c201-vib-home&garden'10

Living lightly, Carol Eggen’s ‘Built Green’ home is a study in elegance and efficiency.

living wellBy KAREN DALEFor The Beachcomber

My husband Bob looked at the grocery receipt a few weeks ago and announced, “Our bill is running twice what it was this summer.”

So what’s making the dif-ference? Vegetables, of course: We had to buy them once the December freeze turned my win-ter garden to mush. Still, “twice what it was” doesn’t tell you much about what you saved by growing your own.

But Nancy Lewis-Williams, a master gardener and teacher of last year’s popular vegetable-growing class, has kept a running tally of what her harvest has been worth to her pocketbook. From June through Dec. 1, she weighed all the produce she’d harvested and kept a running tally, in pounds, of 33 different crops, from apples to zucchini.

Lewis-Williams’ tally doesn’t count “the stuff we ate right off the vine,” she said. “And it also doesn’t include all the greens we grew in early spring, before I started this count.”

What did we find? That Lewis-Williams had harvested nearly $500 worth of organic vegetables per month from her 2,000-square-foot garden.

The harvest total was worth $1,810, using winter Thriftway prices for non-organic produce. If compared to organic prices, the harvest would be worth $2,952.

“And I’ve still got a month’s worth out there in leeks, kale, carrots, chard, turnips, rutabagas and spinach,” she said.

Observations from the garden

Growing your own saves a

bundle

If a house could melt into the forest, Carol Eggen’s would.

The dirt road that leads to her west-side home wends through the trees like a wood-land trail, and the house itself — cedar-shin-gled and naturally stained — is bounded by native huckleberry, salal and ferns. No bright-green lawn encircles it. The path to the front door is gravel, as is the home’s perimeter. Hardscaping, it seems, is a word that hasn’t entered Eggen’s vocabulary.

That presence — about as light on the land as a home can be — was one of the many ways Eggen, an environmentalist, made peace with the fact that she wanted to build a home in the woods. In fact, it was her environmental ethic that drove her decision to build.

When she told a real estate agent what she wanted — a house that was energy-efficient, that used recycled materials, that was envi-ronmentally healthy — her agent told her

such houses are rare on Vashon and rarer still on the market.

Now, three years later, Eggen is in a house that’s nearly as green as they come. Indeed, it holds a special status on Vashon: It’s the first house on the Island to earn five stars, the highest rating possible, from Built Green — a nonprofit organization in Seattle that has developed a rigorous set of standards and a third-party verification program to help promote environ-mentally sound home-build-ing practices.

Looking out over her backyard, a tangle of native plants and towering trees, Eggen said she was determined, after she discovered the nine-acre parcel off of Reddings Beach Road, to create a home that honored this piece of paradise.

“I realized it was a real privilege and responsibility to take a lot like this and build on it, and I realized I wanted to have as small

a footprint as possible,” she said.Before she moved to her new home, she

lived in a house perched above Sylvan Beach, where she looked out over the water. “But you know, I don’t miss the view,” she said. “I’m so happy here.”

Eggen’s 1,200-square-foot home is a study in elegance and effi-ciency.

The dining area’s tall, east-facing windows, topped by a clear-story, bring in all the avail-able light, making the house seem bright and airy, despite its proxim-ity to the woods.

The bamboo floors are richly hued. Fir, the color of honey, was

used generously in trimming the home’s built-in features, adding to the house’s feeling of warmth. Ebony-colored slate, donated by her tiler, sits under the sleek Danish-built wood stove. Rows of glass tile provide an artful

The tall, east-facing windows in Carol Eggen’s dining area bring in light all year round.The Danish-built stove is highly efficient.

SEE GARDEN, 22SEE HOME, 23

Story by LESLIE BROWNPhotos by MIKE URBAN

“I realized it was a real privilege and responsibility to take a lot like this and build on it.”

Carol Eggen

Wednesday, March 10, 2010 • Vashon-Maury Island Beachcomber WWW.VASHONBEACHCOMBER.COM 5

WWW.VASHONBEACHCOMBER.COM Wednesday, March 10, 2010 • Vashon-Maury Island Beachcomber

Creating & Maintaining Sustainable Landscape Designs

and Outdoor Living Spaces

Nathan & Melissa Schafer, CPH

Owners, Certi� ed Professional Horticulturalist

206.240.7167 www.schaferspecialty.com

License #SCHAFSL918N8

DESIGN INSTALL MAINTAINORGANIC AND SUSTAINABLE

206.567.4550www.groundworkgardens.com

Licensed, bonded, and insuredLicense No. GROUNWG910MF

DESIGN INSTALL MAINTAINORGANIC AND SUSTAINABLE

206.567.4550www.groundworkgardens.com

Licensed, bonded, and insuredLicense No. GROUNWG910MF

Don’t leave equity on the table, staging sells!◆ Staged homes sell 80% faster than unstaged homes

and when 87% of today’s home buyers preview homes online, a picture is worth thousands of dollars!

◆ You never get a second chance to make a 1st Impression. That is why we create photo-friendly rooms that elevate your online and in-home appeal.

◆ Staging is a wise investment and is far less than a price reduction.

25% off all staging services before April 1st if you mention this ad so call us today!

DAWN SHEPPARD, ASP(206) 948-6803 ◆ VASHON, WA ◆ WWW.DAWNSHEPPARD.COM

ACCREDITED STAGINGPROFESSIONAL

By SALLY FOXFor The Beachcomber

Where would Vashon be with-out its nurseries? Where else can one go to compare notes

about the different soils of Cove and Dockton or get the latest news about what the deer are eating this year? And where else can one find a plant from Chile that is assured to grow through the dry Vashon summers?

