It is with great pleasure I announce that Jenny Pedersen has stepped into the role of Program leader. With a kind soul and a caring heart, she is intent on bringing programing that have the members’ learning development in mind and I’m so excited to work with her. We are overjoyed to have Haven DePietro join the garden tour team as ‘leader in training’. Haven is eager to learn, contribute and bring fresh new ideas to our annual garden tour. And we are so lucky to have Adrienne Walker as our new secretary. She is an eloquent writer, extremely organized with a keen attention to detail. Through her love of reading, Adrienne is also our new book club coordinator.  

In fact, just last week, Adrienne led us through a discussion of the book Rooted, in our very first book club gathering. We heard a sweet and personal note to the garden club from the author, Lyanda Lynn Haupt. We were guided by Evangeline in a grounding exercise, with our toes wiggling in the chilly grass out in the library lawn. Our discussion was fluid and organic as we shared our common experiences and values through the lens of the author. On reflection, I realized what was most significant to me, was getting the chance to know my fellow members on a much deeper level. That is what made me smile when I looked back. We are all in this journey, striving to be better connected with the nature and humbly learning how to be present. 

We gardeners are lucky to be naturally wired to be connected to the nature around us. We understand that we are part of an amazing and complex web of relationships that interact, live and depend on each other. Mac Dawson, Seasonal Nature Educator states, ‘What distinguishes humans, what really sets us apart, is our capacity for empathy. We can relate to the perceived emotions and needs of other species, and this ability forms the basis of our moral responsibility to protect the delicate balance and interwoven web of life on Earth’.

How do we respond to the question poised in Mary Oliver’s poem,

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with

your one wild and precious life?”

Friends, breathe in deep and let the cool air of fall fill your lungs. As we start our season off once again, think about Mary’s question albeit a challenge. We hope part of your answer is to enrich your learning, build endearing friendships and connect in nature with us this year.

Laura and Robin

Orcas Island Garden Club

presents

Madrona Murphy

The Forgotten Diversity of Island Apples

at the Orcas Center



NEW! Join us for coffee and social time at 9:30 before the program starts at 10:00 am

JOIN THE OLGA GARBAGE GARDENER’S to CLEAN UP on OCTOBER 4th!

When? October 4th 2025 starting at 10:00 am at the Olga Community Center (23 3rd Street, Olga WA) Coffee, hot chocolate, tea, and all you need for the clean-up will be handed out anytime between 10 and 2 pm.  

Where? From the east entrance of Moran State Park to Eagle Lake, a very fun cleanup group is re-forming after picking up 60 pounds of trash in April during the spring clean up!

What? 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. Bring Gloves!

Karen Miksch (Olga Community Center and Garden Club member) is helping to organize the Olga Clean up this fall. Come share your love for Olga!

Thank you to the Olga Community Center for providing a space. Teams of two will be provided with grabbers, orange vests, and recycling and trash bags. Please bring your own gloves. We will also have hot beverages, sweets, and a chance to meet each other.

Quick Guide for all neighborhoods participating:

WHO: Olga Garbage Gardeners

WHEN: 4 October, 11:00 am to 2 pm

WHERE: Olga Community Center, 23-3rd Street, Olga

FROM/TO: East entrance of Moran State Park to Eagle Lake

CONTACT: Karen at miksc001@umn.edu

WHO: Highland Hikers

WHEN: 4 October, at 11:00 am

WHERE: Mailboxes at start of Lindsay Way in The Highlands

FROM/TO: Country Corner to West entrance of Moran State Park. Rosario, too, with enough volunteers

CONTACT: Geri at

(503) 548-7845 or davidgeri@rockisland.com

WHO: West Sound Posse

WHEN: 27 September to 4 October - you choose your date and time

WHERE: 62 Crow's Nest Lane, West Sound

FROM/TO: All of west side of Orcas Island north to Lover's Lane, Eastsound

CONTACT: Ginger at ginger@orcasonline.com

Meet Our New Members

by Meryl and Kendall McBride, interviewed by Robin Sullivan

Hello Orcas Island Garden Club! Our names are Kendall and Meryl, and our family moved to Orcas this past Spring. We’re loving our first summer here and excited to get more involved in gardening. You may recognize our family name, McBride. Kendall’s dad and stepmom, James and Ruth McBride, lived on the island for the past 30 years. Ruth, a kind and active community member and a lovingly generous Nana, sadly passed away in January. Both Ruth and James are dearly missed. Our family has moved into the family home in Olga and inherited the beautiful garden and orchard that Ruth and James had spent many years tending.

