Easy Does It
From P-Patch to private oasis, a garden grows both exotic and efficient
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 MIKE SIEGEL / THE SEATTLE TIMES Peggy Anderson loves to grow dahlias and zinnias, among other things, in her new garden. Her son-in-law, Rob Wilkinson, designed the garden with raised beds and plenty of pathways to make it easy for Anderson to step out her door and enjoy it all.
MIKE SIEGEL / THE SEATTLE TIMES The garden is given an immediate sense of presence and elegance from the roofed pergola, benches and central cobbled terrace just inside the gate. In the background, you can see the old wooden fence along the street.
MIKE SIEGEL / THE SEATTLE TIMES Plantings of fan palm and yellow-flowering Fremontadendron continue the Mediterranean theme set by the stucco, tiled-roof casita. Close to the house the plantings are drought-tolerant Mediterranean; in the shaded entry they're lush and tropical.
MIKE SIEGEL / THE SEATTLE TIMES The intimate courtyard between the two cottages served as a gathering place for the neighborhood since the property's P-Patch days. Here Peggy Anderson and friends enjoy a fire and cup of tea in the midst of Anderson's new garden.
MIKE SIEGEL / THE SEATTLE TIMES Just two years ago, Peggy Anderson's garden was a blank slate. This view from the street shows the beginning of the transformation.
MIKE SIEGEL / THE SEATTLE TIMES Anderson inherited the headless bronze nude along with great soil, left over from the days her garden was a neighborhood P-Patch.
MIKE SIEGEL / THE SEATTLE TIMES Landscaper Shayne Chandler is expert at selecting the rare and exotic, like this yellow Bird of Paradise (Caesalpinia gilliesii). A hummingbird magnet, this large shrub, or small tree, from Argentina thrives on heat and drought. |
PEGGY ANDERSON lives in a houseboat marooned in a garden in the middle of the city. She tried a retirement community for a few years, but missed having her own garden. When a property came up for sale around the corner from her daughter, Anderson bought it, despite its history as the neighborhood P-Patch.
The long, narrow property — it's 50 by 100 feet — is across the street from the Seattle Yacht Club in Montlake, which might explain why two houseboats were dragged up and left high and dry there many years ago. The previous owner propped them up and poured foundations. She fashioned the houseboats into tiny Southwest-style cottages with heated sandstone floors, tile roofs and creamy stucco exteriors. When Anderson moved in she remodeled the minuscule kitchen, and now uses one cottage for living, the second, smaller casita for a library.
The cottages' marine history shows in their dollhouse proportions and space-saving built-ins. The Southwest theme is reinforced with expanses of cobbles, a tile-roofed pergola, banana trees and other exotic yet hardy plants selected by landscaper Shayne Chandler.
Anderson's garden was designed and built by her son-in-law, Rob Wilkinson, who also tends his own garden around the corner. Wilkinson has a background in landscape photography and a degree in urban design, which he put to good use in crafting the garden. The handsome fences are wood-framed horizontal bands of copper pipe, inspired by Wilkinson's recent plumbing project. Pathways and planting beds radiate out from a central cobbled circle, creating sufficient geometry to contain the rich mix of plantings. The curved pergola creates a shady entry while sheltering benches beneath.
Ways to cut down care and wear
Peggy Anderson's garden is built of materials that are durable, handsome and low-maintenance. Rob Wilkinson designed the garden so his 84-year-old mother-in-law could enjoy taking care of it as much as possible by herself. Some of the elements that make the garden sturdy and easy-care:
• An irrigation system waters the more thirsty plants like dahlias and edibles. The majority of the plants are drought-tolerant.
• Wilkinson built the raised beds out of environmentally friendly Trex, made of waste wood fiber and reclaimed plastics. Unlike wood, Trex doesn't rot, fade, splinter or need sealing. He anchored the Trex every few feet with copper pipe drilled into the earth at least a foot and a half.
• The curved benches beneath the pergola are also made of Trex. Wilkinson steamed the Trex so he could bend it to fit beneath the arc of the pergola. • With no lawn, the garden needs less watering and no mowing.
• Wilkinson built a little shed in the midst of the garden, using his old kitchen cabinets for doors. The shed keeps tools and equipment close at hand.
Wilkinson's design makes it easy for Anderson to wander the garden, clipping flowers and picking vegetables. The raised beds are narrow enough so plants are easily accessible from the network of paths.
Garden rooms seem kind of a cliché, says Wilkinson. "I wanted to make this a garden with destinations and sight lines. Like in a Japanese garden, every sight line is significant, leading your eye to a piece of art, special plants or a place to sit." Little hebes outline the beds, dahlias and zinnias enliven the scene, and a great number of unusual plants lure visitors down the paths. The garden is productive as well as visually appealing, with rows of raspberries, fruit trees, rhubarb, tomatoes and herbs.
It was a design challenge for Wilkinson to turn a P-Patch into a home garden, but at least he started out with soil well-worked over the years. Although the garden is only a couple of years old, it has already grown in to create privacy from the street and soften the stucco cottage exteriors with greenery. "Sometimes this soil is just too good for the Mediterranean plants," says Wilkinson. "We've had to add sand and gravel in some places."
The sand and gravel, as well as the amended soil, have done their job. Anderson's cottages are smothered in white potato vine, and a yellow-blooming Fremontadendron climbs above the roof line. And the close-knit neighbors enjoy visiting the property; now they gather around Anderson's fire pit in the cozy courtyard between the two old houseboats.
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.
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