It Was a Dark and Stormy Day: A Tale of Two Urban Gardeners

Recently, I visited Bark and Garden Nursery in Olympia, was chatting with a delightful lady named Linda who told me about The Urban Gardener in Tacoma owned by her friend Sue and said I should check it out.  Armed with my smart phone's GPS, I allowed the lady inside to guide me back to my hometown and to this place.   Turns out there are two Urban Gardeners in Tacoma, both wonderful and both home to garden designers and cool shops.  For those of you wondering if that is snow falling, no, it's not, just big raindrops.

Black sign with chartreuse printing - I'm in love already. 

This Urban Gardener, located on A street across from the post office is also home to a blogger whose posts I've read.  Her blog is here.

This is not a place to find plants but there are fabulous pieces for the garden and home all around.  Love the caged garden gnomes!

 Interesting collectibles like these antique flower frogs and sprinklers. 

I fell for these vintage (1940's) hand hammered Moroccan incense burners and thought  they would look great in my greenhouse but then remembered all that Spanish moss.  I need to decide if I want to go for exotic or moss-draped swamp in there.  Maybe an eclectic mix would work.  

Haitian metal work.

 All kinds of fun stuff!

 
This Urban Gardener will be at the Tacoma Home and Garden Show Vintage Marketplace (Jan 22 - 25) so if you see anything you can't live without, make sure you attend the show.  Better yet, if you're in Tacoma, check out her delightful shop!

The Urban Garden Company, the one about which Linda from Bark and Garden was speaking isn't far from the other other one and the smart phone said that it was open.  

Looks great from the outside! (More raindrops)

Unfortunately, the outside is all we'll get to see on this visit.  Turns out the smart phone wasn't so smart after all.

A little window shopping...

  And a promise to myself to go back and check it out!  In the meantime, there's their website.

P.S. there also used to be an Urban (was it spelled herban?) gardens in yet another location in town.

I would love to see even more garden businesses in Tacoma!  Our town is famous for the "Tacoma Aroma," the smell of pulp mills which used to nearly burn our eyes on still mornings. Although this has been nearly eliminated for many years now, the moniker lingers.  I dream of a day when Tacoma becomes better known as a garden city.   Come and smell our OTHER aroma! Or maybe - Not everything in Tacoma Stinks!  How about;  Tacoma, it's best to visit at high tide - don't ask.