Sunday, September 14, 2014

Fall Harvest, Flowers and More....


-Did you know a number of our gardens donate food to Northwest Harvest and the Cherry Street Food Bank?  This year we have had a great harvest and have been able to donate quite a bit.  http://www.northwestharvest.org/cherry-street-food-bank

-Although we have a lot of vegetable gardeners, there are also some amazing flowers.  This Dahlia, grown in our garden, is just one example of the variety of flowers our gardeners have planted this year.   Please come visit but please remember to leave the flowers behind for others to enjoy!

-As the summer turns to fall, many of our gardens will be putting in cover crops, some of which will be edible.  Did you know that an edible cover crop can provide vital nutrients for your garden's soil?  http://extension.oregonstate.edu/gardening/node/911

Sunday, August 17, 2014

Seattle Tilth Harvest Fair


Urban Pollination Workshop

Urban Pollination Project visits Unpaving Paradise


On Thursday, July 24th, the Urban Pollination Project ( http://nwpollination.org ) came to Unpaving Paradise and spoke with those of us able to be there at 3 in the afternoon about bees.   Gardener Jeff Stallman had organized the workshop, and Tessa Forbes lead a small group of urban pollinators in presenting.  They brought some photographs and a box of specimens, gave a presentation, and then walked us around the community garden stopping to visit pollinators in action.

I discovered that I really didn't know much about bees.  I didn't know, for instance, that bumble bees are not only the most common local pollinators but they are also the only bees that can "buzz" (vibrate) tomato flowers to gather their pollen.  Bees seem to prefer blue-violet colored flowers (although tomato flowers are yellow) and don't see the color red at all.  Bees aren't very aggressive, unlike wasps, many of which look a lot like bees.  The bumble bees we saw in the garden use holes in the ground or in tree branches to nest and only make enough honey to feed their young.  I'm not good at Latin, but the U.P. website has lots of information including the proper names of various bees.  It was intriguing to see that there are some very small bees as well as the more familiar honey and bumble bees.


The timing for the workshop (which was open to the public) was pretty much chosen by the Urban Pollinator folks themselves.  (No evening or weekend hours.)  We're hoping we can do this again next year at a time when more people can come.


Saturday, April 26, 2014

Birds of Unpaving Paradise P-Patch: White-crowned Sparrow

The song of the  White-crowned Sparrows is one of the most-studied sounds in all of animal behavior; the first time I heard one singing at Unpaving Paradise was on a spring day in 2013 (our p-patch's third season), from a tree that overlooks our garden.

This white-crowned proclaimed its ownership of the area, its health, and its virility  -- incessantly -- in song. Our garden (and the small park it is situated in) is surrounded by apartment buildings, roads, and parking lots. This species of sparrow does quite well in our busy city; still, as the days went by, I couldn't help thinking that he sounded a bit forlorn.  
But suddenly one day, there was a break in the singing --- and now two White-crowned Sparrows where flying and flitting among the shrubs and trees of the park. Soon, the two birds were carrying mouths full of straw, and disappearing with them into a patch of park ground cover (Point Reyes ceanothus).  
A few days later, the steady stream of building materials were being ferried to a new location: the raspberry patch in the plot my partner Tracy and I garden!  A sparrow would dive into the thick mass of raspberry plants with a beak full of straw or twigs, the raspberry canes and leaves would shake for a bit, and them out would fly the bird, with an empty beak. 
Time passed.  There was still occasion for strident singing, as well as chasing Junco's out of the p-patch.  We resisted searching for the nest among the growing mass of raspberry plants, not wanting to worry parents or disturb babies.
Then, on June 1st, we were admiring our quickly growing vegetables, when Tracy saw a crow staring intently at a spot on the ground next to our raspberries, from the fence that borders the p-patch.  It was watching a featherless baby sparrow, on its back, flailing about, and appearing too young and weak to stand.  We also spotted a second baby on the other side of the raspberry patch, but this one was on its feet, looking older and stronger, and moving toward cover.
We decided that the second baby was ready to be out of the nest, but that the first would likely be lunch for the crow if we didn't intervene.  Parting the tangled raspberry canes, I found an empty nest, gently picked up the fledgling in my gloved hands, and placed it back in. 
We checked the nest the following day. It was empty again.
There is no way to know, but we hope the young bird we put back in the nest that day was one of the three juvenile White-crowns we eventually saw scurrying about the garden that summer.
As the raspberries leaf out and form flower buds this spring, and vegetable seeds and starts are planted; we will listen for the beautiful, and strident song, of the White-crowned Sparrow.