September. . . what a turnover,

what a watershed of the year.

Source: More For Your Garden (1955) by Vita Sackville-West

Submitted by Mary Nash

Karen Miksch - Beautiful Bowl of Garden Veggies

Debra Nichols - Dreamy Lace Capped Hydrangeas

Ginger Moore - Sweet and sparkly Polka Raspberries

Perri Gibbons - It’s been a banner 2025 summer filled with flowers, fruit and sweetness. Highlights were: my Beauty plums... so juicy they must be eaten over a sink or even better, outside, right off the tree. The cucumber trellis in the greenhouse…so cucumber vines could take full sun advantage and pump out fruit for most of the summer. And flowers!...so many, from spring Project Blossom Daffies to late summer dahlias helping to close the garden season. But, roses have always been my passion and this Rise and Shine variety with its repeat blooms reminds me to stop and enjoy my favorite season. It’s always a bit bittersweet for me when summer comes to an end, so I’m lucky to have the Garden Club to keep me engaged with activities, learning opportunities and community!

Helen Huber - Delicious Frost Peaches

Tony Suruda - Home Orchard Orcas Pears

Curtis Walker - Succulent Seascape Strawberries

Abby Deskins - Autumn Joy showed off it's late summer blooms this past week and I love the pink, star shaped flowers they're producing! From lime green, pink, and eventually a reddish-bronze, this sedum is beautiful at any growth stage. It's housed just outside our front door because it's too pretty to put anywhere else. 

Adrienne Walker - Every year winner - Delicious and Almost too sour for the birds Loganberries

Jenny Pederson - Cosmos, favorite this year is pale yellow - the Take-Over-Flower that is always welcome in my garden

Laura Walker - I love a good experiment. Did I plant too many? YES. Proliferate and oh-so tender Italian Cocozelle Zuchini

Karen Hiller - Lovely resilient David Austin 'Bathsheba' Roses

Geri Turnoy - Ripe and Juicy Red Tomatoes

Suzette Lamb - Rockin' the Sumer Small garden with brightly colored flowers, edible flowers zucchini, peas, golden raspberries and marrowfat bush beans. 

Robin Sullivan - This was a summer of first’s for me in the garden and as always I learned a lot both from my mistakes and my successes. I never would have imagined myself growing Dahlias, but one of the best garden cheerleaders I know encouraged me to go to the Seattle Garden Show and there I discovered the true wonder of dahlias. On our return to Orcas, my garden muse taught me how to protect my corms and when the time was right, how to start them gently in a greenhouse. I was very skeptical of this process as every time I checked on them there didn't seem to be any signs of life. Finally, when it looked like a few leaves had sprung up, i excitedly took them home and planted them front and center in my garden watching and waiting for them to bloom. After a slug invasion nearly devoured every tender green shoot, I once again watched and waited as the stems fought back with surprising strength. Finally, the day came when my humble corms grew into towering bursts of color. Each flower that now opens is more than just beauty—it’s a little victory, a reminder that even the smallest triumphs in the garden can feel like miracles.

September in Transition

by Laura Walker

In the Pacific Northwest, September is a wonderful month of transition. By focusing on a few garden tasks, you’ll take advantage of your garden bounty and be prepared for the next season and beyond.