Vashon’s locally owned nurseries are vital to its gardening community. But nurseries around the region have been stressed by the recession. When times are tough, plants (for some!) are discretionary. Nurseries are very dependent on weather. A cold spring can delay sales and shorten the prime February to July selling season. Excess plants can’t be stockpiled.

Each of Vashon’s three largest nurser-ies — Dig Floral & Garden, Colvos Creek Nursery and Kathy’s Corner — has a spe-cial niche, and each has had to use creativ-ity to cope with the recession.

On President’s Day, the “open” sign was out at Dig even though the nursery is usually closed on Mondays. Co-owners Sylvia

Matlock and Ross Johnson were hoping that the beautiful weather would bring both locals and off-Island visitors.

Dig is a destination nursery for many regional gardeners who know about it from publications such as Horticulture Magazine and The Seattle Times. People travel to see Matlock’s keen sense of style — whether it is her cool pots, her sophis-ticated container combinations, the tile work or plant displays. Customers receive inspiration and new ideas as they shop for the sedums, grasses, natives and many

other interesting plants they have come to expect. Johnson’s skills in landscape instal-lation complement Matlock’s design tal-ent. He provides landscaping installation services and materials and advice to those who want to do it themselves.

Dig is a retail nursery — they don’t propagate their own plants — but they sell plants from many Island growers.

Matlock said she’s used the recession to fine-tune the business. “Instead of get-ting bigger, we are getting better,” she said, an appropriate statement from someone

whose elegantly designed 750-square-foot home was featured in The Seattle Times.

“You look carefully at expenses, cut overhead line by line and think things through,” Matlock said.

She says she carefully considers what customers want, finding they “keep getting savvier,” turning away from high-main-tenance perennials and choosing lower maintenance, drought-tolerant and native plants. The other hot trend this year is edibles and edible landscaping, a message echoed at all three nurseries.

Just south of Dig on Vashon Highway, Colvos Creek Nursery has relo-cated its main opera-tions to the Country Store and Gardens. Colvos Creek owner Mike Lee sells to customers, locally

as well as nationally, who value his collec-tion of Northwest natives, drought-hardy plants and unusual species from around the world. He emphasizes plants from summer-dry climates similar to ours in the Northwest. With 30-plus years’ experience growing plants at his Island nursery, Mike knows what can succeed on Vashon.

Lee is hoping to work with the other Country Store gardens to weave together an expanded nursery display area. He wants to start offering classes at the store and has a wealth of knowledge to share. A consum-mate plantsman as well as a landscape archi-tect, Lee grows all the plants at Colvos from starts and seeds he has bought or collected himself. He chronicles his seed-collecting trips and provides luscious detail on many of the plants he sells on his blog, http://mikeleeplantblog.blogspot.com. He plans to be at the nursery Fridays and Saturdays, a presence his staff believes will draw people who value his horticulture advice.

Last year, the nursery suffered two set-backs — collapsed greenhouses and an irrigation failure in July that wiped out many of his starts. With the business’s tight margins, maintaining the nursery is close to a labor of love. But demand for drought-tolerant, low-maintenance plants is strong, and Lee has a loyal following. His excitement was infectious as he recently talked about what he has in propagation.

“We have lots of new natives from all over the West Coast, a very special red currant, a great crop of the coolest silver leaf oaks, and oh — lots of others.”

Local nurseries know the meaning of home

SEE NURSERIES, NEXT PAGE

Dig is a destination for many.

Colvos offers Northwest savvy.

Leslie Brown/Staff Photo

Mike Lee’s Colvos Nursery will now run all of its sales at the Country Store.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010 • Vashon-Maury Island Beachcomber WWW.VASHONBEACHCOMBER.COM Page 17

Robinson Furniture 17639 Vashon Highway SW, Vashon, WA 98070

(206) 463-3500

Come visit our Flooring Show Room.We carry and install Marmoleum®, vinyl, laminates, cork,

woodloc, wood, residential and commercial carpeting and wool

carpeting. We carry an all natural mattress, memory foam and

spring mattresses. We have furniture for every room of your home

and special order furniture.

Mary and Chuck RobinsonEllie Kuyper

G o f o r t h G i l lARCHITECTS

206.463.5222Creative . Sustainable . Regional www.goforthgill.comRESIDENTIAL & COMMERCIAL ARCHITECTURE PO Box 650, Vashon Island, WA 98070

Leon and SonsLandscaping & Irrigation

Since 1997LEONS SL921 KO

Jim Kuijper463-1531

Tamara HahnProperty Manager

Business 206-463-4700Fax 206-463-0896Voice Mail 206-394-6614E-mail [email protected]

Windermere Property Management/VashonLori Gill & Associates17141 Vashon Hwy SW / P.O. Box 521Vashon Island, Washington 98070

Home Sweet Vashon Home

(hop, skip, and a jump to stores and busline)

◆ Quiet, rural feel in town core ◆ Recently renovated◆ Spacious rooms◆ Updated kitchens◆ Private patios◆ Attentive owner managers

Islander ApartmentsCALL 567-4268

for details.

