When the last of great continental glaciers finished its excavation of Puget Sound, it left behind an 81 square mile moraine that would later be called Vashon Island. A moraine is the ridge to a glacier’s furrow. The Vashon moraine is a slag pile of tilled quaternary silt, clay and sand deposits, river-rounded basalt and other rocks, crumbling granite, and assorted other elements of the earth’s crust.
Things began to grow there. Mosses and lichens and grasses. Ferns. Evergreen Huckleberry and Indian Plum and Salmonberry. Douglas-fir and Western Red-cedar. Madrona.
Things began to die there, their remains processed by earth’s vast microbial-fungal recycling machine, increasing and enriching the island’s topsoil for the plants to come.
About 10,000 years later, Slippery Slope Farm was born. ‘Farm’ may be a bit grand – it is really a large mixed-use garden. Vegetables, fruits, and flowers grow there. It helps feed the farmer and her friends. It provides escape and solace, wonder and enchantment. It inspires passions and energies. Some of its flowers find their way into your monthly bouquets.
