What was once the Bainbridge Island home of the heir to the Bloedel timber fortune is now a nature reserve. Not exactly a garden, more like a semi-landscaped, semi-natural space. It’s large and it’s a fine location for a stroll, even on a cold winter day.
But I have an issue with the Reserve’s version of their history. After reading The Overstory, I’ve been skeptical of the claim that “[planting] seedlings to reforest clear-cut land” makes logging fine-and-dandy. What’s actually accomplished is that an incredibly complex, diverse forest ecosystem is replaced with a tree farm.
Better than a barren mud flat? Of course. But not by any means a forest. Don’t take my word for it. Ask a tree frog, a raccoon, or an aspen.
Oops, I seem to have drifted off topic once again. We’re here for a look at a the Reserve in winter.
The loop trail begins at the gatehouse and first passes the old sheep sheds.This is a “moss garden” growing on the outside of a curving bench. The thing poking up is not moss, it’s my friend Barry’s head.Things start to look more formally landscaped as we approach the Bloedel residence.There is some world-class pruning on display in the Reserve. It’s hard to see in this photo, but decades of branches have been trained to wrap around the trunk.This Japanese-ish guest house and surrounding gardens were built, so I was told, partially to get the teenagers and their friends out of the main house. There is an impressive collection of LP records in evidence in the main room.I’m going to have to return to see what this vista looks like in the Spring.I struggle to understand this. It’s like the groundwork for an Italian Garden that never was finished.
2 thoughts on “The Bloedel Reserve”
Steve, the tree that you said was pruned and trained to wrap around the trunk actually occurs naturally. The tree in question is in fact a Camperdown Elm. How do I happen to know this? We had one in our back yard until 2023, when we had to remove it due to diease. I am enjoying your travel blog very much! Keep it up.
Very beautiful and peaceful! You’ll have to visit it with me when I visit Bainbridge sometime!
The quest for a Camperdown Elm in Portland goes on. Since Betty Gedney days, when there was
one growing on her property line near Cornell Road, I have searched in vain for any others . . . I thought I found one
in Lake Oswego, but it may just have been a Weeping Catalpa. They look so different without their leaves!!
Reflectingly, MEB
Steve, the tree that you said was pruned and trained to wrap around the trunk actually occurs naturally. The tree in question is in fact a Camperdown Elm. How do I happen to know this? We had one in our back yard until 2023, when we had to remove it due to diease. I am enjoying your travel blog very much! Keep it up.
Very beautiful and peaceful! You’ll have to visit it with me when I visit Bainbridge sometime!
The quest for a Camperdown Elm in Portland goes on. Since Betty Gedney days, when there was
one growing on her property line near Cornell Road, I have searched in vain for any others . . . I thought I found one
in Lake Oswego, but it may just have been a Weeping Catalpa. They look so different without their leaves!!
Reflectingly, MEB