Join theCelebration

see page 35 for details

Several groups on Vashon offer up classes, camarade-rie and know-how for those who like to garden and want to learn more. Here’s a helpful list. Master Gardeners provide free garden-related infor-mation to Islanders on Fridays and Saturdays between True Value and Thriftway from April to fall. The group is also working with the high school to create and maintain a native plant garden there. Call Nancy Lewis-Williams at 463-1272 or Colleen James at 463-0027 for more information.The Vashon Fruit Club is a group of fruit enthusiasts and growers who share information and support each other in their fruit-growing efforts. The group has monthly events and quarterly meetings. Membership is $20 per person per year. Contact Emily MacRae at 408-7072.Vashon Island Growers Association (VIGA) is a chap-ter of Washington Tilth and an educational organiza-tion devoted to the promotion and protection of farms and gardening operations on Vashon. The organiza-tion also manages the Vashon Farmers Market. VIGA membership includes farmers, craftspeople, chefs, families, shop owners and others who care about the Farmers Market. Membership dues vary from $20 to $100. Contact Lindsay Hart for more information at [email protected] Island Garden Club encourages environmentally sound gardening in the community. The group meets monthly and has frequent guest speakers. Membership is $10 per year. Call Jane Rosen at 463-2111.Vashon Island Beekeepers is a small a group of Island beekeepers who help educate one another about beekeeping. The group meets four times a year at the Vashon Library. Call Elizabeth Vogt at 920-7603 for more information.

Kathy’s Corner is the largest of Vashon’s retail nurseries. With conifers, shrubs, grasses, fruit trees, Japanese maples, perenni-als, annuals and

groundcovers, the expansive business just south of town offers variety and a wide selection. Owner Kathy Wheaton and her team grow about half of the plants and bring in others they think their customers will want. Every spring the nursery bursts into color as her rows of annuals and perennials begin to bloom. Customers can roam the aisles selecting the colors they want for their garden beds, baskets and window boxes.

Wheaton, who has been in business on the Island nearly 40 years, is a fix-ture in the community. She is known for her generosity, sharing advice and letting local groups like the Pony Club and Garden Club borrow her plants.

A large part of her business comes from her home services: Her crews install landscaping, maintain gardens and handle other tasks. They even hung lights at Christmas! For Islanders who are getting older and want to simplify

their gardens, hiring a day’s crew can be the difference between feeling perpetually overwhelmed by the garden and being able to sit down and enjoy it. As Wheaton puts it, “When the guys do the physically difficult parts, our customers can still do the gar-dening they enjoy.”

Despite the hard times, Wheaton kept her crews going all year. “We could have cut back and saved a little money to get through the win-ter, but crews are so important to us, and we work as a team.”

Still, she was not prepared for December’s misfortunes. During the cold snap, her retail greenhouse roof split apart, killing her husband’s pre-cious jade plants. The furnace failed at the propagation greenhouse, and one of her trucks died. The final blow was in early January when she fell and shattered her arm and shoulder. It was a serious injury; she will not be able to use her arm for months.

Despite these setbacks, her spirit pre-vails. “Vashon people are amazing,” she said. “The customers are amazing. Their

desire to keep us here is what keeps me working. It is what keeps me going. I love people, and I love what we do.”

— Sally Fox is an organizational consultant and president of the Vashon-

Maury Island Garden Club.

Kathy’s Corner blazes in beauty.

Clubs on Vashon: A chance to gather with kindred spirits


Kathy Wheaton’s spirits have been buoyed by Islanders.

NURSERIESCONTINUED FROM 16

An account has been set up at the Chase branch on Vashon for those who want to help Kathy Wheaton cover her emergency medical expenses. Ask for the Kathy Wheaton Benevolent Fund.

By KAREN DALEFor The Beachcomber

There’s no such thing as a “no-fail plant.” A sudden freeze, a long drought or a housesitter who waters your cactus every day can rain doom on the hardiest of gardens.

But there are workhorse plants — those stalwart performers you can count on to look good year after (normal) year if they are planted in conditions they like. Ferns

in shade. Sunroses in (duh!) full sun.

So I turned to local gar-deners and asked them to name not only the plants they consider the stalwarts of their gar-dens, but also the con-ditions (clay soil? full sun? heavy shade?) they prefer. Hopefully you’ll find

plants here that will work in conditions similar to your own.

You can increase the odds by amend-ing your soil and fencing against deer. You’ll be able to plant a wider variety, plus increase their chances of thriving in your garden’s native conditions.

North-end shore Dirt on clay, shade, salt spray

Perennials: pachysandra, sedges, ajuga, daylilies, montbretia, hakonechloa (Japanese forest grass). Shrubs: hydrangea, phormium, rhodies, spirea and a laceleaf Japanese maple that stands up to salt spray.

Above Burton Clay soil, full sun, with deer fencing

Perennials: phlox, campanulas, hardy geraniums. Shrubs: viburnum tinus, cal-licarpa bodinieri ‘profusion’ and shrubby dogwoods. And most ornamental grasses.

Burton Hilltop Sun or shade, some boggy areas.

Perennials: maidenhair fern, gillenia trifoliata. Shrubs: camellia sasanqua, yucca gloriosa, sarcococca (sweet box), acan-thopanax sieboldianus, mahonia (Oregon grape) and common boxwood.

Burton PeninsulaSandy soil, part sun, with deer-fencing

Perennials: salvia, euphorbia, nepeta (catmint), watsonia, ligularia and artemi-sia ‘silver mound.’ Shrubs: lavender ‘Fred Boutin,’ ceonothus.

