An Author's Garden

This morning Tom and I participated in a very special garden tour offered by the Northwest Perennial Alliance.  Only twenty of us were guided by landscape designer Alan Burke through the garden he created for Seattle author J.A.Jance. 

We met up in a park and ride lot and car pooled to the garden location. We followed the path past the caretaker's house and through a green wall. 

There we were met by the designer who explained a bit about the garden and answered questions.  This garden was completely redone for Judy Jance and her husband Bill Schilb beginning in 2010. Some parts were revised just last spring. 

We follower the driveway around the side of the house and through the gate.

And into the back garden. 

Steps rise to the pool and the house. 

And descend to the lawn and the pond with waterfalls. 

Jance and her husband both lost their former spouses to death, and in therapy for their grief, they found each other.  They selected a piece of literature, DC Lewis's poem Baucis and Philemon to be the theme of their garden.  Words from the poem appear in several locations in the garden. 

Repeated plantings are used throughout the garden.

The outdoor kitchen must be a great place for summer entertaining. 

There are seating areas tucked here, there, and everywhere. 

Grandchildren have left their mark. 

I had time to sit in the garden and read the poem about an elderly couple who receive their wish not to be parted in death.  It was very poignant.

And when it was time to go, we disappeared through the hole in the wall.