We spent Day Three of Fling at the West Seattle Farmer's Market, then on to two wonderful gardens in West Seattle, an area known for small lots and old houses. In fact, it is Seattle's oldest neighborhood. The original landing point for the Denny Party, the explorers who founded Seattle, is here, on Alki Beach (where Tom Hanks and his son had a picnic in Sleepless in Seattle). The founders who made camp there eventually moved on to the site where downtown Seattle sits today.
Today's private gardens were small, intimate and personal -- truly a reflection of their owners' tastes and sensibilities. The first garden we visited was that of our own intrepid leader, Lorene Edwards Forkner, who greeted us when we arrived like Evita blessing the poor masses.
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| Don't cry for me-e, Seattle.... |
Lorene spent a large part of this past year working hard on a new book for Timber Press --
Handmade Garden Projects: Step-by-Step Instructions for Creative Garden Features, Containers, Lighting & More. Most of the projects depicted in the book were built and photographed last summer in her garden and many of them are in the photographs I took today. Her projects feature the reuse and repurposing of items that often get thrown out. The book should be available on November 15, 2011.
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| Mosaic ball sitting on a bed of stones and wine corks |
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| Hmmmm....I think Life's a Fling! |
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| Stone-filled gabion topped with a pot of succulents |
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| Recognize the mattress springs? |
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| Wine bottle border edging |
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| Terrarium made of what looks like an old light fixture |
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| What? You want to see some flowers? Oh, alright.... |
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| Rusty shovel heads used as ornaments |
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| Mattress spring trellis |
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| Stacked broken concrete border edging |
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| What? That gorgeous poppy wasn't enough? Fine. Here's a cool Clemmie. |
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| Semi-circle of rusty wire fencing holds up a hardy Geranium |
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| Free-form concrete grot |
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| Water feature - wonderful trickley sound |
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| Firepit and gabion seating |
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| Yew and rose intertwined |
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| The piece de resistance -- an old travel trailer often used as the centerpiece of any garden party |
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| Travel trailer interior |
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| I don't know what it is....but I want one! |
The second garden on today's tour was that of Kate Farley, a Seattle landscape designer. It was a magical combination of opulent flowers, cool shade and repurposed materials. Like Sleeping Beauty's castle, the house is surrounded by an impenetrable thicket of English laurel, which provides cool shade to the front garden.
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| There's a house in there somewhere |
Although despised by many in the PNW for its overuse and invasive nature, an English laurel hedge has been put to good use here.
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| An opening into the front shade garden has been pruned into the hedge |
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| Leaf-strewn path |
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| A dead tree remains to provide a structural element above |
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| And texture below at eye level |
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| A wall created of brick, stone and construction rubble hosts plants in its crevices |
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| You emerge from the shade along the side of the house into a riot of color |
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| A sea of Alstromeria |
As in Lorene's garden, here repurposed materials are used to good effect.
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| An old blue rake holds back a variegated dogwood |
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| An empty rusty metal frame sits atop a concrete culvert pipe |
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| An old concrete basket holds pine cones and a saxifrage |
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| The garden shed has a chimney made of mixed materials |
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| Inside the shed, an old wood stove sits |
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| An old shawl or tablecloth covers the window |
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| Drawers too big to be pushed back in hold a variety of materials |
