Memorial Day Weekend in the Dirt: Family, Gardens & Good Old-Fashioned Yard Work

Onion starts sit atop a vintage milk can. Blueberry plants line the front garden bed. Hops grow off in the distance.

At PacWest, we talk a lot about roots — whether it’s in our community, our business, or our backyard. This Memorial Day weekend, we took a step back from work and spent some time investing in our own little patch of earth right here in Edgewood.

With the sun finally showing up for more than a cameo, Chris got to work string-trimming and mowing both the front and back yards. It's amazing what a little tidy-up can do to make a space feel good again.

Then it was off to Country Girl Greenhouse in Orting — a hidden gem we absolutely love. If you haven’t been, it’s a locally owned, family-run nursery that offers everything from veggie starts to vibrant flowers and hanging baskets, all at some of the most decent prices around. More importantly, the folks there truly care about the quality of what they grow. You can see it in the starts and feel it in every interaction with the staff. We loaded up on starter plants for what felt like an entire farm’s worth of produce — and they still managed to fit it all into a reasonable budget.

One flat of vegetable starts sits inside Country Girl Greenhouse in Orting, Washington.

Next up: Tagro in Tacoma. If you’re a gardener in Pierce County and you’re not using Tagro, we gotta ask—what are you even planting in? This award-winning compost mix is made from Tacoma’s recycled waste streams (yes, really), and it’s some of the richest, most nutrient-dense soil you can get your hands on. It’s also ridiculously affordable and a perfect example of sustainable local innovation. Shoutout to the hardworking team over there for keeping the community green and growing strong.

A photo of some equipment down at Tagro in Tacoma. I took this photo for our little one.

Back home, we rolled up our sleeves and got to work prepping the garden beds and raised boxes. Everyone had a job — from raking to mixing soil to labeling plant markers. Stella has the most important job of all: supervision.

Stella oversees the work.

This year’s planting lineup includes:

• Three varieties of bell peppers

• Jalapeños and habaneros

• Sweet corn and eggplant

• Seven types of tomatoes (we may have gone overboard...)

• Brussels sprouts, zucchini, and strawberries

• Beans, cucumbers, and celery

Five varieties of tomatoes are planted in our trough, previously used to raise baby chicks!

The kids learned about spacing and companion planting. Us adults learned that our bodies aren't quite so young anymore.

It wasn’t a vacation weekend in the traditional sense, but it was the kind of weekend that fills your tank in other ways. Time with family. Time with the earth. And time to remember what matters.

From all of us at PacWest Pressure Washing, we hope your Memorial Day was restful, meaningful, and maybe even a little bit muddy.

A partially oxidizing metal star hangs behind cut foliage against a freshly washed home exterior.

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