This is an excerpt from my latest post at the Native Plants & Wildlife Gardens blog. Click the link below to visit the full post. Every city has parks, however not all parks are created equal. Many are used primarily for recreation, others for dogs, but some are devoted to nature. Seattle is lucky to [...]
This is an excerpt from my latest post at the Native Plants & Wildlife Gardens blog. Click the link below to visit the full post. For anyone with an interest in botany and horticulture, Kew Royal Botanical Gardens in London is like the holy grail. Started in 1759, this garden is now over 250 years old and [...]
Magnuson Park is located in Seattle along Lake Washington, north of the University of Washington. The park has a long history of dramatic land use change and part of it has now come back full circle. In the days of early settlers the area was a wetlands, alder grove, and Douglas fir forest with trees [...]
The Hiram M. Chittenden Locks in Seattle, have been moving boats and other vessels from the Puget Sound to Lake Washington and beyond since 1917. The Army Corps of Engineers built and maintains the locks, garden, grounds and buildings. To the east of the locks is Salmon Bay, a freshwater bay connecting to the rest [...]
The Olympic Sculpture Park in Seattle is a beautiful place. The 8.5 acre park sits alongside Elliott Bay, overlooking the Puget Sound, islands and the Olympic Mountains to the west, downtown Seattle to the south and the Space Needle to the east. The site is divided by a major street, railroad tracks and a bike [...]
This post is for Marsh Madness, an idea from Ken Lo at the Connected by Nature Blog. “Brackishology n., (brackish, slightly salty, as in the combination of seawater & fresh water, + ology, the study of) the study of wetlands during the NCAA basketball tournament. See also #MarshMadness.” Read more about Marsh Madness and Brackishology [...]
Located in the Little Quarter in Prague, the Wallenstein Palace (Valdštejnský Palác) Gardens are beautiful, interesting and full of unintentional habitat. Wallenstein Palace is grand, consisting of twenty-three houses, three gardens and five courtyards. The gardens are completely enclosed by the buildings and walls and only accessible by two entries. Commissioned by, and named after Habsburg general Albrecht z [...]
Sunset Park is located in Corvallis, Oregon in the Willamette Valley. Its current structure is fairly new, having been renovated around 2006 to restore wetland habitat for the Dunawi Creek that runs along the edge of the park. Dunawi Creek is an urban, stream running from Bald Hill, through town to the confluence with Mary’s [...]
The Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve is 2,500 acres of coastal wetland located at the mouth of the Tijuana River in southern California. It’s located in the most southwestern point of the continental U.S., running along the United States – Mexico border. The estuary contains the Tijuana Slough National Wildlife Refuge, Border Field State [...]
Balboa Park is one of my favorite parks to visit, and I do so every other winter. The 1,200 acre park is a beacon of green space in a sprawling city, and it’s easy to spot when flying into the San Diego airport. In the park are eight distinct gardens, well over a dozen museums [...]
The history of Bradner Gardens Park goes back to 1971 when the 1.6 acre lot was purchased by the City of Seattle along with 19 other lots in the city to be used for parks. For many years however it was leased out, first to the school district and then social services. In 1987 a [...]
This past weekend I attended the Puget Sound Bird Fest in Edmonds, Washington. Part of the schedule was a wildlife habitat demonstration garden as well as a tour of five backyard habitats. The demonstration garden was the first stop and has it’s own story which I will post separately about soon. This post will focus [...]