Companion gardening, the act of growing compatible plants together for their mutual benefit, looks disorderly but provides a boost for the plants, soil, and ecosystem that is your garden box. For example, the “Three Sisters” trio involves planting corn with climbing beans and winter squash. This method of planting was popular in several Native American communities, and for good reason: the cornstalks provide a natural trellis for the beans, the beans replenish the nitrogen levels in the soil, and the shade of the prickly squash leaves helps prevent weeds and pests while retaining moisture for all of the plants. It’s one big happy vegetable family.

After coming across the theory of companion gardening, I asked myself why we didn’t plant like this all the time. It makes sense to let plants that help one another grow with one another. Why wasn’t this the norm?

Well, as a culture we tend to favor the aesthetic of clean, straight rows of veggies or flowers—a few rows of carrots (labeled “carrots”), next to a few rows of peas (labeled “peas”), next to structured circles for bell peppers and jalapeños (labeled accordingly).

Let me confess that I am usually that labeler. I find the beauty of crisp garden rows more appealing than the helter-skelter look of companion gardening, which, when fully grown, looks like a small, snarled jungle.

Author Michael Pollan has a lot to say about our culture’s affinity for order in the garden in his book The Botany of Desire. But the benefits of companion gardening might be enough for you to ditch the rows.

Within the tangle of flowers and veggies is a biodiversity that is healthier than those labeled rows, and it’s all based on the knowledge of certain plant properties.

Pairing the right plants can provide natural pest deterrent, shade and soil regulation, better plant health, and weed suppression. And it will attract beneficial insects to your garden, such as pollinating bees too.

A few popular plant combos include: potatoes and calendula (the flower wards off potato beetles); cucumbers with sunflowers and dill (the flowers provide a trellis, shade, and protect against aphids and mites); carrots with chives (the chives improve flavor and deter pests); tomatoes with basil (which improves the growth and flavor); and zucchini with nasturtium (the flower protects against aphids and whiteflies).

Keep in mind that not all plants play nicely—peas, for example, should not be planted next to garlic or onion, which will stunt the growth of the pea. For a list of companion pairings, visit The Old Farmer’s Almanac website.

This year, I plan to plant with a healthy dose of organized chaos. I look forward to bright pops of flowers poking through the leafy vegetables, scattered toward a new ideal.

Read more articles about gardening in the OTO archives.

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“We can do 100 full ($500) rebates, and we are expecting to hit that this year. We came fairly close last year,” says Hillary Nickerson, Water Steward Specialist with the City of Spokane. Not all approved projects will cash in on the full rebate, so more than 100 people will be able to take advantage of the rebate. Nickerson encourages those interested to apply, noting, “If we do have a waitlist, we will likely get some fall applications rolling.” 

Nickerson explains the program is an economic benefit to the city as well as to residents. “As the city expands, the water department has to meet demand,” she says. “It can be very costly. But if we drop usage, it wills save us money and [help us avoid] adding new infrastructure.” 

While the rebate serves as a water conservation measure, the impacts run much deeper than cost savings: SpokaneScapes are meant to be beautiful. The program incentivizes smart design and offers a recommended list of regionally tried-and-true trees, shrubs, and other perennials. 

“One of the reasons we are requiring plants is to make Spokane more beautiful than just a bed of rock mulch,” which a few early design applications tried to deploy. Those interested in edible landscapes will be happy to know what berries and fruit trees are on the list, and raise beds can also qualify as part of a design plan. 

Although the upfront effort can be daunting, the Water Stewardship team is available to help. So are a dozen local nurseries and landscape professionals, all trained in the SpokaneScape guidelines and listed on the city’s website. Once fully installed, SpokaneScape designs are lower maintenance than traditional lawns. They are also better for our pollinators and aquifer, too.

How the SpokaneScape Program Works 

To fill out the initial application, go to the City of Spokane’s Slow the Flow page. Have your city account number and be ready with 2-4 photos of your existing lawn in the proposed project area. Upon submission, the Water Stewardship team will send you an email to confirm funding. The full online design application is due two weeks after receiving the confirmation email, although people are encouraged to reach out if the timeline isn’t attainable.  

The city will review the design and then contact applicants to schedule a mandatory pre-inspection. Pre-inspections last 45 minutes and are required before beginning any conversion work. At the pre-inspection, staff will also verify measurements, take additional photos, offer advice, and answer any questions. Following your successful pre-inspection, which will take roughly a week to schedule, you will be authorized to proceed with your SpokaneScape installation. 

