Garden On, Vashon

[I blogged this garden and gardener before, on December 7, 2009: for the full entry (which describes the garden's design and creation), click here to see "Garden Club Award Winners." ]

Listening to jazz on this drippy Saturday morning, Jazziness is what comes to mind as a metaphor for  John and Colleen James’ garden on the Burton loop. It’s a syncopation of hot colors and contrasts, of ‘Hot Lips’ and ‘Black-eyed Susans’, with daturas blowing trumpets and bugles swinging low, presided over by a ginger jar pot-bellied and blue.

Colleen has been gardening here since moving from Gig Harbor in 2005, and she started propagating plants in 2008. She used to create jewelry, but when the family strain of macular degeneration set in, she transferred her creative drive to an art with a broader brush. “Have you ever seen the late works of Monet?” she asked me. “He had macular degeneration, yet his last paintings are BEAUTIFUL!” 

So is her garden. Because of her vision’s need, her plant choices provide plenty of visual punch. She adores dark plants—especially purple—using them as a dark foil for golden foliage and yellow flowers.

You can see such contrasts quickly if you hang a right around the corner of the garage. There, shaded from 10am onward, is her shade garden. Here above a dark carpet of purple bugle, the golden Japanese forest grass (Hakonechloa macra)and a golden lavatera light up the somber darks of Ligularia ‘yellow rocket’ and a black snakeroot at the corner—more teal than black here given the dearth of sun.

You might notice a little red-headed flower weaving in and out; this is Sage ‘Hot Lips’, which is all over this garden. As you exit the shade garden, head downhill to the house’s SE corner to see ‘Hot Lips’ full grown, a spectacle in red, white, and green. Next to it is another plant Colleen has much propagated, which she’s dubbed ‘Hot Pink’ after its neighbor. Colleen says ‘Hot Lips’ blooms from spring through frost, in full sun to partial shade, and literally REPELS deer.

This garden is open to deer, so Colleen’s garden design venture specializes in deer-resistant plants “though they can surprise you— this spring they’ve been eating my sedums!” (mine, too!) She’s found that deer don’t eat ligularias, hostas, japanese forest grass, royal fern or painted fern, or sweet box. I suspect one could add to that list her Japanese irises (Iris ensata), which she loves so much she propagated 350 of them last spring. 

 The garden slopes downward to the house, and there you’ll find the labor of Colleen’s winter: a greenhouse and benches with HUNDREDS of propagated plants she’ll offer for sale during tour. 20% of proceeds will go to VAA, the rest to help fund her “plant-aholic addiction.” She described the difficulty of getting Japanese iris to germinate—two striations, then mowing the tiny first leaves down to develop roots under grolites. “I just LOVE getting a seed to germinate.”

As you go back up the steps, try not to tromp on one of Colleen’s favorite fillers “that people don’t notice unless I point it out—the tiny daisy Erigeron, also known as fleabane or Santa Barbara daisy. It fills in so beautifully with little flecks of light, growing all over the place. It’s easy to yank out where I don’t want it, it’s not annoying, spills down through things, blooms all season.”

She also uses  ajuga—also known as purple bugle— as a ground cover. “It’s good growing against a succulent called golden “Angelina”  in the walkway—they’re pushy enough to fight each other.” And it’s so prolific that she’ll give people pieces of it, right out of the ground. So why not ask? And buy a few plants off her to support her “plant-aholic addiction” before the NW Perennial Alliance descends like a swarm later this summer. 

To get tickets to Vashon Allied Arts’ garden tour next weekend, June 26-27, go online to www.vashonalliedarts.org.