"The history of Everett is a casebook study of the destruction of an environment by rampant free Enterprise" (from "A guide to architecture in Washington state'"- UW Press). Truer words were never written. The absentee landlords of the place back in late 1800s and early 1900s, people like Rockefeller, Rucker and other people that they named streets after, just trashed the place for timber profits followed by "development". They didn't leave a single tree standing.

One of my favorite historical photos of Everett at the turn-of-the-century shows vast clear-cuts from around what was probably going to be Hewitt Street, looking North to a shaggy old growth forest-very tall trees and lots of snags. They got to those later.

Earth Day 2019 found me in Everett working on my old front yard. Holly and I are divorced now but still good friends. She wound up with the house. In the 13 or so years I lived there I cleaned up a lot of weed trees like Laburnum etc.. Also a whole lot of English ivy. The front lawn was sort of de facto, with plenty of "wildflowers" (dandelions in spring and hieracium in summer). I thought they were quite attractive. As a landscape designer I was constantly coming up with schemes for a real showcase Front yard, which never happened.I always had a leaning towards using native plants but before I could decide I was divorced and out of a house.

Then in 2016 Holly called me up and asked if would put in a wildlife Garden in the front yard. I had already come up with some schemes from the past but sort of refigured things as I went along. Along with paying off some back taxes I was also going to get paid and Holly was going to buy the plants. That's my favorite kind of landscaping-using other peoples money. So in the summer 2016 I got started. Although I had acquired Parkinson's by this time and was about Half the man I used to be I was able to do most of the work. I got some young guys to strip off the sod and carry in rocks and gravel for paths and sitting areas. In the fall 2016 we planted the first plants. By the fall of 2017 all the plants had grown a lot. By fall of 2019 the growth was amazing. Fall by the way is a great time to plant since you don't have to water much except at planting time. Aside from the initial fertilizing at planting time it's never needed any more fertilizer.

We did have some native plants here, originally including a row of tall Pacific dogwoods and a few holodiscus and around 2008 planted a Tall Mahonia hedge between us and the park next door. Now the front yard, roughly 30 x 50 ft
Has 25 species of native plants all native to Everett or were native to Everett in the past probably. (Bunchberry Dogwood and Campanula rotundifolia)

An original thought I had years ago was that I wanted suitable yard for a towhee to nest in. So I planted bunches of Snowberry ,Nootka Rose,,Salal and Thimbleberry to make dense tickets that may harbor a towhee or junco nest. I saw a White-crowned Sparrow fly into a Douglas fir trees so maybe it's nesting in there. The Douglasfir grew 4ft this year!

There's not too much bare Earth left in the yard therefore no more weeds or very few.

Back to earth day 2019 when I was working on spreading mulch. I didn't realize it was Earth Day till later. I wasn't being much of a do-gooder for the local Hymenoptera. First I buried a small patch of little burrows of some small Mining Bee's ( About a quarter inch long) which haplessly searched for their missing burrows. Other hymenoptera were more pissed off -several yellow jackets orbiting my head at eye-level. I mulched elsewhere for a while.


As far as trees go on my small plot I've got one Douglas fir, a big leaf Maple, four Vine Maples, couple of Bitter cherries, and some big shrubs like holodiscus. Should be interesting to see how it all grows -editing Will be needed, but that's the fun part. Can't wait to see what's happening this year.

Jeff Gibson
changing the world
In Everett Washington