Whidbey Fall Home & Garden 2008 by Sound Publishing, Inc.

Home garden &

Fall 2008

golden

FAll in love with your space again

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pond

efficient Living: Professor creates master lesson in his own home.

Story & Photos by Jessie Stensland

Guest sprouts: Invite your love of herbs indoors & enjoy all winter.

welcoming life: Inviting personality for one home & owner. Quilted garden: Texture & color painted onto botanical canvas.

More stories capturing Whidbey's island style inside!

ABOVE: A gentle waterfall, flanked by rocks and plants, adds serene motion to the gardens of North Whidbey resident Carol Goldberg. BELOW: Goldberg uses her skills as a quilter to create colorful and textured gardens. BACKGROUND: Japanese blood grass adds color to the garden.

It’s a smorgasbord of Mother Nature’s offerings. The plants in Carol Goldberg’s gardens are a combination of native and exotic. They have flowers and foliage in all the colors of the rainbow and grow in unusual shapes and textures. She has a giant koi pond with three waterfalls and a bridge leading to her front door. A petroglyph and many interesting pieces of driftwood decorate the yard. Bird feeders attract a constant stream of visitors. Yet somehow, all the diverse elements come together to create an environment that looks very natural and feels serene. “I’m happy when I look down here and see all the color and the tall pointies and the rounded shapes,” Goldberg said.

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Published as a supplement to the Whidbey News-Times September 13, 2008

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Bright

One CEntral Whidbey couple turns on the lights & turns down their bill with efficiency Story & Photos by nathan whalen Joe Sheldon, a long-time college professor, has been teaching about sustainable living and being a good steward to the environment for years. Now he's not only practicing what he preaches — he's living in it. His 1,900-square-foot home, nestled in the woods near the Au Sable Institute south of Coupeville, is a textbook example of his teachings.

Nathan Whalen/Whidbey News-Times

The water system in Joe Sheldon's home includes equipment for the radiant floor heating where hot water is piped in through the concrete floor.

The custom-built house is energy efficient enough that he can sell power back to the electricity company during the hot summer months. “It’s pretty close to break even at this point,” Sheldon said. Sheldon is quick to point out that his home is comprised of structural insulated panel, which is basically Styrofoam with wood on either side. The material provides an air tight form of insulation and no waste because the panels are prefabricated at a company in Fife. Sheldon said the material gives his home 30 percent of the air infiltration of the best stick built home. He said it also prevents moisture from getting in as well. To help with air circulation, Sheldon installed a HEPA system and his home has a slight positive air pressure. “You never have pollutants, dust or allergens coming into the house,” he said. The system pulls the warm air out of the house to keep it cool during the summer months. He said the hottest his home has been in the summer is 78 degrees and it’s been at 73 degrees for the past two months. The home's in-floor radiant heating is another big saver. The heat actually starts as groundwater around 55 degrees. The water passes through a compression system that raises the waters temperature to 125 degrees

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Idea

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Nathan Whalen/Whidbey News-Times

Joe and Donna Sheldon in the backyard of their new home. In the background is a solar electric panel that helps power their home.

Nathan Whalen/Whidbey News-Times

The Central Whidbey home of Joe and Donna Sheldon utilizes structural insulation, above, among other traits that make it so energy efficient the couple are able to sell back energy.

before it circulates through the concrete floors. At the end of the cycle, the water is returned to the ground at a temperature just above freezing. Before the Sheldons moved into their two-story home in February, they spent $300 a month on average to heat the home they were renting. After they moved in, their power bill dropped to $79 in February, $56 in March and $46 in April. The new house also has a solar electric panel on the roof of the garage which allows the couple to produce power for their home. The solar energy production, along with the energy efficiency of the home and a state subsidy encouraging use of alternative energy, means the Sheldons are able to export a little bit

