Heronswood’s shady woodland and tribe-influenced Renaissance Garden
![](https://www.penick.net/digging/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/81_Little_and_Lewis_ruin_fountain.jpg)
The colorful house garden and potager stole most of my attention at Heronswood during last month’s Puget Sound Fling. Click for that post and the garden’s tumultuous backstory. Today I’m sharing other parts of Heronswood, starting with the woodland garden.
Woodland garden
![](https://www.penick.net/digging/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/80_Little_and_Lewis_ruin_fountain.jpg)
One of the best features of the woodland is a Little and Lewis ruin sculpture and pond. Half cloaked in vegetation, with “broken” columns and fading blue paint, it imparts a sense of mystery and age. This isn’t the first Little and Lewis ruin I’ve seen. At the Seattle Fling in 2011, one of the gardens on tour had a similar ruin — a spectacular feature for a private garden that made an impression on me.
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What would a Puget Sound garden be without a poofy, sky blue hydrangea?
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Tree ferns add a Jurassic vibe.
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Tree fern leaf
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A mossy old stump serves as nurse tree for another plant.
The house garden again
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I emerged from the woodland garden back into the sunny house garden (featured in my previous post). But this section is on the far side, and I’d missed it earlier. A lattice arbor draws your eye along the gravel path, but the deep beds slowed my stroll as I examined all the beautiful plants.
![](https://www.penick.net/digging/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/75_Persicaria_Thalictrum.jpg)
Persicaria’s red flower spikes with airy thalictrum — a pretty combo
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White eryngium
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![](https://www.penick.net/digging/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/73_Thalictrum.jpg)
More thalictrum — so delicate in front of a broad-leaved banana
![](https://www.penick.net/digging/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/76_Red_foliage.jpg)
Red foliage bringing the fire
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A lily offering creamy trumpets
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Blue flowers of agapanthus stand out against a russet sedge.
![](https://www.penick.net/digging/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/56_Orange_lilies.jpg)
Orange-red lilies team up with pink and burgundy plants.
![](https://www.penick.net/digging/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/58_Flower_border.jpg)
Pretty scenes all around
![](https://www.penick.net/digging/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/55_Yellow_flower_spikes-1.jpg)
![](https://www.penick.net/digging/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/57_Red_lily.jpg)
![](https://www.penick.net/digging/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/59_Flower_border.jpg)
![](https://www.penick.net/digging/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/61_Large_foliage_plant.jpg)
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These wide cupped leaves collected litter dropped from above.
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Flaking cinammon-colored bark — gorgeous
![](https://www.penick.net/digging/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/65_Angels_fishing_rod_flowers.jpg)
Airy angel’s fishing rod
![](https://www.penick.net/digging/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/64_Yellow_lilies.jpg)
Towering golden lilies
![](https://www.penick.net/digging/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/68_Angels_fishing_rod_flowers.jpg)
I love the graceful airiness of angel’s fishing rod.
![](https://www.penick.net/digging/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/69_Acanthus_mollis.jpg)
Bear’s breeches
![](https://www.penick.net/digging/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/70_Sanguisorba.jpg)
At this point, I realized I was running out of time and headed to the entrance to check in with the group. Someone told me I had a few minutes, if I hustled, to see the new Renaissance Garden at the opposite end of Heronswood, so off I went.
Renaissance Garden
![](https://www.penick.net/digging/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/83_Ferns_Stump_garden.jpg)
The Renaissance Garden evokes the great forests of the Pacific Northwest, with tall trees, stumps, and ferns all around.
![](https://www.penick.net/digging/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/84_Stump_fern.jpg)
Here’s how Heronswood describes the garden:
“Sheltered amongst mossy logs, this garden tells of the interaction between nature and the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe through a recreation of an abandoned logging camp. Initially developed in 2018, it contains over 250 different types of ferns together with other shade-loving plants under a canopy of western red cedar, a tree of significant cultural importance to the tribe.”
![](https://www.penick.net/digging/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/85_Stump_garden_ferns.jpg)
Bleached tree trunks stand like craggy sculptures in a sunny glade.
![](https://www.penick.net/digging/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/87_Elevated_table_bed.jpg)
A long wooden trough — part of the “logging camp” theme, I imagine — holds a collection of ferns and other small plants.
![](https://www.penick.net/digging/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/86_Mossy_log.jpg)
Mossy log and ferns
![](https://www.penick.net/digging/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/88_Raining_Wall_garden_patio.jpg)
Looping back, I came upon the Raining Wall, a rocky wall planted with ferns, sedges, and other plants, with water trickling through.
![](https://www.penick.net/digging/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/91_Raining_Wall_garden_patio.jpg)
A bench on a stone patio offers a spot to sit and admire it like a work of art.
![](https://www.penick.net/digging/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/90_Raining_Wall_plants.jpg)
It’s lovely. I feel like I’ve seen Central Texas versions of this that mimic limestone grottos.
![](https://www.penick.net/digging/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/89_Raining_Wall_garden_patio.jpg)
One last look
![](https://www.penick.net/digging/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/92_Riz_Reyes_speaking.jpg)
Assistant director Riz Reyes spoke to our group about Heronswood before lunch, giving us a nice intro. I told Riz that I’d seen him at the Seattle Fling in 2011, at the garden he worked for then, the Center for Urban Horticulture at the University of Washington. Thirteen years later, here he is, giving another group of Flingers a warm welcome.
![](https://www.penick.net/digging/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/94_Heronswood_Highlights_board-1.jpg)
At the garden’s entrance, a blackboard with attached bud vases features plants that Heronswood wants to highlight that day.
![](https://www.penick.net/digging/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/93_Heronswood_entrance-1.jpg)
While I didn’t have time to explore all of Heronswood’s gardens, I enjoyed the parts I did see. Perhaps one day I can return and see how the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe is adding to the garden to express their own history and culture, while preserving the best of the original garden.
Up next: The colorful blufftop Brindley Garden, Dan Hinkley’s next-door neighbor. For a look back at Part 1 of my visit to Heronswood, click here.
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I would love to have a ruin garden. Thank you for the interesting link to Little and Lewis. I kept seeing those names in other blog posts and really enjoyed learning more about both of them. That long, raised planting trough is pretty spectacular. I am so happy that Heronswood is being cared for and available for the public to see. Were there any elements of the garden that were inspiring or would be applicable to your own garden in Texas?
Oh sure, the Raining Wall is something that would fit right into a hilly Central Texas garden (not mine necessarily), with limestone and maidenhair fern and sedge. By the way, you should check out the Little and Lewis book A Garden Gallery. I read it years ago but am re-reading now. It’s inspiring me all over again!
Wonderful!
Thanks, Michelle!