Participants are given 90 days to complete their installations, although extensions are available for those who qualify. This timeline ensures that all the designated money is distributed, so if someone applies and has to abandon their project, the funds can be released to someone else. When your landscaping work is 100% complete, submit a final inspection request. Another staff member will come out to inspect your work and approve your rebate for your City of Spokane utility bill. 

Summer Hess is the managing editor of Out There. She’s looking forward to re-designing her own lawn this spring.  

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Parents and caregivers can harness this opportunity with an intentional focus on nature-based activities. Here are seven how-to books, all published by Quarto Books, that focus on STEAM principles—Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math. (Titles listed in alpha order.) 

Forest Club: A Year of Activities, Crafts, and Exploring Nature, by Kris Hirschmann, mother of two. This hardcover book for teachers and parents—with a forward by Anna Sharratt, founder of Free Forest School—makes a great addition to a nature school-themed home library. Organized by seasons, the spring chapter includes eight environmental learning concepts, like flowers and animal homes, and eight related activities, like flower pressing and building a bird nest.  

Gardening Lab for Kids, by Renata Fossen Brown, vice president of education for the Cleveland Botanical Garden. 52 experiments are organized into six topical units, to “learn, grow, harvest, make, play, and enjoy one’s own garden.” It includes practical, hands-on activities to make, for example, a rain gauge, birdfeeder, or clay pot water fountain.  

Herbal Adventures: Backyard Excursions and Kitchen Creations for Kids and Their Families, by Rachel Jepson Wolf, a homeschooling parent of two kids and owner/founder of the body care company LüSa Organics. Wolf is a dedicated herbalist (her children’s names are Sage and Lupine). Her book is organized like a cookbook, with recipes for elderberry gummies, dandelion fritters, chickweed salad, and many more. There are also botany lessons, a field guide with text and photos to identify plants, and directions for DIY crafty projects like how to make seed bombs.  

My Great Outdoors Book: The Kids’ Guide to Being Outside, by Josie Jeffery, horticulturalist, garden designer, and mother of three kids. 34 hands-on activities are organized according to weather, location, and season, such as rainy or sunny days, in the woods or at the park. The illustrations and layout seem tailored especially for kids in grades three and younger. 

Outdoor Science Lab for Kids: 52 Family-Friendly Experiments for the Yard, Garden, Playground, and Park, by Liz Lee Heinecke, a molecular biologist and creator of Kitchen Pantry Scientist website and KidScience app. Organized into 12 topical units, such as Playground Physics, Picnic Table Chemistry, and Garden Hose Science, kids use a science journal for recording their learning experiences. Teens and intermediate elementary-grade youth (grades four+) would be able to complete these labs solo or with peers with minimal adult guidance.  

Outside Exploring Nature, translated into English and written by a group of Portuguese authors. Subtitled as “a first introduction to weather, geology, and the night sky,” the graphic layout is reminiscent of an education primer, particularly appealing to grades three and younger. Includes 10 chapters, from trees and flowers to oceans and weather. It is organized as a “take along” for family excursions, with probing questions and activities to engage children in hands-on, experimental learning. There’s also a glossary of scientific terms and timeline of global natural history. 

Sticks and Stones: A Kid’s Guide to Building and Exploring in the Great Outdoors, by Melissa Lennig, a former outdoor educator and elementary school counselor. “Research shows that a daily dose of unstructured, outdoor play is essential for the physical and social-emotional health of kids,” writes Lennig in the introduction to her book of 30 STEAM projects that all require the use of logs, sticks, or rocks. Ideas include building a survival shelter and simple seesaw from logs, crafting catapults and fences from sticks, and creating rock campfire rings and stone tools. Kids can take this sturdy book with them outside and play and build for hours.

Originally published as “Books for Outdoor Exploration“ in the March 2020 print issue.

Amy McCaffree is mama to two elementary-age kids, and together they enjoy camping, paddling, biking, and alpine skiing. She was in 4-H as a kid and grew up “free range” on a farm near the western foothills of the Cascade Mountains.  

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Pickle them (in the refrigerator, since who has time to can?), noodle them (try the Spiralizer at Kitchen Engine), grill them, relish them, salsa them, or smoothie them. Because of their mild flavor and high moisture content, they work well in many dishes and will absorb marinades well.

With zucchini, size matters! Seeds in smaller zucchini are fine for eating, but the bigger the fruit gets, the woodier the seeds become. Younger zucchini are sweeter and more succulent than those left to ripen longer on the vine. If you are gifted dryer, larger squash, peel it, remove the seeds, grate the flesh and use it in sauces, relishes, or pickles to reintroduce flavor.And if you still have more than you can use fresh, grate it and freeze it for, well, zucchini bread. But do yourself a favor and, as much as you’ll want to, when you thaw it, don’t drain it before you put it into the recipe. The water will keep your bread moist and delish!

