Floating on an evergreen cloud in the garden of Tanya Bednarski
September 04, 2024 When two neighbors go all-in on their gardens, it makes for great street energy. Such is the case with two of the gardens on the Puget Sound Fling‘s bonus day in Seattle. Last time I showed you Bonnie Berk’s terraced hillside garden. Today let’s explore the garden ...
Exploring the Garden of Exuberant Refuge, part 1
August 30, 2024 If there was one garden that really spoke to my own sensibilities at the Puget Sound Fling last month, it was the Garden of Exuberant Refuge, the happy creation of Daniel Sparler and Jeff Schouten in Seattle. Colorful, quirky, irreverent, playful, and rewarding to the observant visitor, ...
Exploring Dan Hinkley’s Windcliff, part 2
August 27, 2024 Agapanthus and grasses When you’ve read about a garden and then visit in person for the first time, it can feel both strangely familiar and a little disorienting. As you walk around, you recognize certain features — plants, art, viewpoints — but you also don’t really know ...
Winding my way through Windcliff, part 1
August 25, 2024 Seeing Windcliff, the private garden of plantsman Dan Hinkley and architect Robert Jones, was a huge draw on the Puget Sound Fling tour. I read and reviewed Dan’s book Windcliff a couple years ago and hoped I might be able to visit the garden one day. And ...
Heronswood’s shady woodland and tribe-influenced Renaissance Garden
August 22, 2024 The colorful house garden and potager stole most of my attention at Heronswood during last month’s Puget Sound Fling. Click for that post and the garden’s tumultuous backstory. Today I’m sharing other parts of Heronswood, starting with the woodland garden. Woodland garden One of the best features ...
Heronswood pilgrimage: House garden and formal garden
August 20, 2024 Two acclaimed gardens made by plantsman, plant explorer, and author Dan Hinkley (and his partner, Robert Jones) were two of the biggest attractions at the Puget Sound Fling in July. While I’d read about Windcliff and Heronswood, I’d never visited either. Day 3 of the Fling was ...
Pre-dinner stroll around Lakewold Gardens in Puget Sound
August 13, 2024 Day 2 of the Puget Sound Fling last month ended at Lakewold Gardens, a 10-acre estate garden in Lakewood, Washington. The Fling banquet dinner was to be held on the terrace, but first we had time to explore the grounds. A brass quartet, including co-planner Camille Paulsen‘s ...
Camille Paulsen’s Tahoma-flora garden
August 11, 2024 One of my favorite gardens on the Fling tour last month was that of Camille and Dirk Paulsen. As one of the co-planners of the Puget Sound Fling, Camille not only devoted a year of volunteer effort to bring Flingers to her region, but she managed to ...
Next-door gardening neighbors at Puget Sound Fling
August 10, 2024 As we rolled into co-planner Camille Paulsen‘s Puyallup, Washington, neighborhood at the Puget Sound Fling last month, my bus was invited to tour a couple of her neighbors’ gardens while the other busload of Flingers worked their way into Camille’s garden first. I was charmed that Camille’s ...
A plant playground at the Risdahl-Pittman Garden
August 08, 2024 Susan and Guy Risdahl-Pittman described their Milton, Washington, garden at the Puget Sound Fling last month as an eclectic plant playground. It’s also a beautifully designed space with winding paths to explore and a naturalistic pond to enjoy, complete with birch log lying across it. I started ...
Toad-henge sculpture is king of the hill in garden made for entertaining
August 05, 2024 Steep lots, rocks, lush plantings, and mountain views were a running theme at the Puget Sound Fling last month. The garden of Meagan Foley and Mac Gray fit right in thematically, but it also had us exclaiming wow as we walked around the house and spotted this ...
Hopping around Froggsong Gardens
August 03, 2024 Lunch on the first day of the Puget Sound Fling was held on beautiful Vashon Island at Froggsong Gardens, a private home with a 5-acre estate garden that can be rented out as a wedding/event venue. Needless to say, they were well set up to host 100 ...
A woodland art collector’s garden on Vashon Island
August 02, 2024 While touring the Carhart Garden at the Puget Sound Fling last month, I met one of the owners, Mary Carhart, who upon learning I was from Texas enthusiastically told me that she is from Texas too. Decades ago, she and husband Whit moved to Washington for work ...
Contemporary re-use in landscaping at San Antonio’s Pearl
June 18, 2024 The old Pearl Brewery in San Antonio is today a shopping/dining complex along the River Walk, with green, landscaped public plazas. It’s called Pearl. We made time to poke around at Pearl during an April visit to the Alamo City. (Here’s Part 1 of that visit.) Historic ...
North Haven Gardens nursery in Dallas
June 09, 2024 For more than 70 years, North Haven Gardens has been a resource for plants and supplies for gardeners in north Dallas. And this is despite being hit by two tornadoes in a recent two-year period. Yes, two tornadoes — bam bam! The longtime family nursery was torn ...
Cindy Bolz’s Asian-style garden of Japanese maples
June 06, 2024 I have exactly one Japanese maple in my garden, inherited with the house. But I’ve enjoyed the graceful beauty of its foliage and form for many years. So imagine my delight when I visited collector Cindy Bolz‘s garden in Farmers Branch, an inner suburb of Dallas, where ...
