After exploring another garden, it is always good to come back home and see what is happening here at Heatherwood. This is especially true in late spring when it feels like the garden is going to burst out in full bloom at any moment.
This rock garden area separates the lawn at the house level from the lawn and meadow below, which I used to refer to as the “Lower 40”. A path, edged with basalt boulders, winds down back and forth from the upper to the lower lawn. Various creeping thymes, cotoneasters, and sedums fill in between the rocks and onto the recessed gravel pathway. Other perennials and evergreen shrubs provide contrast and stability to the garden. We constructed and planted this area only two springs ago. It is hard to believe how fast it is filling in.
“Variegated Red Twig Dogwood” Heronswood, Kingston, WA
We have several of these variegated red twig dogwoods scattered through our Heatherwood garden. We even have some with grasses tucked in front (or back) surrounded by various evergreens. The big difference between the two gardens is that Hersonswood is a mature garden while Heatherwood is an infant. Heronswood’s plants flow into one another creating a solid mass of color and texture. At Heatherwood, most of our plants are separate from each other. We still have several years to go before the plants blend together. Patience is our challenge.
“Full Moon Japanese Maple and Fern” Heatherwood Japanese Garden
What is beauty? Beauty is hard to explain. Everyone has their own perspective of what beauty is. Beauty applies to all five senses. I am a visual person, so seeing beauty is my dominant perspective. It lies in the vision of a grand vista of a natural landscape or in small vignettes of companion plants like in the above image. It can be a large architectural structure or a small piece of sculpture. It can be man-made or nature or a combination of both. It can be a person or an inanimate object. As I keep my mind and eyes open, I can find some kind of beauty everywhere I look.
Many times when I see beauty, I stop and contemplate. My other senses then kick in, and I notice the beautiful feeling of a breeze on my cheek or the sounds of a gurgling stream. I can smell the wonderful aroma from a street food cart as I look up at a skyscraper or from the scent of a flower as I walk through a garden. I can see the beauty of a young mother holding her young child and feel the love between them. Beauty is a gift that surrounds us at all times. Enjoy the moment!
It is late spring and we are through with our planting projects for now. It is hard to believe that just a little over two years ago, this area was all grass. Spring of 2020 we started carving up the lawn and making planting areas in our lower property. We planted a few trees at that time. In 2021 we added several additional trees and started planting the beginning of an understory. This year we added several more plants to the understory. It is beginning to look like a small woodland.
We just added an Adirondack settee and now can just sit back and enjoy the evolving woodland garden.
“Southeast Corner Rest Station” Heatherwood Spring
We call the southeast area of our garden the “Conifer Corner.” We planted a row of conifers around the southeast corner of our garden to create a little privacy from our neighbors. Within the corner, we also have planted additional specimen conifer trees and shrubs. We added bright ground covers and perennials to give it a little pizzaz. We finished it off with a little rest area tucked into the corner. Many times after walking down to the bottom of our property, I take a little break before walking back up the hill. More times than not, I get sidetracked and wander into a little day dream. Sitting in the Adirondack settee, I look up and gaze into the scene below.
“Wide Angle View Looking Up the Hill”
You can see how easily I could fall into a day dream!
Our Heatherwood garden is comprised of several different areas. Between the areas we have created multiple transitions for one area to flow into another almost seamlessly. The image above illustrates how the meadow area consisting of perennials and grasses transition to a layer of medium sized deciduous shrubs and evergreens. The transition area serves as a background to keep focus on the meadow and separate it from a lawn and woodland area beyond.
As I make my first morning cup of coffee, I wander to our family room window and look over Heatherwood’s lower yard. It is a wonderful way to welcome the day. Today is the first day of June. Late spring is a beautiful time of year in our garden. In a couple of weeks most of the perennials will be showing off their blooms. Heatherwood’s peak color will be here in a couple of weeks. Welcome June!
For many years, rhododendrons have held special places in our various gardens. Our first house in Seattle had a giant 10 ft. pink rhododendron guarding our front door. It came with the house and was the star of our front yard. We later moved into a new house without any landscaping. The first plants we put in were rhodies. When we moved to Washington, DC we fell in love with the rhododendron and azalea garden at the National Arboretum. And of course, we planted several in our new landscape. Moving back to the Northwest, we chose a home in Covington that was surrounded by rhododendrons in a woodland garden. A couple of years later we moved north to Woodinville into a new home that had a new landscape with several rhodies. During our 11 years there, we planted a separate rhododendron garden and also added several species into our back woodland. Then off to Philadelphia we went. Rhododendron gardens abounded all around us. And again we had to have ours as well. We had a large pink one like the image above along side our back porch. It was one of our favorite plants in the garden. Seventeen years later I moved back to the Northwest, this time in the dry Eastern Washington area. Rhododendrons have a difficult time in the dry, hot, and cold environment here. But they can survive if planted in protected spots. And once more, we have added several rhodies in our Heatherwood garden.
Over the years, I have so many happy memories of sharing enjoyment of rhododendrons with loved ones in various gardens located across the country as well as in our own personal gardens. They hold a special place in my heart.
I try to be mindful when I make a photograph. I ask myself why do I want to take an image before I snap the shutter on my camera. There is nothing really unique about this image. It does not have any special composition or a single subject of interest. It certainly is not an iconic view. It was not taken during exceptional lighting giving it a moody feeling. It does have contrasting colors, shapes, and textures. When it comes down to the reason I took the image, I guess it was simply that I liked the view looking into our garden from the front yard planting area into the beginning of our woodland garden.
Spring is a beautiful time in our Heatherwood Japanese garden. The various trees and shrubs blend together to provide a beautiful patchwork of colors. As I peek through the trees, my eyes take a circuitous route through the vignette. They first focus to the left on the bright pink of a Shin deshojo Japanese maple, then move up to the magenta of a flowering crabapple. They move to the right corner to see the deep purple of a Bloodgood Japanese maple and then down to the rhododendrons that are just about ready to burst in bloom. They next move up to the center to see the white flowers of a fothergillia. Finally they move up a little more and see the chartreuse of a Shigasura Japanese maple. I squint my eyes and see a blurred impressionistic patchwork of color.
The image above is from the most mature area in our Japanese garden. The flowering crabapple was here when I moved in during 2016. The first tree I planted in the garden in 2016 was the Bloodgood Japanese Maple. The following year, I received the Shin deshojo Japanese maple from wonderful friends. In 2018, I added the rhododendrons and the Shigasura. And then in 2019, we planted the fothergilla. Now after three years, we have an intriguing combination of colors, shapes, and textures.
