Need the wisdom of the masses

| Gardening | Reader recommendations | West Seattle businesses | Wildlife

~~Two~~ Three (adding one since original post) questions arrived in the e-mailbox today. We have some thoughts on the first two but not a clue on the ~~second~~ third, so we’re throwing them out to the wonderful WSB readership to answer via comments on this post:

#1 — A new WS arrival wants to plant a vegetable garden and is looking for advice on “good times to plant, and good vegetables that thrive here.” (We had success with cabbage, lettuce, and spinach some years back. Planting time would be now, though, since those are mostly cool-season veggies. What else?)

#2 (added 10:16 pm) — A local family is moving from one WS location to another and plans to handle it themselves. Recommendations for who to use for trucks/etc. for self-moving? (We had a good experience with the 35th/Morgan U-Haul, but that was loooong ago.)

#3 — Someone else reports a woodpecker “attacking” their house. For now, they put a rock in the resulting hole (photo below), but they’re wondering what else they can do to discourage it from further attacks.

Wes Olsen April 21, 2007 (8:28 pm)

Not sure about the garden, but eHow had some good tips: http://www.ehow.com/how_1031_prevent-woodpeckers-pecking.html

Patrick April 21, 2007 (8:35 pm)

yuo have carpenter ants or some other infestation. Woodpeckers go where the food is. Call an exterminator asap. sorry, that is the only answer

MargL April 21, 2007 (8:55 pm)

Re: #1
A few years ago I had a small garden and really good luck with tomatoes – mostly the small sweet grape/cherry size but the romas did well, too. Oh fresh sweet tomatoes! (This from a former tomato hater.) Most of what I decided to plant was based on what was on sale at Mclendons. Tomatoes did well, lettus did OK, peppers didn’t do so well but they probably didn’t get enough sun. I also planted carrots and snap peas from seed and had a great crop of both.
Tried broccoli but it got a serious case of aphids and powdery mildew – bleah!

m. olson April 21, 2007 (8:59 pm)

Rule of thumb(not green): Plant on “Mother’s Day”

don April 22, 2007 (7:02 am)

I agree with Patrick, and you need to eliminate the obvious dryrot, which attracts the Carpenter ants.

rachel April 22, 2007 (9:53 am)

for a garden, here check to see the health of your soil….soil can be very sandy here and will need lots of amending with compost….as for what to plant? we have had great success with potatoes, snap peas, beets, greens of any kind….those should to be planted now…come may or june you can plant tomatoes, squash, carrots, corn, beans….be sure to plant in a sunny spot. Also the Seattle Tilth puts out a GREAT gardening guide, “The Maritime NW Gardening Guide”, which tells you what and when to plant with success. I think you can still get them at the PCC. Good Luck!

Katherine April 22, 2007 (3:50 pm)

I agree with Rachel, except for corn. I’ve never seen decent corn growing in Seattle. I’d suggest heirloom tomatoes if you can get them. Lots more flavor. One caution, though – if the place you just moved to hasn’t been gardened, you’re going to need at least a year to build up the soil fertility. You might try raised beds with imported soil.

MargL April 22, 2007 (11:33 pm)

Heck – I just tore out some grass dumped a couple bags of compost on the dirt, tilled it in, put in some soaker hoses and did great with the tomatoes, snap peas and carrots. Granted, the spot I was working was slightly larger than a hot-tub but it was all my husband and I needed and I didn’t have to wait a year.

Les April 23, 2007 (2:17 pm)

My house. The wood was just painted in the fall. We had been attacked by a nesting pair over the last two years, closed up the location of the nest. No insects that we can see, and the woodpecker was making, what I think, was nest opening. He was around for two days, and after we blocked his access, he went away. (hopefully for good).
LES

Tom April 23, 2007 (2:38 pm)

Re: woodpecker problem.
My neighbor’s house is attacked in the same spot every spring like clockwork. She takes a few cd-rom’s and ties them to string and hangs them on her house — mylar balloons also work well. Those plastic fake owl’s sold at marine supply shops can work too. Good Luck.