Let your garden go wild: use nature's untamed beauty to inspire your landscape design

Sunset, Jan, 2008 by Jim McCausland

THERE'S A LOVELY MYSTERY to a Northwest forest--especially in winter when swollen streams rush and bubble over stones and the tops of majestic conifers disappear into thick veils of mist. The landscape then is a painter's dream and a gardener's inspiration.

It's a look that Jim and Paula Umbeck wanted to nurture at their lakeside property in Carnation, Washington. And although blackberries clogged the slopes beneath their forest trees and the soil was rock-hard ("You can't plant with a shovel here--you have to use a crowbar," Jim says), the couple decided to work with the land instead of against it, saving as much native vegetation as possible.

While thinning the tangled understory, they uncovered native ferns and evergreen shrubs, which they supplemented with compatible plants such as hostas and rhododendrons. They used existing rocks to pave paths and edge a stream, and encouraged mosses instead of planting lawn. With help from a professional, they installed a rock-lined recirculating stream, stepping it downslope in a series of small cascades to Lake Marcel, where a submerged pump diverts water back to the slope's top. The stream mimics the real thing, adding sound and motion to the garden and giving birds a place to drink and bathe.

Now the Umbecks' garden looks as natural as the native forest that grew here centuries ago--mysterious and pristine, but with a gardener's gentle touch.

What makes this garden work

Like nature itself, the Umbecks wasted nothing as they developed their woodland garden. Here's what they preserved.

NATIVE PLANTS Mature conifers, alders, willows, and cottonwoods frame the lake view. Salal, sword and deer ferns, huckleberries, and low Oregon grape form an evergreen understory.

ROCKS As rocks were removed for planting and paths, they were set aside for use elsewhere as pavers. Because few of the property's existing rocks were large, the Umbecks purchased bigger granite rocks, sold as Huckleberry stone, from Marenakos Rock Center (marenakos.com or 425/392-3313) for walls, stairs, and landscape features. All rocks were set on a shallow layer of sand, but none were mortared in place.

MOSS At its most brilliant green during wet weather, moss grows well in poor, partly shaded soil with no fertilizing. The Umbecks started with moss that was already growing on-site, but it wasn't enough. So when neighborhood trees fell during winter storms, the couple hand-stripped sheets of moss off the bark and brought them back to the garden. They quickly learned that different kinds of moss grow on different surfaces: stone, forest duff, bark.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY THOMAS J. STORY

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USE REGIONAL GARDEN ART

Inspired by traditional Haida designs, the Umbecks carved this eagle-and-bear totem from a salvaged cedar log one winter. Rounded and weathered, it rises above a cluster of native Western sword ferns.

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REUSE ROCK

Fringed with moss and evergreen ferns (Blechnum pennamarina), a rectangular slab of stone becomes a footbridge across the stream. Many of the stones unearthed on the property were levered into new spots by the owners.

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RECYCLE NATURAL MATERIALS

A cedar branch brought down by a windstorm matched the curve of a garden path, so the Umbecks turned it into a handrail. Vertical posts were salvaged from fallen branches on a neighboring property. The path's stones were mostly gathered on-site.

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CELEBRATE NATIVES

Native hair-cap moss covers soil and rock; its gray, green, and red colors are most intense in the rain.

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CREATE MINI ECOSYSTEMS

Rhododendrons and ferns cluster in shade near the stream, as they would in nature, while mosses soften the contours of rocks and fallen logs.

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IMPROVISE

Paula and Jim Umbeck relax on a garden seat they fashioned from a dry-stacked stone wall. The tall tree stump behind Paula is topped with a fern.

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