Garden On, Vashon! - Softcover

Karen Dale

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0989683702 ISBN 13: 9780989683708

Publisher: Garden On Publications, 2013

Synopsis

"Garden On, Vashon!" is a year-round, years-back look at how the residents of a small island in Puget Sound, Washington garden, farm, and cultivate their island home. Located between Seattle and Tacoma in Washington State, Vashon Island and it's barely-linked sister Maury Island were once famous for strawberries, Leghorn chickens, and Olympic berries. Humorist Betty MacDonald wrote about island life in her memoir, "Onions in the Stew." Today this rural place is home to 11,000--retirees, young families, and '70s Back-to-the-Landers, small farmers and ardent environmentalists, crafters, artists, writers and of course gardeners--who all came here to get their fingernails in island dirt. "Garden On, Vashon!" takes you into island gardens and deep into the island's history, as over 100 islanders tell their stories of gardening and farming this specific space. The reader goes on excursions and work parties with the author to learn, for instance, how islanders grow an island tomato or prune an ancient apple orchard, how to grow wine-grapes or find the best local ingredients for compost. With chapters on the island's geology, hydrology and soils, stories of shared gardens and keeping bees, of bringing plants to market and keeping heritage berries alive, the reader will enjoy a portrayal of a community fiercely, eccentrically, and passionately "dug in" to its home place.

About this edition

• Publisher: Garden On Publications
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0989683702
• ISBN 13: 9780989683708
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 262