Down To Earth Community Gardens

06/07/2026

I've been gardening at this house since 2014. In all that time, I've probably spent less than $1,500 total & only in the last 2 years.

That's about $125 per year, well below the average.

Until 2025 my average was $0.00 spent annually & that will continue to be the case going forward.

It takes a Village to feed a Community.

My garden (along with the 1,141 new school & community gardens & counting - replication myth busted!!) was built with free wood chips, rescued materials, shared plants, shared seeds, recycled cardboard, compost from local horse farms, reclaimed fencing, decking, salvaged pavers, and knowledge shared freely by gardeners who are great humans.

There's no catch. Everything I ever did in this work started by:

Saying hello. Meeting people where they're at.
Having Zero judgements or expectations.

When someone has extra starts or seeds, they share.

We wanted to simplify and centralize the knowledge for anyone to replicate the process for their own garden.

When someone tears out a garden a fence, a deck someone else rescues the lumber.

When a tree company needs to dump wood chips, gardeners requested them saving countless hours and money on waste management and landfill fees.

When a horse owner has manure, gardeners add it to their growing space reducing storm runoff and stream damage.

When someone has leaves falling from their trees, that's great for soil building, mulch, overwintering your garden, and it's free

That's community gardening.

The funny thing is that I barely spent any money at all until last year.

2025 was my first real "aesthetic" gardening year.

I bought perennials, flowers that come back every year. I intentionally bought plants I can divide and share with others next season and every season after.

And I bought Costco trellises. And solar fairy lights. So many fairy lights & Lots of Costco trellises.

They are really pretty making my garden a magical wonderland to wander in after sunset.

But this isn't just more stuff to manage later and store somewhere, it has a bigger impact that builds community!

I reuse the lights and trellis to build our Halloween corn maze and pumpkin patch for the hundreds of trick or treaters that visit.

That kind of space where whimsy gets to exist brings layers of fulfillment I can't articulate.

The trellis were $20 each, sturdy, simple, require no woodworking skills, just step on the bottom and the stakes go right in.

While I had diy tunnels and trellis I made from old t-stakes, rescued fencing and pvc, paying for zip ties kept those well under $25 for my entire 6000sqft garden. That was a one time cost and did the job for 10 years.

The higher spending numbers make more sense when you look at what drives costs:

• Paying for lawn maintenance, equipment to maintain
• Installing irrigation systems that leak, need constant adjustment or don't offer the deep watering needed, dealing with evaporation and dead plants
• Purchasing raised beds instead of building them from free materials. Wine bottles are perfect and only require a rubber mallet.
• Buying retail compost by the bag, big cost increase. 1 yard of compost at Cedar Grove = $43. 12 bags at 2cuft each will run you around $150+
• Purchasing mature plants instead of growing starts or purchasing local. Keys Nursery is less than 1/2 of all retail prices. They are open 7 days a week and located on 67th Ave just past 108th.
• Watering inefficiently definitely costs you money. Deep watering vs daily watering is the smart choice
• Shopping convenience over community. Big box stores are everywhere but you're spending so much on the worst quality available. Why bother? You're likely to spend more $$$ attempting to fix it, trying to figure out where you went wrong.

I recently saw a tomato start selling for nearly $19.

For a single tomato plant.

Meanwhile, gardeners all over Snohomish County will be giving away tomato volunteers by the dozens because they came up in the compost pile again.

I discovered around 25 black krim tomato volunteers where they were planted last year. While these are my personal favorite I prefer a bit of variety too.

Gardening doesn't have to be expensive.

Money helps make it happen faster is a myth so busted.

Transforming a space takes hours, not months or years because the waste produced isn't going away , it's plentiful & free.

Community helps more than money all.day.every.day.

The best gardens I've ever seen weren't built with the biggest budgets.

They were built with relationships.

06/06/2026

Thank you to everyone who joined us at Sorticulture today!
It was wonderful seeing familiar faces, meeting new gardeners, and spending the afternoon talking about all things growing, composting, watering, and community building.

Kari Quaas thank you for all the efforts behind the scenes. There are no words but I know what it takes to pull it off, it's not easy. Can't wait to be back next year.

