In which Thor discusses the evolution of our land and flowers, from damaged to flourishing.
I’ve been dealing with more “life” lately, so my hero-husband Thor Hansen jumps in to help once more:
We live near a 450-acre tract of undeveloped land that is used by the locals mainly for haying and dog-walking. It has meadows that flower beautifully in the spring and summer, and I love to walk our dog Reo there and try to learn the names of the flowers. Some of the names I can even remember from year to year. Top photo is one of the big open meadows with Mt. Baker in the background.
Here is a sweet little pocket meadow.
Late spring and early summer bring out Ox-Eye Daisy, Bird’s Foot Trefoil, Eye Bright, Fox Glove, Yellow Glandweed, and many others.
Three years ago, we built a house on a Salish Seaside bluff north of Birch Bay, right across the road from these meadows. When we moved into the house, it was surrounded by bare ground, rocks, and sticks, all left over from the construction process. (And the former lot owner had illegally clear-cut, leaving a mess.) What in God’s Name were we going to do with all this ugly dirt? We were not enthusiastic about a typical grass yard, we wanted something more natural. We loved the meadows and their flowers. Why not plant a meadow? It will be pretty. It will be natural. There will be less mowing. I also wanted to build a wood-fired sauna in the soon-to-be meadow. I ordered some meadow and flower seeds from American Meadows. In early spring, I spread the meadow and flower seed over the whole property and the septic mound, but we left the sauna berm for special plantings. Then we waited breathlessly for our magical meadow. Well, it is a good thing we can hold our breath for a long time, because the growing process is very slow, especially on the poor quality of dirt we had (it was mostly clayey subsoil from the foundation excavation of our house). But eventually the grasses and flowers burst forth, and we were very pleased with the result. We got a wonderful profusion of flowers and clover grass.
Backyard during construction.
Backyard after planting.
Septic mound during construction.
Septic mound after planting.
Here are some of the flowers in the pictures above.
Flowering Flax
Farewell to Spring
Garden Cosmos
I built the sauna closer to the house. We had Martin Hauling make a small berm in front of the sauna site, plant some trees, and pour a concrete foundation for the sauna structure.
Sauna pad, berm and trees.
Same shot after planting.
This is a closeup of the berm and initial plantings.
How it looks now.
The flowers were delightful, and they changed with the spring to summer progression. Eventually, however, the flowers all went to seed, and the clover and other grasses got waist high, and we had a big thick kind of weedy mess. So, I rented a brush mower and whacked it all down. This was work, but I only had to do it once, and I figured that was easier than weekly mowing. Next spring we eagerly awaited the floral extravaganza, but it did not materialize. The grasses just took over. So, while we still have a grassy (and weedy) meadow, the flowers need special attention.
I decided to make a kind of hybrid meadow in the front yard. I mow this regularly, but do so on the highest mower setting so the grass gets taller than normal yards. This allows more flowers to develop and gives snakes a chance to escape the mower. I like seeing little garter snakes scurry away when I walk across the yard. (I know this sounds creepy. I also like spiders). Before the first mowing in spring, I search the yard for young flower shoots and mark them so I can mow around them. After a few weeks of mowing, we have a yard with flower bouquets. It’s a little messy, but just enough so.
Front yard.
Daisies are protected by law at our house, so they also tend to grow in unintended places.
Boardwalk to hot tub. (Sara calls this our “beach cottage vibe.”)
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You will find The Rambling Writer’s blog posts here every Saturday. Sara’s latest novel from Book View Café is Pause, a First Place winner of the Chanticleer Somerset Award and an International Pulpwood Queens Book Club selection. “A must-read novel about friendship, love, and killer hot flashes.” (Mindy Klasky). It’s also a love letter to the stunning beauty of her native Pacific Northwest wild places. Sign up for her quarterly email newsletter at www.sarastamey.com
