The Garden of Scott and Pat Bergford

On these cool and crisp autumn days, which I love, it's fun to remember the warmth of summer.  To help with that, let's take a late July, the 27th to be exact, tour of Pat and Scott Bergford's garden in Olympia.  If you recall, this is part of a day of garden tours in the south Puget Sound, put on by the Northwest Perennial Alliance, that Alison and I attended. 

It was a gorgeous sunny day and at the front gate of the garden, we were greeted by gorgeous roses

and lilies

 which brought to mind the Schumann song "die rose die lilie die taube die sonne" (the rose, the lily, the dove, the sun)  from the song cycle Dichterliebe (Poet's love.)  The text is by Heinrich Heine

Die Rose, die Lilie, die Taube, die Sonne,              The rose, the lily, the dove the sun
Die liebt' ich einst alle in Liebeswonne.                  I loved them all once in love's bliss.
 Ich lieb' sie nicht mehr, ich liebe alleine                I love them no more, I love only
 Die Kleine, die Feine, die Reine, die Eine;            The Small, the Fine, the Pure the One;  

Sie selber, aller Liebe Wonne,                                 She herself, the source of all love
Ist Rose und Lilie und Taube und Sonne.                Is the rose and lily and dove and sun.
Ich liebe alleine                                                        I love only that which is small,
Die Kliene, die Feine, die Reine, die Eine!              Fine, pure--the one, the ONE!

Here's a lovely performance of the song. 

Imagine my surprise and delight when these doves were discovered later in this special garden!  

 

But back to the beginning of the tour -

 

 This is an historic farmhouse and the site of a former chicken farm.

Hydrangea time.  No one sings the blues like these guys!

O.K. so  these are lavender but I'm sure there are some blue ones around  here somewhere!

See, back there.  I told you!

I fell in love with these huge trees.

 See how grand they are?  Love!

Approaching the orchard.  This place is HUGE!

 Scott is a home builder and Pat told us that this building was a former site shack that was stored back here.  Pat quickly planted gardens around it and so it will stay.  It's also now painted to match the house in front.  You get  the feeling that if you stand still long enough, Pat will start planting around you too, so great is her passion for gardening!

 Here are some of Pat's words from the blurb in the NPA tour book:   "We have a small farm near the capitol in Olympia, with chickens, peacocks, doves, mason bees and a beef.  We have approximately 50 assorted fruit trees: apples, pears, plums, apricots, peaches; lots of berries, an organic vegetable garden, a formal English garden topiaries and a lovely assortment of perennials, shrubs, and ornamental trees, both common and rare.

We enjoy raising a variety of roses, from hybrid teas to climbers, miniatures and David Austins.

In addition, the gardens feature dozens of varieties of clematis and lilies, a large assortment of dahlias, a primrose walk, as well as a lovely hydrangea collection.

The gardens have been the site of several weddings and are often used for photo shoots for families and prom photos."

Alison and I were delighted to see such a large brugmansia!

 This is one of those places that makes you think you've reached the end and then, turning a corner you find a whole new area!

 In another orchard area with really beautiful older trees casting dappled shade.

 Seating areas abound in this garden.  How wonderful to have so many  spots from which to sit and enjoy the view.  However, with a garden this huge, I wonder if there's much sitting.

 Part of a more formal area.

All garden sheds should look this cool!

And have this many cool plants inside.  An impressive collection of epiphyllums!

 The vegetable gardens were also expansive.  Strawberry beds.

 

Everything was so beautiful  with nary a weed in sight!

 These greenhouses are labeled "his" and "hers"

His and hers greenhouses, is that cool or what?

 

Inside his.  Scott says that he's responsible for the veggie gardens.

Inside hers.

Who wants to LIVE in this greenhouse?

 

It just keeps going and going!

 We'd never seen poppy seed heads quite this large before!

The huge depression on the right is a tiny portion of what will someday be a "pond" (more like a small lake!) with an island in the middle.  I hope to be able to go back and see it when it's finished.

This bamboo walk seems to be relatively newly planted. 

The animals were very friendly!

This came over to greet us and get patted.  Such docile animals.  How cool to see them being raised with space to walk, graze, and have a decent life.

When this one saw that the brown one was getting some attention, she got up to play too!

 

What a wonderful garden. 

Here's the mastermind behind the whole thing.  He's nice enough to let the Bergfords live in his house and garden.

Here is Pat with her delightful friend, neighbor, and garden helper. 

Thank you for opening your beautiful garden for us to enjoy!   We could have spent a lot more time here and still made more discoveries.  I wonder if they'd notice if we moved in to one of the many cool out buildings?