Over Maury gravel in Gold BeachFast-draining, amended soil, full sun

Trees: cedrus atlanticus (blue atlas cedar), mugo pines, thuja, blue spruce. Shrubs: pieris japonica, heavenly bamboo, phormium tenax, and spirea ‘gold flame.’ And Mexican feather grass.

Shore of DocktonAmended soil in sun / shade garden

Perennials: knautia ‘macedonica,’ linar-ia, valerian, lychnis, lady’s mantle. Shrubs: cape fuchsia ‘moonraker,’ hydrangea ‘nikko blue,’ lavatera ‘barnsley’ and cran-berry viburnum ‘trilobum.’

South-end hilltopSandy, amended soil in rubble terraces

Half-shade: geranium macrorrhizum (hairy geranium), galium (sweet wood-ruff), bergenia, Japanese anemones, autumn fern, shasta daisies, iris foetidis-sima (Gladwyn iris). In sun in rubble walls: heathers, senecio, sunroses, sedums, libertia.

West Maury slope Sandy soil, morning sun, among trees

Tree: acer japonicum ‘aconitofo-lium’ (full-moon maple) — deeply lobed leaves that turn crimson in fall. Shrub: daphne odora ‘aureomarginatum’ for its very fragrant flowers in February and March among cream-edged green leaves. Perennial: hellebores, especially the dou-bles, for little to no maintenance except a spring shearing before the early spring flowers pop up.

Sylvia Matlock at Dig Floral & Garden

also recommens Mahonia x media ‘winter sun,’ euphorbia ‘glacier blue,’ arctastaphylos species (kinni-kinnick, manza-nita) and grevil-leas.

You can view and read about any of these plants by doing a search in Google Images.

Many thanks to Anita Halstead, Whit Carhart, Kathleen Kinney, Colleen James, Cindy Stockett, Bonnie McCallister and Sylvia Matlock for helping me identify these no-fail plants (which we all know don’t really exist).

Page 18 WWW.VASHONBEACHCOMBER.COM Wednesday, March 10, 2010 • Vashon-Maury Island Beachcomber

Clutter Queen

TODAY TOMORROW

Vashon Island, WAEST. 1964

New to us! New to Vashon?Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Rack

Previous Seed Racks Now in Stock!

Supplies

Planting Bulbs & Sets

Soils, Tools, Field Seeds, FertilizersEverything for all garden needs

The Country Store & Gardens

www.countrystoreplants.com

Organic Compost Top SoilBeauty Bark Steer Co Grow Co

Play Chips Gravel

VashonBark & Soils, LLC

Thomas R. Carlson

206-463-3709Vashon Island, WA

We Cover The Island

Plants that

in Vashon’s tough soilWORK

Japanese forest grass.


Sylvia Matlock and her English bull terrier Sophie show off kinnikinnick, a good Vashon plant.

Maidenhair fern


Plants thatWORK

Wednesday, March 10, 2010 • Vashon-Maury Island Beachcomber WWW.VashonBeachcoMBer.coM Page 19

YOUR HOME IMPROVEMENT STORE

206-463-5000 – www.islandlumber.com Open Mon-Sat 7am-7pm & Sun 8am-6pm

BIRD FEEDERS WILD BIRD SEEDASIAN POTTERY

PRUNING EQUIPMENT LANDSCAPE SUPPLIES

BAGGED POTTING SOILSORGANIC FERTILIZERS

BAGGED SOIL AMENDMENTSANNUALS - PERENNIALS

TREES - SHRUBS SEEDS & STARTS

VEGETABLES - FRUIT CROPS BULBS - COVER CROPS LAWN CARE EQUIPMENT

BRICKS & PAVERS

EVERYTHING YOU NEED FOR YOUR GARDEN & MORE!

KEEP AN EYE ON OUR OUTDOOR SIGN FOR WEEKEND

GARDEN CENTER SALESALL THRU THE MONTH OF MARCH!

By LESLIE BROWNStaff Writer

The Vashon Island Garden Tour, now in its 20th year, will once again give Islanders a chance to drink in the beauty of sev-eral artful gardens while offering up inspiration and ideas for those tackling their own patches of soil.

The Garden Tour, a fundraiser for Vashon Allied Arts, takes place Saturday and Sunday, June 26 and 27. Festivities begin with a pre-tour event Friday afternoon, when avid gardeners can attend “Garden Connoisseurs,” an opportunity for an in-depth look at two gorgeous

landscapes — the garden owned by Sylvia Matlock and Ross Johnson and another owned by Saphire Blue and Gordon Smith. Attendees will learn about the gardens’ histories, gar-ner tips from the owners and enjoy light refresh-ments. Space is limited for this event, which runs from 1 to 4 p.m.

Friday evening is the “Sunset Garden Gala,” this year at Dick and Pam Driscoll’s home. The eve-ning includes cocktails, a gourmet dinner and live entertainment overlooking Dockton harbor. Gala tick-ets are $125 per person and are limited.

The actual tour takes place Saturday and Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., when visitors can stroll through five gardens, gra-ciously opened up to the public by Island garden-ers. But the lovely land-scapes are not meant to intimidate other gardeners, Garden Tour co-chair and VAA board trustee Leslie McIntosh stressed. They were chosen to inspire and inform, helping attendees discover landscaping tricks,

plants that thrive in Vashon’s sometimes tough soil and other helpful ideas.

“Each has been a labor of love, each is an expression of the gardeners’ unique vision and creativity, and each has been created by the gar-deners themselves,” McIntosh said.

