Gratitude for Springtime on Orcas

by Laura Walker

Well spring has officially sprung. Calm yourselves by reading Suzette’s “Oops” article this month and know that you’re not alone in feeling like you are behind in your gardening tasks. 

Over this last week, I’ve planted up and are caring for over one thousand seedlings in my greenhouse. I am trying to focus on things that make me happy.

I love that a little green frog is warming his belly on my heat mat. The little creature is in bliss, oblivious to the wild world we are living in. And as I admire the growth in my garden, with both plants that I want and those I’d rather not be growing, I remind myself of this principle. 

Gardening is not a battle. It’s a relationship. 

Each spring, my garden and I, we have this conversation, and you know, somehow it all just seems to work out. My garden understands that I have competing priorities. It knows that I’m trying my best to take care of it and it shows me it's appreciation in so many ways. And life happens. Three weeks in March out of country put me quite behind in my seed starting. 

But spending time in a third world country, gave me a renewed sense of gratitude for this beautiful place we call home. We have clean water, fresh air, healthy soil and clean surroundings. Maintaining that oasis takes hard work. Visitors from many destinations may not share our environmental values. By taking care of our islands and keeping them free of trash, we demonstrate our commitment and expectations of our environment. And we teach others that this is the way it should be. If you haven’t already signed up for the Great Island Clean Up this year, please consider joining us and celebrating the fact that we live here. 

Let’s celebrate our beautiful planet and commit to protecting it for future generations! Happy Earth Day!

Enjoy the spring growth in your garden and in you personally,

Laura

Orcas Island Garden Club

presents

Richie Steffen

Victorian Ideas for the Modern Shade Garden

at the Orcas Center

Citizen Science in Action:

Project Blossom Progress

by Laura Walker

Thank you to the overwhelming response from all our daffodil growers! This Orcas community science project would not be successful without your support and responses. We appreciate you! So far we've received 87 responses. Our first blooms began on February 25th which occurred at our beloved library! Currently, our latest bloom occurred on April 4th. Roughly 1/3 of the respondents are garden club members, with the remainder being the community. This collage represents many of the beautiful blooms that you all have sent in and shared. A climate map is being created and shared soon. If you haven't yet responded and you know the exact bloom date, please send us an email. Thanks!

Cloud Mountain Farm Center Announces Closure

We are deeply saddened to learn about the closure of Cloud Mountain Farm Center in Everson, WA. The nursery will be holding storewide sales on all their products through the end of June. Click the button below to learn more about the closure.

The Pesticide Footprint on Orcas Island

When someone sprays an over-the-counter pesticide such as a Raid or Ortho product to control, ants, aphids, wasps or mosquitoes, what else is affected? How far do residues travel in the air, on leaves, in soil or water? This depends a lot on the nature of the local ecosystem, so we will sample Orcas bees, bats, birds, frogs, other non-target insects and animals that eat insects to measure the actual extent of the current pesticide “footprint” on the island.

Help out the study by sharing household pesticide checklist

Aerosol spray contacts flower pollen, affecting bees; and coats leaves, affecting herbivorous insects... and insects such as ladybugs that eat herbivorous insects.

Insects contacted but not killed by pesticide are eaten by insectivorous animals such as frogs, bats and birds. How much pesticide do they accumulate?

April is Earth Day Orcas Month

Come celebrate Earth Day Orcas – all month long in April! Organizations from across the islands are joining to offer a month of inspiring and educational, fun and creative community activities.

April 17th

• Live National Parks Film 'Out There'

April 19th-28th

• Earth Day Film Festival

April 25th

• Story, Music & Poetry

April 26th

• Earth Day Parade
• Earth Day Reflections on World Peace
• Earth Day Fair

DIG IN Member Experience:

The Orcas Island Garden Club Joins the Great Island Clean Up

by Ginger Moore

The Great Island Clean Up (GICU) is a county-wide effort organized to clean our roads and beaches twice a year, in Spring and Fall. On Orcas Island, this initiative is administered by The Exchange. Volunteers will be provided with long grabbers, a plastic bag, and an orange vest, and can choose which section of road they would like to clean. As a thank you, The Exchange hosts all volunteers at Island Hoppin’ Brewery for a free beer or cider starting at 4 pm on April 26th.

