Fairie Gardens Nursery and the lovely garden on the site in Tumwater, WA are the creation of David Baird and Steve Taylor. I've visited a few times but always in the summer when the gardens are full of grasses and herbacious perennials. Since I was in the neighborhood, I decided it might be interesting to visit in the winter. To be honest, I wasn't expecting to see much happening in the garden because the fabulous herbacious beds left a wonderful impression.
I know nothing about heathers and heaths except that they some of them are beautiful in the winter. This one was in the flower bed of a church across the street from the nursery.
Was I in for a surprise! With all of the herbacious stuff slumbering, the large number of evergreens throughout the garden beautifully took center stage.
I wasn't particularly looking "to conjur a faire or helper" as I was delighted to poke around the garden and take pictures. However, as I eventually neared the back of the house, there was barking from within which somehow summoned David Baird himself.
David said that he got his Chief Joseph Lodgepole Pine in 1997 when they first were barely available to the public. It has grown quite a bit since then and according to David it's the largest one south of Vancouver.
Abies Koreana
Blue and gold, what a lovely combination!
Chinese pine. Sorry, I don't know the real name. Do you?
I mentioned a couple of the plants I'd admired in the garden like a cypress, hemlock or something and David said, "Oh, so you know conifers then?" To which I replied that I admire them but know very little.
David, having heard that I liked conifers, gave me a guided tour of the garden, chatting like gardeners do about their favorite plants. I wish that I'd brought a writing utensil and paper because I couldn't cheat at this place and take pictures of plant tags to remember names. I believe that botanical Latin is David's first language as he spoke it fluently. Having sung Latin for years, I'm not so bad at writing names in that language as they're spoken but my memory is coated in Teflon - nothing sticks so there are some unidentified plants here. Sorry.
The berries of this Nandina are catching my eye this year in gardens all over the area. Is it a good year for the berries? Have I been more interested in the foliage in past years? Do you sometimes suddenly appreciate a certain aspect of a plant that's obviously been around for a long time?
Loving this trellis!
On one side of the garden there is a large berm separating the garden from the street. Here is part of the path between the berm and the back of the pond. It's a really cozy area.
The sun began to shine and I started to believe that there just might be magic afoot. Rain weary, sun starved Pacific Northwesteners will believe just about anything by February.
While Fairy Gardening isn't one of my favorite things in the world, it's kind of fun to see things like this little ladder that leave a lot to one's imagination.
On the other hand the giraffe visiting this creature is pretty darned funny!
The large stump(15 feet tall) is that of a Sugar Maple, over 120 years old, that was badly diseased and had to be removed.
Larix Kaempferi 'Paper Lanterns' (Don't be impressed, this one still had a tag on it.) looks wonderful with all of these cute little cones!
Abies Koreana 'Aurea'
Taxus something or other