The park-like set-ting of Jonathan Morse’s garden, locat-ed on the water’s edge off Cedarhurst Road, will give attendees a peek into the concept of distinct “garden rooms.” Colleen and John James’ garden on the Burton Peninsula will show how they were able to transform a bare sloping yard into an exotic mix of foliage, color and texture in just five years.

At the hillside garden created by Sherene Zolno and Rick Skillman, attend-ees can stroll their medita-tion path. Greg Elliott’s garden will show how he turned a piece of prop-erty once overwhelmed by blackberries into an invit-ing outdoor living space.

And at Kay White’s expansive garden on Maury Island, one can experience her woodland park, her greenhouse transformed into a tropical paradise and her beloved spread of peren-nials. (See story, next page.)

Live music will be per-formed at most of the gardens, and art will be for sale.

There will also be seminars offered on Saturday: Matlock will discuss Planting Roofs and Living Walls at Dig Floral & Garden, which she and Johnson own. And Greg Rabourn, a regular contributor to KUOW’s “Weekday” program, will talk about native plants at the Blue Heron.

Twenty Island artists, meanwhile, have been invited to create this year’s special auction item, embellished garden boxes. The boxes will be on dis-play at some of the gardens.

McIntosh said she hopes the tour will buoy Islanders’ enthusiasm for their own gardens.

“I hope that visitors will be inspired to continue creating their own garden paradises, spaces to be lived and worked in, but most of all enjoyed,” she said.

Page 20 Wednesday, March 10, 2010 • Vashon-Maury Island Beachcomber

Please recycle your Beachcomberyour Beachcomber

Prime PlumbingPlumbing repairs, remodels and

new construction.

206-755-8918www.primeplumbing.net

Reuse Renew Recover

by Karen Bean463-5348

Go green, consider a slipcover!

www.slipcoversbykarenbean.com

VAA Garden Tour promises a packed weekendFriday, June 25Garden Connoisseurs, 1 to 4 p.m. Tickets are $45 per per-son, or $60 per person, including a weekend Garden Tour ticket. Sunset Garden Gala, 6 p.m. until sunset. Tickets are $125 per person.

Saturday, June 26Garden Tour, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tickets are $25 per person, are valid both days and include the seminars. Tickets pur-chased before May 31 are $20 per person.Planting Roofs and Living Walls, a seminar by Sylvia Matlock, 10 to 11 a.m. at Dig Floral & Garden.Gardening with Native Plants, a seminar by Greg Rabourn, 1 to 2 p.m. at Blue Heron.Sunday, June 27Garden Tour continues, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

For information, reservations or tickets, call 463-5131 or visit VashonAlliedArts.org or brownpapertickets.com. All proceeds benefit Vashon Allied Arts. This year’s Garden Tour sponsors are Puget Sound Energy, Thriftway, John L. Scott and Dig Floral & Garden.

For more information, contact Garden Tour co-chairs Leslie McIntosh at 463-2906 or Nancy Miracle at 850-4603 or Molly Reed, VAA’s executive director, at 463-5131.

VAA’s 20th Garden Tour offers inspiration and ideas every step of the way.

“Earth Sheltered Accessory Dwelling Unit”

A hyacinth from Jonathon Morse’s garden.

By JANICE RANDALLFor The Beachcomber

Enter Kay White’s Maury Island garden through iron gates and follow the narrow drive lined with ginkgo trees, heather and a colorful mix of perennials and annuals into 10 acres of park-like beauty born from time and a love of plants and trees. Views of a distant Puget Sound and Mount Rainier provide the perfect backdrop to this estate garden.

Kay and her husband Bill purchased the origi-nal home on five acres as a summer place in 1977. They soon decided to become full-time Islanders, bought the adjacent five acres and built their dream house. Clearing the land of blackberries and alder brought attention to the Douglas firs and madronas. Golf enthusiasts both, the Whites created a mini-golf course surrounded by plantings, including many rhododendrons and fruit trees, and two greenhouses to accommodate early starts for fuchsias, veggies and other weather-sensitive plants.

Bill passed away in 1990, and by then Kay had joined the Vashon-Maury Island Garden Club, a group she still avidly supports. “That’s how my fuchsia frenzy got started,” she says.

A third greenhouse was added, complete with exotic

tropical plants, a koi fish pond and a thatched-roof sitting area — a year-round summer paradise she fondly refers to as Gilligan’s Island.

Then there’s Kay’s “woodland park,” which started small and has

steadily expanded over the years. “Just about everything you see is some-thing we planted,” Kay says. Among the mix are lovely maples — Norway, Japanese and bigleaf — a forest of stately poplars and the Lath House, an open-

sided structure shaded in summer by dozens of hang-ing fuchsia baskets. Even in the winter, the garden offers color — bountiful mounds of pink, white and purple heather against a dark green palate of mature holly trees and rhodo-dendrons. When summer arrives, the roses bloom, dozens of fragrant varieties in a myriad of colors.

“We’re gradually elimi-nating the lawn,” adds Steve Amsden, estate man-ager since 1984. “There was never a master plan. It’s been an evolutionary pro-cess; it’s constant change. We’ve all learned through our mistakes, like planting trees too close together and not allowing for the space they will ultimately need.”

Property assistants

Myrna Hollis and Suni Kim primarily work in the greenhouses and help with Kay’s pride and joy — her field of bearded iris.