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RESOURCES

• Food Not Lawns INW Facebook Group
• WSU Extension Classes
• Spokane County Library District Seed Libraries
• Spokane Public Library (Hillyard Branch) Seed Library
• Seed Savers Exchange

EVENTS

Jams & Jellies (Yum!)

Wednesday, June 12, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. or Saturday, June 15, 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. @ WSU Spokane County Extension, 222 N Havana.

Inland Northwest Community Gardens Board Meeting

(Public and community gardens welcome) Wednesday, June 17, 5 to 6:30 p.m. @ WSU Extension, 222 North Havana

Food for Thought Book Club

“Rebuilding the Foodshed: How To Create Local, Sustainable, and Secure Food Systems,” by Philip Ackerman

Monday, June 24, 6 to 8 p.m. @ WSU Spokane County Extension, 222 N Havana

Tomatoes: Sauces and Salsas

Tuesday, July 9, 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. (free) @ Eastside Library, 524 S. Stone St. Spokane.

Dehydrating Fruits and Veggies

Wednesday, July 24, 5:30 to 7 p.m. ($20 to $30) @ WSU Spokane County Extension, 222 N Havana.

Putting Up The Harvest—Food Preservation

Friday, Aug. 9, 5 to 7 p.m.; Free with accompanying kids’ program hosted by Chief Garry Community Garden & Christ the King Church, 2103 E Mission Ave.

Written by Kathleen E. Callum

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Creating garden landscapes with less lawn and more of the right types of plants attracts birds, butterflies, bees, and other beneficial pollinators.

With the right planning it is possible to introduce a diversity of beneficial flowering perennials, herbs, shrubs, and trees, which provide nectar and pollen for pollinators from early spring to late fall and seed and berries for birds through winter. These plants can also offer pollinators habitat, protection from the weather and predators, and sites for nesting. Adding a clean and reliable water source and an undisturbed woodpile will greatly increase the desirability of your yard to pollinators.

I like to include many native plants in my gardens. They look right, usually flourish with little care, and connect with the wider surroundings. They have already evolved to support the needs of specific native pollinators. There is certainly no need to limit plant choices to just natives since many pollinators visit many different types of plants, both native and non-native. But do avoid plants that have been overly bred and hybridized with double flowers or unnatural flower colors.

Bigger drifts and denser plantings will enhance conditions for most pollinators. Foraging efficiency is better if a pollinator can visit the same type of bloom over and over. Massing plants in groups also looks more appealing to most people. By allowing more space for these plants to evolve beyond the narrow confines of the standard issue planting bed, you can start to create good habitat for pollinators. Reducing or even removing the lawn is a logical next step. A traditional lawn demands lots of water, pesticides, and weekly mowing with noisy and polluting mowers; also, they offer little for pollinators.

A landscape comprised of the perfect plants that are maintained using chemicals, heavy pruning, and blowers to remove all leaf litter will also fail to provide habitat for pollinators. This can be the hardest step for many people to overcome, but it is the most important. Learn about more intelligent ways to maintain a garden to support biodiversity, and try not to see every fallen leaf as something that is messy. No one thinks of the woods as being messy after all. With planning it is easy to keep paths and patios clear. As your plants grow and mature, there will be much more to look at, so that fallen leaves and dormant plants will not read as being messy but an integral part of the whole.

City of Spokane residents should be aware that the SpokaneScape rebate program allows for up to a $500 credit on a resident’s City utility bill for removing lawn and replacing it with water-smart plants and mulch.

A well-designed landscaping that provides habitat for pollinators will greatly improve surroundings for people as well. Real connections with and a better appreciation for the natural world can begin right outside our doors. // (Richard Lambert)

Richard Lambert is a landscape designer and landscaper in Spokane. You can reach him at TheEnglishLandscaper.com.

Best Plants for Birds and Bees

Some of my favorite native plants for pollinators and people in the Inland Northwest include Oregon grape holly, golden currant, mock orange, serviceberry, nine bark, red twig dogwood, rubber rabbitbrush, fernbush, Mormon tea, chokecherry, blue elderberry, Apache plume, Douglas spirea, buckwheat, penstemon, liatris, columbine, yarrow, lupines, pearly everlasting, evening primrose, and blue flax.

There are many great non-natives to choose from, too: sunflowers, lavender, iris, catnip, sedum, thyme, asters, Russian sage, butterfly milkweed, salvias, honeysuckle, and echinacea.