The community spirit doesn't end there. There are FOUR areas to choose from to get more involved. Sign-up sheets will be available at upcoming program meetings. Please consider joining us!

THE EXCHANGE - Sign up below or email nschaferlmt@msn.com.

WEST SOUND POSSE - Sign up below or email ginger@orcasonline.com.

HIGHLAND HIKERS - Sign up below or email davidgeri@rockisland.com.

OLGA GARBAGE GARDENERS - Sign up below or email oigc376@gmail.com.

Together, these dedicated groups and the Orcas Island Garden Club are making a significant impact in keeping our beautiful island clean and preserving its natural beauty for future generations. Join us in this noble cause and help make Orcas Island a cleaner, greener place to live!

Lawn Be Gone: How to Make a Wildflower Meadow

Have you ever dreamed of replacing your lawn with a patch of native wildflowers? This 1-hour workshop on Sunday, May 4th from 12 to 1 pm will teach you how. Salish Seeds Project nursery manager, Eliza Habegger, will walk you through the process by which the Land Bank has converted 500 square feet of lawn into a meadow of 30 plant species, all native to the San Juans.

We’ll discuss site preparation, timing, sourcing seeds and plants, maintenance, and where to go for more information.

RSVP to tanjaw@sjclandbank.org. Limited to 15 participants. Workshop is in-person at the Land Bank office in Friday Harbor.

WSU San Juan County Master Gardener Spring Plant Sale

• San Juan island — Saturday May 17, 9 am -12 pm, Mullis Center
• Orcas island — Sunday May 18, 10 am - 12 pm, Orcas Island Grange



The Master Gardener Foundation’s Annual Spring Plant Sale offers a selection of vegetable and perennials plants!

Proceeds from the sale are used to support Master Gardener programs such as the SJI Master Gardener Demonstration Garden, community education programs; Plant Diagnostic Clinics on Lopez, Orcas, and San Juan Islands; the Orcas School Native Plant Garden and the Lopez Heirloom Apple Orchard.

Orcas Senior Center Fundraiser:

Let's Brunch!



If you’re reading this newsletter you probably already love plants. But do you love brunch? Or games? How about winning prizes and raising money for local non-profits? You can do ALL of that at the Orcas Senior Center’s upcoming Let’s Brunch fundraiser on June 29th from 11:30 am to 2:30 pm. There’s a fun Botanical Boogie plant walk, hat decorating contest, yummy brunch and libations and more! You can see all the details and buy tickets by clicking the button below. Hope to see you there!

Annual Garden Club Members Only Picnic (June 11th)

The ANNUAL GARDEN CLUB MEMBERS ONLY PICNIC is booked! All we need is for YOU to attend! Mark your calendars for Wednesday, June 11th at 11:30 am. Special thanks goes out to member Judy Winer for helping us yet again secure our favorite venue ~ the Orcas Island Yacht Club picnic area with beautiful views of the water.

You won't want to miss this!

Share your favorite sweet or savory dish and share it with your club friends. This year: Make your favorite recipe, write it down on a card and tell us a little story about it. Rumor has it that an Orcas Island Garden Club cookbook might be in the works!

Good food, fun crafts, and friendly conversations. We hope you can make it!

Annual Orcas Island Garden Club 2025 Garden Tour

Saturday, June 28th and Sunday, June 29th (11 am to 5 pm)

'Experiencing Orcas Island'

The Orcas Island Garden Club’s annual Garden Tour will be held Saturday, June 28h and Sunday, June 29th from 11 am to 5 pm each day.

We will be showcasing five (possibly 6) gardens that we hope will represent the true Orcas Island Experience. Wander through apple orchards and walk on sensory trails. Learn from dedicated friends and neighbors how to manage vegetable gardens on an island with varied multi climates. Meet the friendly sheep and learn how they can help your garden weather the winter. And of course, stop and marvel at the explosion of colorful flowers that bloom on our beautiful island.

Come join us in Experiencing Orcas Island!

We couldn't do the Garden Tour without your help!

We also need lots of volunteers at each garden to welcome guests, help with special events and parking, and to share information about the gardens’ plants. We encourage you to volunteer!

To show our thanks, each volunteer will receive a free Garden Tour ticket. We’ll also schedule a mini pre-tour for each team just before the tour weekend to help docents and captains learn about their garden and meet their team.

