the plant foliage or tree trunks, by using drip irrigation or soaker hoses on both landscape beds and food gardens.
• Use rotating or oscillating sprinklers to deliver water most evenly on lawns.

Avoiding Waste

• Mulch bare soil.
• Water in the early morning to reduce evaporation.
• Water just the root zone of your plants. The roots of most trees and shrubs are in the top 24 inches of soil, most annuals are in the top 12 inches, and most lawns in the top 6 inches.
• Simple, inexpensive timers added to all drip, soaker hose and manual sprinklers ensure that you do not need to rely on memory alone to shut them off.
• Automatic sprinkler system settings should be adjusted frequently as the weather changes, and be equipped with rain sensors and other water-saving devices.

Prevention

• Know your garden’s soil, sun and shade patterns, and which plants are thriving.
• Build healthy soil: healthy roots equal healthy plants.
• Choose the right plants for your site because thriving plants are much less susceptible to health problems, and thriving lawns will out-compete weeds.
• Attract beneficial insects and birds, and use maintenance practices that will keep them in your garden year-round.
• Add barriers to prevent pests from reaching food crops.

Observation

• Appearances can be deceiving-a health problem may not be caused by disease at all and/or can be remedied by simply changing how you care for the plant.
• Insects may not be present even if you see insect damage: check to see if the pest has already moved on, or is being eaten by beneficial insects or birds.
• Get to know what beneficial insects look like in all their life stages so you don’t mistake them for a pest.
• Remove weeds before they set seed, so a few don’t turn into dozens or hundreds.

Patience

• Give beneficial insects time to work and increase in population-size by tolerating some pest damage. Step back to assess whether the beauty of the whole plant outweighs the damage.
• Use non-toxic methods such as clipping slugs and snails, and squishing aphids or washing them off with water.
• If problems persist, try your non-toxic methods again before even considering a least-toxic product/method.

Plant the Right Plant for the Right Place

• Get to know your garden’s soil, sun, shade and wind patterns to make informed plant choices.
• As you choose plants for your garden, keep in mind their requirements and select accordingly.
• Gather information regarding mature plant size to avoid crowding out other plants or creating conflicts with buildings, walkways or power lines.

Build and Maintain Healthy Soil Conditions

• Before planting a new garden, amend lifeless garden soil with compost to increase soil fertility and boost beneficial soil life while improving drainage.
• Mulch established planting beds with organic matter such as leaves, grass clippings, wood chips or compost in the spring and/or the fall. Mulch slowly feeds the soil, suppresses weed growth, attracts beneficial soil life and helps retain moisture in hot summer months.
• Avoid synthetic fertilizers, herbicides and insecticides. These chemicals have a detrimental effect on soil life and its fertility. Choose natural methods for pest, disease and weed control, and apply organic fertilizers that boost soil life and release nutrients slowly.
• Top-dress established lawns twice a year with a layer of compost ¼ to ½ inch thick which feeds the lawn and mitigates soil compaction in high traffic areas.
• Aerate heavily used lawns in the spring. Aeration decreases soil compaction and encourages healthy lawn growth.

Smart Watering

• Water plants deeply and less frequently rather than regularly applying small amounts. This encourages deeper root growth and soils will retain available moisture for a longer period of time.
• Decrease evapotranspiration rates by watering in the evening or early morning and place the water source close to the roots.
• Mulch garden beds with organic matter to prevent moisture loss and increase the soil’s water holding capacity.
• Water new plants regularly the first couple of growing seasons in order to establish strong root systems and guard against drought stress.
• Avoid watering established trees and shrubs unless it is particularly dry; mature plants are more susceptible to disease when over-watered.
• Apply 1 inch of water to lawns every week in the summer to prevent weeds from getting the upper hand in the heat of summer.