Spring 2023 Fjord

With the recent bout of frigid air enveloping us as it swoops down from the Olympic slopes, it's difficult to imagine that it will ever be spring again. However, everywhere you turn there are signs that it truly is just around the corner. The bulbs sending up their tentative fragile green shoots, the cedars with their tender lime green tips -- and even the chickens look better as they come out their bedraggled winter moults and start to get busy in the egg laying department as the days get longer.

In the spirit of the season the Fjord team reached out to some local businesses and farmers to see what their spring plans were shaping up to be. In Shelton, Elvia at Toziers Bros is setting up the greenhouses and nursery yards to bring in all new and beautiful plants. This really is a one stop shop for all your gardening needs as you start to work your veggie or cut flower plots. As Heather remarks in her profile for the Fjord, sometimes it's easier to plant flowers than cut grass incessantly!

Also in Shelton, Andrea and Joe have been busy propagating fruit trees and getting the grounds ready for a Spring opening at Hammersley Inlet Nursery on Arcadia.

In Belfair, Michael and Elton are getting their unique shop, Crazy Hill Garden & Botanicals, ready for their March 4th season opening. Across the street the White Barn Market is getting geared up for a busy market season. Also in Belfair, the Farm at Water's Edge is accepting wait-lists for their spring gardening workshops.

And don't miss the many fundraising garden sales throughout area. The Master Gardens of Mason County generally earmark a date around Mother's Day and the Quilcene & Brinnon gardeners encourage you to save a few hours on Memorial Day weekend to check out their offerings. See the events calendar for this event and more.

This section of the Fjord will encourage you to look towards a blooming spring –and perhaps inspire you to lay a few bulbs in the ground a well!

When the pandemic hit, my consulting work dried up, and I needed to “pivot” just as many did. While wishing the overgrown tough grasses and creeping swamp weeds in the middle of our yard would mow themselves, I got an idea. What if I smother the grass and plant cut flowers?! My husband and our three kids said, “do it!” Almost sounding like a dare encouraged me more, along with their buy-in to teamwork it with me. That area fits over 500 dahlia plants now! Yes, there is weeding, soil prep, spraying stinky fish fertilizer and everything else that goes into growing healthy plants, but it surely beats the monotony of lawn maintenance and arguing about who is going to do it.

With every garden bed, rhubarb plant, and tree we add to the yard, we see more wildlife coming in to live here. When I was little, I grew up on a farm (yes, I had experience in growing, so the lawn conversion was not scary…just unreal that we did not do it sooner).

On my parents' farm, my dad dug a fish/ swimming pond at the bottom of a hill below our house in a pine forest, and my mom grew gorgeous flower gardens terraced into that hill.

Wildlife and toads thrived there. Here on our hillside property overlooking Hood Canal, there were no toads for years until we found a big one making a home under a

rhubarb plant two summers ago, and more toads were in our gardens last summer! We are so excited to have them here! Western Toads are native to this area and need loose soil and mulchy-type materials to burrow into. Our hard-packed clay lawn was not a good habitat for them. If it was not good habitat for them, then surely other species have been affected, too.

The Thicket on Hood Canal came about as our little farm that is growing and nurturing the land in a way that will benefit nature while supplying our communities with fresh flowers that nourish our spirits and boost our mental health. “Grown, not flown” really resonates with us to grow and support local growers to minimize reliance

on imports. As we grow, we look forward to providing opportunities for people to enjoy and learn about flowers and growing in harmony with nature. It’s a work in progress that has been growing since 2017, and we have appreciated all the support and encouragement the community has given to our family. I’m Heather, Chief Farm Gal Boss at the Thicket. You’ll see Andy and the kids working markets and stopping to talk flowers, chickens, rabbits, and swim team at our local Hoodsport hangouts.

To learn more and follow what we are up to, give us a follow and say “hi” on Instagram: @thethicket_pnw or visit our website at www.thicketpnw.com.

Although daffodils and tulips will always be celebrated markers of spring, our native plants are often forgotten gems of the forests understory, here on our wet coastal woodlands, spring heralds delicate jewel tones on the forest floor. As the days get longer and the weather gets warmer, ramble on one of Hood

Keep your eyes peeled for the first nodding, purple blossoms of Henderson's Shooting Star (Dodecatheon hendersonii) and the showy, pinky-purple blooms of our local variety of Rhododendron (Rhododendron macrophyllum).

There are nearly 30 varieties of Rhododendrons native to North America. The Pacific Rhododendron is Washington’s State flower and is found in drier parts of the Hood

Canal in the understory of coniferous forests. Pacific Rhododendron can also be seen in partly sunny, open areas, such as along roads.

