August 08, 2024
Susan and Guy Risdahl-Pittman described their Milton, Washington, garden at the Puget Sound Fling last month as an eclectic plant playground. It’s also a beautifully designed space with winding paths to explore and a naturalistic pond to enjoy, complete with birch log lying across it.
I started exploring the garden on the far side of the house, where paths are shady and narrow, providing escape from the sun on a bright, warm day.
An etched concrete sculpture, vaguely industrial, rises from the ferns — a signpost of the Anthropocene?
Persicaria is one of my favorite flowering plants in cooler-summer climates.
Clematis clambering into a tree
Under a sculptural conifer, a blue hanging lantern adds a color-echoing accent.
Yellow loosestrife and azalea, I think
Uh-oh, a gardener’s been buried! Pairs of upside-down Wellies were accenting a few beds — humorous hose guides, maybe?
Glass art was a theme throughout the gardens of the Puget Sound Fling, fitting for a place famous for the glass art of Dale Chihuly.
Astrantia, another Fling favorite flower of mine
This bench caught my eye for its distinctive Pacific Northwest style.
Pretty foliage combo
The pond in the center of the garden is appealing with its tufts of golden sedge, birch log, and floating glass spheres.
A contemporary waterfall spills into the pond at the other end.
It’s planted up beautifully around the edges.
Tall pots are placed to good effect throughout the garden.
A spider lily leans out for inspection.
I love the foliage texture in this bed, along with the coral-pink daylily.
Inula appeared in several Fling gardens, including this one.
Bees love it.
Peeling orange bark
Hydrangeas echoing a blue wall and pot
Feeling the blues
And pinks
In the midst of my garden exploring, the blue ensemble of garden designer and ceramic artist Michelle Derviss caught my eye. I had to get a photo!
Look at her hat! It’s dressed up with a sprig of fir, a fir cone, and a rhododendron leaf (if I’ve ID’d them correctly), plus a couple of gardening pins. Perfection.
In the sunny front garden, I admired more stone garden art and colorful flowerbeds…
…and more large pots as accents — one of my own favorite gardening moves.
Up next: The plant yard and shop at VanLierop Garden Market, where we had lunch. For a look back at the Italianate Andersen Garden, click here.
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