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.
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