A Beautiful Foundation

Walk up a short flight of steps to a garage-top garden deck on your left, a sea of waving grasses to your right and a one hundred-year-old home that hugs the front of the lot. Follow the boardwalk along the house to a shaded deck, designed and built by Eric in 2019, and a panoramic view into this garden with “good old bones”.

Seventy-year-old western red cedar, deodar cedar, Douglas fir, and hemlocks reign here, along with mature rhododendrons and azaleas forming the old bones of this garden. A long sloping lawn draws the eye west to views of Puget Sound for a park-like feeling. When the Reinhardts purchased the house in 2006, the garden definitely needed reviving. The big challenges were time, growing children, time, finishing a PhD degree, and more time. Ideas and vision were never in short supply.

With the path to finishing her degree shortened and children grown, Laurie’s garden vision began to take shape. In 2018, with the help of Eric and her sister, a raised berm was installed on the south property line where an old plum had fallen. Planted with hydrangeas, bear’s breeches (Acanthus mollis), ferns, blue star creeper, Nerine lilies, hostas, and a sitting rock, it is the perfect spot to watch birds, butterflies, and dragonflies drift through this sheltering habitat. Look across the lawn to a colorful border filled with zebra grass (Miscanthus sinensis ‘Zebrinus’), bronzy ninebark shrubs, coneflower, perennials, and arbor-topped columns.

Stroll down the lawn to the bluff-edge seating area and convivial fire pit, made for contemplation, entertaining and just taking in the view. 

What would Laurie like visitors to know about her garden?  “I’m not schooled in anything horticultural, I’m making it up as I go along. With such a great canvas it’s hard to screw it up.”

Stairs from sidewalk to garden; two steps down from deck, but accessible by path on north side of house.