A plant playground at the Risdahl-Pittman Garden
Susan and Guy Risdahl-Pittman described their Milton, Washington, garden at the Puget Sound Fling last month as an eclectic plant playground. It’s also a beautifully designed space with winding paths to explore and a naturalistic pond to enjoy, complete with birch log lying across it.
I started exploring the garden on the far side of the house, where paths are shady and narrow, providing escape from the sun on a bright, warm day.
An etched concrete sculpture, vaguely industrial, rises from the ferns — a signpost of the Anthropocene?
Persicaria is one of my favorite flowering plants in cooler-summer climates.
Clematis clambering into a tree
Under a sculptural conifer, a blue hanging lantern adds a color-echoing accent.
Yellow loosestrife and azalea, I think
Uh-oh, a gardener’s been buried! Pairs of upside-down Wellies were accenting a few beds — humorous hose guides, maybe?
Glass art was a theme throughout the gardens of the Puget Sound Fling, fitting for a place famous for the glass art of Dale Chihuly.
Astrantia, another Fling favorite flower of mine
This bench caught my eye for its distinctive Pacific Northwest style.
Pretty foliage combo
The pond in the center of the garden is appealing with its tufts of golden sedge, birch log, and floating glass spheres.
A contemporary waterfall spills into the pond at the other end.
It’s planted up beautifully around the edges.
Tall pots are placed to good effect throughout the garden.
A spider lily leans out for inspection.
I love the foliage texture in this bed, along with the coral-pink daylily.
Inula appeared in several Fling gardens, including this one.
Bees love it.
Peeling orange bark
Hydrangeas echoing a blue wall and pot
Feeling the blues
And pinks
In the midst of my garden exploring, the blue ensemble of garden designer and ceramic artist Michelle Derviss caught my eye. I had to get a photo!
Look at her hat! It’s dressed up with a sprig of fir, a fir cone, and a rhododendron leaf (if I’ve ID’d them correctly), plus a couple of gardening pins. Perfection.
In the sunny front garden, I admired more stone garden art and colorful flowerbeds…
…and more large pots as accents — one of my own favorite gardening moves.
Up next: The plant yard and shop at VanLierop Garden Market, where we had lunch. For a look back at the Italianate Andersen Garden, click here.
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“a signpost of the Anthropocene?” Very clever, Pam. What a garden, btw. gail
Thanks, Gail. 😉
This garden had it all. So surprisingly extensive and filled with little niches – which you found!
It was a fun one to explore, wasn’t it?
I am now in search for that Inula flower. what a beauty.
… and that blue hat has never been photographed as nice as how you shot it. Thanks for the lovely photos and of course for your passion in creating such a wonderful tribe of garden travelers.
I LOVE your sense of color and style, Michelle. Great hat! Good luck in your hunt for the inula.
I was interested to hear Guy say that the cementwork around the pond and in the front yard was done by the same person who had done similar things at the Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden. This was a special garden that I spent a lot of time in, wandering from spot to spot and enjoying how much they packed into a relatively small space. Michelle definitely had one of my favorite outfits that day! #fashionicon
It WAS a special garden, and I know I missed a few areas due to lack of time. I’ve been enjoying glimpses from other people’s blogs. Yes, absolutely, Michelle won the fashion game that day!
I love that you point out the use of ornaments and edges in this outstanding garden.
Thanks, Lauren. I’m pretty hopeless at identifying plants in other regions of the country, so it’s nice to be able to talk about ornament instead, haha. Also, I love well-placed garden art. It’s a window into the owner’s personality.