Resources


Here are a few of my favorite tree and Permaculture related resources:
 

Nurseries

 
Burnt Ridge
A SW WA nursery with tried and true fruiting crops and nut trees for western WA, with an easy to use website

 

One Green World
Located in central Oregon, they have a similar very extensive collection of unusual and common fruiting plants to Raintree.

 

Raintree
A great local (Southern WA) source for many varieties of fruit trees, berry bushes, vines and more.

 

Go Natives!
A small nursery selling Northwest native plants in North Seattle. Their prices are very competitive with the much larger nurseries in Seattle.

 

Oikos
Grown in and shipped from Michigan, but a good source for rare and unusual edible plants, trees, root crops, and more.

 

Cloud Mountain Farm
For folks north of Seattle, Cloud Mountain offers hardy fruits as well as ornamentals. A good source for extra hardy varieties.

 

Web Resources

~Plants for a Future – Detailed information on a wide variety of edible and useful plants and trees.
~Vegetable gardening Fact Sheets from WSU (Washington State University), specifically for Western Washington.
~ WSU Hortsense. A great source of information for the home gardener on dealing with pest and disease problems. Organized by plant so it’s very easy to use.
~Berry and Grape info– Information on growing small fruits in the Northwest.
~Bullocks Permaculture Homestead– A long running and very impressive Permaculture homestead on Orcas Island, Washington State
~National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service

 

Books

Edible Forest Gardens Vol. 1 & 2-  http://www.edibleforestgardens.com/
Gaia’s Garden-  http://www.chelseagreen.com/bookstore/item/gaias_garden_second_edition:paperback
Introduction to Permaculture
Permaculture: A designers manual-  http://www.tagari.com/

Two of my favorite field guides for trees:  The Sibley Guide to Trees And Smithsonian Handbooks: Trees
 

Tree and Orchard related websites

Tree Care Information: http://www.treesaregood.com/
International Society of Arboriculture: http://www.isa-arbor.com/home.aspx
Arbor Day Foundation:  http://www.arborday.org/index.cfm
Seattle Tree Fruit Society:  http://www.seattletreefruitsociety.com/
City Fruit: http://www.cityfruit.org/
Common Vision:  http://commonvision.org/
 

Specifically…

There are many reasons to include trees in an urban landscape:

 

Trees help offset your carbon footprint

 

Find the value of your tree

 

Some basic information on pruning

 
This pamphlet is essential reading for anyone involved in construction around trees.
Tree Protection on Construction and Development Sites, A Best Management Practices Guidebook for the Pacific Northwest, 2009
 

The dangers of tree topping (and why you should be suspect of a company that offers this service)

 

I prefer to plant trees rather than cut them down. But for every tree that I do remove, funds will either be donated so that two new trees will be planted in our National Forests through the Arbor Day Foundation, or I will personally plant a tree on my family homestead in the Skagit Valley.