The Wildwood

Situated in the heart of a busy little neighborhood sits a woodland oasis that surrounds a 101-year-old working inn. The house backs up to the Fauntleroy Creek ravine, a critical habitat zone for salmon. The garden is inspired by a love of nurse logs and fascination with our local salmon. 

Entering from the sidewalk, note the contrasting textures and colors of dusty miller, strawberry plants and the low ground cover lithodora along the white-washed wall. A weeping giant sequoia, designated as a Heritage Tree by the City of Seattle, towers over a camelia and rhododendrons.

Logs are used throughout the garden, lending a rustic look. Stepping stones along a streambed frame a row of blue and purple hydrangeas. The path, shaded by a large red chokecherry, leads to a brick patio where guests of the inn can linger near young birch trees and espaliered euonymus ‘Manhattan.’

Christmas rose hellebores and dozens of fern varieties thrive among logs and stumps in the shady backyard, continuing around the corner where the first oakleaf hydrangeas are introduced. A huge western red cedar shades a little path and seating area.

Planters, created from watering troughs, hold a northern red oak, a white oak, white spruces and ‘Skylands’ oriental spruce. Opposite the long row of photinia along the driveway, a garden of white graces the east side of the house– white hydrangeas, white birch stumps with young tree ferns. The owners have successfully created the serenity of the woods even in the midst of a busy neighborhood.