new trail in Providence Canyon, Providence Utah, Cache County

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This year a new trail was added to Providence Canyon, Providence UT.  We walked it earlier in the week and today I mountain biked it.  The trail is fantastic for hiking or mountain biking.  It has multiple wooden bridges and the first half of the trail follows the stream.  It is very windy and has many scenic views.  There is about 1200 elevation climb and the trail mostly sticks to the north facing (shady) side of the canyon.  My GPS recorded 5.4 miles on the round trip (for the single track part).  For mountain biking it is probably medium to difficult (in a few sections) in terms of technical difficulty.  It is a fun descent with a number of places to duck under a tree or twist around a rock.

I don't know who did the design layout of the trail, but they did a good job in planning the designated pathway.  The Utah CC did a good job in constructing the trail by preserving the vegetation on both the sides of the trail and removing major rocks from the soil.

Up higher you will notice severe erosion which occurred on the Spring Creek drainage spring/summer 2011.  In a number of places the creek jumped the bank or severely cut it.  The erosion was due to extreme snow-pack (almost double normal).

The canyon road can be busy at times with motorcycles, hunters, atvs, and trucks, thus making a separate hiking/biking trail valuable and increasing safety.  The trail will be a great resource to the local community as it matures.

Erosion up higher

Seattle Chittenden Locks Fish Ladder Plaza

The public artwork at the Chittenden Locks (also called Ballard Locks) at Fish Ladder Plaza is fun and educational.  The waves run kind of like a wave rolling on the ocean.  Educational signs tell about the Pudget Sound and Salmon life cycle.

Directly below the plaza is a room with windows to watch the large salmon swim through the gates and work their way towards the Salmon Bay and Lake Union.  You can also watch boats go through the locks which is interesting.

New grass is green in more ways than one | ksl.com

I read this article about a new grass variety that is native to Nebraska and supposed to be more drought tolerant than traditional Kentucky Blue.  New grass types come out almost every year like fashion, so hopefully the hype is true. - Jake

See link below.

New grass is green in more ways than one | ksl.com

someday the highline trail

I'm a big fan of the High Line project in New York City and I can't wait to visit it (some far distant day).  I patronize its nature of essentially being one large urban recycle project, mixed with wild and natural plants.

Check out this video.

Garden Rooms: Examples Shown From Morinda Gardens, Provo UT (Tahitian Noni International)

Garden Rooms hold a special place in the world of landscape architecture.  Recently Deseret News ran an article I wrote on Garden Rooms.

Hickman Garden - Sketch by Jake Young

This week, we invited Jake Young to be guest columnist to discuss possibilities to be explored and developed in your own outside living spaces. If we keep talking about spring, maybe it will finally come.

Perhaps there is not a more enchanting place than a mid-summer botanical garden full of color, natural fragrance and vegetation. You can bring this same beauty to your back yard by applying some of the same design principles used in your home to create a garden room or an exterior gathering place.

The garden room can serve as a place for outdoor entertaining, a space for growing delicious fruits and vegetables or a sanctuary busy with humming birds or bees spreading pollen. If created and maintained properly, the garden room can be the treasure of any residential landscape.  

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700123539/Garden-rooms-bring-floral-beauty-to-your-home.html?pg=1


Morinda Gardens in Provo, UT (Tahitian Noni International) offer great examples of Garden Rooms (as described in my article).  The overall design of Morinda Gardens was done by MHTN.  The photos below of Morinda Gardens were taken by Jake Young.  FYI you have to have permission ahead of time to take photos of the gardens.  So call ahead and be prepared to pay a fee (if you must take photos), if not just enjoy.

Tree House from the past/ old fort style

With spring on the way I'm excited to finish our tree house, so I decided to dig up some old archive tree house photos. This was a tree house I designed a number of years ago.  It features two platforms, a roof, slide, a step ladder and my favorite the wooden rope bridge.  We used straight timber logs with the bark still on them and it wasn't too hard to build (of course I was only there for the start of the construction).  If you don't have good tree house trees, build your tree house around the trees or plant trees near the structure.

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Photos by Ben Young.

Young entrepreneurs turn garbage into green - ksl.com

Here is some interesting news about a Utah business called Ecoscraps that takes food waste from restaurants and makes compost fertilizer for gardens to be sold at nurseries.  I'm sure places like Chuckarama make a lot of fertilizer.

Video Courtesy of KSL.com

Young entrepreneurs turn garbage into green - ksl.com or www.ecoscraps.net