Back to the basics: Valley’s Nursery at Mount Si growing with health, beauty amid challenges

Published 8:18 am Wednesday, April 27, 2011

At her secluded work table at The Nursery At Mount Si, the skillful hands of Christine Earl settle new plants into living soil.

Filling a custom container, Earl has mingled the dramatic pink-tinged leaves of a spiky dracena with the cascading tendrils of lobelia. But, as a bare patch of earth testifies, there’s something missing.

“I’m not finished yet,” said Earl, who is pondering the perfect verbena to draw out the colors in the other two plants.

Filling custom orders are a regular duty for Earl, the manager and head buyer at The Nursery at Mount Si. Regular customers have long relied on her green thumb to get them started, come springtime.

“They know me, I know them,” Earl said. “They’ve been really happy with the performance of the plants. We use quality soil, quality fertilizer and plants that we have grown.”

The basics

Good soil, fertilizer and plants are the basics of a healthy garden. The Nursery at Mount Si is focusing in those basics this spring, a year after one of the most challenging seasons that the garden center has faced in its 13-year history.

One year ago, nursery employees watched a mild spring turn into a 48-day blast of cold, wet weather, dampening what could have been a promising season. Then, as summer turned to autumn, the nursery’s annual family pumpkin-picking tradition had to be canceled after a herd of wild elk took up residence in the patch, devastating the business once again. The Nursery at Mount Si closed early for the season. Staff regrouped in January for another go.

Now, with another wet spring in the offing, owner Nels Melgaard and his staff of six are watching the skies, optimistic for sunshine. To Melgaard, it’s a make-it or break-it year, but after all he’s put into the business, he’s not holding back. This year, the Nursery will again offer its summer concert series, replant the pumpkins and offer the finest plants, organic garden products and some new treats.

Strolling out to the back lot, Melgaard is greeted by his latest addition. Several dozen hens come running from a coop, hopeful for a feed handout. Melgaard adopted the hens so that the nursery can offer fresh eggs. After all, it already is a drop-off site for organic produce from local farms. The eggs from these curious hens just make for a more balanced meal.

Live soils

The nursery started out years ago as an organic farm, so it takes the healthy approach very seriously, starting with the soil.

Melgaard emphasizes what’s under all the blooming bulbs, cherry trees, perennials and other signs of spring: rich, living dirt. Springtime is the season to improve your soil, and in his industry, there is a huge emphasis on live soils, as opposed to chemically treated, sterile soil.

“We evolved from a certified organic farm. We didn’t know a lot about chemicals, and we tried to learn as little as possible,” Melgaard said.

All soils at The Nursery at Mount Si are inoculated with life-giving or living materials, such as organic bonemeal, worm castings or old-fashioned manure. Melgaard said every measurement shows that beneficial soils mean healthier plants.

“The amount of rooting of a plant in live soil is huge,” he said.

Innovation is good, but Earl also goes with the tried and true: the plants that she knows are going to grow in the Valley’s unique microclimate.

Backing up to the mountains, “we have more rain here than other places,” Earl said. So the nursery has a focus on hardy native plants, and also provides a big selection of trees, berries, seeds, veggies and flowers.

With most customers “in the know” about garden needs and trends, Earl and fellow garden center staff make sure they understand the unique challenges that the Valley gardener faces.

“We are very careful when we are suggesting plants,” Earl said. “We wouldn’t suggest that someone put in an orchard without some kind of fence to protect it from elk.”

The Nursery at Mount Si sends out an e-mail newsletter to some 3,600 friends of the nursery, who receive updates about classes, workshops, concerts and events. Also passed around via the e-newsletter are special ‘Internet-only’ offers via coupons and seasonally appropriate garden tips and chore reminders.

This summer, the nursery resumes its series of outdoor concerts. Occasionally, the garden center hosts weddings. Melgaard also offers a curriculum of garden classes yearly, including basics on vegetable gardens, containers and how to let your garden go comfortably dormant in autumn.

Meet the staff

Every employee brings his or her own own unique knowledge and experience to The Nursery at Mount Si.

For starters, there’s Christy Bishop, a Mount Si High School horticulture program grad who’s been at the center for three years. She has an instinct for the business, for plants and for customers.

Then there’s the backbone of the business, jacks-of-all-trades Jose Larios and Beto Bueno. Larios and Bueno are the multitalented crew members who do everything from helping customers to plant care, heavy lifting and construction.

New to the center is Sarah, who comes with training at Lake Washington Technical College and has deep landscape and industry skills.

Earl, as buyer for the center’s garden art and sculptures, is lucky enough to be able to attend a Las Vegas convention annually to pick out the latest hot garden goodies.

To Melgaard, the industry will always have its challenges, but the Nursery at Mount Si remains an oasis of beauty in the Valley.

“It’s an iconic place,” he said. “It’s a meeting ground,” where neighbors meet and the community comes together.

“People see it as the most idyllic situation: a beautiful place to work with plants,” Melgaard added. “It’s our job to keep it that way.”

While his favorite place on the grounds is the center’s tranquil pond and surroundings, Earl feels most at home in Greenhouse 1, a secluded spot that smells of earth, water, plants and life.

The scent takes her back to her girlhood days, visiting her grandfather’s big Bellevue nursery.

“When I was a child, I played in these greenhouses,” she said. The love of plants “has gone from generation to generation.” Her mother and sister and gardeners, and for Earl, the job “just clicked. It seemed like the right thing to do.”

What makes The Nursery at Mount Si special? It’s in the name: Mount Si.

“There isn’t a nursery that sits where we sit, with beautiful pastures and happy cows on one side, and a gorgeous mountain on the other,” Earl said. “We have the most incredible view.”

Learn more

To sign up for the newsletter contact the nursery at www.thenurseryatmountsi.com or e-mail Nels Melgaard at nels@thenurseryatmountsi.com.

The Nursery at Mount Si is located at 42328 N.E. 12th St., North Bend; call the nursery at (425) 831-2274.