Photojournalist Kim Robinson took the West Seattle Garden tour and filed reports as she toured. The ten gardens on the tour offered a look at the wide range of creativity and resourcefulness exhibited by some of the best gardeners in West Seattle.

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The Hidden Garden - The Holtby - Hlavsa Garden

This garden began 11 years ago and has come to be filled with drought tolerant plants surrounded by bamboo and arborvitae. It is full of perennials and herbs, as well as fruit trees and has room for 16 raised beds. Lisa Holtby is the owner and her son Benjamin Hlavsa said, "My mom's and my favorite ground cover is Rubus Calcynoides because you can step on it and it won't break down."

Selling refreshments outside the garden was www.ohmamas.com with children working on behalf of the White Center Food Bank.

The Love Is All You Need Garden - The Plymate Garden

The owners began with this garden on 46th s.w. four years ago and wanted a top down view from inside their home. Inside the garden are paperbark maples, a boxwood hedge, clematis on an arbor and hydrangeas. There is also a vegetable garden that sits near a strawberry patch. In the lower south garden is a coral bark maple.

The Popping With Color Garden - The Duncan Garden

This six year old garden on Fauntleroy Way s.w. is the owner's replacement for a slope that had been a weed bed but now is filled with vibrant color from magnolias, roses, dahlias, lavendar, fuschias, lilies, Sweet William, a dwarf mock orange and grasses. The owner, Carolyn Duncan said, "I've had help with design. In the back yard the former owners parked two cars on cement and they were right up to the porch so we tore out everything and started over. I just wanted something that was serene and kind of lacy. That's where you end up with roses and hydrangeas."

The Sculptural Greens Garden - The Lempesis Garden

This french themed, ten year old garden also on Fauntleroy Way s.w. was inspired by the Bel Air Hotel in Los Angeles and has a brick courtyard under a balcony. The topiary here gives it the sculptural identity and the garden contains David Austin roses, lavendar, herbs tomatoes, hydrangeas, and lots of ivy and boxwood.

The As Time Goes By Garden - The Day Garden

Three years in the making this garden is neat, tidy and low maintenance and has evergreens, perennials, plus hydrangeas and containers with spill over plants.

The cactus in the curbside garden wintered over even though a magnolia was lost to the cold.

Joan Day the owner said, "There are many, many perennials in this garden and most came with the house. A lot of them have grown a little bit too healthy so at the moment we're editing and enjoying it."

The Veldt Garden - The Lee & Venezia Garden

Six years ago a lawn was removed along with boxwood hedges and more in an effort to make a garden that was bird friendly, without a lawn, with stone and mixed plantings, rendering it as medium maintenance. This garden has blue false cypress, plume cryptomeria, crape myrtle and a strawberry tree. In the back yard a 40 year old maple tree stands. In the northern part of the garden are variegated azara, hostas, ferns and shade plants.

The Arboretum and Rhodie Garden - The Tagney-Jones Garden

Formerly the Colman-Pierce Estate, this 2.5 acre garden is an amazing array of over 2000 species of rhododendron, and 80 varieties of trees. It features an open center with curved lines edged with trees. This year the garden will add English borders, and work on soil fertility. There are no pesticides used on the grounds.
The garden features ponds and four diagonal paths plus a bridge.

The Outrageous Waterfront Garden - The Clow Garden

Previously on the garden tour in the late 90's this garden on Beach Drive s.w. it is owned by a professional gardener who has since added 80 planted containers and 14 planter boxes. A 'Bloodgood' Japanese maple is encircled by 20 containers while fuschias and impatiens grow near bird nesting boxes.
The lower deck offers grasses in pots with more plantings of flowers and animals and other figures for decoration. The upper deck is full of pink and blue annuals.

The Gabion Garden -The Forkner Garden

Offering a new look for container gardening the owner, who is in the plant nursery business, filled cylinders with rocks and topped them with sedum and succulents. This is a 20 year old garden and is built for easy maintenance.

The Whirligig Garden - The Scott/Yule Garden

A twelve year old garden full of edibles and native drought tolerant plants including California wax myrtle, huckleberry, salal, lavender, salvias, catmint, and red flowering currant. The garden's moniker comes from a remarkable whirligig metal and glass sculpture that dominates the area. This is a very water conservative garden with a 1350 gallon cistern that distributes rainwater.

To learn more about the tour visit their website www.westseattlegardentour.com/