We covered a lot of ground—from starting gardens from scratch using sheet mulching and compost, to natural pest control, composting, volunteering, seed sharing, site visits, and finding free or low-cost gardening resources throughout Snohomish County.

One topic that always surprises people is compost pricing. A single yard of bulk compost from Cedar Grove costs about $43 and will fill an 8' x 4' x 12" raised bed. To fill that same bed with 2-cubic-foot bags from a garden center, you'd need about 12 bags at a cost of roughly $150—and you'd still end up with lower-quality material plus a mountain of plastic bags to dispose of.

We also talked about: Shopping Local, visit the Co-ops!
🌱 Wise watering techniques using wine bottles and terracotta spikes
🌱 Where to find untreated straw at the Marysville Co-op
🌱 Local nurseries and horse ranches offering valuable garden resources
🌱 Fire-wise landscaping considerations
🌱 Compost, mulch, seeds, and materials available through community partnerships
🌱 How site visits can save gardeners hundreds (or sometimes thousands) of dollars by helping avoid costly mistakes

A special thank you to Andy Tran for sharing his watering system and foraging knowledge, and to Lindsay Riggs for talking about the real-world impact of a site visit. While they invested about $500 into their projects, the guidance, free resources, and recommendations significantly reduced what could have been a much larger expense. Most of their budget went toward a rainwater harvesting system and bulk compost—investments that will continue paying off for years.

Barb Harmon, my partner in the spite gardening rebellion, it's always fun to be unsupervised in public together.

Thank you to everyone who stopped by, asked questions, shared stories, and helped make gardening feel a little more accessible for the next person.

That's what Down To Earth Community Gardens is all about: sharing knowledge, reducing barriers, and helping more people grow food, flowers, habitat, and community.

See you in the garden. 🌱

06/02/2026

🌱 THE JUNESIES ARE COMING aka
Western Washington Weather Whiplash

While today is gorgeous and a hint of summer to come (crosses fingers), the cold is coming back.

We're looking at a temperature drop of more than 30° later this week compared to today.

My advice:

Only cover the summer crops you want to keep.

Below 55°F, many summer crops begin to sulk.

Below 50°F, they can suffer cold damage, stall out, or become garden zombies—not dead, but not really alive either.

They just sit there giving you false hope refusing to grow any bigger or produce any food.

The good news?

The daytime temperatures should rebound enough that we aren't looking at a prolonged cold snap. A few chilly nights are very different from weeks of cold weather.

Don't freak out. Prepare. Tuck in your garden for the cold nights.

🌡️ Cover suggestions:

Row covers
Old windows
Tomato cages with pillowcases
Storage totes or bins
Umbrellas
Bedsheets
Frost blankets
Old milk jugs with the cap removed
Buckets
Cold frames

I know many of you already planted tomatoes, peppers, squash, cucumbers, pumpkins, melons, and basil because today's weather feels amazing.

That's okay. No judgment. Just tuck them in for a few nights.

Your future self will appreciate the effort and a pat on the back x 1,000.

🌱 Your peas, lettuce, spinach, brassicas, onions, carrots, beets, radishes, cold tolerant tomatoes and most herbs don't mind the cool down one bit.

06/01/2026

, and join me in paving the road to hell. 😂

With the goodest of good intentions, I started all the seeds this spring. I've grown my own starts for several years, and it's been awesome. I give dozens to Terry to plant and share. And yet... I just couldn't get motivated this year.

Forgive me, Mother (Nature), for I have sinned. I let them all die. Like, dead, from neglect, because I couldn't summon the will to water. My plastic greenhouse annoyed me. I was fixated on my flower gardens. I just couldn't get motivated. I had no f***s to give...

Why do I say this, out loud and in public? BECAUSE IT'S OKAY. Lest you think we here at DTECG are super human perfect gardeners, you need to really, really rethink that. 😂 We fail. We get distracted. We have lives and occurrences and ADHD and all sorts of mean, nasty, ugly things. According to my mother's earliest comments in my baby book, I have a fierce temper and I'm extremely stubborn. I can confirm this has not changed in many, many decades. It's why so many projects start with the words "and I was pi**ed." So, often we fail. But we STILL GARDEN.