Kay’s garden was on the Garden Tour five years ago, and Amsden points out several areas that have evolved since then, includ-ing more raised beds and barrels for all the organic veggies and berries, new walkways and a kiwi-covered arbor. Within the woodland park is a tucked-away formal Japanese gar-den surrounded by a dozen sentry-like contoured Chamaecyparis trees.

A Vashon treasure, this garden is one to savor, something Kay does almost daily. “I love to walk the garden. It’s like a winding labyrinth,” she says.

Wednesday, March 10 , 2010 • Vashon-Maury Island Beachcomber WWW.VASHONBEACHCOMBER.COM Page 21

# [email protected]

20th Annual Vashon Island

2010

Monotype, Summer Flight by Lisa Guy

Friday Pre-Tour EventsGarden Connoisseurs

Friday, June 25, 1 to 4 pm

Sunset Garden GalaFriday, June 25, 6 pm ‘til sunset

The TourSaturday & Sunday

June 26- 27, 10 am - 5 pmFor information and ticket reservations

call 206.463.5131 or visit VashonAlliedArts.org

or brownpapertickets.com

Generously sponsored by:

www.giraffevashon.com

463-137211-6 Mon–Fri

10-5 Sat / 12-4 Sun

A thing of beauty can also be very functional. See hand painted mixing

bowls and casseroles look good and do good.

Giraffe now brings things from over 200 artisan groups in 68 countries

Janice Randall Photos

Kay White finds her garden meditative. Right, a sitting area overlooks her pond with koi fish.

Kay White’s expansive landscape is one of the jewels of the Garden Tour.

The big pay-off, both in weight and in dollars grown, was from potatoes. With a pound of finger-ling seed potatoes from Ronnigers in Colorado (www.ronnigers.com), her return was hundredfold: 110 pounds, worth $440. She also planted around 10 pounds of seed potatoes for regular spuds and got 250 pounds worth $250 in

return, or $500 at organic prices.

Leda Langley, an Island farmer who grows a lot of potatoes, told me last spring that you get the biggest bang in calories and productivity per acre with potatoes, and Lewis-Williams proved the point.

Other seeds with a large return — literally — were tomatoes at 109 pounds, worth at least $218 and more than $300 organic; 95 pounds of winter squash (delicate and butternut) worth $1 per pound; 36

pounds of cucumbers worth $72 or twice that if organic; leafy fry greens like kale, chard and spin-ach that come bagged at premium prices anywhere from $4 to $6 per pound. Lewis-Williams didn’t count her corn, she said.

For the fruit fanciers willing to pay for fresh off-season berries, investing in a few bushes and a freezer may be worthwhile. Lewis-Williams’ 28 pints of rasp-berries were worth at least $65 compared to in-season local berries, or $448

compared to last week’s Chilean winter imports at $1 an ounce.

Other results:• Herbs: 13 handfuls

worth $65• 15 pounds of leeks

worth $45• 32 pounds of beets

worth $1.50 per pound to $5 per pound for organic

• 29 pounds of carrots worth $22 to $30

• 15 pounds of cabbage worth 50 cents a pound but four times that organically.

My husband, always the skeptic, pointed out that

there are costs involved: water, fertilizer, seed trays, seed.

“And you have to have a deer fence,” Lewis-Williams added when I asked about her costs. Deer-fencing runs about $1 per foot — it’s possible to fence a garden her size (2,000 square feet, equal to 40 feet by 50 feet) for $100 plus the poles and gate materials.

Looking at her records, she estimated she spent $100 on seeds, $30 a month on water and $100

on organic fertilizer and amendments.

Given that one doesn’t water in three of the months of her trial, that’s approximately $300 a year to install a 2,000-square-foot veggie patch produc-ing $3,000 worth of food. That’s a tenfold return for your money.

Lewis-Williams put in a greenhouse last year, adding significantly to her costs. But gardeners don’t have to spend a lot on gear, as Steve Solomon points out in his latest book, “Gardening When It Counts: Growing Food in Hard Times”: They can direct seed instead of grow-ing or buying transplants, start warm-season fruiting plants in a sunny window, blend their own fertilizer and only use a hoe, a bow rake, a good shovel, a sharp knife and a hose.

A beginner may not be able to grow as large a bounty as Lewis-Williams did, but most folks realize some savings. The National Gardening Association found last year that “a well-maintained food gar-den yields a $500 average return per garden.”

So save yourself a few — or a lot — of bucks: Grow your own.

— Karen Dale writes a blog posted on The Beachcomber’s

Web site. Visit it at blogs.vashonbeachcomber.com/

gardenon/.

Page 22 www.vashonbeachcomber.com� Wednesday,�March�10,�2010�•�Vashon-Maury�Island�Beachcomber

Landscape DesignerDarsie Beck

253-678-7857www.stoneexpressions.net

Michelle L. Ramsden

(206) 406-3723P.O. Box 296

Vashon, WA [email protected]

tree assessmentstree and shrub

pruning

Join theCelebration


Custom Solar Design & Installation

General Electrical Services

206-463-3111www.artisanelectricinc.com

Lic#ARTISEI936L1

Comprehensive Energy Solutions

GarDenCONTINUED FROM 15


Paci� c PotagerPlanting the seed for you to eat.

Over 800 vari i� (mostly heirloom),

veg able, herb and ower starts for your garden and table.

