Story and photos by Ellen Cedergreen
Reporting for West Seattle Blog

This is a month to celebrate gardens and gardeners – with the West Seattle Garden Tour (co-sponsored by WSB) next Sunday, and two tours with West Seattle stops this past Saturday, including the grand-opening celebration for the Community Orchard of West Seattle on the north side of the South Seattle Community College campus on Puget Ridge.

First, we take you to a stop along the Seattle Tilth-sponsored Chicken Coop and Urban Farm Tour, which was citywide, but with some West Seattle stops, including author Lyanda Lynn Haupt‘s Gatewood home.

They use a byproduct from roasting coffee beans called “chaff.” It looks like hamster bedding and is nitrogen-rich, making it a good material for composting. As a bonus, it can be acquired free from local coffee roasters – just inquire with your favorites. Lyanda took visitors into the coop, where she picked up her chickens, allowing visitors to touch them.

From left to right: Adelade, Ethel, and Ophelia. Ethen is a Barred Rock; the other two are Buff Oringtons, a favorite breed of Lyanda’s. She says she’ll get an egg a day from each when they start laying, which should happen shortly. Also at her stop, visitors examined a coldframe in the yard.

Saturday’s other major tour was the Community Harvest of Southwest Seattle-presented Edible Garden Tour.

A highlight was the official grand opening of the Community Orchard of West Seattle at SSCC. Laura Sweany told WSB they have used about 150 volunteers in the garden already, and if you are interested in helping, sign up for classes, and come help harvest, Thursday mornings at 10 am.

Volunteer power from CHoSS was in evidence Saturday too – volunteer Bennett King, and Secretary Sara Collins were on hand as part of the Edible Garden tour.

They held a small raffle to benefit Community Harvest and also helped coordinate orienting visitors along the tour – which provided a chance to see the Community Orchard of West Seattle in full bloom:

Meantime, supporters came out in droves to dedicate the orchard, and learn more about its innovative growing techniques – which among other things have resulted in fast fruit on the apple trees!

Community Orchard’s Laura Sweany explains the innovative techniques they are using to push the fruit trees into fast and furious production.

Starting with the Espalier technique, which controls growth in a controlled vertical direction, they then go two steps further. Instead of allowing the branches to become woody, they tie them down to wire. This causes the tree to think it should produce fruit on that branch, despite the fact that it’s new. Once the branches have produced, they are pruned, and the process repeats itself each year. The apples and pears from these trees will be donated, through Community Harvest of West Seattle, to local food banks.

Another stop on the Edible Garden Tour was dubbed “A Little Bit of Everything.” Next photo shows Terry Archer and Heike Ohlig standing in their garden of many perennial delights. Behind them on the trellis is a kiwi plant:

Terry and Heike have had their garden going for around 6 years. The couple will be moving to Germany soon (Heike is a native of Hamburg) and will be sad to leave their labor of love. It features more than 30 perennial edible plants and contains fruit trees, perennial sunflowers, artichokes, and even currants.

Heike told WSB that currants were mistakenly identified as a cause for disease in the 1920’s, and were subsequently banned. As a result, they aren’t grown much in this area, even today.

The duo uses companion planting techniques to benefit the garden’s inhabitants. Here, comfrey (mineral-rich) and garlic (helps ward off disease) at the base of an apple tree:

Another stop on the Edible Garden Tour was at the White Center Cultural Center at St. James (on the West Seattle side).

One of their goals is to find innovative materials to spontaneously build raised beds.

Genyk‘s been with the garden since last year and was out working in the raised beds today, prepping them for planting.

He told WSB the beds have been in use for many Seattle Tilth classes, and harvests have all been donated to local food banks through Community Harvest of West Seattle. This year, they intend to open up the beds for local area would-be gardeners to use.

Genyk helped create these sub-irrigation pots which enable gardeners to water less often while also leaving their plants for a few days in the summer without worrying about them getting scorched.

The general idea is that a bottom pot holds a well of water with just a small pocket of air between it and the soil in a top pot. A filter acts as a wick, bringing the water up and thus keeping the plants moist at all times. This system is especially helpful in container gardens where one hot day without enough water can take away much investment. The technique is popular in hydroponic gardening and is often used in roof top gardens.