Kate Taylor, mid-way through the planting of her educational garden. Photo by Anne Laughlin Like many seniors, Kate Taylor maintains a busy schedule filled with classes, homework, sports and college applications. It does not leave much room for free time but whatever “extra” time Kate has left over, is spent working on her Girl Scout Gold Award project, a Firewise Demonstration Garden at the Lake Joy Fire Station in Carnation.

According to Kate and her gardening advisor, Kirsten Lints of Gardens Alive Design in Duvall, the project is the first of its kind in Western Washington.

To get started, Kate contacted Jeff Madden, a resident of the Tolt Highlands who is the lead of the Carnation-Duvall Citizen Corps Council’s Fire Corps. The Fire Corps works to educate the public on fire safety and provides information on topics ranging from thinning trees for wildfire prevention to encouraging re-roofing with fire-proof shingles. Madden gave Kate the idea for the garden as well as information and tips.

The project required plenty of research. She studied firewise plants, fire safe techniques and garden design. She began the project last April and, on October 3rd, was onsite planting the garden with her mother, Allison, Kirsten and her daughter, Sadie, and a few other volunteers from the community.

The Girl Scout Gold Award is “one of the highest honors you can receive in scouting,” said Kate. The award requires a minimum of 65 hours of service and must be a project that benefits the community at large, involves members of the community and is educational.

“I never thought planting a garden would be this big of a job,” said Kate. The garden measures 100 square feet and is located next to the fire station.

In addition to the difficulty of digging in rocky soil, something Kirsten’s daughter claimed was “Rock City!,” the group hauled in plants, tools and yards of fertile mulch that they spread over the entire area once the planting was done.

“Our soil is pretty nutrient deficient, full of clay and it takes a bit of amendments,” said Lints. “A lot of people wonder why their landscapes die. One reason could be because they didn’t do a soil test which tells you what nutrients the soil needs.”

Kate did soil tests at the fire station. It took a day for the testing and a couple of weeks to receive and interpret the results.

To address soil deficiencies, Kate chose blood meal, kelp meal, bone meal and lyme to be used as amendments. She also chose to use organic ingredients that would be healthier for the soil and for the environment.

The pair added the dolomite lyme and the different meals to the soil, digging down a couple of inches and mixing the amendments into the soil. They also removed bark from the site since bark takes nitrogen out of the soil, a critical component for healthy plant growth. They also spread four to six inches of fertile mulch over the top when the planting was finished.

Lints recommends planting between April 1 and October 1 in the valley. Roots need time to grow down into the soil so that when the first freeze comes and the first few inches of soil are frozen, the deeper roots will not freeze. The deeper roots survive along with the plant, advised Lints.

Layering two inches of nutrient rich mulch will do a lot for the garden, she says. It saves water in summer, keeps soil cooler, adds nutrients, provides a bit of protection from winter kill and “looks fabulous.”

Lints recognizes how frustrating it can be for those who have invested in landscaping and then watch their plants wither or freeze. The purpose of soil and sufficient watering should not to be underestimated.

Kate has a three-year maintenance plan for the Firewise Demonstration Garden. She will rely on help from fellow Girl Scouts, the Tolt Firewise Community of Lake Joy and the fire station’s general maintenance crew to help keep it watered over the next several years.

“In the first year [plants] sleep,” explained Lints. “In the second year, they creep and in the third year, they leap. So plants are spaced at the right dimensions to allow them to grow and fill in.

The plants chosen for the project are also drought and deer-tolerant, which bodes well for them in the Tolt Highlands.

“There is something for every season,” she said. “There are spring bulbs, summer perennials, fall color with coreopsis flowers, red twig variegated dogwood and other evergreens (of varying shades).”

Kate and Lints were very thorough as they planned the garden. Even when the perennials die back, landscaping rock will help fill in and add interest.

They plan to use river boulders, which mimics the natural landscape. They have talked about using a carved river boulder - something to announce the garden.

“And it would be low maintenance and last forever,” added Lints.

The garden will be attractive from all perspectives. The pair worked at designing a garden with cohesion, using large masses of plantings rather than a “polka-dot” sampling of many different species. They mixed evergreens with deciduous varieties and they layered new plants with existing plants, gradually moving from the shortest border plants in the front to the tallest trees in the back.

“Colors will blend well and there will be a focal point in the back of the garden,” said Lints.

Even with all of the design considerations for eye appeal, the duo has not lost its vision: to create an educational example of what fire-safe landscaping can be. The purpose is to create a buffer that interrupts a wildfire’s path to homes and communities. The Tolt Firewise “Triangle” includes the Tolt Highlands and runs along Kelly Road down to Highway 203.

The list of firewise plants is very large, according to Lints. The pair worked with Kate’s favorite colors and styles, adding plants that would have the most meaning to her.

“Kate has done a fabulous job,” said Lints. “I think she has a heartfelt interest in it and she has worked really hard to learn about the firewise planting.”

The firewise planting strategy was fairly new to Kate.

“During our introductory consultation we talked about her gardening background,” continued Lints. “It has been really fun to work with Kate and we made lots of meetings to keep each other on track and to talk about the next week’s goals. She kept plugging away.”

“It’s beautiful,” she added. “A firewise garden doesn’t have to be plain green. It can be attractive, filled with spectacular things.”

In addition to using a variety of interesting plants and shrubs, Lints encourages clients to do something special in the garden such as a sculpture or an arrangement of rocks...a “place to contemplate.”

Kate’s mother, Allison, is proud of her daughter’s project and of her determination to get the job done. She has been supportive of her daughter both in providing donations and in working side by side with her to help plant the garden.

“Anyone who learns how to coordinate a project like this is off to a good start [in life],” she said. “It gives them a good foundation for life.”

While Allison considers herself an amateur gardener, she knows what it means to life with the threat of wildfire. Growing up in California, she and her family worried about brushfires. They saw homes quickly destroyed.

“There were a lot of old homes with overgrown trees...it was just a fire bomb,” she said.

In true Girl Scout character, Kate is pleased about the project but is quick to show her appreciation for those who have helped her along the way. She deflects some of the credit to people like her mother and her grandmother (both Girl Scouts) and to Lints for the support, encouragement and advice. She also credits Eastside Fire & Rescue for giving her a home for the project. In her words, “they have been awesome throughout this whole process.”

Visit www.toltfirewise.org for more information.