information from West Seattle Garden Tour

The 23rd annual West Seattle Garden Tour will take place on Sunday, June 25, 2017, from 9 AM to 5 PM. This year’s tour will feature 10 stunning private gardens, and shine a spotlight on one of West Seattle’s beautiful P-Patches. From waterside gardens with sweeping views of Puget Sound to pocket-sized tribute gardens rich with emotion and personal history, the variety of gardens on this year’s tour will offer something special for every gardener looking for a little inspiration.

GARDENS

A Garden for All Seasons
With a treehouse spanning the branches of two cedar trees, a rope swing swaying in the breeze, and a dog and kid-friendly lawn curving around the front and side of the house, it’s easy to assume this garden was designed and created to be a child’s paradise. But the rocky fire pit, a cedar table with seating for 18, and a working office tucked away among cedars, make it clear this garden is not only kid-friendly but adult-functional as well.

Plant Lover’s Garden
Four years ago, the house and garden at this location were demolished to make way for a more contemporary and accessible house. The former garden—on the tour in 1999—was a thirsty, high-maintenance English cottage garden. The new garden, like the new house, focuses on sustainability, ease of care and accessibility.

Conifers and Color
With the abundance of pines, junipers and cedars, it’s clear this gardener appreciates that evergreen trees make for a lush garden all year long. This is a garden for lingering, surrounded by the cool beauty and serenity of green.

Northwest Terraced Hillside
Forests that have lined the beaches of Puget Sound for centuries have been swiftly disappearing in favor of development. For 37 years, the gardeners at this hillside home have been fulfilling their labor of love: bringing the forest back to the beach.

Corner Paradise
A small front yard and parking strip that stretches around the corner have been carefully planned to contain every northwest-friendly plant on the gardener’s wish list. What was once just grass and a fir tree has become the showy green oasis of the neighborhood.

Labyrinth Garden
A passion for life is in full display in this remarkable and nearly indescribable 3-layer garden of love and dedication.

Spring Hill Villa
The joy of gardening is abundantly apparent at Spring Hill Villa where the family has been actively gardening for 40 years. Cast an eye toward the brilliant blue of the sky and the vibrant green of the lawn as a backdrop and observe the rich proliferation of colors, textures, varieties, and a profusion of plants and trees native to the Pacific Northwest.

Birch Dream by the Sea
The front and back gardens of this lovely home on Puget Sound directly contrast with each other. A woodland garden of refuge and calm is welcoming in front, whereas a Mediterranean-style entertaining garden on the waterside adapts well to the harsh demands of the hot, western exposure and salty air.

Beach Cottage
Three micro-climates call for three distinct styles of gardens at this 103-year-old cottage near the beach. The drought-tolerant garden, stretching along the parking strip and sidewalks, sits in direct line of the summer’s full sun. To the east is the Zen garden, with a light and dark theme achieved with leaf color intended to mimic shadows and sunlight.
The tribute garden, protected by buildings and fences, is a reminder of times spent in Trinidad and Tobago.

Sound View Garden
As with many mid-century homes and gardens, remodels have upgraded this property, but changes didn’t come for this 1951 charmer until the current owners bought it in 2003. Some original trees remain strong to this day: two 60-year-old Japanese maples still flourish in the courtyard and southwest corner of the house, and a majestic 80-yearold magnolia is central to the backyard.

Solstice P-Patch
This beautiful hillside community garden was built on fill from the Mt. Baker Tunnel. The 34 plots, built and terraced by the gardeners with stack blocks, contain herbs, vegetables, fruit trees, berries, and perennials.

TICKET INFORMATION
The 2017 tour is on Sunday, June 25. Ticket books are $25 each. Tickets are available now at westseattlegardentour.org/tickets, and will go on sale at retail partners beginning May 6. All guests aged 12 years or older need a ticket book of their own.

Ticket outlets in 2017 are: West Seattle Nursery, Junction True Value, Swansons Nursery, and Wells Medina Nursery. They are also available on the WSGT website for shipment or day-of-tour will-call.

Day-of-tour tickets will be available at those four retail outlets, and also at Metropolitan Market, 8 AM – 11 AM only.

Complete information can be found at westseattlegardentour.org/tickets.

BENEFICIARIES
West Seattle Garden Tour has selected six local non-profits as beneficiaries of the 2017 tour. This year proceeds from the WSGT will support two summer arts education programs, two public garden renovations, a wetlands restoration project, and resources to double the fruit harvest yield in West Seattle for the local emergency food system.

The beneficiaries are: ArtsWest, City Fruit, Delridge Neighborhoods Development
Association, One Reel, Seattle Children’s PlayGarden, and West Seattle Bee Garden.

This year WSGT has increased its fundraising goal from $25,000 to $30,000, which, if reached, will be the largest annual gift in the 23-year-old organization’s history. Information about the selected beneficiaries and the projects WSGT expects to fund can be found at westseattlegardentour.org/beneficiaries.

TOUR ARTWORK
In March West Seattle Garden Tour announced The Sower by artist Sarah Mottaghinejad as the winner of this year’s annual art competition. The Sower features cherry veneer, acrylic, watercolor, mica, and hollyhock seeds on a clay panel measuring 18” x 24”. The artwork is featured on the 2017 Garden Tour’s official poster and ticket book.
West Seattle Garden Tour will auction the original artwork on the day of the tour, Sunday, June 25, 2017. Bids will be taken in one of the gardens from 9 AM to 5 PM.

Proceeds will benefit the year’s designated beneficiaries.

ABOUT WEST SEATTLE GARDEN TOUR
Since its inception in 1995, the West Seattle Garden Tour (WSGT) has been one of the premier garden tours in the Northwest, as well as a fundraiser for local non-profits. The all-volunteer 501(c)(3) organization annually donates approximately $25,000 to local beneficiaries in support of their horticultural, educational and artistic missions. In 2012, WSGT was voted the Westside Not-for-Profit Organization of the Year by the West
Seattle Chamber of Commerce.