Organically GrownOpen mid March

Michelle Crawford27918 Vashon Hwy SW 463-2750

Katie PuckettProperty ManagerResidential/Commercial

Experienced Knowledgeable Trustworthy

References Available

Of�ce 463 - 4240Cell 909 - [email protected]

Extraordinary gardening for extraordinary times

Laura PetersMaster Gardener/Consultant

Master � oral designer ~ Organic growerExpert pruner ~ Garden restorationCreating healing spaces in all habitats

35 years experience ~ Excellent references

contact/lve message: 450-8678 or 567-4396Email: [email protected]

backsplash for the bathroom sink.Eggen calls herself a “very outdoor per-

son,” and her house reflects that as well: She has six doors in her one-level home. “Every room has a door,” she said. And indeed, the house seems to flow into the natural world that surrounds it: There are no steps elevating the house, no porches or decks that set the house apart.

“I like the feeling of being very con-nected to the outdoors, ... the feeling that I could step out at any time,” she said.

But what truly makes this house stand out is what went into its creation — the decisions Eggen made every step of the way to try to achieve a five-star status. Islander Michael Laurie, certified as a verifier for Built Green, worked with her through the process, acting as both an advisor and third-party verifier.

The Built Green program puts out a list with about 100 items on it, all of which fall under a few key categories — energy efficiency, for instance, site and water protection and the resource-efficiency of the materials used. Each item comes with points that builders and homeowners accumulate. It takes at least 500 points — as well as verification by a third party — to earn a five-star rating.

Eggen jokes that she barely passed; her house got 509 points. Even so, Laurie says, it represents an environmental vision for what a homeowner can achieve.

“It is a really good model for how to do sustainability on Vashon. ... It blends in very well and has a very minimal impact on the site, in every way,” he said.

Some of the choices she made were sim-

ple ones that did not add to the project’s costs. The paint she used, for instance, contained no volatile organic compounds or VOCs. And the toilets are dual flush — meaning there’s one button for a low-flow flush and another for a bigger-flow flush.

Other choices were costlier. The fir, cedar and framing lumber are all certified

as sustainably harvested by the Forest Stewardship Council. Solar-voltaic panels — situated next to her vegetable garden, where there’s plenty of sunlight — generate some of the electricity used in her home, including elec-tric heat that is provided by wall-mounted heat-ers that she can regulate room by room.

The insulation — formaldehyde-free — is among the best environ-mentally. Air leakage is very low.

As a result, Laurie said, Eggen’s home is 25 percent more energy efficient than state code requires. Eggen calculates her efficiency another way: During the cold snap in December, her entire electric bill — heat, lights, utilities — came to $54.

Even in the building of the house, an environ-mental ethic came into play. Eggen, a former airline administrator who lived in London for 10 years, was on site much of the time while

the house was being built and personally ensured that anything that could be recy-cled was — even the soda cans from the work crew’s lunches. Other resources were also thoughtfully handled, Laurie said. Wood waste, for instance, was mulched on the spot, for use in Eggen’s garden.

As a result, the crew took only two loads of waste to the dump during the entire 10-month building process. Normally, crew members told her, they’d take two loads in two weeks.

“It was very impressive,” Laurie said.By achieving the five-star rating, Eggen

received a $5,000 grant, money meant to offset some of the higher building costs. At the same time, Eggen and Laurie said, there’s a huge financial benefit to houses that achieve a high rating under the Built Green system: Not only are the house’s operational costs lower, the resale value is also much higher — some estimates suggest a Built Green home with four or five stars commands 25 percent more per square foot than regularly built homes, Laurie said.

Still, for Eggen, who teaches exercise classes and works with Island nonprofits, the issue isn’t about money. She plans to live in this house, she said, for a long time.

“From the very first night here, even though I had a door I couldn’t lock and was surrounded by boxes, I’ve just been really happy. ... It’s small. I love the size. It’s everything I need.”

HOMECONTINUED FROM 15

Mike Urban Photo

Solar voltaic panels capture the sunlight next to Eggen’s garden, one of the few areas where she cleared the land.

Open houseAs part of the Built Green program, Carol Eggen will hold an open house, so that people can learn more about the program, building measures and materials she used. Michael Laurie and some of the subcontractors will be there and available to answer questions as well.The open house is 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday, March 27, at 14025 S.W. Reddings Beach Rd.

WWW.VASHONBEACHCOMBER.COM Wednesday, March 10, 2010 • Vashon-Maury Island Beachcomber

18’

30’

Bedroom

Bath

Closet

26

26

3’

ClosetCloset

W/D

WH

Shelves

Kitchen

LivingCoveredPorch

8’ 10’

Affordable Housing? Consider this-A well built, energy ef�cient, green home Constructed to 2006 IRC standards

In the 500 to 600 sq.ft. rangeCan be used as a primary residence or accessory dwelling unit

$88,440 on your lotDesign and Permitting Included

(Water, power, and septic not included)

Featured Model The “Quinalt” 492 Sq. Ft.Attic Trusses for Overhead Storage, Hardware Floors

Covered Porch and High Ef�ciency WoodstoveCompletely �nished, Designed for Future Expansion

Solar Heating and Loft Options Available

Sound Design and ConsultingMichael O. Bradley

Lic# SOUNDCC972K2

Phone 463-2055 e-mail: [email protected] or email for a complimentary consultation

www.sounddesignandconsulting.com

26

2

2

Please give us a call at (206) 463-1777

Check us out at our website!www.VashonHeating.com

...an energy management team

We can help

the Air

Spring time = Allergy season!!

