Puget Sound Garden Fling: Carhart Garden

 It is overwhelming, but in the best way possible. I am just off of two weekends in a row visiting gardens around Puget Sound and the greater Seattle area. The first was for the annual Garden Blogger's Fling (now known simply as the Garden Fling), the second weekend was a field study weekend with Great Plant Picks. All told I visited 18 gardens (20 visits total; two were repeats) and all but one were new to me and each provided much food for thought. I came home with renewed inspiration for my own garden, fresh ideas and truth be told, a little let down as most of these were spectacular, lush, superbly designed with amazing hardscaping in many cases. My garden is not lush nor do we have fancy hardscaping, but I love it all the same. This pushed my boundaries and I saw my garden with new eyes. It's good to get out of one's sphere to explore the realm where creativity meets horticulture, there's always something to learn.

The Garden Fling is where 100 or so garden communicators (blogs, Instagram, etc.) meet in a different region annually to explore both public and private gardens. It's a hoot meeting up with old friends and making new ones, being carted around on buses and talking plants for four days. As Puget Sound is only a few hours drive north of course I signed up. 

The first garden visited was the Carhart Garden. The bus pulled in, we were talking a mile a minute and being an introvert I was completely distracted. So. It turns out I did not have my photography game on - that is to say I used my macro lens only for this large 20-acre property, about three of which are cultivated. No good wide shots, I'm afraid, but an enchanting garden on this Vashon Island property (Maury Island, to be precise).  

From the words of Whit and Mary Carhart: Our three-acre garden property was carved by the receding Vashon Glacier making our upper garden on a woodland slope with unusual shade loving plants. Garden paths lead downward to a hillside waterfall and pond as well as a sunny lower garden around our home, overlooking Quartermaster Harbor. The garden is surrounded by fifteen acres of Stewardship Forest. 

Multiple sculptures and creative artworks accents the garden with diverse woodland plants, Japanese maples, rhododendrons and unusual conifers. Paths offer sitting places to reflect on naturalistic plantings while enjoying the peaceful nature and beauty of this garden.

Soil is primarily loamy sand with some clay moisture in few areas, irrigation is drip with added micro-sprinklers where plantings are denser.

The ferry from Port Defiance to Vashon Island in the distance.

Sweet details and a lot of garden art in this garden. Mosaic by Clare Dohna, much of her work was featured throughout the gardens.

Walking downhill through the woodland garden towards the water far below. This is Austroblechnum penna-marina (syn. Blechnum penna-marina), alpine water fern.

Schizophragma hydrangeoides, false climbing hydrangea. These, along with hundreds of hydrangeas, are predominant features of nearly every garden visited.

Pyrrosia sheareri, indeed these and so many other ferns were a highlight. As a new member of the Hardy Fern Foundation I am enjoying learning about the near endless variety of ferns.

Sweet light-green growth on Pittosporum tenuifolium 'Atropurpureum' or some other close cultivar.

Spigelia marilandica

Sequoia sempervirens 'Cantab' or 'Prostrata' (that's what the tag read), an unusual and quite beautiful small conifer.

Bird evidence.

In the center of this lovely garden between the woodland garden up top and the sunny garden down by the edge of the water is a waterfall and a pool with transparent blue water - which is natural, uncolored. It reminded me of alpine rivers and camping. Apparently, it's also a pool.

Perched upon a steep slope is a rather cozy tea house where one can gaze upon the cool pool and listen to the sounds of moving water.

Quite remarkable.

And clear.

Tritelia laxa (likely), a West Coast native bulb. Mine has long since finished blooming.

Backlighting next to the pond.

Strategically placed planter for a bit of color in a sea of green foliage.

Hydrangea macrophylla 'Star Gazer'

Grass and shrub textures near the house.

Many places to sit, most were brightly colored accents throughout the gardens. I like how the chairs pick up the scarlet of crocosmia behind.

Perhaps it's the rockwork, but something about this planting reminds me of the coast and coastal gardens.

Above the water on a bluff was a sweet wildflower meadow with a sculpture by Julie Speidel called "Treventon".

Baby birds were nesting somewhere among all that color. I never saw any but a sign indicated as such.

Logs, boulders

The view as seen near the wildflower meadow and the cottage below:

I hadn't noticed the sign until I sorted through my photos. I might need one of those someday. The bright colors speak to the child in me and feel very playful. In fact, I believe it is a playhouse.

More brightly colored accents.

A steep path though the woodland garden full of shady treasures. This leads us back up to the top of the garden and our bus, ready to take us on to our next adventure.

There you have it, a start to what shall certainly be many posts about many gardens of the Puget Sound region. I did manage to get my head on straight and mix up my camera lenses so better photos are on the way. I plan on breaking these posts up over time and featuring a lot this autumn and winter, but I do plan on writing a post with thoughts on a favorite garden sooner rather than later. More to come. I will of course keep blogging about our garden and the lovely summer months spent in it.

Here we all are! With this many garden bloggers/Instagrammers/Tik-Tockers/Facebookers/writers/industry professionals it's hard to not get a photo with someone in it. But that's ok, it was a fantastic group. This photo is the last day right before it officially ended and was taken in the Brindley Garden next door to Windcliff, Dan Hinkley and Robert Jones' masterpiece. A special thank you to Camille Paulsen (@tahomaflora) and Paula Rothkopf and all organizers for putting together an amazing group of gardens to visit. What a huge effort...kind of like herding cats, I imagine.

That's a wrap for this week at Chickadee Gardens. As always thank you so much for reading and commenting, we love hearing from you! Thank you for coming along with me on this Garden Fling/Great Plant Picks ride, can't wait to share more!