of electricity to the power company. This giveback helps the couple offset power usage spent during the colder months. But energy isn't the only thing conserved and reserved around the Sheldon house. A 160-gallon tank collects water from the roof of the garage and home, and the Sheldons use it to water their prairie garden. The water is also available to any parched animals that may be wandering by the house. Joe Sheldon has been interested in building his own green home for years. However, he had been busy teaching on the East Coast where he found it difficult to find builders utilizing “green” techniques. Building efficiently also wasn't budget

efficient at that point, but advances in the "green" industry have since made building eco-wise more affordable. The planning process alone took two-and-a-half years from starting design to breaking ground. But Sheldon is grateful to his designer, Ted Clifton of Clifton View Homes, for his work designing the home. The passion of the homeowner and builder hasn't gone unnoticed. The Skagit Island Counties Builders Association gave the building a Five Star Built Green Certification. In addition to finding new ways to make his home more energy efficient, Sheldon continues to teach the occasional class at the Au Sable Institute, and he and his wife are happily celebrating their 43rd wedding anniversary this year. For a retired guy, he still has a lot of energy left — and plenty to spare.

Home &garden Fall 2008

Publisher: Marcia Van Dyke Editor: Jim Larsen Design & Layout: Cynthia Woolbright Writing & Photography: Liz Burlingame, Jenny Manning, Jessie Stensland & Nathan Whalen. Ad Design: Teresa Besaw & Susan Hanzelka. Marketing: Robyn Bainbridge, Kory Dyer & Cindi Peters

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herbal remedy

Invite them to grow inside this winter Story & Photos by jenny manning

As temperatures drop and the first frost nears, gardeners need not pack away their trowels and gloves for the spring. And cooks shouldn’t settle for dried herbs. By shifting the herb garden indoors, gardeners can enjoy their hobby through the winter, and cooks can create their favorite meals using fresh, homegrown ingredients. Henry Vandenhaak of Greenhouse Florist and Nursery says that with care, herbs can be grown inside during winter’s short, cold days. “It’s important that they get as much light as possible,” he said. Indoor herbs should be placed in a south-facing window and will need at least four to five hours of natural sunlight a day, he said. A double-bulb fluorescent lamp with one cool bulb

and one warm bulb can also be used to supplement natural light. “The mix of cool and warm light helps reproduce sun rays,” Vandenhaak said. To do so, gardeners can hang a fluorescent light no more than six to eight inches above their indoor plants. Placing the light any further away wouldn’t allow enough light for the plants. Vandenhaak also suggests that the lamp be adjustable, so it can be moved up as plants grow. An indoor garden allows for yearround gardening fun and access to fresh herbs for culinary delights. “Everyone knows there’s a big difference,” Vandenhaak said of using fresh herbs in the kitchen. “Very seldom will I buy dried herbs, but it is always a stand-by.”

A variety of herbs can be grown indoors, including rosemary, a variety of thymes, basils, chives and more. If you maintain the proper lighting and soil conditions, your herbs will thrive through the winter and keep you adding spice to your cooking all year long.

FallHome&garden

Jenny Manning/Whidbey News-Times

Henry Vandenhaak of Greenhouse Florist and Nursery displays a flat of herb starts. Start planning ahead, as herbs should be brought indoors a week or two before the first frost.

Indoor growing tips

• Place plants in a south-facing window. • Supplement natural light with a warm/cool blend of florescent light. • Fertilize with a 5-10-5 or other garden vegetable formula. • Spritz plants or place in a bed of pea gravel to increase humidity. • Clay pots require more watering; plastic pots require less watering.

Cooking with home grown herbs brings a certain kind of satisfaction, he said. “It all kind of goes together. It’s just gratifying, just like growing plants in the garden,” he said. Plants will grow best when the home temperature is kept about 70 degrees during daylight and around 60 degrees at night to mimic the summer climate. “They don’t like it warm all the time,” he said. Plants also like humidity, he said. With indoor heating and ventilation, homes tend to be fairly dry, but a light misting by spray bottle can add the necessary humidity to make indoor plants happy. Placing plant pots in a shallow tray of pea gravel not only adds a decorative touch, Vandenhaak

said, but the gravel collects excess runoff from watering and slowly evaporates into the air, increasing humidity. Vandenhaak said that anyone can grow herbs indoors. “Success depends on experience and what kind of green thumb you have,” he said. “But don’t let one failure stop you from doing it.”