Failure and irritation are the perfect time to do something different. This morning I went to the Crack House (McDaniels) and bought starts. Cucumber, melons, squash, herbs, peppers - all the things I started earlier and let die. If you planted s**t and it died, get more starts. If you forgot to water seeds and they never sprouted? Buy more, plant more. If life happened and you had no f***s to give, it's not too late. Start over!!

We all have things that don't work. Life happens. It's ok. Just keep going. There's always another opportunity to garden.

On the other hand, my flower gardens are fu***ng spectacular this year and deserved all the love, transplanting and compost after several years of neglect. 😂

~Barb

06/01/2026

# June Garden Checklist: Planting Rainbows & Growing Community 🌈🌱

June is a month of abundance, observation, and adaptation. The garden is bursting with color, pollinators are working overtime, and we're all trying to outsmart whatever surprise weather Western Washington decides to grace us with.

🌈 **Plant Rainbows for Pollinators**

Pride Month is the perfect reminder that diversity makes everything stronger—including gardens.

Plant flowers in every color you can find. Place them throughout the landscape instead of concentrating them in one corner. Pollinators are far more likely to visit your vegetables when flowers are woven throughout the garden.

Some of my favorites you might notice on a visit:
💜 Lilac, Iris, Pansies, Violas, fox glove, clematis
💙 Borage, Brunnera, cone flower, CA lilac, artichoke
💚 Herbs, leafy greens, root veggies allowed to flower
💗 Snapdragons, sweet peas, dahlias
💛 Calendula, brassicas
❤️ Crocosmia Lucifer, Salvia
🧡 Nasturtium, cosmos, Crocosmia
🤍 Sweet Alyssum, lilac, dogwood, alliums

Every bloom is an invitation.

🔥 **Fire Safety Matters**

As summer approaches, now is the time to:
• Remove dead vegetation
• Trim plants away from structures
• Keep roofs and gutters clear
• Avoid highly flammable landscaping near homes
• Water deeply and wisely. Once per week, before 9am. For one hour during the dry season.

With snowpack sitting at roughly 42% of normal in many areas, every drop counts this year. If you've converted over to the pvc method for watering wisely, Well Done!

Water soil, not sidewalks.
Water deeply, not daily.
Mulch everything you can.

🐌 **Garden Pests Are Arriving**

Expect:
• Aphids - spray off with hose or prune off heavy infestations
• Slugs - Sluggo, scissors, oatmeal, beer traps, add to compost
• Snails - Sluggo, add to compost
• Deer - Motion sensors, human activity, dog hair on perimeter
• Rabbits and other rodents - Add onion to water in a spray bottle, spray around plants. Small amounts of blue cheese where activity is noticed.

Before reaching for chemicals, ask yourself:

Who is eating what?

A few holes in leaves usually means your garden is functioning exactly as nature intended.

🌿 **What's in Season for Foragers?**

Depending on your location:
• Salmonberry
• Thimbleberry
• Early blackberries
• Nettle
• Chickweed
• Plantain
• Fireweed shoots
• Rose petals
• Spruce tips in cooler elevations

Always forage responsibly and leave plenty for wildlife and future generations.

🌽 **June Planting**

Still time for:
• Corn
• Beans
• Squash
• Cucumbers
• More lettuce
• Carrots
• Beets
• Turnips
• Radishes
• Herbs

Successive planting means continuous harvests.

Plant something every week.

📅 **Upcoming Community Events**

🌻 Sorticulture
Saturday, June 6th at Noon
Growing For You & Your Neighbor

Banya
2814 Colby Ave
Everett, WA

Between Hewitt and California on the south side of Hewitt.

Learn more:
https://www.visiteverett.com/1514/Gardening-Classes

🌻 Kokanee Elementary Harvest Celebration
June 9th

🌻 Somerset Village Community Garden Tour & Summer Planting
June 12th 3pm

CLASSES in JUNE

🌻 Planting for Summer & Fall Down To Earth Community Gardens
3516 81st Dr. NE, Marysville WA 98270
June 13th Noon to 2pm

🔥 Fire Safety Landscaping Class Granite Falls Library
June 17th 6:00 PM

🌸 **What's Happening In My Garden?**

The giant peonies are fluffier than ever.

