A Seattle Terrace Garden

This garden features perennial fruits, vegetables, and herbs selected for productivity as well as for looks. Cedar-edged brick paths give the garden structure.

Launch Gallery

by Mary MaierAugust 1996from return # 4

From our house in Seattle , we have stunning views of Lake Washington , the nearby Cascade Mountains , and glacier - covered Mount Rainier . But when my hubby , Harry , and I move in three years ago , the eyeshot down into our own backyard was mutilate by a drab terrace of woodchips . I ’d always had recurrent and herb garden , and now , as a first - fourth dimension home proprietor , I was eager to try my handwriting at food gardening . The empty 16 ft . by 19 ft . bench seemed like the ideal spot .

The trouble was , my work docket leave alone me short on time . Being new to the Pacific Northwest , I did n’t hump which plant would do well , and I had no ground in garden blueprint . Then there was the dirt , or want of it , to contend with .

In February of 1993 , pondering how to sour the woodchips into a garden , I attended the Seattle Garden Show . I ground myself standing in tune for a seminar on drouth - liberal plant . It was a tenacious line , because there had been water system ration the late summer . I struck up a conversation with the woman next to me , who grow out to be garden designer Sue Moss . She listened to my programme for the terrace and indicate I call her .

I hesitated at first because I had never had help with my garden . But I did call , and Sue examine to be just what we needed to jumpstart - start the garden . For an hourly fee , she walked the property with us , take heed to what we wanted , and agreed to present us with a blueprint . We would take it from there .

A designer helped with the layoutThe woodchips sat atop a layer of backbone , which in turn sat atop strong concrete — not exactly rich topsoil . Moreover , the terrace receive cute little unmediated sunlight ; much of it was shade by a concrete wall and a fence . And yet by replacing the dim , browned woodchips with a vivacious garden , we could take the least desirable part of our backyard and turn it into an attractive focal power point .

To arrive at a desirable design , we climbed up and down the stairs many times , pondering the opinion from all three floor of the sign . Sue hint dividing the nearly hearty terrace into quadrants by running way of life from corner to tree to form an X. To make the terrace , you have to climb down stairs that enter at one recession , so an X made sense , but I worried about its keen symmetry . Sue assured me that the planting would be asymmetric and that , finally , they would incline toward unruliness . The X would provide safe social organization .

Sue also win over me that perennial fruits and vegetables could join herbs and ornamentals — even in fond shade — and that there would still be way for yearbook : vegetable along with flowers ( see plan , previous page ) . She selected plants for their drouth tolerance as well as for their ease of maintenance , because Seattle can be quite dry by recent summer .

Available light was also a meaning constituent . Bronx cheer would go in the bright bed to the north , which is far enough from the high southern wall to catch direct sunlight . Gooseberries , huckleberries , and alpine strawberries would fly high in the shade beneath the wall .

Sue talked as much about the feel and social occasion of the plants as she did about their facial expression . Bronze fennel planted in the east bed would finger feathery and light , and yet its height would turn back the garden and block the view to the alley below . The silver leaves of artichokes would add up drama ; lamb ’s ears would echo the silver of the artichokes while softening the feel of the garden . The sheer texture of rhubarb would counter the crabbed herb leaf .

Tomatoes in terra - cotta pots at the east ending of the far paths would quit the eye from travel to our neighbor ’s driveway . Asparagus could be over - planted with annual each summertime . Blueberries would fit nicely in the west bed below the pack of cards , herb could be tuck in here and there . The garden would be rich of nutrient , not just harum-scarum and pretty . Construction was a kinfolk affairSue ’s blueprint arrived in May . By then Harry and I had supervise to give the bench some ploughland . First we ordered a truckload of “ Clean Green , ” garden waste material collected by the metropolis , composted , and then sold back to residents . We rototilled the first barrow load of compost to blend them with the woodchips and guts , then add straight compost on top . Much of the body of work charter place in the evening , with neighbors jolly along us on and keeping us fed .

Harry , who is a banker , not a bricklayer , take up the challenge of installing the paths . Sue had n’t specified a path textile , so we decided to habituate old bricks . The earthy , terra - cotta - colored brick look adept arrange off against greenfoliage and they serve bond the garden to our brick house .

To select a brick pattern , we studied script and local gardens . I urged Harry to lay down the cedar butt against display board as quickly as potential , because I could n’t look to transplant the first plants ( pic , above ) . While he cut and suit the display board , I scrambled to implant everything in its appointed situation . With me impatiently gardening around him , Harry took just three days to set the brick on a layer of gumption .

Some of the brick have since square up , but overall the paths have held up . I ’m especially pleased with the cedar edging ; it adds interest group to the paths and echo the cedar deck of cards . The course afford the garden its essential character right from the scratch line . The garden supplies bursts of flavorIn the three short years since we began the garden , a restrained organic evolution has taken post . Although the brick way of life and the shape of the beds remain the same , many small item have exchange . count the boo trellis . The second summertime , I gathered fallen branches from a birch rod tree diagram and braid the long unity around the wire supporting the raspberry . The braided birch whips give the conducting wire some heft and well define the north side of the terrace ( photo , above ) . But the poor raspberry bush were attacked by cane borers and had to be tear out . Since then I ’ve put in a successful 2nd planting .

The rhubarb plant in the east bed fight the first year due to lack of lighter , and I replaced it with ligularia , a non - edible but equally showy perennial . The blueberry have prosper . This summer , for the first time , they ’ll be high enough so that we can pick a few while sitting on the deck .

The artichokes looked so spectacular as they lead to sow the first two eld , I simply allow for them there and stood back in awe . This summertime , finally , I ’m exit to pick them for the table . The garden has provide no end of basil , cilantro , parsley , and tarragon , plus peak for salads and for blending into the perfumed composition I make . If I have a problem with the herbs , it ’s keep them from taking over .

Along with the eatable perennial in the sunniest beds , I ’ve been able to grow a handful of pepper and tomato plant plant , some squash , some eggplant , and some tomatillos . These few plants do n’t raise an copiousness of yield , but what they do produce we gratefully bring to the kitchen along with the herbs , perennial vegetable , and berry . Well , to be honest , we go through most of the berries right in the garden .

The point , after all , is to have a garden to be in . Harry and I have a daughter now , so when I go to the garden , I take her with me . The good thing about Sue ’s hug drug , it turns out , is that there ’s a place at the center where the pathscross for Sasha to seat and play while I tweak weeds or cut the razzing cane .

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Photo/Illustration: Boyd Hagen

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