December 2007 | Escape the Pace
Stones Bloom in Woodinville
Take a winter walk through the Willows Lodge garden
By Crai S. Bower
The sun abandons us completely in December, save the occasional sunbreak that forces its way in like an anarchist at a peace rally, only to be “clouded out” a few minutes later. We don’t dare glance upward from our shoes, shuffling along sidewalks, anticipating the sneaker splashes from passing car tires’ puddle plunges. Even our rain shadow locales, Port Townsend or Canada’s Sunshine Coast, cloud up in December. Which is why we should all make time to visit area gardens. Gardens?! Yes, gardens.
“No matter what the season, gardens are always places of discovery” explains EagleSong, head gardener at Willows Lodge in Woodinville, as we meander through the property’s landscaping.
Clearly influenced by Japanese design, the gardens here were created with four seasons in mind. Landscape designer Mark Brumbaugh planted over 400 trees, well aware that as the shrouds of leaf color finally cease in the fall, trunks and stems come into view, as do bird nests, spider webs and other previously hidden treasures.
“There is always something to be seen,” continues EagleSong, “the bark on trees that is hidden during the growing season, either color or the fact that it peels, stones become more prominent, the bones of the garden stand out more. You can really see a garden’s structure that holds the garden in the summer. In fact, you should always visit gardens in winter if you’re planning a new one yourself.”
EagleSong also runs Ravencroft Garden, a teaching garden in Monroe, where students apprentice to become community-centered herbalists as a part of the “Healing from the Ground Up” program.
Though beautifully structured, the Willows Lodge gardens were in poor shape when EagleSong arrived in 2002.
“The first two years I was shocked at what I found,” she explains. “The gardens were planted on a thin layer of fill dirt above clay, and the yellowed plants really strained to get nutrients.”
“We immediately began an intense system of ‘nutrient cycling,’ EagleSong’s preferred term for composting. “And today, we offer a thriving environment where visitors can really feel alive.”
A stroll with EagleSong feels like a calliope ride of the senses, a much-needed stimulant as the raindrops drone on. She illuminates the vibrant trunks of striped bark and paper bark maples, the peeling bark of the Stewartia. We breathe in the scents of rosemary and kitchen thyme; the sound of water falling in each of the three distinct gardens harmonizes with the sky’s cascade. Seemingly dull becomes delightful.
EagleSong rattles off the garden’s “bones” everywhere we look. It’s like seeing the vase instead of the old lady in the silhouette. Stones blossom in the rain, the remaining apples or berries contrast brilliantly with the swarthy branches.
When I declare my own winter garden as more a barnyard, complete with mud and saturated straw-like perennials, than a vibrant skeleton, EagleSong seizes the teaching moment.
“Plant conifers and broadleaf evergreens,” she suggests, “plants that hold themselves throughout the winter. Stones will start to grow moss. Include artwork, which is fun to reveal in the winter.”
She also recommends including plants that have berries to last throughout the winter and add color.
It seems strange at first that a gardening sage like EagleSong is sequestered at a premier lodge like Willows. But I soon learn that this luxury property pioneered the sustainable building movement long before it became the marketing zeitgeist it is today.
Inside, the awesome Douglas fir beams of this lodge were reclaimed from the Port of Portland. Reused timber was also used to build each room’s headboard shelves, night tables, fireplace mantles and dining table shelves. Even the slate desks are recycled, old pool table tops gathered from B.C. bars. You’ll want to look closely at the lodge’s entry doors, too as they are manufactured from old wine casks and you can actually spot red wine stains.
Comforting as eating at the neighboring Barking Frog restaurant and sleeping at the lodge remains, Willows’ gardens are what set it apart from its peers like Salish Lodge. Much praise is due to the head gardener and nurturer of this landscape. Tour the grounds with her, and the world, even in winter — seems much brighter.
Crai Bower is a prolific Seattle-based writer. Check out his work at: www.FlowingStreamWriting.net
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