This garden, which surrounds a 1935 English cottage style home has been described by Des Kennedy as “a quite exceptional garden in a city of exceptional gardens..” (Gardening Life May 2003) The garden has been featured in the prestigious British gardening publication Hortus Gardening Journal and Sunset publication on Gardens of the Pacific Northwest and been featured in the Canadian publication of Homes and Gardens.
The 15-year-old three quarter acre garden was designed and continues to evolve under the nurturing hand of its owner. Walking on the soft emerald carpeting of meticulously maintained lawns you pass under archways draped with luxurious vines into gently curving garden rooms whose shapes echo the sinuous branching of the ancient ( three to four hundred year old) garry oaks who tower above.
The wonderful deeply layered mixed borders that surround these rooms have been designed in the American Mixed Border style for year round interest . Reflecting on these plantings you realize that this gardener is a true artist who paints with a broad pallet of exotic and unusual plants, including many new plant introductions, which she has placed in her own imaginative combinations.
You realize that at the same time she has maintained a sense of place perhaps since as Ann Lovejoy observes “..garry oaks gives gardens instant presence and a strong sense of place. It also encourages us to pay attention to their sculptural strength, matching it with appropriate proportions of space and planting. Companion beds must be substantial enough in mass and strong enough in form to read against that natural grandeur without imposing on the aging trees' root systems.” Naturalistic Gardening
Keeping faith with its past as part of a Garry Oak meadow this organic garden is a serene retreat for all visitors both human and non-human. You can sit on the Mediterranean patio with its special microclimate for zone 9/10 plants and listen to the songbirds, watch the dragonflies hover over the naturalistic koi pond, enjoy the hummingbirds and butterflies feeding on the buddlejas, eupatorium and other plants selected for them. All the while, the owner's small dogs enthusiastically bound through the garden.
You can sit in seclusion in the small garden room in the shade provided by an arch of yellow and black bamboo, look out over the pond, enjoy the fragrance of the perfumed plants that surrounds you and listen to the rustling of the ornamental grasses and bamboo. This is truly paradise.
Keeping faith with its past as part of a Garry Oak meadow this organic garden is a serene retreat for all visitors both human and non-human. You can sit on the Mediterranean patio with its special microclimate for zone 9/10 plants and listen to the songbirds, watch the dragonflies hover over the naturalistic koi pond, enjoy the hummingbirds and butterflies feeding on the buddlejas, eupatorium and other plants selected for them. All the while, the owner's small dogs enthusiastically bound through the garden.
You can sit in seclusion in the small garden room in the shade provided by an arch of yellow and black bamboo, look out over the pond, enjoy the fragrance of the perfumed plants that surrounds you and listen to the rustling of the ornamental grasses and bamboo. This is truly paradise.