Root Barrier and irrigation is currently being put in at our Aurora Avenue Silva Cell installation in Shoreline, WA by Out West Landscape. 

(And later, roasted cauliflower soup.)

This project, which was begun in August 2010, uses permeable pavers and curb cuts allow stormwater to come in off of Aurora Avenue and in to the sidewalk rain garden (it is filtered through a catch basin first). 

The trees for this hybrid tree median rain garden project will not go in until March, and they will each have access to about 500 cubic feet or soil (closer to 600 – 750 cubic feet with soil sharing). Out West will be planting Autumn Flame Maple, Autumn Purple Ash, Chinese Kousa Dogwood, Golden Colonnade Ginko, Leprichaun Ash, Paperbark Maple, Princeton Ginko and Scarlet Sentenel Red Maple trees.

In the Follies this week, I made a very simple roasted cauliflower soup. I love winter veggies, and I have a particular fondness for the cruciferous ones (cabbage, broccoli, brussels sprouts). My Eastern European heritage? Maybe.

For this recipe I used veggie instead of chicken stock, a regular onion instead of shallots (none on hand) and left out the thyme (bleh). Everything else I pretty much did as it called for, and I used my new immersion blender to puree the hell out of the whole thing until it was an even consistency — whee! Perfect for a cold evening.

Images: Otak and skinnytaste