Ell Alley: Construction of the Ell Alley Garden

Monday, December 2, 2013

Construction of the Ell Alley Garden

Compost has begun to be spread on the native clay soil in early November 2013.

The first pile of compost.

The finished garden in late November 2013.

This stonework serves as a catch basin for rainwater.

The story of the Ell Alley Garden starts at the offices of the SHA, in a part of town called both Uptown & Lower Queen Anne. Jordan met with the project manager on June 1, 2013 to discuss the guidelines for landscaping at Rainier Vista. Screening was strictly prohibited. Shrubs over 4 feet were allowed only against the walls of buildings. It was impossible to place tall shrubs against the walls of our particular townhome, because the utilities meters (gas & electricity) as well as cable boxes for internet & television for every unit in our building, took up the only blank wall. There was space for planting taller shrubs on 2 walls of the garage. Plants cannot exceed 3 feet in the front yard, or 4 feet in the back yard. After some consideration by the project lead & one revision of our landscape plan, we were allowed 4 trees spaced 12 feet apart.

10 cubic yards of Cedar Grove compost was delivered on Monday, 11/4. It didn't rain that day & rained very little on 11/5 & 6. Jordan spread most of the compost during that time. It rained fairly heavily on 11/7. It didn't rain on 11/8 & another 5 cubic yards of compost was delivered. That was spread during the next few dry days. There was very little rain until 1/18. Most of the planting & stone work was completed by then. Temperatures were mostly in the 40s & low 50s. Saturday, 11/23 was a beautifully sunny day. Rusty, Steve & Jordan went to NurseryTrees.com in Snohomish to buy 3 Acer circinatum & 1 Thuja plicata 'Excelsa'. Rusty & Jordan placed them in holes already dug. The trees were 7 feet tall with root balls 2 feet in diameter. On 11/25, Jordan bought bark & spread it on the paths. In the evening of 11/26, Rusty & Jordan placed pavers for the walk between the front door & the alley. By Thanksgiving Day on 11/27, the initial work on the garden was done.

Steve & Jordan had decided to make a garden of native plants in the area beside the house & garage. Rusty agreed with this decision, although he didn't seem to care all that much. We loved the native plants at our private campground & along the trails of the Mountain Loop Highway in the Cascade Mountains. The ecosystem of the Pacific Northwest Coast extends from northern California into the Alaskan pan-handle. Some plants were used that were not native to Washington, but to the region. Many came from the Cascadia Garden. Some of those had been moved from the Phantom Lake Garden at the home of Jordan's grandparents in Bellevue to the Cascadia Garden from 1961 to 64. That garden was a forest that existed largely in its natural state. We collected other plants from the private campground. Jordan found more at the Washington Native Plant Society plant sale. We ordered even more from Go Natives!Nursery.

Our small Patio Garden was left open to plants from around the world. Jordan ordered quite a number of different bulbs, adding Ajuga reptans 'Black Scallop' & Sedum spathulifolium 'Cape Blanco' as ground cover. Hebe recurva, Hemerocallis 'Bela Lugosi, Hemerocallis 'Rootbeer' & Luzula sylvatica 'Aurea' was moved from the Cascadia Garden. Alchemilla mollis 'Select', Campanula 'Birch Hybrid', Chamaecyparis lawsoniana 'Ellwood's Column', Daboecia cantabrica 'Atropurpurea', 3 more types of Hebe (H. ochracea 'James Stirling', H. pinguifolia 'Pagei' & H. 'Red Edge') & Panicum virgatum 'Heavy Metal' were purchased. The patio garden includes a wall of cement blocks, in 2 tiers, down to the parking pad. Arctostaphylos uva-ursi 'Massachusetts', Juniperus conferta & Rosmarinus officinalis 'Prostratus' were placed to trail down from the upper tier.

The area in front of our unit was landscaped by the builder with a wide swath of Sarcococca hookerana var. humilis & Juniperus conferta, along with a single Hydrangea quercifolia. This garden is shaded by a large ash tree (Fraxinus sp.) of undetermined species. Digitalis purpurea (Common Foxglove) Dryopteris erythrosora (Autumn Fern) hellebores (H. foetidus, H. x hybridus & H. 'Ivory Prince') & Lamium maculatum 'Beacon Silver' were added to the Ash Tree Garden.

