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"Cottage Gardens" The Garden Letter, Holiday 2003

Cottage Gardens
By Philip Edinger and the Editors of Sunset Books; (2003).
Paperback; $14.95, 128 pp.

A cottage garden can be a slice of paradise, a sweet home in the center of a giant bouquet. They don't take much space and they're extremely flattering to ordinary houses. They often combine flowers, herbs, and vegetables in a happy Eden of form and fragrance. And they look so spontaneous, so unplanned.

But they aren't! It's hard enough to find four or five plants to coexist and coordinate through four seasons, never mind choosing dozens to fill a yard to the brim. A cottage gardens is the equivalent of a dinner party -- immense fun, lots of planning and care, not cheap.

That is the problem with this nicely designed book -- it only covers the fun parts. What it does, it does well: pretty inspiration photos (although sadly lacking any plant identification), sensible and reliable information on individual plants, and several very nice garden layouts. It has an excellent introduction about the evolution of the style and a particularly useful discussion on climate. Overall, it's a pleasant, interesting book on the topic of cottage gardens.

But it doesn't tackle the tough issues. Is a cottage garden right for you, or do you have a dog? Do you dream of a collection of stunning specimens that look good and take work all year long, or a riot of tough, inexpensive self-seeders? Where are all these plants going to come from? Will you splurge at garden centers or nurse seedlings and cuttings on windowsills through the winter?

Cottage gardens are intensive physical environments, not abstract concepts. You need tricks and strategies to pull them off successfully, but this book skimps on some important things. Irrigation is dismissed with "use drip." Staking and plant supports, vital topics, are ignored.

Bottom line -- anyone trying to create one of these spectacles is going to need considerably more help than this book provides. For gardening addicts who can't have too many plant references or pictures of lush gardens, this book will make a pleasant read during the dark winter days.

"Geology Safari" Northwest Family, 2001

Central Washington looks peaceful, maybe even boring, but its geology is full of violence and treasure. Some people go on safari in Africa to see wild animals, but to see wild rocks you only have to go to Central Washington. Our family went on a geology safari, and we discovered some of Washington's amazing history, and brought home fossils, petrified wood, and gold.

Secret Continents
Driving over Snoqualmie Pass on I-90, the landscape changes as you cross to the eastern side. Central Washington's weather is more extreme than Puget Sound's, but climate isn't the only reason for the change. In fact, when you leave the mountains, you are actually moving onto a different continent.

About 100 million years ago, a subcontinent collided with North America, creating what's now Okanogan County. Then another island arrived 50 million years ago, bringing the Eastern Cascades. (If 50 millions years sounds like a long time ago, remember that by then dinosaurs were already extinct.) The rest of Western Washington was made by new land created by our famous volcanoes or pieces of ocean floor scraped up as the Pacific plate sinks below the North American continent. When we reached Cle Elum on I-90, we could see the rugged peaks of Mount Stuart due north over Swauk Prarie's rolling hills -- a jumble of continents. The prarie is part of the original North American continent, but the mountain and its granite drifted here with the Cascade subcontinent 50 million years ago. (Actually, there isn't much of the original North American continent in Washington, except in the northeastern corner.)

Gold Fever
Want to pan gold? At Cle Elum, take state highway 970 east to U.S. 97, which runs north to Leavenworth along Swauk Creek, home of Washington's richest gold strikes. It is still one of the best places in America for amateur prospectors to pan for gold, and it's certainly worth a stop on a geology safari. The state has set Swauk creek's banks aside for public panning all year round. Other streams are restricted, either by private claims or to protect fish and wildlife. (For more information, see http://www.wa.gov/wdfw/hab/goldfish/goldfish.htm.)

We went about five miles up Highway 97 and turned right at Liberty Road. Just off Liberty Road, where Swauk and Williams creeks join, is a good place to look for gold, but feel free to try your luck anywhere between Liberty Road and Swauk Pass. We also explored the gold mining ghost town of Liberty (http://www.ghosttownsusa.com/liberty.htm), further down the road.

To pan for gold, we brought a basin, shovel, tweezers, and a small glass jar, and we wore "get wet" clothes. (You can buy a real prospector's pan, but a flat-bottomed dishpan or pie pan makes a good substitute.) Panning works because gold is one of the heaviest minerals. A gold brick weighs almost 80 pounds! The trick is to wash away all the lighter elements and hopefully tiny pieces of gold will be left behind.

Pick a good spot where water flow slows. Gold flakes settle on the inside bend in a stream, or in slack pools behind large boulders. Don't be fooled by glittery stuff in the sand. It's probably mica, which is light and will float away. Fill your pan with four scoops of river sand. Submerse the pan in the stream. Move the pan in gentle circular motions so that lighter material washes out. Do this until about half the material is gone. Then lift the pan out of the water and swirl it so that the remaining lighter materials separate and spill out of the pan. Do this until most material is gone. Use tweezers to pick out any gold flakes and put the flakes in a glass bottle. If you don't find any gold right away, don't worry. With patience, you really can capture some wild gold.