The post How to Fill Your Yard With Birds, Butterflies, Bees and Beauty appeared first on Out There Venture.

It would be up to me to figure out how to connect with these intimate strangers—the people who can see into my brightly-lit kitchen during twilight hours, who know what time I race to work each morning, and who witness the number of packages left at the door by the mail carrier.

I wanted to know my neighbors because I wanted to feel like I had people on my team. During my first year in the house, a low-grade anxiety thrummed at the base of my skull after some hooligan chucked a rock through my bedroom window, just to see the glass shatter. The incident put me on edge; I didn’t like leaving the house empty, and felt nervous there alone at times, too.

Having people to check in with and check in on felt really important. I didn’t want to live in fear, and knowing my neighbors seemed the only way to work through the negative emotions.

Like many north Spokane neighborhoods, mine is a mish mash of demographics. Some houses have been restored, with clean porches and manicured lawns. Others have suffered decades of neglect.

Foreclosed on and vacant for two years, my house was somewhere in between. It needed a lot of work, but it had good bones.

The overgrown side yard was a prime example of this. The southwest-facing patch of weeds and rocky soils had potential and, with a little money and a lot of sweat, would be enough space for a garden bigger than the footprint of my house.

During my first year working the garden, I felt a little bit crazy and on display. Some folks had a handful of vegetables growing in raised beds or on their back patios, but no one else had turned over their entire yard and raked it into 50-foot beds. I planted everything from lettuce and tomatoes to kohlrabi and okra, along with tons of flowers to attract bees and ladybugs.

I completely gave up all other home-improvement projects and dedicated every scrap of spare time into weeding, arranging irrigation, solving pest problems, and putting up the harvest.

Now I’m gearing up for the second season of my ridiculously-large urban garden. While eating local and fresh is a bonus, it’s not the primary benefit.

I love that my garden pulls me outside most afternoons in the spring and summer, even if the weather is rainy or hot. It gives me an intimate relationship with one tiny speck of the earth.

It makes me familiar with the patterns of my neighborhood, from the mom who runs three days a week with her toddler bouncing along in the jogging stroller, to the Israeli grandmother who picks our grape leaves and returns with dolmas in the spring.

But the very best part of the garden is that it offers everyone—myself, the neighbors, and the passersby—something beautiful to look at. When a weedy side yard is worked into an abundant landscape, it gives us something to root for and cheer on together—we all want to see it thrive.

Ultimately, it gave me exactly what I was hoping for: an excuse to have tiny, meaningful exchanges on a regular basis with my new neighbors.

Local Gardening Resources

• Spokane Community Gardens Facebook page has information about upcoming community garden tours, which are a great way to get ideas and inspiration and meet people in your neighborhood who are growing food.
• WSU Extension offers many classes and resources for food production in the Northwest, along with master gardener clinic hours to answer a wide variety of horticulture questions.
• Spokane Conservation District has educational offerings for new and seasoned gardeners and puts on an annual plant and tree sale.
• On May 12, Garden Expo Spokane will host a huge assortment of plants for sale, along with gardening-related exhibitors, demonstrations, food, and activities held at Spokane Community College from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• The Friends of Manito Spring Plant Sale is June 9 from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Also check out the organization’s valuable workshops and presentations.

Originally published in the May 2018 print edition of Out There Venture under the title “Growing Into a New Neighborhood.”

Summer Hess climbs, swims, and runs trails across the Northwest. Read more of her articles in the OTO archives.

[Feature photo by Summer Hess – Mid-season side yard.]

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Convention says to dig a trench one to three feet deep, three to four feet wide, and fill and pile the trench with wood (branches and even whole logs) as high as you want to go (up to five or six feet), and then cover the wood with nitrogen-rich compost and finally soil. If you’re working alone like I was, well, good luck. Initially, I had grand visions of a fifty-foot serpentine Hugelmound. The reality of my Perry District soil is that my shovel resounded in hardpan barely two feet down. My neighbor across the street told me it’s an ancient river bed. Halfway through, I was tempted to give up and take a long nap in my wood-grave, but I still had to mound the debris up as high as possible.

Due to some back pain, and failing to choose the best, sunniest, most parallel-to-the-wind location, I decided to allow my first hugelmound to top out at a pathetic two feet, after factoring in the eventual subsiding. I crossed my fingers, and hoped the depth of the trench would make up for the height. It’s amazing how much wood disappears under a seemingly small pit.

