The Hermit’s Grove Postcards

The sets are posted now as the first three 'albums' on our elist site. There is a "Garden Set," a "Perennial Set" and an "Herbal Set."

Any profits from these cards (about 30% if all goes well, not including the digital photography costs) will be used toward property taxes and insurance for these gardens.

The Garden Set

Click on the image for a larger view.

Gravenstein Apple
This is the tree directly outside the main classroom window, one which we face upon leaving the kitchen. It's venerable in age but judicious pruning, organic spraying and lots of love keep it very fruitful and productive.
Ranunculus
A spring-blooming bulb, this small gathering of brilliant red flowers against our "marble wall" is one of the first garden areas one passes through upon leaving the classroom and heading east.
Cherry Blossoms
We have several cherries of this species. This one grows in a small garden known as "Cherry Hill." The darkness in the background is provided by a large douglas fir gerry planted in the 1970s.
The Path to the Dancing Circle
Taken from in front of the Garden Barn looking east, there are lit torches. The tree to the left of the path across from the Dancing Circle is the Madrone. The ceramic "tower" is one of a pair which set off the entrance to the Dancing Circle. All of the paths are made from stones taken directly from this glaciated soil, hand-picked as we handwork the soil.
Spiderweb in the morning mist
During the moist half of the year a popular place for a web is just outside the kitchen door. This spiderweb was a morning view on a slightly foggy morning as I came out and looked east toward the gardens.
Autumn Blueberry Leaves
Long after we've harvested large quantities of fruit, the blueberry bushes in the Upper Bush Garden give thanks for a great growing season with a brilliant burst of orange, sometimes lasting for weeks, before turning in for the winter.

The Herb Set

Click on the image for a larger view.

Arnica
Arnica montana is one of the herbs studied in the Master Herbalist Program [MHP]. We have a nice patch of it originally started in the spring of 1995 ce. It is located in the Ramapo Garden along the south reaches of a large douglas fir.
Woodruff
This Gallium odorata began its time here at The Hermit's Grove a decade before Rev. Paul and gerry even started their joint enterprise. Several plugs were transplanted here, to the Ramapo Garden, where it thrives, an herb which loves the acidic shade of the northwest gardens.
Bloodroot
What a joy when the bloodroot begins to blossom in early spring. Now naturalized in the Snowball bed, we began growing it as part of our MHP pharmacopoeia back in the mid-1990s.
Belladonna
Another of the famed British herbes, we began planting belladonna in the partial shade of the Plum Thicket Garden, occasionally adding new plants. It's been self-seeding since the early 2000s, each flower later providing a fruit like a black cherry tomato.
Mandrake in bloom
Found blooming in the winter, these true, European mandrakes [Mandragora autumnalis] delight the young who learned about them reading the Harry Potter books. MHP students study this most storied of medicinal herbs as well.
Liverwort
This sweet, little Hepatica acutiloba has grown outside the classroom since the mid-1990s, a herald of spring as it opens its blooms to the sun.

The Perennial Set

Click on the image for a larger view.

Starship Enterprise Iris
We add new species every year just barely avoiding the temptation to get one of every iris that exists. Starship Enterprise was a new species in the early 2000s.
Black Hellebore
This species, Helleborus x sternii, originally joined our family from the Wells Medina Nursery in February, 1997 ce.
Bleeding Hearts
The gardens I knew in my earliest years always had bleeding hearts. These were planted in the partial shade area of the Snowball Bed in the mid-1990s and gift us with a few seedlings each year.
Kerria
We admired this bright yellow plant for years and one day in 2001 ce gerry stopped to ask that gardener it's name. The gardener promptly and happily gave gerry some of our own Kerria pleniflora to grow here. It is spectacular attention-getter.
Copper Classic Iris
We grow more than 30 species of iris which bring spring joy and wonder to our garden visitors every May. Copper Classic grows just east of our cottage in the main Iris Bed.
"Eroica" Saxifrage
It is when it comes into bloom that this Bergenia x Eroica is spectacular! It's been growing in the Snowball Bed and has folk names such as "elephant's ears" and "pigsqueak."

The cost? $3.00 for a set of six. If you live in the State of Washington, add 27 cents insurance for eachÊset of six.

Shipping and Handling:

$1.50 for one or two sets of cards
$3.00 for 3-5 sets of cards.
$5.00 for 6 or more sets of cards.

Help us raise money and give sweet gifts to yourself and your friends in vibrant color. To see them more as they will be, click on the album, then click on the individual photos (or slideshow). These are shown only about 75% of their actual size.

Checks, money orders, Visa or Mastercard...

Return to top of page.