Small, Grandly Done
Color and good care make the most of a tiny space
PREV
|
 MIKE SIEGEL / THE SEATTLE TIMES Laurie Hampton cuddles Kenya, a 5½-pound Chihuahua. She says he's the perfect dog for her tiny garden — he never leaves a pawprint, and never breaks a thing.
MIKE SIEGEL / THE SEATTLE TIMES The side yard is only 8 feet wide, yet Hampton has squeezed in an eye-catching pathway, daylilies, a 'Wilma Goldcrest' cypress, vines and an extravagantly striped Canna tropicana.
MIKE SIEGEL / THE SEATTLE TIMES Bright shards of tumbled glass line the walkways, insuring that any bit of earth not covered by plants still resonates with color.
MIKE SIEGEL / THE SEATTLE TIMES Hampton uses rocks she found at the beach to line the garden beds; friends have added to her collection of heart-shaped stones.
MIKE SIEGEL / THE SEATTLE TIMES The picket fence can't contain the June exuberance of self-seeders like rose campion, foxglove, poppies and bachelor's buttons.
MIKE SIEGEL / THE SEATTLE TIMES Flamboyantly ruffled 'Black Cloud' peony poppies look exotic, yet they come quickly and easily from seed.
MIKE SIEGEL / THE SEATTLE TIMES Lilies and other old-fashioned flowers fill the garden with fragrance in summer. |
NANCY PENROSE IS so taken with her friend Laurie Hampton's garden she thought it should be published. She described it to me as a tiny oasis of flowers in the Noji Gardens housing development. Penrose added that Hampton is a hairstylist who sings and plays guitar in an all-female band. I was intrigued enough to drive to Rainier Valley and check it out.
I wasn't disappointed. At her lavender garden gate, Laurie Hampton met me in a bright purple sweater and matching sparkly barrette fastening the red braid that swung down her back. A swirly printed skirt and black high heels completed the outfit. And her garden was even more vivid than she. This woman is a colorist, and not just of her client's hair. I've rarely experienced such a full force of flowery exuberance as when I walked through her gate. It's an atmosphere Hampton has created with hard work, enthusiasm and a budget as minuscule as the garden.
Noji Gardens is a story unto itself, since this is affordable housing in a city where that's an oxymoron. The Noji family ran a nursery on the 6 ½-acre site for generations. Now 75 manufactured single-family homes and townhouses look so good you're sure they must have been built on site. The mission of nonprofit developer HomeSight is to create opportunities for moderate-income and first-time home buyers. I bet all the neighbors are grateful HomeSight sold to Hampton. Everyone who passes by pauses to inhale rose perfume while admiring her lavender front door and the turquoise chairs on the front porch. "I've become the garden consultant," says Hampton of the effect her garden has on the neighborhood.
Laurie Hampton created a lush, lively garden with limited funds. Here's how:
Seeds: Hampton grows most of her flowers from seed, which requires less of an investment every year as the plants seed themselves. Lupines, columbines, snapdragons, zinnias, nasturtiums, poppies and bachelor buttons all grow easily from seed and fit the cottage-garden look of the place.
Plant Divisions/Gifts: All the Canna tropicanas in the garden came from one mother plant, which Hampton divided and moved around her own garden as well as sharing with the neighbors. Many of the lilies, gladiolas and roses in the garden are gifts from friends' gardens.
Details: The stones lining walkways and beds are handpicked, hauled from the beach and arranged just so. Maple and dogwood trees mark the spots where she's buried two beloved dogs.
Seasonal Emphasis: Hampton maximizes her small space for the seasons she's outdoors most, packing the garden with spring, summer and autumn bloomers.
Ambition: Hampton has 13 trees in the garden, and this winter she planted 150 more gladiolas along the fence line.
Hampton's verdant garden began three years ago as an uninspiring patch of heavy clay. "I begged and pleaded with the developer not to spray on grass and plant junipers," says Hampton. "I wanted to start with dirt." Unfortunately the dirt was riddled with horsetails. So after Hampton had painted the interior of her new house in shades of gold, rose, turquoise and lavender, she came outdoors. She dug out the clay by hand, replacing it with 27 yards of compost.
Now the garden's hand-crafted paths are mostly obscured by poppies, lilies, foxglove, wallflowers and roses that evoke an English cottage garden, shrunk to teacup size.
In the fine tradition of cottage gardens, Hampton is pretty relaxed about mixing colors. "I don't plan color combos, and sometimes wonderful things happen," she says. "I'm a color gal for sure — you'd never find me growing an all-white garden."
And what about all those horsetails that infested the property? For two years, she weeded twice daily, pulling up horsetails morning and night. Now only a few dare push up among the flowers. "I'm pretty energetic," says this red-headed buzz bomb who writes and sings French love songs in Les Femmes d'Enfer, a self-described "all-gal Cajun dance band." Translation? "Ladies from Hell." Those horsetails never had a chance.
Valerie Easton is a Seattle freelance writer and contributing editor for Horticulture magazine. Her e-mail address is valeaston@comcast.net. Mike Siegel is a Seattle Times staff photographer.
Back to top