Summer Garden Getaways
When it’s too hot to toil in your own soil, soak up the cool vibes of these spectacular South Sound landscapes
Seasonal transition on display at Soos Creek Botanical Garden.
COURTESY SOOS CREEK BOTANICAL GARDEN
COURTESY SOOS CREEK BOTANICAL GARDEN
COURTESY POWELLSWOOD GARDEN
A woodland at PowellsWood Garden offers cooling shade and beds filled with lush ferns.
A woodland at PowellsWood Garden offers cooling shade and beds filled with lush ferns.
GROW
OUR BEAUTIFUL REGION is rich with public gardens large and small, from magnificent multifaceted landscapes to smaller, once-private estates now open to visitors.
Once a dumping site for construction rubble, today PowellsWood Garden in Federal Way is a lush public garden executed on a relatively intimate scale. Monte and Diane Powell purchased the property in 1993 and began building their garden only after two years of intensive soil remediation. Working with landscape architect Ned Gulbran, Monte always has had a hand in the design of the garden and to this day works in collaboration with garden director Justin Henderson.
The flower-forward 3-acre pleasure garden is artfully divided into traditional garden “rooms.” The Patio Garden offers a potent dose of “tropicalismo.” Hardy bananas (Musa basjoo) and hotly hued seasonal plantings turn up the heat on a Pacific Northwest summer. Elsewhere, a cool lawn anchors double perennial borders that unfurl their beauty from June to August.
But PowellsWood hits more than one high note in summer. Pink petals of mature Shirotae cherries spangle plantings in the Spring Garden, where mature rhododendrons are skirted in early-season perennials. Strolling through the Woodland, featuring a serene moss garden encircled by towering Douglas firs and great swathes of ferns, provides an immersive forest-bathing experience that will leave you feeling baptized in green, especially during fall and winter, when the moss is most vibrant.
Traveling half an hour east of PowellsWood, you’ll find Soos Creek Botanical Garden and Heritage Center in Auburn. The historic property once was a dairy farm owned by previous generations of Norwegian immigrants related to Maurice Skagen, the garden’s creator, who graciously led me on a tour through part of the 23-acre site.
According to the garden’s website, the garden has been a “work in progress” since 1963, when Skagen begin purchasing plants while researching his master’s thesis. Today, pathways weave through sun and shade among those mature conifers, azaleas and rhododendrons.
Beautiful vistas and vignettes attract plein-air painters and amateur photographers, while avid bird watchers flock (sorry) to the garden to see resident songbirds and migratory visitors.
The Heritage Garden is filled with magnificent old roses, peonies, iris and other generational favorites. Just beyond Schaefer Pond, a generous man-made water feature that captures blue sky or moody clouds, deep beds in the Carlmas Long Borders are arranged by color punctuated with rhythmic plantings of golden and purple barberry. Adjacent paths behind each border allow access for tending and offer another view of the remarkable plantings. (Note: Thank goodness botanical gardens create maintenance-intensive double borders so we don’t have to!) In addition to staff, a team of dedicated volunteers helps steward the not-for-profit property, which also includes a rain garden, a woodland filled with giant cedars and a Master Gardener Demonstration Garden that shares its harvest with local food pantries. Beautiful vistas and vignettes attract plein-air painters and amateur photographers, while avid bird watchers flock (sorry) to the garden to see resident songbirds and migratory visitors, as well as Anna’s hummingbirds and osprey that nest nearby.
Located in the heart of the garden, the Soos Creek Heritage Center is filled with artifacts and early photos depicting farming life in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Accompanied by Skagen, I made my way through exhibits that felt like a living history.
The dog days of summer, when it’s too hot to work in our own gardens, are the perfect time to escape to a public garden. Filled with peak bloom and areas of cooling shade, these inviting landscapes are like a cool towel on your fevered brow. Best of all, you can enjoy the immersive experience and leave the tending to dedicated garden staff and generous volunteers while you simply revel in beauty.
Lorene Edwards Forkner is the author of “Color In and Out of the Garden.” Find her at ahandmadegarden.com and at a handmade garden on Substack.