Nagging, Nurturing, and a Pique Nique

by Helen Huber

I was the school librarian—organized, communicative, someone adept at nagging and nurturing, a good choice for chaperoning adolescent boys on an international choir trip. This one was in and around Paris, as well as surrounding areas, with small concerts and larger performances. I also collaborated closely with our tour guide Gérard. My chaperone group had the youngest choristers, a rambunctious quintet of fun-loving professional singers who were disciplined when singing and otherwise not-so-much.



After breakfast, we took the boys to a nearby park where they ran amuck and collected one small, flat pebble which would be skipped during our post-concert picnic. Boys were going to perform on the patio overlooking the majestic and expansive gardens of Versailles.

Special thanks to the Orcas Island Historical Museum, and OIGC member, Nancy Stillger, for providing a warm and cozy place for us to work!

Recap: Felting Workshop Featuring Garden Friends

by Laura Walker

On March 30th, several OIGC members gathered to learn the craft of felting led by Mandy Troxel of Bossy Feltworks. Mandy was an energetic and patient teacher indeed! We created tiny ladybeetles and bees in celebration of spring. No serious injuries occurred, just a few pokes with sharp needles but creativity was brimming in the room.

A few participants (including some OIGC members) proudly showing off their new felted friends.

The class working hard on their ladybeetles and bees! Each looked a tad different, making them unique!

Oops, I forgot to Garden:

A Tale of Dirt, Delay & My Comeback Plan

by Suzette Lamb

When it was time to sit down and write this month’s garden club newsletter, I had to admit something a little embarrassing: I had no topic in mind… because I’ve fallen way behind on my gardening. 😬

So this month’s column is part confession, part remedial action plan — in case anyone else out there also skipped their winter prep (or wants to feel really good about not skipping it).

Pollinators in Your Garden Now

by Kate Yturri

Summer is finally almost here and with it, warmer weather. It will soon be time to just hang out in the garden. In my garden, the pollinators are showing up on chive flowers, winter broccoli that is going to seed, cornflowers and the early sunflowers I started in the house.

Calypte anna

by Ken Wood

In early February, while standing quietly in my snowy garden, I heard a hummingbird zoom overhead and followed the sound to find a fluffed-up, female Anna's Hummingbird perched on the tip of a branch of the crabapple tree. I admired the temerity of this tiny, intrepid bird and wondered/worried about how she was doing, foraging in the snow and where she would spend the freezing nights ahead. She quietly acknowledged my esteem for a moment and abruptly dove/dropped into a power dive - right at my face!

"In the blending of different elements, the subtle transition from the fixed and formal lines of art to the shifting and irregular lines of nature, and lastly in the essential convenience and liveableness of the garden, lies the fundamental secret of the old garden-magic."

Edith Wharton

Promoting Gardening Knowledge

by Linda Thompson, Master Gardener (Class of 2009)

The San Juan County Master Gardener Foundation generously supported an idea that I, and several others, dreamed up. What if we installed a “little free library” just outside the MG Demonstration Garden on busy Market Street, with the Family Resource Center and San Juan Island Food Bank as next door neighbors?

Welcome to our nature studio where each month, the Orcas Island Garden Club will feature a different artist who has created diverse, beautiful artwork.

This month, we are featuring Khristy Goldingay!

Finding Sunshine in a Ray of Light:

A Local Artist Shines

Interviewed by Daina Boden

Khristy is a talented and local artist who shares her talents by crafting incredible custom made pet portraits. She also paints large scale nature scapes of the natural beauty that surrounds her. Check out her pieces, 'Beachy' and 'Drifty', shown to the left.

Khristy's art will be shown at this year's Garden Tour!

Do you want to showcase your creative side? Is there someone in your life who has expressed great passion with art, nature, or gardening? We would love to showcase these talents in our newsletter!

Welcome to our series of garden travels. Each month we will feature a garden visit shared by our garden club members. Walk with them as they discover hidden gems and get inspired to visit these treasured places.

This month, we are visiting the Kyoto Gardens in London!

