In the Beginning. . .

 
 

When we bought the lot in October of 2006, there was alot of blackberry, some English holly, red alder, salal, hawthorn, sword fern, willow and one large Douglas fir. Emily, Gemma and I could hold hands and were just barely able to encircle the tree. Unfortunately, in order to meet all the set back requirements for siting the house (25 feet from the street and 75 feet from the Category II wetland on the lot behind ours) the tree had to come down unless we were going to incorporate it into our architectural plans. Rather than have it chipped up, Jeff contacted Coyote Woodworking on the island and they took the tree away. At least it went to a good home. Counting the rings, it looks like the tree dated from the time of the fort. That would be Fort Ward which was commissioned in 1903 and decommissioned in 1958. Many buildings still remain and have been turned into houses. Our personal fort remnant was a mystery cement vault which had to be filled.

The "Old" Garden

 
 
Here are a couple highlights from the Kent garden.

A New Garden

When we moved to Bainbridge Island, WA from Kent, WA in October of 2006, we had to leave behind many things. One of the hardest things for me to leave behind was the garden we had worked on for 10 years. It had grown from a rock infested, clay plagued, mud flat into a truely beautiful and productive place. It made our little plastic subdivision house special. Now there was an equally blank slate begging to be molded into something, anything. Something that would make our new house something special.

I must say it is a little bit intimidating to be in the land of incredible gardens and gardeners - Anne Lovejoy, Little and Lewis, Bainbridge in Bloom and all that. I also thought that it would take a long time to create what we envisioned, but not this long.

In an effort to share the experience with family and friends who know this is important to us and always ask, "So how's the garden?", I am venturing into the blogosphere.