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Puget Sound Garden Fling: Froggsong Gardens

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On our first day of the Fling in the Puget Sound region last July, we stopped mid-day at the lovely Froggsong Gardens. It is a large garden estate advertised as a wedding venue on the beautiful Vashon Island in Puget Sound. The garden itself was described as a five acre garden set within seventeen acres which includes a rose pergola, a roundel garden, a stone ruin and a sunken garden. The gardeners/owners describe it as “Northwest Formal” – sounds interesting so, ok, let’s go!
It was a bright, sunny day so photography was challenging. But the beauty of this Cornus controversa ‘Variegata’, the wedding cake tree, shines no matter what light.
Before exploration began we stopped in the lovely shaded pavilion for lunch and a shopping experience from Little Bird Gardens, a sweet nursery on Vashon Island.

Unknown Hydrangea macrophylla, hydrangeas being the unofficial mascot of the Puget Sound Garden Fling.

Time to wander and take in the ambiance of Froggsong. These rock pillars serve as an entry point into what I assume are the wedding venue areas.

Rows of birches possibly serving some purpose for weddings. Even if that is not the case the simplicity of the planting is appealing.

A most excellent aisle in which to exchange vows.

It is a bit tricky to see but there is a berm mounded up around the parameter of these beds. It reminded me of Neolithic earth works and is an interesting idea.

Within the beds, yellows and whites dominate the scene, making it feel even brighter than the day already offered.

A range of yellows from buttercream to lemon to vibrant school bus yellow. I like the harmony of it all.
Variegated Japanese maple.

Helen and Janet, our Canadian friends, enjoying a moment in the shade of clipped hedges. This tunnel of green is likely used for weddings.

A double flowered white Hydrangea serrata (is my best guess), perhaps ‘Shirofuji’. A beauty indeed.
Clipped hedging, part of the tunnel of love I believe.

Phlox paniculata looking very healthy and disease-free.
A wider shot of the heart of the garden with unfortunately very harsh lighting. On the Froggsong website there are photos of this that look much softer.

A bit away from the main garden is a pond area with a wilder feel and a large weeping willow.

A pergola walk surrounded with clipped shrubs and many hydrangeas and roses.

Very fancy raised beds.

This stone structure, probably the “stone ruin” as described in our directory, was tucked away, a place to discover for the wandering visitor.

Wider shot of the pergola alley.
Somewhere in there lies a pond and bridge. I’m sorry that I ran out of time and didn’t see it.

Many textures in there with what looks to be a rather large Chapaecyparis lawsoniana ‘Wissel’s Saguaro’ on the left, its silhouette an inky dark green.
Another view of that cornus because it’s so fantastic.
A parting shot of more clipped boxwood and a pretty pergola dripping with a grape vine.
Thank you Froggsong Gardens for hosting a rowdy group of 100 or so garden enthusiasts and opening your magic world to us. For those of you who attended weddings here or were married, lucky you! There was a lot more to explore that I simply didn’t have time for, perhaps someday someone I know will invite me back.
That’s a wrap for this week at Chickadee Gardens. As always thank you so much for reading and commenting, we do love hearing from you!

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Key to Aquaculture Development: Local Marketand Support for Local Producers

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* By Antonio Garza de Yta, Ph.D The importance of increasing domestic markets  in countries where aquaculture is developed is increasingly discussed. However, it is necessary to take into account their own realities, as they are completely different. Recently I have been involved in several discussions where the importance of increasing  domestic  markets  in countries […]

The post Key to Aquaculture Development: Local Marketand Support for Local Producers appeared first on Aquaculture Magazine.

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Is there any reason to not plant fruit tree forests?

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I have a weak spot for trees like cherry, plum and apple, you know the ones with these dramatic pink and white flowers every spring. I have a vague idea of planting a small forest with mostly these trees and just let them do their own thing at the back of my property, maybe letting it be a scenic tourist spot to draw in visitors in the future. There’s a park a town over from me that gets a lot of visitors every time the cherry trees bloom, so I was thinking I might be able to do something similar, but on a bigger scale with differently sized trees and a few different varieties to prolong the blooming season. Fruit and wood would mostly be a side product, I just want the flower forest.

But I’m hesitating because I haven’t seen anyone do it before. And it seems like such a simple thing that, if I haven’t seen anybody do it, there’s probably a reason why.

On one hand, nutrients might be a problem. But I’m not envisioning a managed orchard – it doesn’t need to yield the maximum amount of fruit, and whatever I wouldn’t pick would attract animals and birds so nutrients would come in that way without my participation. Other than that, I can’t really think of anything, provided I protect the trees until they’re grown.

So, guys, yay or nay?

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The Elephant in the Room by Liz Kalaugher review – how we make animals sick

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From frogs to ferrets, an eye-opening account of the ways we affect the health of other species – and vice versa

Before entering Edinburgh’s Royal Botanic Garden, visitors must walk over disinfecting mats to rid their shoes of bacteria or other pathogens. Next to the mats is a sign whose admonition seems at once both practical and religious: “Cleanse your soles.” Whenever I visit, as I often do, this sign always makes me smile: this ritualised cleaning is an important measure to prevent outbreaks of disease among the garden’s 730 species, but it also seems to be some kind of spiritual act.

Anyone tempted to jump that mat should read Liz Kalaugher’s new book, a wide-ranging, thorough and persuasive investigation of the ways in which we have made non-human animals sick. Her book reads as a kind of shadow history of human endeavour and innovation, tracing the calamitous price that trade, exchange and intensive farming have exacted on everything from frogs to ferrets. It’s a measured and detailed account, but below the calm surface you can hear an anguished cry imploring us to open our eyes and see how our own health is intertwined with that of other species.

Continue reading…

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