Nobody Nursery

A black cat looking up at a coffin-shaped bat box

Oh, I've also created a fun nursery box in the shape of a coffin, which maintains the same parameters as the simple rectangular design. It's functionally the same, but spooky.

Birdhouses and a coffin-shaped bat box displayed in the door of a rusty shed

These are all available available by mail via the online store (tinyurl.com/NNBirdsAndBats) or for pick-up here in Des Moines, WA. Delivery and installation can be arranged, so reach out for that or any other inquiries to jo@ or cirque@nobodynursery.com (same person).

A rectangular bat box mounted on the side of a house, seen in profile

The bats that gobble up our mosquitoes around here have tiny bodies that lose heat so quickly that the key to nursing females successfully rearing their pups is to be able to move between the chambers to stay in just the right temperature throughout the day.

A rectangular bat box mounted on the side of a house, seen from below

. . . a temporary daytime roost – something that tends not to be all that difficult for urban and rural bats to find. What I build instead are nursery boxes (according to the specifications published by BCI) which are larger and contain four parallel chambers with passageways between them.

A rectangular bat box mounted on the side of a house

I also build bat houses that are a bit pricier than what you typically see sold online, and for very good reason. Bat Conservation International and other organizations do not recommend those little one-chamber bat houses anymore because those don't provide anything more than . . .

Large birdhouses of various dimensions and a nesting platform

. . . published by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, modified to my impeccable aesthetic taste while maintaining the key dimensions/parameters. I typically have in stock houses for wren/chickadee size to bluebird/swallow size, but I'll build most anything to order.

A back-lit birdhouse in the fog

I'm usually going on about my service of removing invasive weeds around the neighborhood and in the broader Seattle-Tacoma area, but this is also the time of year to make sure we all have birdhouses up for the spring season. I build birdhouses to the ecologically-informed specifications . . .

Section write up of "Caterpillars potentially hosted" from Nobody Nursery's spring seed catalog

Segment of the "Caterpillars potentially hosted" section of Nobody Nursery's spring seed catalog

- garden (perennial/biennial/annual, deciduous/evergreen, height range, flowering months, moisture/light preferences)

Species info sheet key in Nobody Nursery's spring seed catalog

Each species profile includes the following info:
- ecological (description, habitat, pollination method, caterpillars supported, ethnobotanical uses, a distribution map)
- landscape (deer tolerance, salt tolerance, use in wetlands and rock gardens/walls, known poison status)

Species info sheet for Prunella vulgaris var. lanceolata in Nobody Nursery's spring seed catalog

Here’s a link to the up-to-date Nobody Nursery seed catalog, available in-person and via the online store. I’ve divided it into “sow in the spring” and “sow in the fall”.

Download the PDF at:

tinyurl.com/NobodyNurser...

"Sow in the spring" species list from Nobody Nursery's spring seed catalog

That still leaves a considerable number of non-dormant species that are happy to germinate just as soon as they hit moist soil, though, and these are the ones that are great to sow in the spring.

"Sow in the fall" species list from Nobody Nursery's spring seed catalog

I think it’s reasonable to estimate that the majority of PNW-native seeds are dormant, getting their cue to germinate from experiencing an extended period of cool, wet weather; those are the ones that you sow in the fall or overwinter damp in the fridge.

Cover: Nobody Nursery's spring seed catalog

We’re a week and a half from spring, and it’s a great time to put seed into/onto the ground to get established while the damp weather continues.

What kind of barrel?

They're adapted to wide variation in moisture, given the natural fluctuations of wetland water levels.

A lot of tiny monkey flowers tend to be annuals, and those tend to be the ones that you'd find in seasonally-wet rock crevices in a cliff or desert stream.

I did not notice any attrition in the nursery stock this past year, despite some of them sometimes getting significantly neglected with water while in containers.

This kind of larger monkey flower generally tends to live as a perennial, but will behave as an annual in deep drought conditions.

Apparently a number of the aromatic compounds in castoreum are derived from the latter.

I find it interesting how animals like rabbits mountain beavers can go to town on raw ferns, while they tend to contain thiaminase and would give an animal like us a case of beriberi. I'm also fascinated that beavers can consume huge amounts of salicin and salicylates from riparian shrubs/trees.

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You're welcome.

Are you somebody who often has spreadsheet cells that contain lists of abbreviated species names? Just replace "[text]" with the cell coordinates. The formula is continued into the next post in this thread.

=if( isna( join(,scan(,split([text],"."),lambda(p,s,regexreplace(s," [A-Z]$",

Put in orders before midnight to make sure sure that I’m able to get things packed for you in the morning. I won’t have anything for sale at those times – it’s only for handing off pre-purchased orders.

Online store | Nobody Nursery : "Nobody grows that" Building biodiversity by specializing in WA-native plants that are otherwise commercially-unavailable

You can place orders for these and plants, of course, at nobodynursery.square.site; select “store pickup” and email jo@nobodynursery.com to let me know that you’ll get then in Seabeck.

Hand-off can be at 11am or 3pm at the Seabeck Community Center parking lot; I’ll be around at both times. . . .

"The Peterson" for bluebird-size birds (above) and "The Adirondack" for chickadee-size birds (below)

A nest of chickadee eggs in a birdhouse

I have a half dozen bird houses in the online store for anyone interested in placing an order for pick-up in Seabeck tomorrow (Sat 2/28). You’ll find two “Adirondack” (chickadee-size birds) and four “Peterson” (bluebird-size birds).

Generally, extreme specialization is an evolutionary dead-end, but it can serve a species very well as long as their host plant is still around.

You can either be mediocre at eating lots of different things or super efficient at eating just one thing, and you don't really have to share if that one things is difficult to eat. If you eat easy stuff, your only option is to eat faster than the competition, and that can require reckless behaviors

Yeah! In addition to Delphinium nuttallianum, the dunes have Triteleia grandiflora, Linum lewisii, and Ladeania lanceolata.

Species profile sheet for Rumex crassus, with extensive info

Species profile sheet for Rumex venosus, with extensive info

Rumex crassus in bloom

For the west side of the state I have the wonderful Rumex crassus (fleshy willow-dock), which lives on the coast and is delighted to be in my gardens.

Comandra umbellata in bloom

Delphinium nuttallianum in bloom

. . . western WA climate for my comfort, though, so I will only sell them to folks east of the Cascades – shipping available through the online store.

Phlox longifolia in bloom

Purshia tridentata in bloom

. . . favorite species there is something that I currently have available in the nursery: Rumex venosus (winged dock). These beauties form colonies in sandy-to-gravelly soil, with big, succulent leaves and peach/rust colored flowers. This eastern WA native is too rambunctious in the . . .

Strymon melinus on a Fritillaria pudica blossom

Landscape view of the Juniper Dunes, grassy with scattered shrubs

Layia glandulosa in bloom

. . . are a surprisingly rich array of wildflowers and grasses – Fritillaria (yellow bells), Delphinium (larkspur), Phacelia, Balsamorhiza (balsam-root), Phlox, and fragrant Purshia (antelope brush). I’ll lead a hike there this spring, date TBD.

tinyurl.com/DuneTrotting

Probably my . . .