A Japanese Oasis in the UK

by Laura Walker

Just a short stroll or a pleasant walk from Notting Hill, you’ll come across a secret garden called Kyoto. It’s a little gem hidden in the city of London, nestled in Holland Park. The Kyoto Garden was designed and built by a Japanese Garden designer and his team. It was created to celebrate the Japan Festival in London in 1992. This was a co-operative project between the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and the Kyoto Chamber of Commerce in Japan.

A Home Greenhouse

by Tony Suruda

I purchased my greenhouse as a kit from Charley’s in Mount Vernon in 2019. There was a spot at the north end of my property that had good sun exposure and had been a parking pad for an RV. With water and electrical power already in place this seemed like a good location. Charley’s provided me with specifications for installing a 10' X 16' greenhouse. I put down a concrete foundation on the mixed clay and glacial hardpack soil.

The Silent Hive Apocalypse:

Are Bees Doomed?

by Carol Owens

Here’s the story with that chilling twist:

It seems like you might be curious about a viral bee story making waves in 2025! One that’s been buzzing around lately is tied to the dire predictions about honeybee losses in the U.S. Back in late March 2025, entomologists at Washington State University dropped a bombshell: they projected commercial honeybee colony losses could hit 60-70% this year, way up from the usual 40-50% over the past decade. This story went viral fast—think headlines screaming “Bee-pocalypse 2.0” across news outlets and X posts lighting up with everything from panic to memes about almond crops collapsing.

The spark? Researchers like Priya Chakrabarti Basu pointed to a brutal mix of culprits: nutrition shortages, Varroa mite infestations, viral diseases, and pesticide exposure from last season. It wasn’t just dry science—people latched onto the human angle. Beekeepers were facing potential bankruptcies, and California’s almond industry, which leans hard on bees for pollination, was in a frenzy. By early April (yep, right around now), outlets like ABC News and NBC had run pieces with dramatic stock photos of empty hives, and X users were sharing clips of desperate almond growers begging for“anything with live bees in a box.” One post even joked, “Guess my $10 almond milk latte’s about to cost $20—thanks, bees!”

What made it blow up? Timing helped—spring’s when pollination season ramps up, so the stakes felt immediate. Plus, it tapped into that lingering Colony Collapse Disorder dread from the 2000s. The story’s still unfolding—researchers are scrambling to confirm the loss numbers and pinpoint causes—but it’s already got people talking about food security, with some claiming it’s a wake-up call and others dismissing it as overhyped.

Source

Thank you to Maria for presenting a wonderful presentation and for sharing her incredible skills as a willow grower and weaver!

Congratulations to Michael and Suzanne for winning the door prize raffle!

Michael with heather donated by

Lisa at The Market Garden

Suzanne with English Daisy donated by the

Orcas Island Garden Club

Join us in person at our monthly meetings for a chance to win a door prize!

Monthly Member-Only raffle winners are chosen at random from a list of current Garden Club members. To see if you are an active member, contact Karen Hiller.

Thank you to Darvill’s Bookstore for the generous donation of the book, How to Forage for Mushrooms without Dying: An Absolute Beginner's Guide to Identifying 29 Wild, Edible Mushrooms, by Frank Hyham. We are excited to continue our partnership with Sara Farish, the new owner!

In this accessible, photographic guide for the beginner forager, professional mushroom hunter Frank Hyman teaches how to definitively identify 29 of the most readily available, edible mushrooms.

Congratulations to Nita Bryant (pictured left) for winning the raffle!

Find your next great read at Darvill's Bookstore

OIGC Member, Perri, shared, "We ate them without dying!"

She prepared the morels by soaking in salt water then grilling in butter.

Yum!

Do you have a favorite garden book? One of those well-loved, ear marked, tea-stained books that you just seem to regularly visit? Sara Farish, the new owner of Darvill’s has asked us for your suggestions. She’s hoping that you’ll let her know of your favorite garden books to develop her garden section into an oasis of blissful knowledge and creativity, a space that gardeners are pinning for.

Let us know!

Meet your Newsletter Contributor

by Cindy Burman-Woods

To recognize the efforts of the newsletter team we are highlighting one member in each of our monthly newsletters! Learn about our members, their answers to our questions, and other interests.

This month, we are highlighting newsletter team member Daina!

2024-2025 Membership to date: 183

Please contact oigcnewsletter@gmail.com if you encounter any technical issues regarding accessing the newsletter. Thank you!