Our house and garden sit on the remnants of a glacial moraine, close to the north side of Seattle's Lake Washington and not far from the Center for Urban Horticulture at the University of Washington. The property is near the bottom of a gentle hill that, judging by the sandy soil, was once part of the lake's margin. The site offers several advantages: we are generally a little warmer than the rest of the Seattle area due to the moderating influence of the nearby lake; the sandy soil helps plants thatmight otherwise rot in our rainy winters, especially bulbs and genera like Arisaema and Trillium; and the houses and trees between us and the lake take the brunt of the occasional nasty winter winds, which normally move up Lake Washington from the south. The downside of these conditions is the need to water more during our lengthening summer droughts, despite the addition of copious amounts of organic matter to the soil. We also face the usual challenges of gardening on a slope.
展开▼