The California Lilac is at peak bloom and vibrating from the sheer number of bees.

The hummingbird babies are back and once again competing to see who can get closest to the Garden Monster (me) before I notice them buzzing beside my ear.

Blueberries are loaded again this year, including a rescue plant that arrived with only a handful of leaves. It has recovered beautifully. I don't expect fruit this year and that's perfectly fine.

The peach tree didn't make it. A heavy fruit load broke too many branches and it couldn't recover. I'll replace it next spring.

Salvia Hot Lips, coneflowers, alyssum, snapdragons, begonias, pansies, violas, catmint, lilacs, and dozens of others are covered in bees from sunrise until sunset.

The additional solar lighting has made the garden just as enjoyable at night as it is during the day. My official goal is to become the Griswold Garden with all the solar fairy lights and added whimsy.

The rescued pavers have finally found homes and the garden now feels almost orderly.

Almost.

Joel especially enjoys the view from his office while working from home. He's officially the water boy for the 2026 summer season as I point from the reclining chair on the patio all the places that need attention paid.

🌱 **Harvest Report**

I've been harvesting strawberries for a week already and today is only May 31st.

Current harvests include:
🍓 Strawberries
🥬 Arugula
🧅 Green onions
🌿 Rhubarb
🥬 Celery
🥕 Carrots
🥔 Early potatoes
🌱 Turnips
🥬 Kohlrabi
🌶 Radish
🥬 Butter lettuce
🫘 Fava beans
🌿 Oregano
🌿 Parsley
🌿 Salvia
🌸 Chive blossoms
🌸 Borage flowers
🌸 Pansies
🌸 Violas

🌦 **The Junesies Are Real**

Corn, beans, and squash are emerging nicely from direct sowing.

But summer has not fully arrived.

Cold nights are still happening and the Junesies are no joke.

I'm protecting many of my summer crops with old windows. There are lots of great examples throughout the page if you need ideas for protecting tender plants. Only cover the Summer crops you want to keep to survive the cold evenings of Western Washington.

💚 **A Small Personal Ask**

Unfortunately, I've done significant damage to my knee and we're currently determining whether surgery will be necessary. Only 30 years ago did I narrowly avoid it, time has caught up and this gardener is not cool with the aches and breaks.

I'm looking for a little help finishing some of the harder (for me) garden tasks:

• Preparing one remaining fence-line planting area (light work)
• Breaking up soil clumps from weeds already removed (light work)
• Planting additional corn for our Halloween Corn Maze and Pumpkin Patch (light work). Planting tomato, pepper and squash starts. (light work)
• Direct sowing beans, squash, leafy greens, herbs, and root vegetables (light work)

The garden is mostly ready. I simply need a few helping hands to finish what my knee currently refuses to negotiate on.

🎨 **What's Next?**

Lots of recovery.

Lots of creative projects.

I've been thoroughly enjoying engraving goose and duck eggs and recently started experimenting with turkey eggs for even more intricate designs. If I get lucky and obtain some ostrich eggs, I'll be able to go even further on the design with the bigger size!

The direct-sown seeds are getting quick daily watering during sunny weather to keep them from drying out. It takes surprisingly little water and only a few minutes.

Today five neighborhood kids stopped by. One brave soul picked a peony bloom to taste and take home quickly followed by another 4.

Apparently, if you live in my neighborhood, flowers are now on the menu for the kiddos.

Honestly, I love their curiosity.

🌻 Visitors are always welcome.

Come tour the garden.

Learn something new.

Fine-tune something old.

See what works in the real world when growing food for free without chemicals.

And if you visit, don't be surprised if a hummingbird buzzes your head, a child hands you a flower to taste, or a bee politely reminds you that this garden belongs to them too.

Happy Pride Month from all of us at Down To Earth Community Gardens. 🌈

05/25/2026

Update 4:15pm all items have found forever homes. Pick up arrangements are made.
Hey all my garden friends. I have some free resources available to make some vertical growing space. Available for pick up only.