Many herbs, such as the purple basil above, allow you to add a pop of color to your indoor greenery.

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AT LEFT: Although Trudy Sundberg’s garden is described as “high maintenance” the organic growing techniques create hearty bouquets. ABOVE: Much of the artwork in Sundberg’s home is created or gifterd by friends, such as this blown glass pea pod. AT RIGHT: Gardener Koelle Bodhi has spent the past year reconstructing the backyard, developing a huge perennial garden.

Divine Living

scenic heights area home always ready to impress Story & Photos by Liz Burlingame

ABOVE: A statue of “Pyramus and Thisbe,” characters in a Greek myth that inspired Shakespeare’s “Midsummer Night’s Dream,” watches over the garden. AT RIGHT: A kaleidoscope of dahlias are among the blossoms in the garden.

Passing by Trudy Sundberg’s Oak Harbor home, many drivers will slow to stare at the 30-foot ceramic mural installed on her front exterior wall. With the name “Bio-geomorphic,” the round, three-dimensional shapes give the impression of an overhead view of land and sea, and progressively focuses in on tidepools and stones. “It’s as if you were looking at it from an airplane and then straight on. The image is about nature and magic,” Sundberg said. The mural by Robert Fairfax, a former Whidbey Island native known for his own garden’s “fantastical alternate reality,” was installed the same year the cedar house was completed by Sundberg’s husband, in 1976. The path leading to the doorstep is beset with annuals, geraniums, and a AT LEFT: A well-loved and well-stocked library invites the Sundbergs and their guests to curl up with a good book and read.

dome-like Japanese maple. Floor to ceiling windows to the left show part of the inside gallery. Sundberg is a long-time art collector who decorated her living room with artwork from The Netherlands, where her husband was stationed as a naval aviator. There are pieces by Fleur Cowles, a distinguished author and painter who worked as a British ambassador to the U.S. and many more by Sundberg’s daughter Lana, an artist of 23 years. A long hallway is reserved for her collection, along with a few paintings, that were done by Sundberg herself. Dominating the main living room is a beige fireplace. It resembles stone but it’s actually made of diatoms, a kind of algae or shell often nicknamed “jewels of the sea.” The room also houses a massive book collection. Sundberg’s love of William Shakespeare is immediately apparent in the

FallHome&garden AT RIGHT: The art and photo exhibition is concentrated in the office and hallway. This photo shows Sundberg outside a democratic headquarters in decades past. Today, Sundberg is the vicechair of the Island County Democrats.

garden, which blends a flowery atmosphere with organic, native elements. A small statue of “Pyramus and Thisbe,” characters in a Greek myth that inspired Shakespeare’s “Midsummer Night’s Dream,” is embedded in the flowers. “It’s mainly a huge perennial garden,” Sundberg’s gardener Koelle Bodhi said. Bodhi is from California and said she spent a lot of time studying Washington gardens and organic methods. Today, Sundberg’s garden is all organic. Bodhi uses grass clippings from Sundberg’s neighbor for mulch and after the trees are pruned, the shredded bark is used for the pathway. A harpin protein developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is sprayed on each of the plants. “It’s a new product that’s organically based. It encourages plants to develop their own defenses,” Bodhi said. Both the organic elements and mixture of plant smells attract “beneficial insects” to the garden, such as bees and ladybugs. The insects also attract hungry birds. Bodhi said she’s counted

ABOVE: Include among Sundberg’s art collection are pieces by the collector herself, including this one titled “Peer Gynt.” AT RIGHT: Just one of the many pieces of art on display at the Sundberg home.