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About Ell Alley

Ell Alley is the home of Jetta, Jordan, Kitty, Rusty, Steve & Toby. It is named for the alley beside & behind the house that forms an ell: the shape of the letter L. It is located in the Rainier Vista development, in the Rainier Valley of Seattle, which extends 7 miles southeast from Downtown Seattle to Rainier Beach, between Beacon Hill & the lakeside ridges of Mt Baker, Lakewood & Seward Park. Ell Alley is 4 miles from Downtown Seattle, 0.4 miles from the Columbia City Station & 0.7 miles from the center of the Columbia City Landmark District.

Rainier Valley History

The first settlers arrived in the 1850s, but settlement was slow until the forest was cut down & milled, as it was throughout the city. Developers bought logged-off land toward the end of the 19th century. They laid out the communities of Genesee, Columbia City, Hillman City, Brighton & Dunlap.

Cheap land in the valley, just outside the City of Seattle, attracted Italians of rural origins & they planted large, productive gardens. The north end of the Rainier Valley became known as Garlic Gulch. Japanese immigrants also had farms in the valley. The produce filled local markets including Pike Place.

The Rainier Avenue Electric Railway opened the valley to greater development, reaching Columbia City in 1891 & Renton in 1896. In 1907, the City of Seattle annexed most of southeast Seattle, including the Rainier Valley.

At the start of World War II, Japanese residents were forced into internment camps east of the mountains. Tens of thousands of war workers came to Seattle to work at the Boeing Company, the shipyards & the port. The US government constructed thousands of temporary housing units at Rainier Vista, Stadium Homes (now Mt Baker Village) & Holly Park in the Rainier Valley.

After the war, the temporary housing became public, low-income housing. Suburban development took many white residents away from the valley. Blacks moved into the Rainier Valley from the over-crowded, nearby Central Area. Interracial couples found acceptance here. Filipinos arrived in large numbers.

After the fall of Saigon in 1975, refugees came from southeast Asia: Vietnamese, Cambodian, Hmong, Lao & Mien peoples. Many settled in the Rainier Valley. Chinese continued to arrive, although most settled on nearby Beacon Hill. There was a small influx of Mexicans. Somali immigration began after US involvement in Somalia in 1992.

Work on new housing at NewHolly (formerly Holly Park) began in 1997 & continued for a decade, with 1400 units sold to private owners. The rebuilding of Rainier Vista began in 2003 & still continues. Columbia City rapidly gentrified starting in the late 1990s. Many units of new housing were built in the form of townhouses, condos & apartments.

The current population of the Rainier Valley is about 41,000. The racial breakdown is 34.1% Asian, 26.9% Caucasian, 26% African American, 1.6% Pacific Islander, 6.5% Mixed Race, 1% Native American and 3.4% from other races. Hispanic or Latino of any race are 7.2% of the population.

Our Land & Climate

The city of Seattle rests between 2 bodies of water: Puget Sound & Lake Washington. Puget Sound is a substantial part of the Salish Sea & a very small part of the Pacific Ocean. The Salish Sea is set apart from the Pacific by the Olympic Peninsula in the state of Washington & Vancouver Island in the province of British Columbia. The dense, wet clouds of the Pacific Ocean travel as far as the Cascade Mountains, near the Salish Sea & not very far from the ocean. East of the Cascades lies the desert of the Columbia Basin. The moist, temperate climate of Seattle extends south to northern California & north to southeastern Alaska. The Pacific Northwest Coast from San Francisco Bay to Cook Inlet shares a flora dominated by evergreen coniferous forest. The central portion, west of the Cascade Mountains, is called Cascadia. The climate is cool & wet from fall to spring, warm & dry in summer. The Olympic Mountains block Seattle from much of the Pacific rainfall. Seattle is drier than the Atlantic coast of North America & northern Europe, cooler in summer & warmer in winter. It lies near the latitude of Paris & Quebec City.

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Monday, December 2, 2013

Construction of the Ell Alley Garden

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