Get Growing: Touring the best gardens of Puget Sound

Nothing beats getting garden inspiration in 3-D.  Being immersed in the garden lets you see, smell, and feel the space in a way that books, magazines and social media can’t touch. The lay of the land, color interactions, and plant relationships reveal themselves to you on a gut level.

Even in winter, gardens have much to teach, but for obvious reasons, May through September are high season for garden touring. This year I had the pleasure of joining The Garden Fling (gardenfling.org), a meetup for garden writers, influencers and professionals exploring a new destination each year.  

The organizers curated three dawn-to-dusk days of inspiration this July, using Tacoma as a base. In addition to stellar private gardens of every size and style, five public gardens were included: The Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden and PowellsWood Garden in Federal Way, Point Defiance Park in Tacoma, and Heronswood Garden in Kingston.  It will be painful paring all these treasures into one column, as many would merit their own, but I’ll try by sticking to day one.

In the Carhart garden on Vashon Island, a sculpture of dancers amid grasses creates a carefree mood. Photos courtesy of Erica Grivas

That first day focused on Vashon Island. I had seen many of the gardens during a Northwest Perennial Alliance tour previously, but I was delighted to return, as they were some favorites. 

The 2 1/3-acre garden of Whit and Mary Carhart is not only amazing for its location - a wooded hillside facing Quartermaster Bay – but also its incredible garden rooms ranging from shady trails to wildflower meadows. Art punctuates and highlights the plant-powered beauty everywhere you look. Glass salmon jump up a “river” of golden hakonechloa grass, four child-sized dancers by sculptor Dominic Benhura, cavort through waving grass, and you’ll find a tea house, moon gate, outdoor shower, painted children’s play shed and more. 

Everything looked exceptionally well-grown. I especially noticed things I’m still learning to grow, like annual poppies; there was a stand of bread seed poppies almost as tall as I am. A hilltop pergola nestled in rare trees and woodland plants overlooks a glacial blue pond bookended by the bay. The owners’ dedication to creative plant pairings and plantsmanship is obvious. I appreciated the liberal elements of surprise balanced with spaces of retreat. 

Froggsong Garden on Vashon Island pairs a colorful redbud and jewel-toned hydrangea. 

We followed that with the waterside garden of Anita Halsted, featuring a lawn chess board, meditation labyrinth, a dragon topiary (or sea serpent?) and countless moments of whimsy from ceramic art poles to painted chairs turned into planters. Six-acre Frogssong Gardens was next, with an estate-like feel (bookable for events) with rose gardens, a hot-toned summer annual garden, and just gorgeous mixed borders mixing bananas and hydrangeas. I think the most photographed duet was a Cercis ‘Rising Sun,’ a Kodachrome sunset of raspberry, gold and apricot with a hydrangea in the most piercing violet. 

After Mount Rainier views welcomed us home on the ferry we stopped at the Point Defiance Park’s extensive trial gardens – whose dahlia and rose gardens would be worth a view through September or mid-October, I would think.  

Gray Garden in Tacoma - lime, green and black plantings tumble on a steep hillside in an easy-to-enjoy composition.

We capped off our day at a Tacoma townhouse dubbed the Gray Garden. Despite the majestic Sound view, our gazes were fixated on the garden at the back. Carved into the steepest hillside, ribbons of plantings rolled by. What struck me about this one was the power of a palette. Sticking to a strong palette – in this case, chartreuse, black and white – from plantings to furniture makes the picture so satisfyingly easy to read. Your eye instantly appreciates it and delivers an internal “ahhh.” Did I mention the trail leads to a mini-Stonehenge-like pergola looking back toward the patio? 

You never know what you’ll find on garden tours. Getting a peek inside another gardener’s brain is part of the fun. If you want to get in on garden touring next year, look up organizations like the Northwest Perennial Alliance (https://www.northwestperennialalliance.org/) which hosts tours for members each weekend in season and the Northwest Horticulture Society (northwesthort.org/ ) for occasional tour events.  Regions, garden clubs and neighborhoods often hold their own public tours, like the Mount Baker Garden Club Tour (www.mountbakergardentour.com), the Woodinville Garden Club Tour (https://woodinvillegardenclub.org/tour-of-gardens/), and the Whidbey Island Garden Tour (https://www.wigt.org/), to name a few.  

Erica Browne Grivas