The 2009 Gardens
Garden Gallerio
Ten years ago the owners of Garden Gallerio bought this nearly four-acre property and began to transform its “lawn, small wall and 120 feet of nothing driveway” into their existing strolling garden. As with all good gardens, the learning process is ongoing. Lessons include gardening with encroaching forest and establishing sound and visual buffers to break up the open spaces of the site, providing unique experiences within the garden.
Now, islands of trees, shrubs, perennials, and grasses integrate the house and terraces with outbuildings and the surrounding forest, creating connections with lush beds and meandering paths. Flanking the studio barn, which serves as a summer studio for Pat, repurposed rock-grading screens displaying art and a fire pit lure visitors to linger. A stunning natural glacial erratic at the forest edge inspires a huckleberry loop path and complementary Northwest native plants.
Throughout, the gardeners apply their experience into working principles: respect nature, embrace winners and accept losers and know when to fold, moving plants to new locations where they will thrive. These romantic gardens play with color, echoing or contrasting the art, recycled artifacts and beach treasures. Coiled rebar plant stakes add a cheerful “Seussian” flavor, and to mark each new year, birdhouses get a remodel, typical of the way this garden integrates art and nature in a palette of joyous experimentation.