Recent summer and winter visits to Seabrook WA have inspired me to investigate the New Urbanism community planning movement. New Urbanism is an urban design movement, which promotes walkable neighborhoods that contain a range of housing types. It arose in the United States in the early 1980s, and has gradually continued to reform many aspects of real estate development, urban planning, and municipal land-use strategies. New Urbanism is strongly influenced by urban design standards that were prominent until the rise of the automobile in the mid-20th century; it encompasses principles such as traditional neighborhood design and transit-oriented development. It is also closely related to regionalism, environmentalism and the broader concept of smart growth. The movement also includes a more pedestrian-oriented variant known as New Pedestrianism, which has its origins in a 1929 planned community in Radburn, New Jersey.

Defining elements of New Urbanism (all exemplified in Seabrook, WA):

• The neighborhood has a discernible center. This is often a square or a green and sometimes a busy or memorable street corner.
• Most of the dwellings are within a five-minute walk of the center.
• There are a variety of dwelling types – usually houses, rowhouses, and apartments – so that younger and older people, singles and families, the poor and the wealthy may find places to live.
• At the edge of the neighborhood, there are shops and offices of sufficiently varied types to supply the weekly needs of a household.
• A small ancillary building or garage apartment is permitted within the backyard of each house. It may be used as a rental unit or place to work.

• There are small playgrounds accessible to every dwelling – not more than a tenth of a mile away.
• Streets within the neighborhood form a connected network, which disperses traffic by providing a variety of pedestrian and vehicular routes to any destination.
• The streets are relatively narrow and shaded by rows of trees. This slows traffic, creating an environment suitable for pedestrians and bicycles.
• Buildings in the neighborhood center are placed close to the street, creating a well-defined outdoor room.
• 
• Parking spaces and garage doors rarely front the street. Parking is relegated to the rear of buildings, usually accessed by alleys.

More about New Urbanism can be found at http://www.newurbanism.org/

These native plants thrive in the Seabrook landscape:

Dwarf Western red cedar. Thuja plicata ‘Excelsa’ is a narrow cultivar used at Seabrook as hedging or specimens.

Pacific wax myrtle. Myrica californica is the most-used plant at Seabrook, as evergreen shrubs or clipped hedging.

Red-twig dogwood. Cornus stolonifera is used as screening or trimmed hedging; it can take sun or shade, wet or dry conditions.

Baldhip rose. Rosa gymnocarpa is a hardy, small rose with a delicate flower and bright red fruit.

Douglas spirea. S. douglasii is a casual, airy, small shrub.

Coast strawberry. Fragaria chiloensis is a glossy-leafed spreading groundcover with small flowers.

Streambank lupine. L. rivularis is a prolific flowerer that grows quickly from seed.

Western sword fern. Polystichum munitum is an evergreen, textural classic fern used as a filler or accent plant.

New Urbanism offers a sense of community when you want it and privacy when you don’t. Quick and easy access to shared features like parks, playgrounds and commercial areas forgoes reliance on the car. Seabrook is an enjoyable example of this movement where shared public spaces and a sense of community have developed in a sustainable environment.

Michal

It’s winter in Seattle and so where can one go for warmth and great art…how about St Petersburg….Florida. Yes that one. The new Dali Museum is opening there this month in an amazing building by HOK Architects of London and set in a landscape designed by Graham-Booth Landscape Architecture to remind visitors of Dali’s summer residence in Cadaquez in Spain.

The grounds are full of colorful flowering shrubs, palms and trees that represent the coastal character of Spain, and over one thousand tons of Florida limestone boulders, (some as big as cars) are placed throughout the site to suggest the landscape of Dali’s Catalonian home. The rocks in his landscape paintings are referencing this same landscape.

At the entry a 20-ft. tall man-made boulder supports one corner of the massive cube and a living wall has plants in pockets and flowing water that weeps out of crags and crannies. A misting system gives the whole area a mysterious and cooling effect before visitors enter the museum.

