SEATTLE FLING DAY 2

It is easy to get seriously behind in postings about the Seattle fling (not to mention my Great British Garden Trip). We have reached the end of the Fling and here I am on day 2 of the 4.

We awoke on day 2 to glorious clear, sunny skies and cool air. No sooner off the bus than those cameras were out and clicking and we weren't even in the garden.

THE EPPING GARDEN (Newcastle, Washington)

Everyone was looking at the spectacular view from the driveway of Christopher and Michelle Epping's house.

From the patio you can just see the Seattle skyline in the distance and Lake Washington below.

It seems that everyone in Seattle gardens on a slope. The Eppings met the challenge by creating a paradise of pathways which lead you through the multiple levels of their garden.

Not surprisingly, the plantings are magnificent.

The gardeners have a wonderful eye for combining art with plants. Around every corner we were greeted by little vignettes which invited you to linger and take in the scene.

You just couldn't see it all in one pass. I went back several times, first in one direction and then in the other.

They had created some of the most beautiful pots I had ever seen. Succulents seem to be at home in this climate as much as they would in the Mediterranean climate. We were to learn a couple of days later that the climate is far from that.

Maybe the pots spend the rainy winters in this delightful little shed.

We were invited to linger a while, have a welcome cool drink and read about the making of their garden which had been featured in the local newspaper magazine.

My thoughts were full of ideas as we re-boarded the bus to travel to our next garden.

THE LANE GARDEN (Medina, Washington)

Denise Lane gardens under towering Western Red cedars and Douglas Firs, but has created open paved areas for entertaining and grassy areas edged with colorful perennial borders. For me the favorite place was the 'ruin'

Where was my notebook when someone identified this delightful little vine draping itself over the ruin.

We ate our lunch in this delightful garden setting. Refreshed we moved on to the..

BELLEVUE BOTANIC GARDEN

Just look how big those bee balm are. As tall as Diana Kirby of Sharing Nature's Garden.

Pink palette of achillea and sage.



We were all starting to flag a little under the hot bright sun and simply had to find a shaded place to sit. We still had one more visit, that to the Olympic Sculpture Park. Some of our group had not had the chance to visit the Pike's Place Market and so chose to visit the market instead. We ended up having dinner on the water front at the Pink Door Restaurant. A wonderful dinner to end a day that couldn't have been more perfect.

SEATTLE FLING THE BIRRELL GARDEN

The garden next door I would describe as more of a woodland garden. Shaded pathways wind their way between large Douglas fir trees. Everywhere there were places to sit and enjoy the surrounding plants, most of which I am not familiar.

Or even relax on a hammock under these towering tees.


The homeowners are keen vegetable gardeners and a large portion of their garden was given over to the growing of fruits and vegetables.

I loved the idea of growing beans up this frame, up and away from other plants in the bed.

Some serious compost bins.

The brightly colored shed with its reclaimed windows and siding. The Birrell's son, who works in construction, renovated this once dilapidated shed.

A nice crop of garlic drying on mesh trays.

THE DUNN GARDEN

We ate our box lunches in the Dunn Gardens.

The shade beneath the towering Douglas firs was very welcome on a warm day. Carpets of sedum in flower.

Always on the lookout for paving ideas, I loved the use of slate on edge, to break up expanses of concrete in the pathways.

THE CENTER FOR URBAN HORTICULTURE

This was our final stop of the day. We had a short tour through the display gardens.

Everyone was impressed with the tall grasses growing on either side of the pathway. We were surprised to find they were are variety of Stipa and not surprisingly Stipa gigantea. Surely we can grow this in Texas, but have never seen it there.

Wow! I felt like a kid in a candy store when I went into the Elizabeth C Miller library. They must have every book ever written, not just on horticulture but all kinds of design. There are 15,00 books in their collection. I was drawn immediately to this section on English gardens. What I wouldn't give to spend a rainy day or two in there.

Who is this? Well of course it is our own Maydreams, Carol, posing with her article, 'Eccentric in Nature' in the current Horticulture magazine. I must remember to tell Carol tomorrow about the eccentric people that bought our house in Toronto. The neighbors were puzzled as to why they saw yards and yards of soil being moved into the house! It was going down into the basement where the new homeowners were growing... not mushrooms but worms. Imagine what that did to the humidity in the house, among other things.

What better way to top off the day than with a little wine, cheese and shopping hosted by Ravenna gardens.



Followed by a dinner at 50 North, organized by Diana, Sharing Nature's Garden. We walked back to the hotel stopping to admire this art work outside one apartment building.

and this pond with its ever changing luminous glass sculpture.