By Jim McCausland, Sunset senior garden writer

When David Douglas landed at the mouth of the Columbia River in spring of 1825 to begin plant hunting in the Pacific Northwest, he was awed by salal. In his journal entry, he writes that “On stepping on the shore Gaultheria Shallon was the first plant I took in my hands. So pleased was I that I could scarcely see anything but it. Mr. Menzies correctly observes that it grows under thick forests in great luxuriance and would make a valuable addition to our gardens.”

Yet for all that praise, few of us use the plant in the landscape, so I was pleased to find this salal labyrinth at Earth Sanctuary on Whidbey Island, Washington. It takes advantage of salal’s ability to thrive in lean soil on shady sites, and to be kept in bounds by pruning. And where salal is native (on the mild side of California’s coastal mountains north of Santa Barbara, and west of the Oregon and Washington Cascades), it does nicely on rainfall alone after it’s established.

Earth Sanctuary, where you can visit this labyrinth, is a 72-acre private reserve dedicated to the restoration of original old-growth forest, and to personal renewal.