Join theCelebration


By now, you’ve pruned roses, turned your veggie bed’s soil and fed it and fin-ished your winter cleanup. You’ve prob-ably done your first mow. You’re itchin’ to be outdoors, so here are more things you can do in the garden over the next two months.

March• Fertilize houseplants and check for

mites and scale.• Pull back or remove winter mulch on

beds; bait for slugs.• Transplant shrubs and trees.• Divide and transplant summer-bloom-

ing perennials.• Prune fuchsias, roses, hydrangeas,

potentilla, spirea. Shape “cushion” shrubs like lavender, box, santolina.

• If you haven’t yet, spade or fork veg-etable beds at least 12 inches deep, add-ing aged compost and a quarter-inch of chicken manure.

• Indoors, start seeds of tomatoes and peppers in small pots, keeping them warm (65 to 70 degrees) and brightly lit.

• Start hardening off transplants of hardy vegetables like cabbage, lettuce, broccoli.

• Two weeks after soil is turned, sow peas, but only if soil temps are at least 45

degrees. At 50 degrees, sow cauliflower, lettuce, broc-coli, potatoes, carrots, radish, spinach and cabbage, cover-ing the last four with Reemay, a garden blan-

ket, to pro-tect against insects.

April• If soil

temperature is at least 50 degrees, sow annual flower seeds out-doors, such as nigella, sweet peas, calendula and nasturtiums.

• Transplant hardy starts of cabbage, broccoli, lettuce, greens and onions once they have two true leaves and are hardened off. Wrap paper collars around base of cab-bage stems.

• Thatch, aerate and reseed lawn.• Stake peonies, big sedums and other

rising perennials that will need it later.• Harden off over-wintered geraniums

and pelargoniums.• Grub out dandelions.• Indoors, sow basil and eggplant.

Want advice for the following months? Consider purchasing a copy of “Seattle Tilth’s Maritime Northwest Garden Guide,” (78 pages, $14.95), a month-by-month manual tailored to our climate and growing season and useful for beginning to advanced gardeners. You can order it online by visiting http://seattletilth.org/about/books-for-sale.

Or visit Karen Dale’s blog, Garden On, Vashon, at http://blogs.vashonbeachcomb-er.com/gardenon/, where you can find gar-dening tips and much more, all geared to Vashon growers.

— Karen Dale

Start now for an awesome garden


ISLANDSECURITYSELF STORAGE

“The Key to Your Storage Needs”

Next to Post Of�ce

206-463-0555vashonstorage.com

10015 SW 178th St.

Pre-Purchase InspectionsPre-Sale/PreventativeMaintenance InspectionsStructural Pest Inspections

Sound advice for the discerning

home buyer

Craig Sutherland206 617-1981 206 463-1396

SUTHERLAND HOME INSPECTIONSTRACTORSERVICES

CENTECL961LB

FIELD FARM HOME & GARDEN

206( )463-2229

Head to the Farmers Market for Vicki Browne’s hand-made brooms, items with such character you’ll want to hang yours on the wall like a piece of art. Browne uses wood she finds on the beach to make the handles; as a

result, each one, slightly crooked and beautifully polished, is unique. She uses broom corn, a kind of sorghum, for the sweeper. So artful are these brooms — they sell for $30 to $40 — that the New York Times style blog paid homage to them.

Cake stands by Mosser Glass are festive items on sale at Kronos. In vivid opaque and translucent colors, the six- to 12-inch platters are made in the United States by a 160-year-old Ohio-based company. The platters, which are made

using the same molds the company has used for years, cost $32 and up.

Unique planters are avail-able at Dig — small boulders

that have had a round hole drilled into them. The rocky planters come in three different sizes, from four inches to eight inches, and are quite hearty, said Dig owner Sylvia Matlock.“You can’t break them,” she said. “But don’t drop them on your toes.”The planters retail for $29.98 and up, and Dig has a large selec-tion to choose from.

— Amelia Heagerty


MEMBER#GUILDHA025R2

206.463.4248 www.guildhallinc.com

Embracing the art and science of home building.

Blending craftsmanship with modern innovations.

Delivering the best in service, quality, and value.

Call us for a consultation or visit our website today.

A full service construction company offering: • Custom homes • Remodeling • Restorations

Guild HALL

5 things

homefor your

under $50

2.

3.4.

5.Top, Mosser Glass cake platters are on sale at Kronos. Just above, boulder planters are a fun addition to any landscape.

Egg baskets made by an Island artisan are on display at the Heron’s Nest. Barbara Gustafson weaves different-sized baskets out of various materials, including grapevine, dogwood, bam-boo and rattan. The baskets sell for $40.

1. At Giraffe, cushy door mats made of foam remnants from a flip-flop fac-tory are for sale for $24 and up. The brightly colored rugs come in dif-ferent sizes and are made by families in the Phillipines, who collect the foam pieces, cut them to size and craft them into vibrant mats.

463-9416 18025 Vashon Hwy SW

It’s Spring Time

at

New plants arrive every day!

Watch our reader board for weekly specials to stretch your garden dollars

A heartfelt thank-you to all my friends, customers &

employees! Your support, cards, letters, donations & words of encouragement at the nursery

& personally have given me the strength & resources to continue.

Thank you all so very much.

Our terrific landscaping crew does

c201-vib-home&garden'10

Documents

green home

sound homebuild

worth of organic vegetables

months worth

house thats

running tally

organic prices

carol eggens