HomeGrown Organics

10/13/2026

I’m very excited to announce that I’ve been helping build a new, very special garden on Vashon. THE RAIN /// SOCIETY is a brand new contrast therapy and wellness center opening this fall, a labor of love from John and Leslee. Check on their website, it’s a really fantastic project.

The business is located at Vashon Village, and will have cold plunges, saunas, massage, and of course, a really magical garden to rejuvenate and recharge in. I collaborated with Joshua Barwick on the stone paths and boulder placement.

I’ll update with more pictures soon. It’s coming together this month.

10/12/2026

Phormium cookianum. Bluestone entry by Joshua Barwick of Noble Stone.

10/09/2026

Arctostaphylos uva-ursi (red bearberry, kinnikinnick), seen here growing on a boulder with thick moss. Come on!

09/24/2026

09/23/2026

Just one small section of this Vine Maple has changed into its autumn color. Really beautiful! And a great preview of what’s to come.

There is a pruning cut right there, which makes me think that caused this section to color earlier. Maybe a little stress? The cut looks a little too close to the collar.

09/18/2026

This time of year, flowers start to give way to another kind of color in the garden: fruit.

Rosa rubiginosa, the sweetbriar rose, is covered in bright red-orange hips right now. It’s not native - it comes from Europe —but it’s a beautiful rose.

It is growing in this garden mixed in with salal and native Rosa rugosa and nutkana.

09/09/2026

Quercus garryana! On my way into Sequim I had to brake hard and enjoy a moment under these beautiful Oak trees.

If you have only seen solitary White Oaks around Puget Sound, I encourage you to find a mature Savannah of them. It’s a marvelous feeling.

09/04/2026

An ornamental grass that plays really well with flowering perennials- Molinia ‘variegata’. I went through a phase of using it quite a lot and then somehow have forgotten about it. Just ran into it at a clients gardens from 5 years ago. They’ve performed really well everywhere I’ve planted them.

09/03/2026

I had fun last night giving a Webinar on Sedges (Carex) with Northwest Horticultural Society

Here are some pictures of my recent visit to one of the places that made me fall in love with these plants, Island Center Forest on Vashon, where a seasonal pond dries up to reveal a meadow of sedges - c. aperta & c. exsicatta.

08/20/2026

I really like this combo — ‘Onyx and Pearls’ Penstemon (Penstemon digitalis ‘Onyx and Pearls’) with Mexican fleabane (Erigeron karvinskianus ‘Profusion’).

The dark purple penstemon foliage is such a good backdrop for all those loose little white and pink daisies. Both handle summer dry well and flower for a long period, but the foliage holds interest even when they’re not flowering.