I last visited Seattle back in 2011 for the Gardenblogger Fling. We stayed in the University District and hung out among some exuberant landscaping at University Village, which wows with the most exuberant landscaping I’ve ever seen in a commercial space. This time I was in Seattle with family for a reunion, and we out-of-towners stayed in the same hotel and dined in University Village.
Entrance to University Village.
New! Overlook Walk along Puget Sound
Source: www.Hoffman Corp.com/project/overlook-walk/
What’s new and exciting in the plant world since my last visit is huge – the completion of the 20-year project to bring people and some plants down to the water. Called Overlook Park, it’s the public pathway connecting the shores of Puget Sound to Pike Place Market and Seattle’s downtown.
It opened just last fall, with a design by James Comer, who also designed New York’s High Line. Source.
As for plants, a quick search led me to this article about the project in the Seattle Times by GardenRant’s very own Lorene Forkner Edwards. She wrote that “Plantings in the park, which spans a 100-foot drop in elevation, are designed to tell the story of the natural environment of the Pacific Northwest from the mountains to the shoreline.” Her article lists the major plants used here.
This could be an image from the High Line!
Seen at the water level, just outside the Seattle Aquarium.
People I Met
Speaking of Lorene, I’d seen her during the Fling, which she co-organized, but we’d never actually spoken unless you count Zoom, which I never do. We finally got to chat a bit, and pose.
In Lorene’s garden
Happily and coincidentally, Lorene’s garden was on the Northwest Horticultural Society tour that weekend, and she snagged me a ticket! I started my tour with her fabulous garden in what she always enticingly calls “Beautiful West Seattle.” I’d never been to that part of Seattle before and it’s so funky and full of gardeners and surprisingly ungentrified – I can fully imagine living there myself.
Lorene’s house is marked with red in the lower left, a half block from the beach. The Internet had informed me that West Seattle has a beachy vibe like Santa Monica, California but I didn’t see much resemblance to that much fancier town.
Other terrific people I met while garden-touring were garden writer Erica Grivas, who’s guest-ranted here, and the creators of the garden above. I could have talked all day with Ryan Chelski and Samantha Wren.
I also had a long and blog-post-worthy chat with a guy sitting on the Overlook Walk with his family. A landscape architect specializing in historic preservation, Alan Pape regaled me with stories of heritage mounds in his part of Wisconsin, and a surprising update on Greendale. (My town of Greenbelt, Maryland is one of three so-called “Garden Cities” created by FDR’s New Deal, and Greendale, Wisconsin is the one I haven’t seen, or even talked to anyone who has. I’ve already emailed Alan for a story on my local blog.)
More Northwest Hort Society Gardens on Tour: Backyards, all Lawnless
Design by Mark Bourne.
Lorene’s Lawnless Front Yard and Lots More of Them
Readers know (only too well?) that I’m on a tear to collect photos of inspiring front yards that are lawn-free, and I’ve already added this image of Lorene’s front yard to my Flickr collection – actually, in a new album just for Seattle.
Seattle is surprisingly packed with lawnless front yards, and for one more good reason than we easterners have – it’s in a “summer-dry” region, where lawns turn brown and crispy all summer, unless they’re irrigated. I did see a couple of green lawns there in late July and wondered – aren’t they badges of dishonor these days in climates so inappropriate for them?
Seattle is also incredibly hilly, with lots of front yards too steep for mowing a lawn.
I can’t resist commenting on just one of the lawnless front yards I saw in the University District, covered in English ivy. I thought it was outlawed in the PNW!
My (momentary) Outrage at Townhouse Community’s Empty Beds
Just a block from my hotel I passed this new-looking townhouse development with Chihuly-looking sculpture and some cool ornamental grasses and explored the grounds excitedly. (Actually the sculptor is Dan Corson, not the more famous Seattle-based Chihuly.)
Hyped up as I was, you can imagine my dismay at seeing utterly empty planting beds… everywhere. What’s wrong with these buyers, I asked the horticultural gods!
My outrage was busted big-time when I finally saw the sign telling me this is undergraduate student housing. So I’ll forgive the actual residents, but I’m still thinking the management company could spring for some more damn plants. And maybe they will!
Anyone else make snap judgments about landscapes you pass by?
Quick Impressions of Seattle on my 4th Visit
So much water, beautiful water.
So many hills.
Lots more gardeners than most places.
Among locals, much talk of bad traffic, and love for the much-needed Lightrail system.
Cool air and low humidity that I wish I could take home, where we’re enduring our worst summer in memory.
Wonderful family I wish I could see more often. A lot more.
Wonderful roundup – what a great trip. It was really nice getting to meet you at the Northwest Horticultural Society garden tour. Seattle is a wonderful place to garden, and it’s fun to see it through your eyes.
Back atcha! And btw, if you happen to have any photos of lawnless front yards in Seattle, I’ll happily add them to the collection. Google did send me to this great group of Seattle front yard photos but the photographer hasn’t responded to my request to use the photos, so I can’t. Do any of these gardens look familiar to you? https://www.reddit.com/r/NoLawns/comments/vhogye/inspiration_from_a_seattle_neighborhood_full_of/
Nothing beats the PNW in the summer months The number of plants they can grow that seem to grow effortlessly is amazing. However, there’s a price to pay with the gray damp winters. I grew up just north of Seattle in the Lower Mainland of BC. I love to visit in the summer but those winters are hard to take. Visited Seattle in Feb for the NWFGS. Missed the new view point. Will look for it next time I visit. Viva la lawnless front yards!!
Your comment and others I heard DO help with my envy. I don’t mind my Maryland winters.
The other thing about Seattle winters (actually, all west side PNW) is that if we want to stay really on top of weeds we’re weeding in February because it’s rarely so cold that some weeds just don’t stop growing. Also, we don’t walk on lawns all winter because they are very wet and soggy (or very rarely, frozen, but mostly just saturated). Our soil is also acidic. Oh, and the ocean is never warm.
Did you visit the University of Washington Urban Horticulture Center and Garden? That is a tiny bit east and a bit south of U Village on University property east of the driving range and parking lot. Something for next time, maybe.
Um, and “ungentrified”? Informal, sure, but not affordable for most if buying these days. Seattle housing prices are unreal.
Oh i did see the UW urban hort center. Walking distance from my hotel. Very nice.
Hi Susan, Thank you for this wonderful summary of your trip to Seattle! I enjoyed your photos and commentary of what you enjoyed while there.
It was a delight to connect in the garden. The PNW is a gardening paradise. The best way to brighten up the interminable grey winter is to plant for “winter interest” — a mature witch hazel in the front garden is a botanical sun from January through March. It’s easy to forget those sodden days during these dry days of summer. Even more than most, PNW gardeners have raised talking about the weather (& traffic) to a high art. I’m so so glad you enjoyed the new waterfront.
In the late 1920’s and early 30’s, my grandmother had a large garden at Fort Lawton. She wrote that Seattle was heaven for a gardener. She must have been heartbroken when my grandfather was posted to Nebraska. Judging from your pictures, Seattle remains a paradise!
I am glad you discovered that housing near the U-Village is student housing. But what you should check out then next time you are near the U-Village is to check out the UW Farm next to the Center for Urban Horticulture: https://botanicgardens.uw.edu/center-for-urban-horticulture/gardens/uw-farm/
It is by the Union Bay Natural Area, which when we moved here 30+ years ago was just a gigantic blackberry patch. And in the 1960s is was a garbage dump.