Garden Touring

 We still belong to the Northwest Perennial Alliance and still get the yellow Open Gardens tour book at the beginning of each May, but we haven't done much touring in the last couple of years. 

Saturday there were a number of gardens open in the Mount Baker District of Seattle, an area east of downtown and west of Lake Washington, an area with many wonderful old bungalows, stately homes, with newer builds cropping up in between. 

The yards are fairly small - real estate is very expensive there - so I figured I could navigate the walking with short car rides in between.

Here is a collection of photos taken of the six gardens we visited. 

This was just a view from the street. When this impressive home was built on a view corner lot many years ago, somebody wanted to show off their rock collection. This wall surrounds two sides of the property. Fascinating. 

Spice bush,

Dahlias with a view. 

There were lots of lovely face pots in this garden. 

The best part of this garden was what you could see from the sidewalks. 

Big perennial garden in the sunny front of this home.

On the front deck. 

Shady retreat in the back garden.

Tom is signing in. Members sign in at each garden.

Very old hedge, newer house.

Large standing stones were used in this landscape. 

By now I was ready for a chance to sit down for a few minutes. We thought this looked like a great place, and in doing so, we visited with a few others who passed by on the same tour. 

Then I braved the steps and climbed up there. 

And looked down on where we had been. 

On the deck, a distant view of Lake Washington, and a lemon tree. Actually, this deck wrapped around to give views down to all of the yard down below. Lovely. 

It was a very good way to spend a morning and we were home for our 1:00 lunch on the patio.