spring 2016

Chapucas exterior and rain garden

Took a couple pictures this weekend and then went back to this photo & rendering I had done before the construction.  Glad we went with the black trim.  The model and all the drawings were done in Archicad.

The rain garden has sure taken off.  I've had to do a lot more watering than usual due to our dry weather.  Each weekend I do a little more planting.  It's been hard to just stick with a few types of plants...I'm more of a color and texture experimenter when it comes to choosing landscaping. And it's looking a bit chaotic, but I'm having fun.  The Ben Moore gray siding is a nice backdrop for the different grasses and plantings.

Our solar panels are installed and just waiting on final equipment from Seattle City Light.  Here are 6 with another 10 on the upper roof.

We have been quite comfortable living in the 530 sqft apartment. Neil is working on the bookcases upstairs now and once they are done and painted we will be able to move up to the main part.

If you look closely you can see the cats lounging on the walkway.  Being strictly indoor cats, they have been loving exploring the garden and just being outside. 

the rain garden

First section in the yard was our rain garden.  One of our city requirements was to collect a portion of our impervious surface rain runoff in one of a couple ways.  We choose to create a rain garden in our front yard. The first step was to dig down about 18" to the native clay soil.  

Then we brought in 10 yards of special bio-retention soil to fill the hole.  I took a few days off of work to be able to focus on these next steps.

After moving the rocks into place, we spread a layer of mulch down.  It will take a few years for the plants to fill in.  Meanwhile, I wanted to cut down on weeds.  The idea was to put down the mulch first, then just move it aside when I go to plant.

Next up the river rock.  I wanted to create the look of a stream bed.

The roof water enters at the top of these photos and is absorbed into the soil.  It's designed to have 2-4" of standing water and in the event of a major storm. If the water rises higher, then it will drain into the white pipe at the bottom of the picture which then drains into the street...which then drains into the city storm water.

 

Always love a garden after a good soak.  The plants I ended up selecting for this first round are: 

• acorus gramineus variegatus ogon (golden sweet flag)
• carex 'frosted curls'
• carex buchahanii 
• carex glauca (blue sedge)
• miscanthus sinensis 'dixieland'
• miscanthus sinensis 'purpurascens' (flame grass)
• juncus effusus

I also put some lavender in and sedums up in the dryer part.  After getting this in, I have stopped planting now till the fall.  We are about to go into our driest months and while I don't mind watering some, I also don't want to lose any plants. 

The below diagram is from the City of Seattle's drainage requirement that you can download here.

My main resource for creating this was the Rain Garden Handbook for Western Washingon that can be downloaded by clicking on the image below.  

garden inspiration

Like many people, I'm drawn to gardens for their calm serenity and their beauty.  I love texture and color and 1/3 of the photos I take are landscapes and gardens.  In preparation to designing our garden, I pulled together a bunch of my photos and created an inspiration book.  The individual photos can be found on my flickr site.

I had originally planned to hire someone to help me with the install of the garden.  I had a rough idea of what form the garden would take, but not the specific plants.  But then I realized that the garden is something that will be constantly evolving over our lifetime of living there, so it doesn't have to be perfectly done right away.  Therefore, I can do a little bit here and a little bit there and learn more about gardening as I go.  So I've been reading a lot of books and studying my photos more closely and making lists of the plants I want to include.

I've also been visiting our local Japanese Garden at different times of the year. We are lucky here in Seattle to have so much greenery all year round.  The Seattle Japanese Garden and the 230 acre Washington Park Arboretum are just a 5-10 minute walk from our property.

the yard

As Neil works on the house, I've been working on the yard.  In May we brought in 15 yards of compost to amend our clay soil. That's the lovely dark brown above, on top of the not so lovely clay.  First we tilled the clay soil. Next we brought in the compost and spread it from the conveyor on the truck.  Much easier to do that than spreading it by shovel and wheel barrel.  It cost us an extra $300 to have this company pick up the compost and spread it.  Totally worth it.

Then we tilled the soil again to mix it all together.  After all that, I brought in a couple loads of medium mulch to cover the soil. I will be doing my main planting in the fall, but want to stop the weeds from overtaking.  Every place I had not put the mulch down over the winter, I had to pull out 1'-2' grass/weeds.  So this time it will all be covered.

In preparation for our rain garden, we went rock shopping at Marenakos. I had done a trip back in February to scope it out.  It's an amazing place.  All kinds of rocks and hardscapes. 

 We rented a truck that could carry and dump the load.  This is about 6.5 tons of rock.  3.5 tons of 1 man boulders and 3 tons of river rock.

Next posts will be about the rain garden. 

fences and gates

Here is a collection of gates within fences. We had put a fence in next to the Karina. Nothing fancy. Some of these shots and those I'll post later this week, were taken as inspiration, but cost ended up dictating that design.

greenwood ave cottages - ross chapin architects

This project was completed in our office just before I started working there 7 years ago. I actually visited it under construction because I was interested in housing communities and this was a unique project. I often look back on these pictures which were taken a few years ago, because it captures the cottages and their gardens at such a perfect time. About 3 years after completion. Before that the gardens are too freshly planted and haven't filled in....going back today they are just as beautiful, but much fuller.

I just can't seem to get gardening off my brain. I have realized that it is a never ending project. Not just the maintaining, but the adding and tweaking. I've had so much fun working on ours at the new house...I'm realizing that I need to put some time in at our Genesee house as well. These photos are a constant inspiration. The owners have really put so much passion into their individual gardens. Typically in our projects, the developer puts in all the plantings outside the 2' private yard fence. You can barely see the cedar fence depicting what is commons and what is private, as the plantings have grown. It's all about the transition from the public realm to the private.

soaking up the sun

We had a big push on the landscaping at the end of last week through the weekend. To deal with the grade change at the front, we had Matt Collins and his crew of Weigh Bones put in a rock wall. They also put in a gravel path from the front to the back patio and they put in the patio.

There were about a dozen large rocks left over, so on Saturday I placed them around the patio to help with the grade change there. We only wanted 2 risers from the back deck down to the patio, so they had to build the area up with gravel. Originally we were going to put a step, but after using it this weekend when friends were over, we liked how it created seating.

We had a few friends over to celebrate the completion of the house and before we put it on the market. What a beautiful day it was! The south facing back deck and patio worked just how I had envisioned it and many of us ended up gathering there to soak up the sun. Inside, the house was filled with light and the raised counter in the kitchen was perfect for the buffet of cinnamon buns.

It was fun to have kids running around, exploring and finding their own spots to sit.

dirt + plants

Our landscape architect friend, Scott Pascoe, gave us some advice on how to amend our clay soil. We had 20 yards of Cedar Grove Compost delivered Friday and I can't believe I forgot to take a picture of the mound. It was a lot. Most of it is now tilled into our front and side yard. What a difference in color.

I've been a little overwhelmed with what to do about the yard. I've been doing lots of reading and looking around at other projects and even met with a landscaper. We might have him do some of the work, but funds are tight, so I'd rather pay for more plantings and plant ourselves. To get some visuals, I've been stopping by local nurseries. We have a garden shop, City People's, around the corner from us. That's where these photos are from.


I was thinking this heather would be a nice ground cover along the walk to the house. The red color in winter is beautiful.


Above is "Little Heath" and below is "Royal Princess."

I spotted this lovely garden after lunch in Columbia City yesterday.