Seattle Street of Dreams | Upscale yards blend into nature

SNOHOMISH —Green designs are creeping into the Seattle Street of Dreams show, where visitors can take away dozens of ideas to make their own gardens and yards more environmentally friendly.

The five luxury homes and gardens in this year's show, located in a woodsy development in Snohomish, provide a look at the latest design trends inside and outside. One rapidly growing trend in gardening is practicing good stewardship of the environment.

Going native

At this year's Seattle Street of Dreams, native plants work well in tying the gardens around the houses to the natural reserve areas throughout the Quinn's Crossing development.

Many of the gardens feature native plants such as vine maple (Acer circinatum), Oregon grape (Mahonia aquifolium), Evergreen huckleberry (Vaccinium ovatum) and snowberry (Symphoricarpos racemose).

Native plants provide food and habitat for wildlife, and when correctly chosen and placed, natives are low maintenance.

The gardens at two of the homes, the Urban Lodge and Greenleaf Retreat — designed and installed by In Harmony Sustainable Landscapes in Bothell — are registered with the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife as backyard wildlife sanctuaries. The program encourages homeowners to create wildlife-friendly habitats on their properties.

Recycling water and materials

An important element of eco-friendly garden design involves managing water. The permeable paving in the driveways of the Urban Lodge and Greenleaf Retreat allows water to drain into the soil slowly. This takes stress off sewer and storm drainage systems.

These driveways use specially designed concrete pavers with gaps that let the water flow through to the underlying gravel. The gravel — which has no fine particles — provides a place for beneficial microbes that help clean the runoff water. Pollutants are filtered out before they reach streams and Puget Sound.

The Greenleaf Retreat also features a rain garden, a depression that receives rainwater runoff and allows it to enter slowly into the soil.

Landscape designer Malissa Gatton chose plants for the rain garden that will thrive in wet winter and dry summer soil. The plants include Swedish columnar aspen (Populus tremula 'Erecta'), purple-leaved ninebark (Physocarpus opulifolius 'Diablo') and switch grass (Panicum virgatum).

At another home, Copper Falls, the garden — designed and installed by JP Landscape Services in Duvall — has a sophisticated irrigation system with sensors that adjust the amount of water depending on wind and weather conditions, which will result in significant water savings. Recycling also is part of green development, and the gardens at the Urban Lodge and Greenleaf Retreat use recycled concrete under the paving and walls instead of crushed rock.

Lawn alternatives

Instead of lawn, two of the homes, the Urban Lodge and Greenleaf Retreat, have meadows, open areas seeded with a mix of native wildflowers and grasses. When they grow in, they will be low maintenance, needing less-frequent mowing and less water and fertilizer than a regular lawn.

The meadows have mason-bee boxes placed on poles to encourage the pollinators.

In addition to the meadow, Urban Lodge has a living wall — a green replacement for a fence. The wall has a plastic grid filled with soil and planted in an intriguing pattern with black mondo grass (Ophiopogon planiscapus 'Nigrescens'), wild ginger (Asarum caudatum) and golden Angelina sedum (Sedum rupestre 'Angelina'). The wall has a built-in watering system.

Living walls, by adding lots of vegetation in a small space, can have a cooling effect on hot days and serve as a good sound barrier.

Phil Wood has a degree in landscape architecture and designs and builds gardens. Write to him at thegardendesigner@seattletimes.com. Sorry, no personal replies.