I was lucky enough on Thursday to be able to join an open public tour of the display garden for Ed Hume Seeds in Puyallup. I've read about this garden in the past but had heard that the garden was only open to large groups of children on field trips. But on Thursday morning, while perusing Facebook (where I have "liked"
Ed Hume Seeds), I noticed a post saying that the garden was open to the public that day at 1:30, and to call to reserve a spot. So you better believe I jumped to it and did just that!
Ed Hume Seeds is a family owned and operated business
located in the PNW that specializes in seeds that are specially bred for our cool, short summers. You can buy the seeds directly from them online, or at just about every garden center from Northern California, through Oregon and Washington, and into Idaho and as far north as Alaska.
The website is a fount of useful gardening information. Ed himself, who led our little group around the garden, is a nice, folksy guy with a corny sense of humor.
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| Ed Hume explaining that in a typical Japanese garden, you would find an obstacle in the path into the garden, designed to confuse and keep the evil spirits out. |
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| Showing us a "Watermelon" radish from the garden |
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| The Puzzle Garden is full of visual puns, our job was to figure them out |
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| Ed demonstrating that what we have here is 3 feet in a yard! |
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| A bed of Two Lips |
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| A Rat Dish (Radish) |
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| A Foxglove |
The garden has some pretty foliage combos.
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| Ed pointing out pitcher plants in the bog garden |
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| Sarracenia |
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| A row of Hakone grass |
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| The garden has a nice variety of heathers |
And plenty of pretty flowers!
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| There's a good size specimen of monkey puzzle tree |
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| Even a bottle tree! |
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| I found this cool display of old seed packets inside the seed sorting facility, where we saw a demo of how the packets are filled, and got some free seeds. |
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| Before leaving I had to check out the vegetable garden, where these enormous pumpkins were growing. |
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| The corn was as high as an elephant's eye! |
I hope you enjoyed coming along with me on this visit!
