WORKING WITH NATURE

 

Western red cedar, copper rivets
and one fat pumpkin for 
working with nature.
Thanks, Eli.

Wild Foxgloves
(Digitalis purpurea)
 Gatehouse Seeds
Spring 2018. 

"The natural garden is a garden planted with species that are natural to their environments, species that would grow wild. Plants are chosen with an entire year, or years, in mind––they are not expected to work for just one season––and the garden design makes use of long-lasting natural materials. Thus the garden is beautiful year-round as well as being easy to maintain. The lawn is reduced to the minimum needed for recreation, shrubs bloom throughout, and are seldom pruned, color comes from dependable perennials and easy-care hybrids, and spaces for entertaining are paved with permanent materials that match the resources in the landscape and require little care. Your garden is the product of a close collaboration between you and nature, in which what you want from the garden is met by the character of your particular location. Instead of fighting the elements to create the perfect lawn and formal garden, you work in partnership with nature to discover and enhance the best features of the land."  Ken Druse, The Natural Garden. Clarkson Potter. 1980.

Bowles' Golden Grass
(Milium effusum 'Aureum')
snugged in with native Sword ferns

Clematis montana
Climbing to the rooftop.

Foxgloves at Erik and Carol's
An artistic planting!

Summer Snowflakes
Gatehouse garden

Gwen's Begonia Basket 
catching the orange of the entry door
Shaw Island Library & Historical Museum

Mahonia x "Charity" 
feeding the winter hummingbirds

Oriental poppy 
summer at the Gatehouse.

Species Rhododendron augustinii
Shaw Island, WA.

Rhododendron "Taurus"
Shaw Island, WA.

Native Crabapple
(Malus fusca)
Shaw Island, WA.

SEEDS COMING IN for Autumn 2021

 

Malcolm Cameron (1902-1975)
"Winter Storage"

Cameron's Shaw Island reefnet boats  
escort the last crop of seeds harvested; 
Rosa glauca heps,
Yansen farm fat Cardoon pods,
pods of perennial Sweet Peas,
as they also hunker down for winter storage.
A healthy supply for the Gatehouse seed rack,
Reefnet Bay Road,
Shaw Island, San Juan Archipelago, WA.
Fourteen October 2021.
Thanks, Diana.

"Two sounds of autumn are unmistakable––the hurrying rustle of crisp leaves blown across the street by a gusty wind, and the gabble of a flock of migrating geese."
       American writer Hal Borland.

A "V" of migrating geese were seen flying east over the Yansen farm yesterday headed for their safe "winter storage" in the Skagit River valley. 

🌿 CARDOON 🌿

Flowering Cardoons
(Cynara cordunculus)
hosting pollinators at the Yansen Farm,
Shaw Island, San Juan Archipelago, WA.
 September 2021.

Those same Cardoons
following harvest, 
 swollen with plump seeds,   
a bounty courtesy of Diana.
Now being packed for the
Gatehouse roadside stand,
Reefnet Bay Road, 
Shaw Island,
San Juan Archipelago, WA.
Click image to enlarge.
Photograph 1 October 2021

Common Names: CARDOON, Artichoke Thistle, Texas Celery.
Botanical Name: Cynara cordunculus
Type: Herbaceous perennial
Family: Asteraceae
Native Range: Mediterranean
Zone: USDA 07-9
Ht: 3'-6'
Spread: 2'-3'
Bloom time: Seasonal bloomer
Sun: Full sun
Water: Medium
Maintenance: Low
Flower: Showy; Good cut; Good dried.
Noteworthy: The celery-like stalks may be blanched, harvested, steamed, or braised & eaten, but it is more often grown ornamentally in gardens outside of southern Europe, for attractive foliage and flowers.
The Royal Horticulture Society, London, has chosen the cardoon as one of the top plants of the last 200 years. They awarded it an A.G.M. in 1993.
Sowing: Begin in February, inside. Set out when all danger of frost is passed.

"The cardoon has found a special and perfect place in one garden, and in my heart. Two springs ago, I purchased two plants based solely on the recommendation of a respected fellow gardener who extolled it as a gorgeous perennial. It seemed like it would be the perfect 'something large and spectacular' for a particular area I had in mind. The cardoon is the ancestor of the artichoke and reportedly has been cultivated for 30,000 years (how do they know this?) The Cynara (both artichoke and cardoon) are edible thistles on a grand scale. The cardoon is often mistakenly identified as its kin the artichoke which is much better known.

      The word cinara is derived from cinis (ash), perhaps because of the cardoon's grayish-blue color, or maybe ashes were the best fertilizer for it. The word became bastardized to cynara.
      Pliny, a Roman philosopher living around 100 A.D. claimed that a small plot of cardoon would bring in a large annual income because the vegetable was so highly prized in Rome that it was found only on the tables of the very rich. Indeed cardoon continues as a staple Italian vegetable and in Italian cookbooks you can find recipes for 'bagna cauda' which is a hot garlic-anchovy dipping sauce. Tender cardoons and other Mediterranean vegetables are prepared and served with it.
      It is not surprising then that the cardoon was introduced to the United States in the 1920s by immigrant Italian farmers. It is thought to originate in Sicily and North Africa. Although I would no more think of eating my cardoon than my cat, this plant does hold high culinary interest in parts of Europe. 
      As a fabulous perennial, the cardoon is a really beautiful and dramatic plant. It fills a hot rather arid area of our garden which needed something to catch the eye. And catch the eye it does! Show-stopping, huge, blue-gray deeply toothed foliage is its main attraction, until mid-summer when it sends skyward its flower stalks. The term 'flower stalk' seems too delicate to describe the sturdy 1-inch thick stems the plant rockets up to support the ultra-large thistle-heads encased in scaly armor. The bold unusually colored foliage of this plant can grow 4 to 8 feet tall and 4 to 5 feet wide and the thistle heads are thrust up from that. When the thistles finally open, they are a beautiful soft bluish lavender that the bees and hummingbirds find very attractive. The plant makes a nice show from late spring all the way through October. The flower heads can be lopped off after they start to dry and before the seed matures. They are striking in arrangements. 
      For several months of unique color and drama in your garden, you might consider the drought-tolerant magnificent cardoon as a candidate for a generous area with poor soil and full sun."
      Patricia Lundquist, author, and illustrator. From The Social Gardener, the Journal of the Whatcom Horticultural Society. Summer 2003. Pg 12-14.

In case you'd like this deer-resistant
drama queen in your life,
 there are fat seeds of the
Shaw Island cardoon,
 happily adjusted to our USDA Z- 8b
available at the Gatehouse shed,
 Reefnet Bay Road,
Shaw Island, San Juan Archipelago, WA.