Large boulders were split in half to define the steps, a spiral labyrinth invites exploration, a bench morphs into a pocket watch, entry gates disappear into boulders, this is a site as much fun to explore as one of Dali’s paintings. On the roof solar water heaters heat water for the bathrooms, LED lighting lowers energy use and passive solar addresses cooling. As it is built in Florida the walls are 18” thick and the glass specially designed to resist hurricane force wind speeds, and all the art is on the third floor, keeping it above any incursion by storm surge. Now doesn’t that take your mind off Winter?

With this project we have a typical back yard with large lawn area and no level area designated for seating or entertaining. The lawn was uneven and wide open with no sense of enclosure or privacy.

Our client enjoys gathering with friends and outdoor grilling. So we installed a new dining and entertaining patio with curved seat wall. The wall and adjoining planting bed divide the yard into play lawn and level social gathering area. The seat wall also provides additional seating space for large parties or sitting around a fire pit. The patio extends into the space between the garage and house where there is an area for grill use. This grill area is separate from the seating area but remains unobstructed for sight and conversation.

Vermiculture or vermicomposting is the practice of using worms to aid in the breakdown and disposal of waste into viable, useful material.  The end product of vermicompost is vermicast; worm casting or manure created from the digestion of materials.  This process takes material that is not readily useful to either soil or plants and turns it into a nutrient rich and water soluble plant fertilizer.

Residential worm bins can be made out of several materials.  The least common is metal; these transfer heat too readily and can be prone to rust.  Wooden bins are okay but over time the wood will rot.  Even resilient wood like cedar has its drawbacks; the resinous oils that prevent decay can actually harm worms.  Bins made of used or recycled plastic tubs are durable, easy to work and are fairly inexpensive.

After some research and many alternate designs, I decided on a fairly simple worm bin system for my garden.  It employs two plastic bins with lids, one must be able to completely fit within the other with room for a few bricks at the bottom of the larger bin.  The inner (smaller) tub houses the worms and the bedding (a mix of shredded newspaper and soil).  Before adding these I drilled small (1/8”) drain holes in the bottom of the bin and drilled larger (1/4”) vent holes in the lid.  In the larger bin, I placed four bricks at the bottom and sat the smaller bin onto them.  The main purposes of the larger bin is to protect the inner bin from excess moisture (rain), extreme temperatures, and to catch the liquid run off from the inner bin (often called ‘worm tea’).

The inner bin is the engine of the system.  Kitchen (vegetable) scraps are buried into the bedding and both lids are closed.  The amount of waste that your bin can handle ranges with temperature, food type (worms prefer different foods) and the species of worm one chooses.  A widely used species of worm is Eisenia foetida, or Red Wiggler (I found my worms on Craigslist but a Google search will point you in the direction of many local sellers).  These worms are voracious eaters and can handle the compact and hot nature of a worm bin. In contrast, our common earthworms need a cooler environment with the ability to migrate freely through a wide territory.  Using the right worms in a balanced worm bin has many benefits.  I have found that my bin is much less hassle than a compost pile (or bin), the breakdown is much faster and it creates a more concentrated useful fertilizing product.  Also it is very convenient; I keep mine in the basement with no noticeable odor. This indoor placement provides both temperature and moisture control.  Worms are most active with temperatures ranging from 55 and 75 degrees.  The soil should be moist like a rung-out wash cloth; if too much moisture the bin can take on an acrid smell.  Outdoor bins must be protected and can be susceptible to freezing, overheating; and flooding.  I have placed my bin outside and exposed my worms to all of these conditions, and the worms don’t fare well.