Harvest and Collect: 

• Tomatoes, peppers, green beans, cucumbers, zucchini, and other summer vegetables. Harvest when the rind is hard and the spot touching the ground turns from white to creamy yellow or gold, but before temperatures drop significantly. 
• Potatoes when the tops die down and onions when the tops fall over, then cure them in a dry, shady place. 
• Herbs like basil, parsley and oregano. Preserve them by drying or freezing.  
• Seeds from your favorite summer annuals and perennials can be saved as seed pods dry up to grow again next year. 

Plant:

• Broccoli, carrots, cabbage, cauliflower, garlic, peas, spinach. Continue to plant lettuce for continuous harvest.  
• Bulbs such as tulips, crocus and daffodils can be planted to bloom in spring.
• Containers with cool weather plant options like pansies, violas and ornamental cabbage.
• Perennials to support pollinators from spring through fall and easily expand your garden. Peonies, hostas, and daylilies can be added, divided, and transplanted at this time to encourage new growth.
• New trees and shrubs from now until mid-October while the soil is still warm and autumn rain helps establish roots before winter. 
• Grass seed can be sowed to fill in low spots, fertilize and aerate lawns. 

Build & Protect:

• Plants with damaged or diseased wood should be pruned. Leaves or plants showing signs of mildew or disease can be removed. Do not compost this material to prevent pathogens from spreading.  
• Habitat by resisting the urge to cut everything back since many seed heads and stems provide food and shelter for wildlife.
• Soil with cover crops, like clover, rye or fava beans that replenish the soil of nutrients if you are not planning a fall garden. Weeds should be removed to prevent them from going to seed and spreading. 
• Roots with mulch to shield from winter chill, preserve moisture, and suppress weeds. Mulch also incorporates organic matter which adds nutrients, improves soil structure and prepares the ground for next season. Aim for 2–3 inches around beds, but keep it pulled back from plant crowns.

Are You Ready for Tour 2026?

by Sally Hodson

As daylight grows shorter and temperatures cool, Orcas gardeners are cutting their late summer flowers and harvesting the last of their vegetables. And imagining next year’s garden delights.           

Our recent 2025 Garden Tour was the most successful ever, thanks to the support of our wonderful volunteers, garden owners and community guests. These funds will help support our monthly garden club presentations, our special gardening events and our grants to community organization garden projects. 

Throughout the coming fall and winters months, we will be planning next year’s garden tour and searching for gardens to feature at our 2026 Garden Tour.  

We need and invite your help to tell us about gardens that we can visit and consider for our 2026 tour.

Gardens for the tour should offer:

• Interesting plants (such as: annuals, perennials, fruit trees, veggies, natives, woodland, bird/insect friendly, deer-resistant) 
• Unique features (such as: greenhouse, garden pond, rain catchment, berry cage, raised beds, drip watering, garden art) and/or
• Creative design ideas that our fellow gardeners would enjoy seeing and might like to use in their own gardens. 

Gardens also have to be accessible to cars coming and going, have some parking available and pose no hazards.

We would love to get your help in finding great gardens for our next tour. If you know of a garden that might be a good fit for our tour, please contact us at: oigc376@gmail.com 

Please tell us your name, email address & phone number, name of garden owner and location on the island.

Thanks so much for helping us create another terrific garden tour.

Sally Hodson, Robin Sullivan and Haven DePietro

2026 Garden Tour Chairs

Nishigaki Telescopic Pole Saw

Welcome to our 'Tool of the Month' column. Each month we'll share tried and true solutions. This saw was recommended by Monica Maggio, Portland based pruning expert and Master Gardener. The Nishigaki Telescopic Pole Saw is ideal for pruning tall fruit trees. A folding pruning saw, nickel plated to prevent rust, with a blade length of 210 mm. The angle of the blade can be adjusted in 4 steps, and the handle can be expanded and contracted easily from 870mm - 1300mm. Convenient for work in high and narrow places. 

Timing Matters: A Final Reflection

by Helen Huber

My days on Orcas have come to an end. This is my final column for the Garden Club Newsletter. Each article has been a labor of love, an opportunity for personal reflection/walks down memory lane, all accompanied by extensive culinary experimentation. I hope that each of my articles provided delicious recipes you shared with people that matter; for me this is the ultimate joy of cooking (and writing.) So many of you have encouraged me to turn my story/recipe columns into a book, and once we are settled into our new house, I shall. And so, here is my final offering.

