"I SING THE FIG"

 

Shaw Island fresh fig chutney
 hidden in jars for winter.
Kindness from on-island gardening friends,
harvested from their bounty of 2022.
Margaret Cameron pelican sculpted in 
her Shaw Island studio, 
peering in the door. 
Thank you, R.
Nasturtium seed carried forward,
a treasure from 
late friend Mary Lou Clark.
A warm autumn trio. 

"Now sing of the fig, Simiane,

Because its loves are hidden.

I sing of the fig, said she,

Whose beautiful loves are hidden,

Its flowering is folded away

Closed room where marriages are made:

No perfume tells the tale outside."

Andre Gide

SEEDS COMING IN –– for 2023

Seed capsules from
Louise's wild perennial Sweet Peas,
(Lathyrus latifolius,)
Gatehouse Species Rosa glauca hips,
full of seeds,
 and 
Stems of Angel's long-lived 
Crocosmia "Lucifer" seed pods.
Thank you everyone for this
Shaw Island harvest
Coming in for the seed archive,
20 August 2022.

"We are living in a time of unrest and worry, but the same crocus will grow near the Black Sea as grows in Spain, and these flowers don't need passports and frontiers. The seed is beyond frontiers and beyond nationalities, and the growing of things and tilling the earth is one of the most international, one of the most unpolitical things we can possibly do. Don't ever forget that the seed is the most important thing in the whole world."  Clare Leighton, garden writer, 1948.

 
 Sweet Pea seeds
(Lathyrus latifolius)
A wildflower still growing
on Shaw Island,
Just barely.
Thanks, Louise. 

To view our first post on the wild perennial sweet peas offered at the Shaw Island Gatehouse in 2014, here is a link

"FIREWORKS FROM THE FOURTH" :::::::::: RED POPPIES

 

"Fireworks from the Fourth"
Papaver somniferum
a.k.a. "Breadseed poppy."
Click the image to enlarge.
Seeds were lightly broadcast in the 
garden in the cold winter of 2021-'22.
Then, here they came, 
blooming at the Gatehouse garden,
in time for the Fourth of July parade,
July of 2022.
Reefnet Bay Road, Shaw Island, WA. 
Thank you, Nancy, for this heirloom  
iron artifact from your family farm.
It has settled into a life of
light duty in this garden.

Papaver somniferum
("Fireworks from the Fourth")
Capsules of ripening seeds,
Gatehouse garden,
Shaw Island, 
San Juan Archipelago, WA.
Click this image to enlarge.
Ripened seeds are now 
available at the Gatehouse shed.

"Breadseed poppies"
(Papaver somniferum)
Red, Red, Red
with shimmering, silky petals. 
A fresh crop of organic seeds,
 available while they last 
at Gatehouse Seeds,
USDA Zone 8-b.
Reefnet Bay Road,
Shaw Island, 
San Juan Archipelago, WA.

Shaw Island nickname: "Fireworks from the Fourth"

Botanical name: Papaver somniferum

Plant type: Hardy annual.

Flowers: late spring to early summer.

Foliage: broad lettuce-like leaves.

Height: 24"-36"

Position: Full sun for best flowering.

Attracts: Pollinator bees and butterflies but NOT deer.

Sowing: Direct broadcasting, thinly, in late winter, where they are to grow.

Roots are very sensitive; the seedlings do not transplant well.

Soil: fertile/well-draining. Enrich with manure, compost, or organic fertilizer rich in Nitrogen in the beginning. At 8 weeks, fertilize with high Phosphorus for flowering.

Notes: Will readily self-seed. If, for some strange reason, that is not desired, deadhead the pods before they ripen.

There are many cultivars, all of which grow well from seed. If they are near others of the same genus, the original colours will be crossed by the pollinators and your colors will be muddled.

This firecracker red is the only somniferum growing at the Gatehouse garden, so it should ring true.

Uses: Pods are beautiful in flower arrangements. Flowers suited for cottage and informal gardens.

Origin: According to Seedaholic (U.K.), the poppy was cultivated in Europe since the Neolithic era, thousands of years ago. Probably one of the earliest plants cultivated in that region.

FOLIAGE

"Lamb's Ears"
Stachys byzantina
"Helen von Stein"
Gatehouse garden, Shaw Island, WA.
16 July 2022.

"One of the most exciting things about planning a garden is the many and varied ways there are to play with color––from the blending of great masses of color to high-lighting the gemlike gloss of a single blossom.

Even more subtle is the palette provided by the tones of the foliage. Plants have leaves not only in every imaginable shade of green, but in shades of red, purple, blue, gray––even white.

Breadseed poppy pods
Papaver somniferum
after the drama queens 
were finished with 
 the Fourth of July.
Shaw Island, WA.

When you see its full design possibilities, foliage becomes much more than something that sprouts out of the stalk below the flowers, and the color scheme of your garden is not limited to a sea of green with bright spots of color in it. You can have a garden with almost no green at all––or with no flowers."

Barbara Damroach. Theme Gardens.