12 Pvc 1/2" 10' lengths

10 pvc 1" 10' lengths

12 6' & 8' metal t-stakes

Assorted 3x3 & 4x4 posts over 5' in length

10 gauge aluminum fencing

Available now until gone. Pickup location is 3516 81st Dr NE Marysville WA 98270

05/24/2026

The May garden is packed with tiny life sprouting and buzzing everywhere.

Notice what you don’t see.

Tomatoes.
Peppers.
Squash.
Tomatillos.
Cucumbers.
Eggplant.
Okra.
Zucchini.
Pumpkins.

Not in my garden.

It’s been pretty cold. Too cold for summer transplants.

Any squash, tomatoes, peppers, etc. needing to get OUT OF YOUR HOUSE right now are probably not going to meet expectations.

Not even close.

I know waiting for "warm enough" weather is hard.

I know the plants take up too much space.

I know hauling them inside and outside every day is annoying.

And yet… that’s the job. And it’s temporary.

If you already planted them because TRUST ME, I know you did…
heavy sigh

For my sanity and your self-confidence, follow this handy wisdom:

You know how dentists say:

“Only floss the teeth you want to keep.”

Same concept applies to gardening.

“Only cover the plants you want to keep.”

I love old windows for making little A-frames and lean-tos.

A thick layer of straw mulch works great.

Old milk jugs are excellent protection too.

Cut off the bottom, remove the lid, and you’ve got a tiny temporary greenhouse for one plant.

Just remove it when it’s sunny.

Tomato cages are banned here at Down To Earth Community Gardens (IYKYK… or search “impalement on a tomato cage” for the full meal deal).

However, for those who do not identify as a walking human pinball machine through life, you can toss a pillowcase over a tomato cage to protect summer starts.

There are a million ways to cover the plants you want to keep.

Just do it.
Please.
For me.

~ Terry

Enjoy the garden tour and the projects I still need to tackle.

05/24/2026

Time to do the nasty...

Welcome to a special Memorial Day weekend edition. We have a nasty job ahead. (Not sure what you thought, I'm talking pruning, but no shame here.)

PRUNE YOUR WATER SPROUTS. This is especially true if you have fruit trees, Italian plum/damson in particular. Not only are they going to crowd sunlight, prevent air flow and be useless, they attract the bane of my existence: fu***ng aphids. 😡🤬🤬🤬

Aphids will suck the life out of your trees and can, in fact, weaken them to the point they are susceptible to disease and die. They like the tender young growth, and will infest a tree to the point of literally carpeting leaves and branches.

I've sprayed with a hose - doesn't make a dent. It does, however, fling the aphids onto other things.

I've used insecticidal soap - kills everything it touches, but you're not going to reach it all anyway. It also leaves the carpet of aphids bodies, blackened and ugly, on the shriveled leaves. Mocking you...

I have sooooo many fu***ng ladybugs (literally) who have laid countless eggs. Predatory wasps. Birds. My garden is alive with the sound of mu - uh, good predators. They don't make a dent.

There is no fruit on water sprouts, and even cutting the new growth at the end of fruit bearing branches doesn't reduce your yield. It will, however, make your regular pruning easier later by getting sprouts when they're smaller, and it could save a life. The tree, the neighbor, the mailman, whoever I see next... 😇

In the comments I've dropped a couple pictures of water sprouts, but do enjoy the video of my personal infestation. Now if you don't mind (or if you do, I don't give a s**t right now) I'm going to take a shower. I have aphids in my hair. 🤢🤮

~Barb

05/22/2026

When something is legally right but unethical and unjust I don't stay quiet.

My HOA wanted control over community and tried to make me smaller. Tried to mandate No giving away the garden harvest. Or plants.

I became a nonprofit.

I've replicated the process 1,139 times and counting. Not just near home but all over the world.

Then I changed the law.

F**k em all.

Feed healthy food to hungry people. Eliminate food deserts. Enable food sovereignty.

Being a decent human is not that hard..

~Terry Bockovich, Founder Down To Earth Community Gardens

05/22/2026