New Vine Maples

To develop privacy between the home and the road a berm has been built and is now getting planted with vine maples, ferns and other native plantings. The vine maples and ferns have been generously given to Brad by his father who owns land having huge supplies of both. Lois has been working with Brad of dbbrad and Fran Abel Landscape Consulting to achieve both a functioning and beautiful garden.

The berm itself was built with recycled materials -- old sod from other parts of the property, chips from landfill wood waste, and recycled cardboard for weed control. Gardens are a perfect place to think of recycling. Forget landscape cloth and use newspaper or cardboard. Forget expensive bark and think chips from landfills or tree services. Forget chemical fertilizers and think barnyards or decomposed sawdust. Forget expensive plants and think of friends' extras, layering branches to make new plants from old, starting cuttings, dividing plants, or digging and transplanting when it is ok to do so. Construction sites are a good place to dig because the plants are going to be squished by dozers anyway. See Tilth Get in and get out before the machines do their damage. Never dig in sensitive areas or on other's land without permission. Also, do not import invasive species (frequently just the plants others want to pass along) like ivy, holly, Mexican feather grass, pampas grass, butterfly bush, St. John's wort, and many more (some listed as invasive and others that should be). Noxious Weeds

Restoring the construction site and the soil to pre-building condition is an important part of any construction project. Construction compaction, drainage and beauty all need to be repaired once land is disturbed. Leaving bare ground will create runoff problems, erosion problems and noxious weed problems. Canadian thistles, Scot's broom and blackberries love nothing better than bare land. If you do not take control, nature's "repair" plants will move in. Although they do a great job, given hundreds of years, they will be a problem for the homeowner and the neighborhood in the short term. Alders, for example, are very important plants for setting nitrogen in destroyed soil but few home owners want a grove of alders at their front door.

Take charge and help mother nature along. Once we disturb land we then have both an opportunity and an obligation to repair it. We must all be gardeners to "fix" the land and return it to it's pre-construction condition. Try to think like a forest floor. Duff is created from plants of all sizes, from huge trees to moss all working together -- breaking down, rotting, entering an animal to be eliminated by an animal -- all to add to the duff, tilth, habitat, drainage, and beauty of the land. Just keep mulching to add to the soil and control unwanted plants.

Have you ever walked through a healthy forest when it's very, very cold outside? Or when it's very, very hot outside? Outside the forest, in clearings, parking lots, cities, and many neighborhoods the wildlife is quiet, the leaves on plants are curled and stressed, the heat or cold is almost unbearable. Enter the forest, just feet away from that hostile unforested environment to feel and hear the difference. The environment is healthy and alive showing little stress from extreme weather conditions. Heavy rain is quickly absorbed into the ground; wildlife is active and the bird sounds are happy and strong; and the plant leaves are not shriveled.

Elliott Menashe of Greenbelt Consulting has been helping people in the NW for years to understand the forest's function. Before clearing the land is the prime time to pay attention to how the forest processes our water by filtering it and returning it to the aquifer, supports our wildlife and provides the beauty we all love in this evergreen state. All construction projects, new or remodels, create this opportunity to protect the land where it can be protected and to repair the land where the damage was unavoidable.

And, the fun...wow! Watch it happen from the first moment you get dirt under your fingernails. Warning! Gardening is addictive.