Petrified Wood and the Asteroid
Petrified wood is Washington's state gem, so we hunted for some on our safari. We followed U.S. 97 south until it returned to I-90. In the town of Vantage we explored Gingko Petrified Forest State Park. Although no one can take petrified wood from the park, it's a great place to see and learn about petrified wood before trying to find some for yourself.

It's also a good place to learn another fact about Washington's amazing geological history. Those flat plains running from the Cascades into Idaho might look like Kansas, but as Dorothy said to Toto, it's not. The flatness is the top of an immense lava pool, something that won't be found in Kansas unless perhaps an asteriod crashes into it. That happened 17 million years ago when one collided with southeastern Oregon. The smashed earth poured liquid basalt over hundreds of square miles. Although floods continued for several million years, one single flood covered an area the size of Maine in a week! Basalt forms columns as it cools, and we spotted them everywhere.

Lava also buried watersoaked logs on the bottom of lakes and ponds, which became petrified wood. Over time, wood fibers soaked up silica that preserved every beautiful detail. Bring a magnifying glass to look at these "wood rocks". For more information on the park and petrified wood, check out http://www.tcfn.org/tctour/parks/Ginkgo.html.

To collect petrified wood, you need to go to the Saddle Mountain collection site. This is not a trip for city cars or little kids. From Vantage, cross the Columbia River and take Highway 243 about 15 miles south to Mattewa. Go east on 24 SW (Main St.) to R St. and follow it north until the road splits. The right fork is a driveway, but the dirt road on the left leads to the collection site. Take the dirt road north and west across the large wash, up the powerline road. Near the mountain-top, park your car. Walk west along the ridgetop to the Picture Wood pits. Petrified wood can be found by digging in the sides of the pits. Work gloves and safety glasses are a good idea.

Safari Camp in a Secret Oasis
By now, we were hot and dirty and needed a rest, so we decided to camp in a hidden oasis, a place you won't want to miss! We headed for Dry Falls and Sun Lakes State Park. Take I-90 to the exit for Highway 283 North. Soap Lake, which is on the way, is saltier than the sea and highly alkaline. In about twenty miles, you'll see Dry Falls Interpretive Center. Be sure to stop. Our family was amazed to discover that about 15 thousand years ago, during the Ice Ages, a huge lake collected behind an ice dam in Missoula, Montana. (In those days, Central Washington was fertile grassland where wooly mammoths, rhinocerus, camels, and perhaps even people roamed.) The far-away lake was larger than Lake Superior, filled with huge blue icebergs. One day the dam burst - the world's largest flash flood roared out, 200 feet high, moving 60 miles per hour. It tore off topsoil from Idaho and Washington and deposited it in Oregon. In its fury, it tore the basalt columns apart, gouging out coulees. It created waterfalls almost five times as wide as Niagara, and more than twice as high. Sound like your worst nightmare? It happened repeatedly over two thousand years. It changes your point of view a bit to realize that the canyons of Central Washington aren't ho-hum eroded river valleys, but are evidence of colossal geological catastrophes.

Camping in the valley formed by those gigantic waterfalls is a thrill. The four hundred-foot walls, now called Dry Falls, still tower at one end. The coulee forms an oasis in the desert trapping soil, warmth, and moisture. Trees and wildflowers grow along a shallow series of small lakes perfect for swimming and fishing. The old plunge pool, now a quiet, cattailed-lined lake, is famous for rainbow and brown trout averaging 14 to 18 inches long, so bring fishing gear! During the day, the air is filled with birds that nest in the steep basalt cliffs. You might see elk, coyotes, or even a bobcat. You can also see the remains of a rhinocerus trapped by one of the great floods. Ask the park ranger for directions. A private concessionaire operates Sun Lakes State Park, so phone for reservations (509-632-5291).

Fossils Galore
No geology safari would be complete without fossil collecting, and North-Central Washington has a park where almost everyone finds ancient plant fossils. The Stonerose Interpretive Center in Republic oversees a shale bed rich in fossils where you are not only welcome to dig; they'll rent a hammer and chisel. It's a longish drive, but you won't be disappointed. For more information, see http://www.stonerosefossil.org/. Even little kids can find pieces of shale with beautifully preserved leaves by simply scrabbling through rock piles. Older kids will love separating the layers of shale like pages.

To get to Republic from Dry Falls, follow state Highway 2 to Wilbur, and turn north on Highway 21 all the way to Republic. As you head north, the countryside changes from flat praries to crumbled mountains. By now, we weren't surprised to hear that we were once again moving onto a new continent -- the Okanogan subcontinent. Republic is a pretty town with plenty of hotels, inns, and other places to stay, but for extra fun, we spent the night at a real ranch, the K-Diamond-K Ranch (509-775-3536).

By now, even the most eager rockhound will be ready for home. We were! Hint: don't plan your drive back for a Sunday evening. Traffic can be very heavy. Lots of people around Puget Sound love the sunny Eastside, but probably few of them have discovered the wonderful places we saw on our geology safari.