about 60 species from her viewing spot at the kitchen table. “Sometimes we’ll even see juvenile eagles up in the trees practice flighting,” Bodhi said. The garden sits on a bluff overlooking Oak Harbor Bay, with views of Camano Island. As you walk the path, there’s a mixed scent of sea air and wild roses. There are approximately 28 types of perennials, such as the bell-shaped campanulas, delphiniums, and straggly-stemmed forget me nots. Instead of maintaining grass, Sundberg decided to use ivy to border the plant-life. “It only needs to be trimmed down once or twice a year,” Sundberg said. As the vice-chair for the Island County Democrats, Sundberg’s home has hosted several parties, such as Gov. Christine Gregoire’s visit in July, along with local politicians Angie Homola and Tim Knue. “They seem to really love this house. It’s seen a lot of traffic over the years,” Sundberg said. After settling in the area in the 1960s, Sundberg has become a wellknown community figure and so has her beachside home, nestled into a bluff on Bonnie View Acres Drive.

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Fish food for thought Koi , or more specifically nishikigoi (literally "brocaded carp"), are ornamental domesticated varieties of the common carp. Koi breeding originated in the 18th century in the Niigata prefecture of Japan. If kept properly, koi can live about 30–40 years. Some have reportedly lived up to 200 years.

The gardens extend all the way around the home overlooking Dugualla Bay on North Whidbey. Carol’s husband, Marshall Goldberg, decreed that they shall have no lawn when they moved in seven years ago. That allowed her artistic and scientific sides — she’s a “trained biologist” — to take root. “My goal was to create a meadow where something is always in bloom,” she said. Goldberg is a plant collector extraordinaire. A visitor won’t find many of the Whidbey Island standards in her gardens. Yet she can name just about all the plants — from the creeping blue star to the harlequin glorybower — among the hundreds that dot her landscape. She’s even created a computerized catalogue of her plants, complete with photos she’s taken of each one. Each photo is tagged with the scien-

tific and common name. Visiting a nursery, Goldberg said, is like going to a candy shop. She hunts high and low for unusual and interesting plants, though she has an obvious predilection for evergreen shrubs, colorful grasses and irises. She doesn’t have time to quilt

much anymore, so she transferred that skill outdoors. “I’m quilting with my garden,” she said. “I take all these textures and colors and work them together.” Adorable miniature cattails grow at the top of a waterfall. Goldberg has planted a great variety of decorative

Carol Goldberg proudly stands surrounded by the garden landscape she has meticulaously quilted on the grounds of her Dugualla Bay area home.

grass in all shapes and colors, from the unusually curly jack spratt phormium to Japanese blood grass. She’s especially fond of chamaecyparis, or false cypress, which is a conifer that comes in an astonishing range of colors and shapes. To the probable horror of some weeders, she planted a variety of horsetail at the top of the water feature, in an area she hopes will keep them from spreading. “They grew to tree size during the time of dinosaurs,” she said. “The dinosaurs ate them.” Unlike a textile, her quilt-garden is a dynamic space, alive with creatures great and small. The yard is a certified “wildlife habitat” with all the elements to keep animals happy. About 15 koi live in the pond. The big, white one is named Beluga. The couple had the thrill of watching a Cooper’s Hawk grow up. A pair of quail with babies — “cute little balls with feet" — visit regularly. There’s also cedar waxwing, blackheaded grosbeak, goldfinches, chickadees and a Townsend’s solitaire. Bald eagles seem omnipresent overhead. At night, the deer trample through, and unfortunately, browse on the plants. The couple have seen raccoon footprints, but fortunately, they haven’t munched on the koi. “It’s always changing,” Goldberg said, “but that adds to its beauty.”

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AT LEFT: The biggest koi in the Goldberg’s 4-foot-deep pond is named Beluga. BELOW: Carol Goldberg created a garden sculpture from driftwood she found on nearby beaches. The red-and-green grass is a phormium called rainbow surprise.

AT LEFT: New Zealand silver mat is one of the surprises Goldberg said she likes to plant all over her yard. Jack spratt, a wavy type of phormium grass, is another one of the avid gardener ’s favorites.

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