My worm bin has been going for nearly a year, in fact, I have split the one into two, but before this weekend I had never used the castings.  I have read of multiple methods of separating the worms from the casting and these fell into two basic categories- one being hunger driven and the other being light driven.  The basis behind the hunger driven is to stop feeding the bin and place a bin with food material on top to coerce the worms to migrate into the new space.  I chose the light driven method of putting the contents into piles on a tarp outside, the worms move down in aversion to the light, the top material is skimmed off and the worms are gently returned to their bin.  Although a little messy, this method of separation was quick and easy,.  Soon I was mixing the castings into a raised bed in preparation for the growing season.  Also, I diluted the worm tea collected in the outer bin and hit all of my edibles with a shot of home-made organic fertilizer.  If everything I have read is true, I can look forward to vigorous plants and a great harvest!

In the “before” photos below you will see a typical “Forgotten” back yard with weeds, awkwardly planted trees, a poorly sited utility shed, and grading issues. It all adds up to a space where the entertaining area is not attractive and uncomfortable to use.

A  modest amount of professional landscaping support who made just a few changes has opened up the yard and created various “use rooms”.  The “after” photo below demonstrates the effects of installing a simple gravel seating area, surrounded by planting beds.  The result is the creation of a tranquil reading and contemplation space while correcting the grading problems.  In this transformation process, the storage shed was moved to the underutilized side yard, leaving the relatively flat portion of the yard for a play lawn to be enjoyed by the household’s children. The transformed yard can now provide many activity choices for entertaining friends and family.

Last month, at the Bellevue Home Show, Lifestyle Landscapes made two presentations describing Rain Gardens and Developing a Sustainable Landscape.  The attendees at the Rain Garden Seminar have requested we post information about selecting a garden site.  We discussed a number of criteria pertaining to the sizing of a Rain Garden.  The following slides include this information.  If, after reviewing this information, you have unanswered questions, give us a call and we will be happy to provide answers – 206 621-2626.

Size of Rain Garden

Percolation Test

Dig a hole at least 2’ deep and 1-2 feet in diameter. •
Put a ruler in the hole and fill the hole with 8-12 inches of water. In Summer, fill and let drain three times. On the third time record the depth every hour. When the rate of change stabilizes i.e. is the same for three hours, that’s the infiltration rate in inches/hour.

Baxter

Are raised beds worth the effort and expense? The simple answer is yes, and here are a few reasons to make room in your landscape:
• Raised beds give the gardener an opportunity to control key factors such as soil make up, drainage and sun exposure.
• No foot traffic through your raised beds means less compacted soil.
• Plants thrive when their roots can travel freely.
• A bed that is raised even a foot can avoid many of our region’s pesky weeds. When the bed is fallow, a barrier of newspaper or plastic can add extra weed prevention.
• A raised bed constructed at seat level can reduce the amount of stretching needed to tend it.
• Heat gain that a raised bed receives provides a longer growing season; visqueen or glass extends the season.

Raised beds come in many forms, with a wide range of cost and materials:
• Mounding of garden soil can outperform a traditional ground level planting area.
• A rockery or a stacked stone wall can be inexpensive and attractive if built well, but maintenance can be an issue. Rough rocks are not usually comfortable seats.
• Segmented rock walls can be a more expensive, with a range of sizes and colors, and involve straightforward installation. Capped walls can be very comfortable seats.
• Cedar raised beds are very common. Cedar is naturally decay and insect resistant and readily available.
• Pressure treated lumber can be used for raised bed walls. Even though treated wood will have a long life, its use around raised vegetable beds is controversial due to the possibility of chemical leeching into the soil and vegetables. (My raised beds are pressure treated 2 x 8’s that were once deck joists. When constructing my beds, I lined the inside of the walls with a resilient plastic liner, protecting my food (and me) from any unwanted leeched chemicals.)
• Poured concrete raised beds are an expensive but very long lasting option.
• Other materials that have been used to form raised beds include concrete board (Hardie Plank), plastic/composite lumber (Trex, TimberTech, Monarch), and formed steel. Winter is the season that few think about landscaping and gardening but it is a great time to prepare for spring. A raised bed that is installed early has time for composting and other important soil building amendments. Put the effort in now, avoid the rush of building, planning and planting all at once. Leave a little time to contemplate and reflect, how does one prepare parsnips? Bok choi?

Zach