Timing matters. I first started reflecting on this when we put our house on the market in the gray days of March. Other than the green coniferous trees surrounding the bowl of our property, everything dormant was a neutral shade of gray, tan, or brown. There was no hint of the blossoming glory that would slowly appear when days warm. There were multiple showings with a triad of warm brown-butter chocolate chip cookies, but no offers. 

Finally, spring arrived, with buds that swelled into leaves, and flowers that blossomed in days of longer light.

On Orcas, September belongs to the baby lizards! As you’re tending to things in the garden or out hiking the trails, keep a keen eye out – you may be lucky enough to catch sight of one of the multitudes of newly-minted lizards out enjoying these warm, sunny days. By now, many of the lizards that will be born or hatched this year have arrived and they are all working overtime to eat and grow as much as they can before cooler temperatures arrive. Uniquely, among the islands in San Juan County, Orcas is home to three(!) species of medium-sized (approx. 8 in. long as adults) lizards; two native and one exotic.

Spread across Orcas is our (relatively common) native Northern Alligator Lizard (Elgaria coerulea), which gives live birth to as many as several young during the summer months. You’re likely to spot the silver and brown young-of-the-year around rocky or woody areas with enough sunlight to bask between meals of a wide range of insects. In fact, a majority of common garden pests would be on the menu for these scaly friends!

If you find yourself in the area of West Sound, you might catch sight of tiny native Western Fence Lizards (Sceloporus occidentalis), which have hatched from eggs laid earlier this summer. Small to medium-sized blue patches on the throat and belly are key identifying characteristics. These speedy little youngsters prefer warmer, rockier, more exposed areas where they can stay warmed-up and ready to chase down ants and beetles.

A bit further afield to the west, a more recent arrival to the island may be observed; the European Wall Lizard (Podarcis muralis). Yellow and green coloration on top of the head, neck, and back are easy giveaways that you’re looking at one of these European natives. Like the native Fence Lizard, these introduced lizards can be found foraging for tasty insects in open, rocky areas, where they will also lay clutches of eggs during the summer. Their arrival on Orcas has only become more broadly known over the past few years. Introduced populations can be found throughout North America, including Vancouver Island, where they were introduced during the 1970s. Research into this new Orcas population is ongoing and should yield interesting data!

One of the most interesting shared traits among all three of these species is their ability to self-amputate (“caudal autotomy”) and later regrow their tails when threatened!

So You Want to Own an Apple Orchard

by Cindy Burman-Woods

When I was 13 years of age my parents decided to move the family from a city suburb of San Francisco, during the Summer of Love, to an 80-acre apple orchard “ranch” in eastern Washington. I went from a city girl to country with little notice, talk about culture shock. My brother went from desert boots to wingtips, eventually back to desert boots when eastern Washington caught on to the style.

Can you Decifer the Apple Jumble?

by Mary Nash

Do you recognize these heritage apple varieties? Here's ten different types of apples that were grown here on Orcas in 1890. Time to exercise your noodle!

Bonus Points! Can you find the hidden APPLE in this newsletter?

Sit Spot: The Magic Pill

by Carol Owens

Sit still, quietly.

Alone.

Often.

Learn

just to sit.

Perhaps,

under a tree.

Watch the

interconnectedness between worlds.

The enchanted parentheses

Between

our

world of distraction and

Nature's empathic

Wilder

Life.

See

the creatures cohabitating in a more natural way of Being.

Let the Earth settle

beneath you.

The birds will soon know you, as

The Being Who Sits Still and

is

Always

Quiet.

OIGC Garden Book Club Kicks Off!

by Adrienne Walker

We had a great first meeting of the OIGC Garden Book Club on Thursday, September 4th, with attendees both in-person at the library and via zoom. We discussed Lyanda Lynn Haupt's book, Rooted: Life at the Crossroads of Science, Nature, and Spirit, which led us through topics as diverse as our upbringings, knitting and neuroscience! We finished the meeting off with an earthing exercise in the library's garden - where we may have scared a few tourists.  