The Pacific Rhododendrons and also Goat's Beard (Aruncus dioicus) can be found along the winding, scenic Olympic Highway. For an especially spectactular showing of the native rhodendrons, head up to the scenic outlook on Mount Walker.

In sunnier, damper areas, near streams, look for the bright pink flowers of Pink Fawn Lily (Erythronium revolutum) or the iconic, if not slightly smelly, “West Coast Daffodil”— Skunk Cabbage (Fritillaria lanceolata). Also in sightly shady, waterside spots, look for carpets of pink Bleeding Heart (Dicentra formosa)— a more delicate version of our domestic variety. Try the Kamilche Kennedy Creek Trail for these humid loving flowers.

Orange Honeysuckle

As the weather gets warmer, search in the partly shady area of the woods for the trailing tender beauty of Orange Honeysuckle (Lonicera ciliosa), and the yellow blossoms of Tall Oregon Grape (Mahonia aquifolium).

The delicate, orange-red blooms of Red Columbine (Aquilegia formosa) also emerge during this time. Other blossoms to look for in the late spring are the azure, crocus-like flowers of the Common Camas (Camassia quamash). Found in full sunlight in open places, such as fields, parklands, the bulbs from the Camas were an important part of the diet of Native Americans. Known as k’a’w˜up to the Skokomish and sxa’dzaêb by the Squaxin, this bulbous flower was actively cultivated and traded between Nations throughout the Pacific Northwest who would harvest the bulbs in the early spring and roast them in pit cooks.

On one of those calm days when you believe it might just be summer here early, pack a lunch and hop in the boat and travel to Hope Island Marine State Park. Here you will be greeted by lovely trails and beautiful naturalized gardens with a mix of introduced and native species. Once settled as a farm, Hope Island has historic fruit trees mixed in with native

camas, honeysuckle and the elegant red, trunks of Madrone (Arbutus menziesii). An unusual looking plant found along sun-facing, beach banks is the Red Paintbrush (Castilleja miniata), whose tiny green flowers are hidden in bright red leaves that give the appearance of a brush dipped in red paint. Since most of these species are protected against picking or transplanting, remember to keep your enjoyment to viewing.

You can take as many photographs as you like, but refrain from taking bouquets and let the native flowers thrive.

If you are interested in growing your own native plants, Mason Conservation District in Shelton (450 W. Business Park Road) hosts an annual native plant sale each winter (at time of printing they still have a limited number of plants available for selection) and hosts a website with lots of resources for successful cultivation and use of native plants to target problem areas in your landscaping — such as stream side planting to minimize erosion; marine shoreline species; deer resistant, water management, and shady area plants. They especially recommend native planting to promote birds, bees and other beneficial wildlife.

If casual enjoyment of our native plants is what your after, Washington Native Plant Society has resources online, (wnps.org) and there are plenty of guide books to help. Pojar and Mackinnon’s Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast (2014) and Nancy J. Turner’s Food Plants of Coastal First Peoples (1995) offer excellent information, photographs and tidbits that add color to an already polychromatic subject. Stop by the Vault bookstore in Hoodsport to check out the selection of ethnobotany books and plant identification guides.

Previously a horticulture teacher and landscape designer, now farmer-florist and owner of Pint Size Posies, Regina Grubb moved to Hoodsport after falling in love.

"Gardening has been part of my life since a small child in my grandmother's garden," Regina remarks, "for me it was a natural progression from being a horticulture teacher to becoming a flower farmer."

Regina raises flowers on a micro-farm of a 1/4 acre of land where she is currently building her home with her partner, Rich, on the Lake Cushman Golf Course. She plants over 50 species of flowers, including tulips, daffodils, anemones, and ranunculus in the spring, summer dahlias, zinnias, sunflowers and cosmos, and fall sunflowers, eucalyptus, dahlias and mums.

“Every flower we place in a bouquet or bring to market is harvested at a particular stage and with the utmost care to ensure they are enjoyed in the vase for as long as possible.”

Pint Size Posies sells bouquets by subscription. The “Bouquet Season Pass” subscribers get farm fresh bouquets from March to October either biweekly or weekly (12 bouquets $200, 24 bouquets $360). There are Spring, Summer and Fall subscription shares, each eight weeks long, either biweekly or weekly ($75 or $145 respectively). All subscriptions include bonus invites to open garden days and special events.

Regina also sells flowers for events, including weddings, and to local businesses. She additionally sells to florists and other designers in the South Sound region. On occasion an abundant harvest allows for a Fresh Flower Friday with bouquets available at local businesses, pop-ups, or at the farm as advertised on their Facebook page and Instagram account, or online at www.pintsizeposies.com.