Image credit: Sienna P.
Guiding Principles
Permaculture
Informed by our area's historical ecology, we're building systems that hold self-balancing elements that will last for years with minimal maintenance.
​
Perennials Present
Perennials of different sizes protect the plants underneath them from excess sun and wind, help build soil structures, provide habitat for pest biocontrols, and are drought and frost tolerant once established.
​
We're making space for PNW native plants
Many of our native pollinators are only active for a couple weeks out of the year and have symbiotic relationships with native plants. Native plants are suited to our zone, carry cultural importance, and are essential to the bugs & birds that keep all our fancy ornamentals and vegetables alive.
​
Leaf litter as free mulch & pollinator habitat
Our native pollinators overwinter in our leaf litter, which then becomes healthy, loose organic soil. There's not usually a need to disrupt this process.
King Co. Noxious Weeds management guides
There are a variety of noxious weeds that cause economic, health, etc. concerns. We stay up-to-date to the problems caused by these common species and balance minimal disturbance with effective control methods.
​
Lawn to Pollinator Meadow
Native ground covers are beautiful, low-maintenance once established, easy on the soil, and drought-tolerant. Lawns have utility, but can consume a lot of resources when over-managed into monocultures.
​
Taking care of Thornton Creek, Lake Washington, and the Salish Sea
We want to exhaust all options and operate with patience to avoid leeching excess nitrogen, sediment, and pesticides into our local stormwater and stream systems.
​
Limiting Disease & Noxious Weed spread
We sanitize all our equipment & boots with a 10% bleach solution between sites to prevent spread of invasive plant seeds and fungal diseases that impact amphibians.