Every garden can tell a story of the hands that have tended each flower bed, of the eye carefully blending colorful bushes and leafy trees. Gardens tell a story of time, marking each year by their growth.
“I remember when these were just this high,” said Patty Titus, pointing to a shrub and raising her hand only several inches from the earth.
Titus has been a gardener for Margie and Dan Carper for the last eight years.
“It’s been fun to watch it grow,” she said.
And grow it has to a magical garden on a bluff overlooking Eastsound. Elaborate rock work by Peter Giampietro leads to a charming pond with a stone bridge. Surrounding the Tudor-style home are cottage-garden perennials and ornamental trees, shrubs and grasses. And this is just one of six properties featured in this year’s tour.
The Annual Garden Tour is Saturday and Sunday, June 28 and 29, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The self-guided tour draws visitors from all around the world to check out island backyards. This year’s tour theme is “garden rooms.”
Tickets are at brownpapertickets.com, or at Darvill’s Bookstore, Crow Valley Pottery, Driftwood Nursery and Smith and Speed’s.
Salish-Seaside Escapes
At Salish-Seaside Escapes the motto is to make the gardens, natural plants and cottages all blend naturally together.
“We work with what we’ve got,” said Manager Thane Sweet.
“To make it as natural as possible,” echoed Assistant Manager Misty Cruz.
The Sweet family has owned the property for 21 years, but has expanded their property in recent years. Much of the architecture and hardscape is designed by renowned San Diego artist James Hubbell. Paths wind under tall trees and through shade gardens to arrive at cottages that seem to grow out of the woods. Many of the buildings have unique garden roofs that spring outward like elegant green hair. The “Oyster Garth” is a meditative garden inspired by medieval monasteries. Pathways wind up and down the hillside, past cedars, a giant sequoia, hostas, rhodie, ferns and curving rock walls.
Maier Garden
Lisa and Steve Maier have transformed a plot of land into a garden of vintage beauty and numerous curiosities.
Old plates and pan lids hang on fence posts, the seven dwarfs hide behind a shrub, vintage paintings hang on the walls of the covered porch and stepping stones are embedded with keys, silverware, buttons and dog tags. The house and outer buildings are painted in bright blues, greens and pinks.
“We love colors,” said Lisa.
Their home was finished in 1999 and over the last 13 years they have worked on their yard bit by bit.
“I would buy something at a yard sale and then design around it,” said Lisa.
Other pieces in the garden are older treasures with a story. For instance, in one corner of the lawn rests an old wrought-iron bed frame that belonged to Lisa’s grandfather and is now a bed to numerous green and perky plants. There is also a rowboat and bicycle that serve as unique flower beds.
During the summer Lisa and Steve can be found most days in their yard tending to flowers and potted plants. The garden is sectioned off into three parcels making three “rooms.”
“We wanted to make little spaces so there are things you don’t see right away,” said Lisa. “We’re continuing to grown plants to separate the spaces even more.”
More gardens
Other gardens on the tour include Anne and Richard Griot’s Bayhead Farm garden, which has a pavilion designed and built by shipwright Chris Smart with a roof of succulent plants. There are also numerous raised beds bursting with the color of dahlia, roses, delphinium, peonies and zinnias.
The Red Rabbit Farm has 15 acres of beautiful, but low maintenance plants. Owner Christina Orchid enjoys hardy plants like rosemary, sage, ferns and grasses. Despite her penchant for easy-to-grow herbs, Orchid has exquisite delphiniums on her property that are worthy of viewing. The view from the barn where she feeds 40 guests at Sunday summer suppers is a series of vistas, including pasture, pond, an obelisk and a fine view of Westsound.
Trina and Odie Olson’s garden is a simple but elegant design. There are three ponds that cascade down a sloping grassy hillside towards Westsound. The grounds also feature maintained beds of rhodies, heathers and hellebores. To the rear of the house, Odie keeps a greenhouse and vegetable garden.
