The cottage eclectic

Published 5:00 pm Saturday, July 2, 2005

Joanne Onorato’s colorful garden is among the Bainbridge In Bloom highlights.

Tucked away on a quiet lane, the garden of Joanne Onorato and Joe Tschida thrives in eclectic harmony.

The garden of flower and herbs has a hands-on, approachable feel. Toy dinosaurs guard the front porch, while play equipment and a trampoline stand ready for action. Stone paths accented with colorful tile lead the way and touches like ceramic roosters tucked under low plantings and pink flamingoes add a sense of fun.

“I guess it’s just an expression of who we are,” Joanne Onorato said. “It’s a real cottage eclectic garden. It’s paradise.”

There is no visual discord in this circuitous parcel of land that zigs and zags, offering views of Murden Cove and Mount Rainier. The orderly beds have a rhyme and reason and flow from one to the next with grace.

For Joanne, a horticulturist and former painter, the one and a quarter-acre property – garden number four on next weekend’s Bainbridge in Bloom tour – is her natural palette.

She is committed to organic, sustainable gardening and her approach yields a trove from whatever seeds she tosses into the ground. Her choices run to the big and dramatic, and she often lets the plants dictate where they’ll grow.

Herbs and flowers mix in her vegetable patch because the original plot was “way too much” to care for. Yet the array of produce it yields would put many greengrocers to shame.

There’s a whole bed of garlic, a winter bed, medicinal plantings, a big pokeweed and generous room for herbs.

Dahlias share space with beets. Strawberries nestle upon thyme, which infuses them with a delicate flavor.

Joanne feeds family and friends from her garden year-round, with help from “the girls,” four free-ranging chickens that share a coop bedecked with a mix of roses.

Birds abound and butterflies flock to the ornamental beds. From the shade-loving hostras to the volunteer dahlia to the oreopsis in tree form, “this place is meant for plants,” Joanne said.

It’s also a place where love blooms.

Nearly 10 years ago, her husband, Joe, biked down Falk Road and saw a “for sale” sign in front of the house. He raced home to tell Joanne.

“I was cooking and very pregnant. He said, ‘You have to see this house.’ I got in the car with my apron on my big stomach, (saw it) and said, ‘I love it!’’’

Frances and Al Hamro had lived in the circa 1916 house for 52 years, and had planted the roses and vegetables.

“They were in their 90s,” Joanne said. “We had been looking for a home. Joe called the agent and said, ‘I want to buy this house for my wife for Christmas.’ She said, ‘You and 10 other people.’ We met with the Hambros and got along really well. I extended my hand and said, “I would like to offer you full price.’

“The sales agents were shocked when Mr. Hamro said, ‘I like them. I don’t want to hear about other offers. It’s theirs.’”

Joanne felt a real connection with the Hamros and their presence fills the garden, from the heirloom flowers to the rose arbor atop the outbuilding that displays birdhouses made by Mr. Hamro and safeguards his old tools.

He once toiled with the flower-filled wheelbarrow and fashioned a white picket fence from boxes he carried home from his Singer Sewing job. Joe’s replica picket fence is near what’s left of the original. Mr. Hamro’s peonies are now 30 to 40 years old.

“Mr. Hamro found them in pots on the side of the road,” Joanne said. “I divided them and made them a feature of the garden.”

Dream home

Originally from Astoria, Queens, Joanne met Joe on a visit to Seattle in 1986.

They lived on the East Coast for 10 years before relocating to Bainbridge Island, fulfilling one of Joanne’s dream since she first visited the island in 1977.

While working for the American Museum of Natural History, she came out here on a research trip; she had to paint a dioroma of the Northwest.

The gardening part started much earlier. Her grandparents had a 5-acre gentleman’s garden in Warwick, N.Y., which she visited in the summer. Under her grandfather’s tutelage, Joanne found her passion.

Joanne maintains a relaxed, yet focused view of gardening.

“I use seeds and I’m very patient,” she said. “It’s the key to being a gardener.”

Joanne lets nature do the work. Pointing to tall celery stalks that have gone to seed, she said, “I use the leaves for seasoning.”

Joanne and Joe’s artistic flair is evident throughout the property. Joe, who works in advertising at Heckler Associates in Seattle, built the white trellis, which shows off lavender and pink roses, as well as whimsical wood pieces and birdhouses.

Constructing a greenhouse is his next project. He’s also in charge of mowing the lawn.

He and Joanne collaborate on design. She does the rest.

Joanne’s least favorite job is weeding. She considers pruning an art, like sculpture. Depending on the season, she’ll spend anywhere from one to eight hours working in the garden, one section at a time. She unabashedly bribes her three children – Sophia, 15, Anastasia, 13 and Joseph, 9 – to help.

Joanne lavishes her garden with a lot of compost and mulch. No water on the grass ever, she said, and she chooses drought-resistant plants.

“It’s very old-fashioned and it’s very beautiful,” Joanne said.

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Flowers by the yard

The focus of this year’s garden tour is “the alchemy of stewardship and good gardening practices.” In a collaborative effort with the Bainbridge Island Watershed Council and the Natural Landscapes Project, and in conjunction with local experts and organizations dedicated to education and preservation, interactive demonstrations at four of the gardens will center on practical applications and techniques.

* Garden one – Visitors will meet urban wildlife biologist Russell Link, author of Landscaping for Wildlife in the Pacific Northwest, at the pond to discuss how to design a landscape for birds, butterflies and other creatures and try to spot the Pacific tree frog, which graces the tour’s poster.

* Garden three – Community forester Jim Trainer and plant health expert Dr. Olaf Ribeiro are all about the large trees in this dramatic garden makeover setting: how to move them, water them, compost them and keep them strong; plus, how water features and plant roots can co-exist.

* Garden four – Surrounded by sun-loving plants, Nick Penovich of Lawn Jockey explains how compost can help gardens conserve water and improve turf.

* Garden five – Members of Bainbridge Island Weed Warriors share the rules of engagement for combating such fiends as Himalayan blackberry and controlling English ivy in this abundantly outfitted set of garden “rooms.”