A Warm Hug by the Ocean
Every spot of Orcas shoreline is unique. In this special spot, you can stand on a low cliff and look directly down into deep bluegreen ocean, hypnotic with undulating bull kelp forests just feet away from the face of the cliff. On the land, Madrona and Fir forest, under-storied by natives like Oceanspray, Salal, Oregon Grape, Snowberry and mosses, glow in the multidirectional light refracted by both ocean and sky. Fresh water is scarce, soil is dry, thin and rocky, and deer will eat just about anything that the rabbits haven’t gotten to first.
This serene property houses a retreat center, and the client wished for the landscape to “feel like a warm hug.” We needed plantings that would integrate both aesthetically and functionally with such a powerful native ecosystem, while giving a soothing, friendly warmth to visitors. We also needed to create gentle pathways and sitting spots along the steeply sloping property.
In order to effectively knit the new plantings into the surrounding landscape, we needed to echo the plant types already successfully around, while using non-native options which would create an organized, artful texture/shape/color palette. We used many varieties of conifers, ornamental grasses, euphorbias, daphne, hellebore, rhododendron, and rosemary to create the desired effect. Naturalized boulders were ‘planted’ in the steep slopes and paths to retain the large volumes of soil imported to support plantings.
Design: Emily Aring/Kabloom 2017
Excavation/Stone/Collaboration: Monty Coffey/The Woodsmen