Rare Care’s team has changed once again this year. We would like to welcome all of the new faces and recognize the returning staff who make our work possible.
In late 2023, Andrea Cummins was hired as the new Volunteer & Outreach Coordinator–most of you have probably already seen a flood of emails from her this year. Andrea is a past Rare Care volunteer (several years past) and is very pleased to once again be a part of a program that plays such an important role in plant conservation and lands managment across the state. 

As home gardeners know, sowing seeds is much cheaper than buying plant plugs. In 2019, Rare Care started an experiment to test if direct seeding of White Bluffs bladderpod (Physaria douglasii ssp. tuplashensis) could be an efficient method to establish new populations.
Establishing a new population of White Bluffs bladderpod would help meet the Recovery objectives for this threatened species. It is a single-site endemic found only on a narrow, 17-km stretch of the White Bluffs on the east side of the Columbia River. 

Planting 672 plugs and sowing 45,000 seeds by hand takes no small effort. That was our goal this past fall when we planted Wenatchee Mountains checker-mallow (Sidalcea oregana var. calva) at three sites in Chelan County and Umtanum desert buckwheat (Eriogonum codium) at one site in Grant County. Fortunately, we had three days, nine volunteers, seven agency partners, one graduate student, one faculty, two undergrads and three staff to get it all done. 

04.17.24

Around The Farm

Learning the Art of Leadership as a UW Farm Intern
By Roger Chen, UW Farm Student Education Intern, Undergraduate Student, Biochemistry 
 
When I first started volunteering at the UW farm, I was with a bunch of friends from the Urban Farm (ENVIR 240) class. Most of the work, once you get the gist of it, turns out to be rather straight-forward, so it was easy to feel busy and engaged. 

04.03.24

Around The Farm

UW Farm Supports Research for Crop’s Climate Change Resilience
By Taylor Biaggi, Adaptive Symbiotic Technologies (AST)
AST is a Seattle based biotechnology company dedicated to harnessing the power of naturally occurring microbes to enhance plant resilience and agricultural sustainability. Through extensive research, AST has developed certified organic agricultural inputs that utilize beneficial fungi to improve plant health, increase stress tolerance, and boost crop yields. 

03.27.24

Around The Farm

A Letter in Loving UW Farm 
By Kaija Koenigberg, Environmental Studies, College of the Environment, UW Farm Vermicompost Intern '23-24, UW Farm RSO Dirty Dozen President
 
I have been the UW Farm’s Vermicompost Intern since last March, and this is my final quarter as the “worm guy”. During my time in this position, I have gained so much invaluable knowledge and fostered deep connections with the farm community that I will cherish long after my time at UW has ended.

03.20.24

Around The Farm

Urban Farming in Japan
By Kove Janeski, UW Farm Student Staff, Operations Lead, Masters Student, Landscape Architecture, College Of Built Environments
I have been lucky to be a part of the UW Farm team since the fall of 2021. In September of 2023, after spending the summer working at the UW Farm, I left Seattle to study abroad in Tokyo, Japan. 

03.13.24

Around The Farm

Study Shows UW Farm Practices Restore Soil Health
By Will Shenton, featuring Julia MaCray, Vermicompost Intern circa 2022
 
The soil beneath our feet may not often catch our attention, but keeping it healthy can have major impacts on climate change and the overall sustainability of our food production system. A new study of agricultural practices at the UW Farm, led by recent College of the Environment graduate Julia Macray and Professor of Earth and Space Sciences David Montgomery, demonstrated that even relatively small changes to the ways we farm can help restore soil health and sequester carbon from the atmosphere. 

Scientific name: Prunus species
Various species:
P. Sato-zakura Group: Cultivars: ‘Shirotae’, ‘Shoetsu’, ‘Ukon’ ‘Chosho-Hizakura’, Sekiyama’
‘Ohochin’ ‘Oeshokun’
P. serrulata: Cultivars: ‘Asagi’ ‘Iohiyo’, ‘Shirofugen’, ‘Tai-Haku’, ‘Taoyome’ ‘Wase-Miyako’ ‘Horinji’
P. subhirtella: Cultivars: ‘Eureka Weeping’ ‘Pendula’ ‘Rosea’ ‘Stellata’ ‘Higan Weeping’ ‘Whitcomb’
P. sargentii: Cultivar: ‘Pink Flair’
Prunus x yedoensis: Cultivar: ‘Akebono’, ‘Shidare-yoshino’, ‘Somei-Yoshino’
P. x juddii
Common name: Japanese Ornamental Cherry
Family: Rosaceae
Native Range: Japan
In the Arboretum: Along Azalea Way
Issues: brown rot, cherry bark tortrix larvae, crown gall, root rot, low tolerance of compacted or wet soils

During spring’s first blossoms, I brag to anyone who will listen that the Japanese ornamental cherries at the Washington Park Arboretum are the most amazing display in the city and that they MUST go for a walk along Azalea Way to view this splendor. 

One of the best responses I’ve gotten after telling someone I’m a farmer is: “Are you okay?” And it is a fair question, though the answer changes based on what time of year it is. There’s the unbridled optimism of early spring, the growing suspense in April and May (what weather-related surprises will climate change bring us this year?), staring into the void in June, and then summer hits and the rest of the season is a downhill run.