Innumerable tons of asphalt and concrete cover the good earth of downtown Tacoma, making signs of botanical life an especially welcome diversion from the gray expanse.
A new store called Downtown Dirt aims to help ease the hunger for urban greenery. Across the street from the Amocat Cafe on St. Helens Avenue, Downtown Dirt is just seconds away from condos and apartments in every direction.
The location is by choice. Caroline Alexander, who grew up in University Place, lived for a time in Seattle, where urban garden stores are plentiful. When she returned to Tacoma in 2002, she noticed the dearth of gardening shops in the downtown core, even as condo conversions were booming. She and her mother, Barbara Lee, opened the store in December.
“We are basically a little urban garden center,” said Alexander, 36. “Primarily we’re focusing on the downtown urban market with all the condos and apartments. We also offer landscape design for courtyard containers and balconies.”
The store’s sparse, clean lines draw the eye to the succulents and tropical plants for sale.
On a recent Thursday, the inventory included a jasmine with fragrant white blossoms; a Bromeliad with long, striped leaves; a three-foot tall aloe and a paddle plant, that true to its name, sported wide, flat, pingpong paddle-shaped leaves.
A Siebold’s Wood Fern and a tassel fern were among the 10 varieties of ferns. A Dracaena Limelight showed off an abundance of long, yellow-green leaves that practically glowed in a corner display.
When the weather improves, Alexander plans to set up outdoor racks to offer starts for tomatoes, rhubarb and other vegetables.
Soon, she’ll carry Dr. Earth organic potting soil and fertilizer. The store already offers pots, river stones, puffy Reindeer moss to top the soil and an assortment of gardening tools.
Scattered among the plants and pots are eco-friendly household products, ranging from natural sponges and bamboo cutlery to doormats made of “coir” coconut fiber. Some of the products are local. Most of the pots, including the classy-looking ceramic pots with metal collars, are made by Washington Pottery in Kent. The Chocolate Flower Farm in Langley, Wash., supplies the handmade, chocolate-scented candles.
Alexander and her mother also are interested in sowing gardening knowledge. Customers can borrow a selection from the store’s lending library of more than 100 gardening and home improvement books.
The women know what they’re talking about when it comes to plants. They studied together in the horticultural program at South Seattle Community College, then started a landscape design business in Tacoma that they still operate.
Lee, a lifelong gardener, recently started a gardening blog through universityplace. patch.com. Alexander, a longtime apartment dweller, has years of practice growing plants in small spaces.
Part of their service is fitting the plant to the person. Customers needing help selecting a plant can expect a series of questions: Do they want an indoor or outdoor plant? How much sun do they have? Is their home drafty?
Alexander sends growing instructions and a starter packet of fertilizer home with each plant.
Jesse Drew had just moved into a Stadium neighborhood studio apartment that he admitted was “blah” when he visited the store a couple of months ago. Alexander helped him choose two plants, including a succulent called a Peperomia. The plant has already grown a good 4 inches.
“It was really colorful. The minute I saw it, I was like ‘I must have it,’” said Drew, 30, at the store recently. “I came in today to get ideas for presents for friends.”
Those are the kinds of results that please Alexander.
“I want all my plants to go to a good home,” she said.
Debby Abe: 253-597-8694 debby.abe@thenewstribune.com
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