Dirt is their canvas; garden is their art

  • By Debra Smith / Herald Writer
  • Wednesday, March 21, 2007 9:00pm
  • Life

You could assume a lot about Vanca Lumsden, the Whidbey Island woman who helped design the winning garden at one of the top flower shows in the nation.

You might, for instance, expect she has a prestigious horticulture pedigree or maintains a flawlessly designed, fussy garden.

Neither is true. In fact, nothing about Lumsden – from her name to her design aesthetic – is expected.

She likes it that way.

First, her name. Vanca is pronounced as if there were an “s” in there, rather than a “c.” She’s named for her father, Vance.

Second, her garden. It’s refreshingly unpretentious. Lumsden, 64, lives with her husband, Joe, also 64, in a funky, color-laden beach cottage. They make their living building whimsical wood furniture in a nearby barn that used to be part of a chicken ranch.

This is a woman with one serious plant addiction, but her garden consists of informal planting beds amid pasture grass and whimsical garden art. Weeds and blackberry vines live here, and she leaves a little clover for the bunnies.

Yet Lumsden and close friend Judith Jones of Fancy Fronds in Gold Bar bested 22 other display gardens at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show – twice. They’ve teamed up nine times to design gardens for the show.

The most recent award was for a garden they called “Beast in the Garden: Marginal Madness.” It featured eye-burning colors, Oaxacan-inspired animal sculptures and junglelike plants on the margin of what survives in the Northwest.

The garden received some criticism for showcasing plants that may not live through a Northwest wet winter. Someone even accused her of “zone denial.”

Whatever: The judges at the show unanimously loved the garden, she said.

“We always know we’re close to the edge. Some people just don’t think outside of the box.”

“I don’t think we’ve ever had a garden the rose society liked,” she added.

Lumsden chalks her success up to creativity, an ability to see the world a little differently.

“I was born with it,” she said. “I’ve always wanted to create, and I can’t draw. It took me years to figure out I could do it with plants.”

And she does know a thing or two about plants. Her homemade greenhouse is stuffed with unusual and exciting specimens, including South African reeds. She propagated and sold water plants long before everybody had a backyard pond, before the big box stores priced her out of the business.

“You want to know how to make a million in horticulture?” she said, recalling her stint in the nursery business. “Start with $2 million and spend carefully.”

That sense of humor comes in handy for the small business, Albe Rustic Furniture, she runs with her husband.

The couple stumbled on the idea about five years ago. A back injury left him unemployed. He needed something to do, and they both needed the money. She handed him a twig basket made by a friend and told him to try making one.

He made 500 and his work sold fast.

Joe Lumsden progressed from twig baskets to other furniture: benches, tables, garden carriers, stools and trellises. He has made beds, armoires and custom fences. Soon, Vanca Lumsden joined her husband in the wood shop and discovered she could apply her creative abilities here too.

“We were making more money cutting up sticks than selling water plants,” she said.

The furniture can be used inside or out. It’s made from branches culled from hazelnut, filbert, maple, cherry and curly willow trees. They also use what Joe Lumsden calls “barn boards,” salvaged planks with a weathered look.

They bring distinctive styles to the venture. She describes it this way: His furniture is built to fit neatly in the delivery truck, hers is more whimsical: “If it’s leaning with one hip out, it’s mine.”

A popular seller is a bench she makes with curly willow. Vanca Lumsden sold a vanful of the benches at a Spokane gardening expo in less than four hours. They cost $135 each. Most of what they produce is priced less than $300.

Joe Lumsden’s trademark creation is a “lifeguard” chair, an oversized piece that allows its user to lord over the garden.

A Freeland woman told Joe Lumsden she loved it because “if she were sitting high enough, she wouldn’t be tempted to pull a weed.”

Reporter Debra Smith: 425-339-3197 or dsmith@heraldnet.com.

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