Since decaying wood hogs nitrogen until it rots, you can add grass clippings, hay, and manure. Some sources even encouraged gardeners to pee on the wood to jump start the process. Avoid wood chips in the interior, although mulching on top is fine. Make use of yard debris instead of sending it off in a compost bin. I mixed in “green manure,” leaves, hay, grass clippings, and aged manure. Also, don’t forget to pack a few inches of soil around all the logs; a straight up woodpile won’t easily break down. Additionally, consider that big air pockets make perfect dens for rascals like mice, voles, and marmots.

To keep steep mounds from falling down, pin or “nail” it together with grasses, strawberries, or other ground cover. When it comes to the right plants for hugelkultur, the rules are hazy, but popular choices include squash, beans, peas, sun chokes, comfrey, zucchini, kale, strawberries, berries, bush tomato’s and even sunflowers. Essentially, try everything! Diversify, and don’t worry about over seeding. Whatever is best suited will survive and thrive; what’s not suitable will not grow. If you have fresh logs in your hugelmound, try to inoculate them with gourmet mushroom spawn. I infused mine with shitake dowels.

Some people claim immediate improvements with seeds planted in hugelbeds, but the general consensus is things will really take off after year three or four. Either way, the reward for all this backbreaking labor (or back strengthening, depending on your point of view) is a raised bed that will provide a major surplus for decades, making my few days of grunt work well worth it. Happy Hugeling!

Originally published in the April 2018 print edition of Out There Venture under the title “Low-Tech Backyard Gardening with Hugelkultur Beds.”

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Using native plants in a naturalistic style and making it work in a residential setting can be a challenge. A common pitfall is the planting can look formless or unkempt. What looks great out there on the grand scale does not always translate directly to a small property. There are plenty of great resources of information to help you design and install landscapes with native plants, often written from a purely ecological viewpoint. What makes a great garden is nearly always a combination of ecology, art and design. Rather than trying to copy nature, it is better to try to distill its essence, which is of course easier said than done. But here are a few tips.

In more visible places like a front yard or nearer to the house, limiting the plant palette to big drifts of a few well-performing varieties can help to keep the design simple, which will make a landscape easier to read as well as to manage. These might also be the areas in which to utilize more non-natives, perhaps to provide evergreen structure, but choose exotic plants with the same basic needs as your natives. Certain native shrubs can work well in a more formal layout if that is desired, or in slightly-less-than-naturalistic monocultural drifts or un-sheared hedges. Native shrubs with significant success include mock orange (incredible aroma when blooming in June), nine bark, golden currant, fern bush, Douglas spirea, Oregon grape, and red twig dogwoods, all of which are very dependable and fairly uniform in growth habit. If low maintenance is your impetus for using natives, focus on a balanced mix of the right small trees and shrubs.

Meadow areas of grasses and flowering perennials can too easily be perceived as a field of weeds by the uninitiated. Mowing the edges or a path through the planting adds structure and indicates that the arrangement is intentional. Drifts of one particular plant can work well here too, both at the edges and throughout. If space allows add drifts of shrubs or a copse of trees. Some of the best native perennials include blue flax, firecracker penstemon, Rocky Mt. penstemon, Richardson’s penstemon, roundleaf alumroot coralbells, arrowleaf balsamroot, columbines and lupines; all of these are very reliable performers. The large grass Great Basin wildrye has great potential and, with a little more water than it receives in the wild, is a very attractive garden plant. In a very low-water yard with poor rocky soil and full sun, these plants will do well: snowy buckwheat, sundancer daisy, Munro globemallow, Palmer penstemon and Dorr sage. I often combine natives with non-native grasses and perennials in dense naturalistic plantings that cover the ground, as this works better in smaller residential yards.

There is much more to experience in a naturalistic garden and people will want to explore it personally. Adding well proportioned and thoughtfully placed paths and patios within a landscape can greatly enhance the experience. Other built elements such as arbors, benches, water features, a fire pit or a well-placed sculptural pot can create the sense of order and scale that help most people feel comfortable. Additionally their angular lines offer a counterpoint to the shapes and textures of the plants. The best gardens always have this balance of order from the hardscape elements and (relative) chaos from the plants.

With proper planning, a naturalistic landscape that uses native plants, whether in part or exclusively, can require less time and fewer resources to maintain and can provide greater rewards than a traditional yard. With a bit more thought towards the design, this style of landscaping should become accessible to a greater number of homeowners, landscapers and developers. // (Richard Lambert)

Richard Lambert is the owner of The English Landscaper. This is his first contribution to Out There Monthly. Visit his website at www.theenglishlandscaper.com.

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