A Collector’s Garden 

(This is a 2018 garden description. Gardens for this year’s tour can be found here.)

A pair of watchful gargoyles sit patiently at the corners of this formal and very eclectic garden. Follow the driveway toward the house and a formal garden courtyard is revealed with a pergola and water fountain on a stone patio. The cool pinks and blues of hydrangeas and layers of green invite comparisons to an old English garden. Travel, in fact, has inspired much of these gardens. From plants to artifacts, Alexis has been inspired to replicate small pieces of places she loves, including her grandparents’ garden. 

The formality is repeated behind the hydrangea border with two potted ‘Twisty Baby’ locusts flanking the front door and several turquoise pots planted with sambucus, pines, carex, and juniper. An Italian plum tree, three crabapples, and boxwood knots surround the garden with ivy weaving its way around the perimeter. 

Return to the driveway and continue to the backyard passing through a large custom wooden door and a pipe arbor covered with golden hop vine. Here is an eclectic garden full of vivid color, garden art, a stone pizza oven and generous entertaining space. Corrugated metal panels hung on the horizontal surround the garden as fencing. 

Much of the garden is shaded and planted with hosta, mayapple, bigleaf magnolia and a Himalayan tree daphne. A 400-year-old eel trap from the U.K. sits atop the raised garden steps. A Pike Place Market pig, surrounded by gunnera and blood grass, nestles next to the garage. 

Red pots filled with favorite plants and garden art sit to the left and right of the back door creating big pops of color. A red wire party dress hangs to the left of the garden door and a big red metal flower to the right. 

Wheelchair accessible.