The first two private gardens on Day 2 of the Puget Sound Fling last month were neighbors, each gardening intensively but in very different styles. It was fun to explore the two gardens side-by-side and imagine the owners bonding over a shared love of plants. Let’s start with the garden of Donna Andersen, a large formal garden made welcoming with comfortably furnished patios and personal art.
Painted windows add a message of faith in a formal garden border.
The owner was inspired by living in Italy for a time and wanted to bring European style to her garden in Milton, Washington. One striking feature is an arched and columned wisteria arbor running along one side of the house.
A large, curvy lawn is set off with an undulating border of shrubs, trees, and flowering plants.
Blazing red flowers of crocosmia
The deep garden border includes a shady remembrance garden in honor of Donna’s mother.
“Connecting with this is the St. Francis Garden in memory of our many lost fur-babies,” she says.
A weeping tree resprouting from the trunk — storm damage, I wondered? — made an umbrella-like centerpiece for an island bed.
Other trees including Japanese maples are beautifully layered into the garden.
Up next: The eclectic plant playground of the Risdahl-Pittman Garden. For a look back at stumpery and bonsai at the Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden and Pacific Bonsai Museum, click here.
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