I was pretty delighted to hear there is a Hobbit Hole in Port Orchard and I finally got to see it at the Brother’s Greenhouse. It is really well made and I actually got into it. The rest of the nursery was pretty great too, plenty of stock and helpful employees. They even had free cookies! We picked up some charming plants for the front porch.
And oh my gosh, I can’t believe I’ve been working on this one time impulsive blog project for going on seven years now! It began in 2010.
When I think of large displays of dahlias I usually think of the Connell’s Dahlia or perhaps the Washington State Fair. But Point Defiance Park also has a large display, the Dahlia Trial Gardens, which is right next door to the Rose Gardens and everything seemed to be in bloom! I had gone to join my good friends at a picnic and really enjoyed my time with them. Afterwards I wandered all the gardens, enjoying the sunshine and snapping away. This Dahlia Trial Garden is one of eight in the entire United States that is sanctioned by the American Dahlia Society. It is managed by the Washington State Dahlia Society. Post Defiance has an excellent article on the gardens.
The Lan Su Chinese Garden in the Chinatown neighborhood of Vancouver, BC. is a little piece of serenity in a very busy downtown. All of the garden’s materials were brought in from the city of Suzhou, Vancouver’s sister city and built by citizens of that city. I took the 45 minute tour lead by a wonderful docent while my other family members wondered off to find their own adventures. One of the interesting facts I learned is that the decorative windows in the walls are all different and they are called leaks because they lead in light and air. More information can be found here.
Little Free Library at the corner of East ‘L’ Street and 68th Street and is part of the Boze Community Garden. It is a well constructed Little Free Library and has about a dozen books, mostly for children.
On the same parcel, there is the Boze Community Garden. More information about Tacoma’s Community Gardens can be found here.
Smithsonian Institution’s Archives of American Gardens has the Pecchenino Garden in Gig Harbor registered as a Horticultural Services Division Garden and today it was open to the public for a small donation which was contributed to a charity. The two acre garden surrounds a private house and is amazing. The garden features a stupendous view of Henderson Bay and Cutts Island, a waterfall, a vegetable garden and, of course, flowers.
The lovely Highline SeaTac Botanical Garden is only about 30 minutes from my house, but I hadn’t heard about it until today. It is a lovely 10 acre botanical garden which primarily features northwest flora. There is also a small Japanese Garden, a water feature and benches. Close to the SeaTac runway, there were many passenger planes overhead, but it just seemed like another interesting part of the garden. Though I was worried about rain, it turned into a lovely day. My favorite part, beside the hummingbird, was the amazing gate! More info can be found here.
The Yashiro Japanese Garden at 1010 Plum Street SE, Olympia is a small, well proportioned public garden. It is a a joint effort of the Olympia-Yashiro Sister City Association and the City of Olympia.There are a few art pieces and a waterfall and some colorful fall foliage. More information can be found here.
The Stewart Garden is situated on the grounds of Stewart Middle School in Tacoma. At first I thought it was a community garden, but now that I have read their blog, it is clear that it is a student researched, designed, created and maintained garden. The blog shows just how meaningful this is to the students.
Point Defiance Ruston Senior Center at 4716 N. Baltimore St., Tacoma has a community garden that I went to visit today as part of the 2013 Community Garden Harvest Tour. Actually I got a late start, so it was the only garden I got to. Guess that makes it the best! Really it was a very nice smaller garden. I was looking at it through the fence and somebody who works at the center came out to open up the gate for me. The garden, which had both vegetables and flowers, is part of the Master Gardener Program sponsored by Washington State University, Pierce County Extension.
Driving around Tacoma I found The Farm by Hug, which I of course read as the Hug Farm. I loved the idea of growing hugs! And the actuality of the garden was almost as good. It is a community garden sponsored by the Hilltop Urban Gardens. Their mission is “to develop systems for food sovereignty and create racial and economic justice”. To learn more, go to their website.