Formosa Lillies
with backdrop of 
glaucous Abies needles.
Shaw Island, WA.
                  

 

JULY = = = = = THE MONTH OF THE ROSE

"In the garden

mystery glows

the secret is hidden

in the rose."

Farid Ud-din Attar

 

ROSA GLAUCA
known for the beautiful
blue-green foliage and no black spot.
Photographed on Shaw Island 
end of June 2022.
Seeds are available at the 
Gatehouse Seed Shed,
Reefnet Bay Road,
Shaw Island, WA.
This species rose germinates easily 
from seed and will often
self-seed to supply "littles" 
 to share with friends.
This plant is on the 
Elizabeth Miller Library's
(U of W, Seattle, WA.) 
Great Plant Picks.
Click this link for the 
outstanding qualities.
Great Plant Picks

GATEHOUSE BIRDS ==== JULY first 2022

 "Everyone likes birds. What wild creature is more accessible to our eyes and ears, as close to us and everyone in the world, as 

universal as a bird?"  David Attenborough

Plant a few foxgloves and poppies which are not deer food, encourage the native Ocean Spray, Salmonberry, and Elderberry bushes, put out a dish of clean water –– these colorful birds that have occurred in the last month to feed, nest, sing, and fly about the Gatehouse woodland garden will stop over to visit you. All true.

American Robin

American Crow

American Goldfinch

Anna's Hummingbird

Barn Swallow

Bewick's Wren

Black-headed Grosbeak

Black-throated Gray Warbler

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

Brown-headed Cowbird

Brown Creeper

Canada Goose

Cedar Waxwing

Chestnut-backed Chickadee

Chipping Sparrow

Cliff Swallow

Common Raven

Common Yellowthroat

Dark-eyed Junco

Eastern Barred Owl

European Starling

Great Blue Heron

Hairy Woodpecker

House Wren

House Finch

Olive-sided Flycatcher

Orange-crowned Warbler

Pacific-slope Flycatcher

Purple Finch

Red-breasted Nuthatch

Red Crossbill

Rock Pigeon

Savannah Sparrow

Song Sparrow

Spotted Towhee

Swainson's Thrush

Tree Swallow

Warbling Vireo

Western Tanager

White-crowned Sparrow

Wilson's Warbler

Yellow-rumped Warbler

SINGING OUT THE MONTH OF MAY

"Keep a green tree in your heart and perhaps  

a singing bird will come."

Chinese Proverb

These 26 birds sang at the Gatehouse woodland garden on 31 May 2022.

American Robin, Black-headed Grosbeak, Cedar Waxwing, 

Wilson's Warbler, Bewick's Wren, Spotted Towhee, Pine Siskin, 

Chestnut-backed Chickadee, Hairy Woodpecker, Swainson's Thrush, White-crowned Sparrow, Orange-crowned Warbler, Warbling Vireo, Song Sparrow, Dark-eyed Junco, Purple Finch, Cassin's Vireo, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Red-breasted Nuthatch, American Kestrel, Pacific-slope Flycatcher, Brown-headed Cowbird, Stellar's Jay, Western Tanager, Rufous Hummingbird, 

and the Common Yellowthroat. 

Native Crabapple 
(Malus fusca) 
A sweet specimen for pollinators
and people in early spring; 
Photographed on Shaw Island,
San Juan Archipelago, WA.
Two thousand and twenty-two.

 

NATIVE CRABAPPLE
(Malus fusca)
One tree in an unmolested row of 
native Crabapples 
going dormant, but laden 
 with ripened fruit for the bird's
 winter pantry.
Click the photo to enlarge.
Shaw Island fall of 2021.

MAHONIA X 'CHARITY' 
blooming in the winter in the
Gatehouse woodland garden
with nectar for pollinators and 
hungry Anna's hummingbirds
who now stay on Shaw Island, WA,
through the winter. 
 

Magnolia grandiflora "Kay Pariss"
Non-native growing on Shaw Island, WA.
Please think about planting for the pollinators.

HEIRLOOM BEANS

 

HEIRLOOM RUNNER BEANS
known in the islands as "BOND BEANS" 
This strain originates from a long life grown and
saved each year by the well-known Bond family on 
ORCAS ISLAND, San Juan Archipelago, WA.

The Bond Bean, an heirloom runner bean (Phaseolus coccineus), known for decades on Orcas Island is now available for the first time this year at Gatehouse Seeds. 

The tender perennial plant is native to the mountains of Mexico and Central America. The Scarlet Runner Beans have scarlet flowers but this one with white flowers, reported by Sidney on Orcas, is tastier for dried beans for cooking.

They like full sun in rich soil with plenty of organic matter and average moisture. 

The seeds of this species are more tolerant of cold soil in the spring than other beans. 

The viability of the dried seed is 3-4 years. Harvest in 75 days.

"BOND BEANS "
runner type now growing
on Shaw Island 
from seeds generously shared 
by Sidney on Orcas.
They will soon be installed 
on the rack at the 
roadside shed,
Reefnet Bay Road,
 on Shaw Island, WA.