Lower Garden Vignette
Heatherwood Autumn
Some see this vignette as a mixture of plants; purple asters, geums, Autumn Joy sedums, Niemitz blue spruce, yellow yarrow, Hillside Creeper pine, Globosa Japanese red pine, and nine barks. To me, it is a sea of color, shapes, and textures weaved together to create a warm feeling. This is what gardening is about.
Weeping Douglas Fir
Vista Gardens, Bremerton WA
The arms of this beautiful Weeping Douglas Fir reach out greeting the garden stroller to another beautiful view. Many beautifully sculptured trees are strategically placed throughout the gardens. They captured my sight as I walked along the paths. They made me stop and admire the specimen and how it was placed in the landscape. I scrambled to see the specific cultivar or variety, many of which I had not previously seen. I noted many that I plan to search for to add to our Heatherwood garden.
Autumn Garden Overlook
Vista Gardens, Bremerton WA
I recently spent two days exploring the beautiful and educational Albers Marcovina Vista Gardens in Bremerton, Washington. It is a meticulously designed 4-acre hillside landscape overlooking Dryers Inlet off Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains in the distance. The garden displays a multitude of species and cultivars that can be grown in the Pacific Northwest. It focuses on sustainable landscape design that can support plant species which require no or minimum supplemental water. Plants are intertwined together which stabilizes a relatively steep hillside. Hand-laid stone and gravel paths meander throughout the garden to provide close access to the various plants. Artwork is incorporated into the landscape to provide special highlights.
From one perspective, the garden is absolutely beautiful throughout the four seasons. From my novice background, I found the garden a deep educational experience as well. John Albers, the founder and curator of Vista Gardens considers the garden as his laboratory to test plants and environmental ideas. The result is a display garden of unique resilient plants and sustainable landscape design concepts. I anxiously look forward to my next visit.
Vista Gardens is open to the public. Educational tours are also available. To plan a visit, go to their website: VistaGardens.org.
Lower Garden Path
Heatherwood Autumn
Over the past several years, we have been gradually developing a garden path along the perimeter of our lower Heatherwood garden. The image above is the transition from our lower conifer garden to the woodland garden. The Lebanon cedars on the left and the birches on the right form a doorway across the lawn into the woodland garden above. Along the path, benches provide shaded places to rest and become immersed into the garden’s beauty. It’s time for a walk!!!
View from the Street
Heatherwood Autumn
Conifers, grasses, Japanese maples, perennials, and deciduous trees all blend together to form an abstract collage of color. Colors change every passing day for a new display. This window into our Heatherwood garden provides a little vignette to greet our daily walkers along the street. The garden provides us the gift of being able to walk among nature every day.
The sagebrush covered hill above along with its ridge of a past volcanic lava flow puts history in perspective. It also provides a reminder of the importance of our 100-year old irrigation canal that has brought water to our fertile valley.
Japanese Garden Lower Path
Heatherwood Late Summer
Shades of green dominate the lower path of our Heatherwood Japanese garden area in late summer. The light orange tinge of a Japanese maple in the background is a harbinger of the beginning of autumn. During the next several weeks the path will gradually sparkle with the changing colors of the Japanese maples and other deciduous trees that grace the landscape. Fall is just around the corner.
Historic Irrigation Flume in NW Bed
Heatherwood Late Summer
Irrigation gives life to our Heatherwood garden. Without the water that the Selah-Naches canal brings, our landscape would be a dry shrub steppe area like what can be seen on the hillside rising above our home. This small section of the wooden flume that originally brought water to the area is a reminder of the canal that was built over 100 years ago. It brought precious water to the fertile soil for the orchards and farm lands of our valley.
We have had a continuous drought for several years. The mountain snow pack and reservoirs have been low. So far we have been able to keep our little oasis thriving. We are very conscious of how we apply the limited water supply. Over time, I am sure that we will need to replace much of our landscape plants with ones that are much more drought tolerant.
Heatherwood Meadow
Late Summer
I’ve been negligent in my entries for the last six weeks. Where has the time gone? Summer projects and a three week cruise in Europe have consumed most of it. I am now back and will do a little catch up.
This past summer has been a hot one. Temperatures have consistently been in the 90’s even rising over 100 degrees at times. It has placed a lot of stress on newly planted specimens as well as our Japanese maples. The weeds have loved it!
As the summer is winding down and the temperatures are dropping down into the 80’s and 70’s, the bright colors of the garden perennials are fading. The grasses are turning into their fluffy browns. Seed pods of the many flowers are starting to burst open. Birds are abundant! Here and there an occasional last bloom pops up. Fall color of sedums, asters, and other late bloomers are emerging. Colorful berries are forming on many of the viburnums and flowering shrubs. Small apples laden our crabapples. Some of the maples are starting to turn into their autumn colors. Heatherwood is still full of beautiful colors and textures.
Cone Flowers, Phlox, Daisies, Yarrow, Russian Sage, Rudbeckia
Heatherwood Summer in the “Bright & Shiny”
Summer is definitely here! Earlier this week the temperature showed 100 degrees as I was driving along the road. The hot temperatures are triggering the summer perennials to burst out in bloom. We have to water the beds every night. The water is directed to minimize waste and provide moisture only where needed.
This vignette of color is in a section of Heatherwood’s Cherry Allée. Mary requested that the design criteria for this area was to be “Bright and Shiny.” I think we have satisfied her request.
Path to the Perch
Heatherwood Japanese Garden
Our Heatherwood garden continues to fill in as the plantings mature. It is hard to believe that this section of the garden was a sloping grass lawn just seven years ago. Now, a gravel path gradually weaves up the hillside to the source of a stream and waterfall. Trees and shrubs have filled in to border the pathway. One can hear the rush of falling water but cannot see the stream. A new visitor questions, “What is around the corner?”