Our next meeting will be held on Monday, November 3rd from 3:30-5:30 p.m., again in the Community Room at the Library. We will also have a Zoom option for those unable to make it in person. Sylvia Biddick and I will be facilitating a discussion about Leigh Ann Henion's book "Night Magic". I loved the book so much I based my first book review on it, which you can find elsewhere in this newsletter! For those of you that like to plan ahead, in January (date tbd), Evangeline O'Sullivan has offered to lead us in a discussion of "The Hidden Life of Trees", by Peter Wohlleben.

If you have questions about the Book Club please reach out directly to me at adrienne.ewalker@yahoo.com. 

Sharing the Recipes We Love

by Michelle Zjhra

With your help, the OIGC is creating a calendar that celebrates the beautiful and delicious food that members contribute to our gatherings. The calendar is intended as a visual feast that features members’ edible creations with maybe their garden as the backdrop.

Something along these lines (see picture) but with our own OIGC vision!

If you would like to participate, please bring a dish that features something seasonal - perhaps made with ingredients from your garden and/or decorated with your own flowers. Provide the recipe and let us know the cookbook the recipe is from or if it is your own creation.

All recipes will be featured in the monthly newsletter. Twelve recipes will be selected over the course of the year to be re-created, photographed in your garden, and featured in the calendar.

We envision a desk calendar that each month visually showcases a beautiful and delicious dish in a garden or nature setting, the recipe, and perhaps a story about the recipe or a gardening tip for the season. 

This will be a fund-raiser, further supporting the OIGC’s many speakers, activities and grants that members and our community enjoy.

Book Review on 'Night Magic'

by Adrienne Walker

Welcome to Rainy Day Reads, our new monthly book review focused on books for gardeners and nature lovers. I’m Adrienne, the new OIGC Secretary and starting in September leader of the new OIGC Members’ Book Club. Each month I’ll tell you a little about a book I’ve loved, and I’d love to hear from you as well - guest book reviewers very welcome!

Orcas Garden Club's History

by Perri Gibbons

Scrapbooks

The first scrapbook date is from 1958. When Lifetime Honorary Member, Heidi Lindberg, joined the Scrapbook Committee, she shares, “I took the very first books of the club and put them in whatever order they seemed to represent in order to bring them up-to-date. I took pictures of the activities over the years and since I was working processing film it seemed natural that I would keep the scrapbooks in order, until someone else took over that task”. Thank goodness, we have these photos and memorabilia!

Have some stories? photos? Share them with us! Contact: Perri Gibbons

Congratulations Michael Readey! He won the September raffle and is just thrilled to win a book about how to grow dahlias!

The Dahlia Manual; a Treatise on Dahlia Culture by W. W. Wilmore offers a comprehensive guide to growing dahlias. Originally published in 1907, this classic manual provides detailed instructions on all aspects of dahlia cultivation, from selecting the right varieties to planting, fertilizing, and protecting the plants. 

Monthly Member-Only raffle winners are chosen at random from a list of current garden club members. Remember to renew or join the club to join in this fun contest! To see if you are an active member, contact Karen Hiller.

In honor of Madrona Muphy’s Apples presentation, our September 17th lucky door prize winner will receive an ‘Autumn Apple’ Hens and Chicken succulent. Come join the fun!

At each monthly meeting, all guests joining us in person are entered for a chance to to win a door prize! We hope to see you there!

• September 17: Madrona Murphy, Apples

• October 15: Anne Long, Growing Ranunculus, Anemones, and Peonies

• November 12: Marlene Finley, Creating a Fire Resilient Landscape

• December 10: Kimberly Wilder, The Language of Flowers & an English Tea Party

Do you enjoy reading the monthly OIGC newsletter?

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We'd love to hear your feedback, comments and suggestions.

Thank you in advance!

2025-2026 Membership to date: 72

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