Succulents and More™

The Carhart Garden was the first stop on the 2024 Fling , an annual meetup of garden communicators (bloggers, Instagrammers, TikTokers, Facebookers, etc.) who get together in a different city each year to visit gardens, socialize, and exchange experiences. The destination this year was Tacoma and the Puget Sound . Day 1 was spent on Vashon Island , a short ferry ride from Tacoma. The Carhart Garden is located on Maury Island, a small island connected by an isthmus to the larger Vashon Island . The cultivated garden is 3 acres and is surrounded by 15 acres of stewardship forest . To somebody who gardens on an 8,100 sq.ft. property, 3 acres seems immense – even more so when you can’t see it all laid out in front of you because there are thousands of trees and shrubs. Whit and Mary Carhart have been developing their garden for almost 25 years. Carving a garden into the steep hillside meant backbreaking labor, much of it done by the Carharts themselves. The largest section, the woodland s...

It’s been a while since my last post about our Pacific Northwest trip earlier this year. Time now to return to Seattle, Washington! I didn’t have time to visit any of the great public gardens, but I did spend a few hours at a very special place in the heart of the city: Chihuly Garden and Glass . Opened in 2012 in the Seattle Center right next to the Space Needle and the Pacific Science Center , Chihuly Garden Glass is a museum showcasing the studio glass of Dale Chihuly , arguably the most famous American glass artist of our time. It consists of an exhibition hall, a conservatory (“Glasshouse”), a garden, as well as a café, lecture hall and retail space. Space Needle seen from the entrance to Chihuly and Glass In December 2013 I’d seen a large Chihuly installation at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, AZ and I was eager to see which pieces might be on exhibit here—his home turf, so to speak. I was not disappointed. The large-scale installations in the exhibition space w...

Can you write a love letter to a garden? I suppose if Robert Burns can compose an address to a haggis , I can create a visual love letter to a garden I visited on our Pacific Northwest trip last month. If anything I’m even more in love with this garden now, four weeks later. Maybe the fact that it’s 105°F (41°C) in our backyard as I write this has something to with it—just looking at the photos I took in this lush jungle makes me feel cooler. Schefflera delavayi dwarfing Peter The garden I’m swooning over is in Tacoma, Washington, and it belongs to Peter Herpst. He’s one of the most prolific garden bloggers out there, and many of you follow his blog The Outlaw Gardener . What makes him the Outlaw Gardener? The answer is right there on his blog: Why Outlaw Gardener? I like to break the rules of good taste, plant placement, and plant hardiness. Also, I have received periodic "love notes" from the city code enforcement officer telling me that my parking strip plants enc...

On most of our trip, daytime temperatures have been in the 90s, with the Pacific Northwest firmly in the throes of a prolonged heat wave. You can imagine how happy we were when the overcast sky that had greeted us yesterday in Forks, WA was still around today. In fact, it stuck with us for most of the morning. Even as we were driving through sunny inland locations in southwestern Washington, the thermometer never climbed above 71°F. Glorious! Our first stop of the day was the small Quileute community of La Push. If you’re a Twilight fan (I might as well admit that I’m not), this is where Jacob’s pack lived. The last time we were in La Push, five summers ago, movie posters and cardboard cutouts of the Twilight cast were prominently displayed; not so this time. La Push has returned to its unassuming, quiet ways, allowing nature to reclaim center stage. As you can see below, First Beach in La Push is spectacular. Except for two women with a dog, there was nobody else there. First B...

In my last post we were saying goodbye to Victoria, the capital of the Canadian province of British Columbia. Early on July 3 we took the ferry from Victoria to Port Angeles, WA and from there headed to friends’ house south of Seattle. On the Fourth of July we went to Vashon Island on their boat where we anchored offshore and later that night experienced one of the most spectacular fireworks displays I’ve ever seen. On July 5 we left for Forks, WA on the Olympic Peninsula where we’re spending tonight; if you were a Twilight fan (or foe), you may remember this is where the saga began. But let’s start early on July 3. The ferry from Victoria, BC to Port Angeles, WA left at 6:10 a.m. but we had to be there an hour earlier to go through U.S. Customs and Immigration. That meant getting up very early—not my favorite thing to do. The upside was seeing the sun rise to the left of the Empress Hotel in Victoria’s Inner Harbour.

Day 4 of our summer trip was spent in Seattle. Even before we left our hotel by the airport we heard about the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision ruling in favor of marriage equality . The rainbow flag was flying over the headquarters of Starbuck’s as we drove (or rather crept) by on the freeway. It was a great day for America, and a great day for us, filled with dazzling visuals and indelible impressions. EMP Museum in Seattle Center I’d been to Seattle before, but only very briefly, so I consider this my first real visit. The weather was perfect, albeit a bit on the warm side for Seattle, and the Seattle Center where we spent most of the day, was thronged with people. 

Day 3 of our 2015 Pacific Northwest road trip took us to Tacoma , Washington’s third largest city (after Seattle and Spokane). My personal highlight of our half-day visit was the garden of Peter Herpst, the Outlaw Gardener . Peter was gracious enough to show me around even though I hadn’t given him much advance notice. Peter’s picture-perfect Victorian, complete with the most densely planted hellstrip I’ve ever seen

Here are all the posts from our summer 2015 road trip through the Pacific Northwest. Miles driven: 2,699 (4,343 km) States/provinces visited: 4 (California, Oregon, Washington; British Columbia) Favorite town : Victoria, BC Favorite attraction : Space Needle, Seattle, WA Favorite public garden : VanDusen Botanical Garden , Vancouver, BC Favorite meal : Fish and chips, Barb’s Place , Fisherman’s Wharf, Victoria, BC Best sunset : Bandon, OR Downtown Seattle and Mount Rainier from the observation deck of the Space Needle