How to visit PowellsWood Garden is open Tuesday through Saturday all year.
Visit powellswood.org for details.
Soos Creek Botanical Garden is open Wednesday through Saturday, March to October.
Visit sooscreek botanicalgarden.org for details.
OUR BEAUTIFUL REGION is rich with public gardens large and small, from magnificent multifaceted landscapes to smaller, once-private estates now open to visitors.
Once a dumping site for construction rubble, today PowellsWood Garden in Federal Way is a lush public garden executed on a relatively intimate scale. Monte and Diane Powell purchased the property in 1993 and began building their garden only after two years of intensive soil remediation. Working with landscape architect Ned Gulbran, Monte always has had a hand in the design of the garden and to this day works in collaboration with garden director Justin Henderson.
The flower-forward 3-acre pleasure garden is artfully divided into traditional garden “rooms.” The Patio Garden offers a potent dose of “tropicalismo.” Hardy bananas (Musa basjoo) and hotly hued seasonal plantings turn up the heat on a Pacific Northwest summer. Elsewhere, a cool lawn anchors double perennial borders that unfurl their beauty from June to August.
But PowellsWood hits more than one high note in summer. Pink petals of mature Shirotae cherries spangle plantings in the Spring Garden, where mature rhododendrons are skirted in early-season perennials. Strolling through the Woodland, featuring a serene moss garden encircled by towering Douglas firs and great swathes of ferns, provides an immersive forest-bathing experience that will leave you feeling baptized in green, especially during fall and winter, when the moss is most vibrant.
Traveling half an hour east of PowellsWood, you’ll find Soos Creek Botanical Garden and Heritage Center in Auburn. The historic property once was a dairy farm owned by previous generations of Norwegian immigrants related to Maurice Skagen, the garden’s creator, who graciously led me on a tour through part of the 23-acre site.
According to the garden’s website, the garden has been a “work in progress” since 1963, when Skagen begin purchasing plants while researching his master’s thesis. Today, pathways weave through sun and shade among those mature conifers, azaleas and rhododendrons.
Beautiful vistas and vignettes attract plein-air painters and amateur photographers, while avid bird watchers flock (sorry) to the garden to see resident songbirds and migratory visitors.
The Heritage Garden is filled with magnificent old roses, peonies, iris and other generational favorites. Just beyond Schaefer Pond, a generous man-made water feature that captures blue sky or moody clouds, deep beds in the Carlmas Long Borders are arranged by color punctuated with rhythmic plantings of golden and purple barberry. Adjacent paths behind each border allow access for tending and offer another view of the remarkable plantings. (Note: Thank goodness botanical gardens create maintenance-intensive double borders so we don’t have to!) In addition to staff, a team of dedicated volunteers helps steward the not-for-profit property, which also includes a rain garden, a woodland filled with giant cedars and a Master Gardener Demonstration Garden that shares its harvest with local food pantries. Beautiful vistas and vignettes attract plein-air painters and amateur photographers, while avid bird watchers flock (sorry) to the garden to see resident songbirds and migratory visitors, as well as Anna’s hummingbirds and osprey that nest nearby.
Located in the heart of the garden, the Soos Creek Heritage Center is filled with artifacts and early photos depicting farming life in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Accompanied by Skagen, I made my way through exhibits that felt like a living history.
The dog days of summer, when it’s too hot to work in our own gardens, are the perfect time to escape to a public garden. Filled with peak bloom and areas of cooling shade, these inviting landscapes are like a cool towel on your fevered brow. Best of all, you can enjoy the immersive experience and leave the tending to dedicated garden staff and generous volunteers while you simply revel in beauty.
Lorene Edwards Forkner is the author of “Color In and Out of the Garden.” Find her at ahandmadegarden.com and at a handmade garden on Substack.
How to visit PowellsWood Garden is open Tuesday through Saturday all year.
Visit powellswood.org for details.
Soos Creek Botanical Garden is open Wednesday through Saturday, March to October.
Visit sooscreek botanicalgarden.org for details.