PAST GARDEN TOURS

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The 2021 Orcas Island Garden Tour was held on June 26th and June 27th. The tour featured 5 lovely gardens offering interesting plants (annuals, perennials, fruit trees, veggies, natives, woodland, bird/insect friendly, deer-resistant), unique features (greenhouse, garden pond, rain catchment, berry cage, raised beds, drip watering, garden art) and/or creative design ideas that our fellow gardeners enjoyed seeing.

Margaret’s cottage garden offers a delightful blend of different plant habitats, ranging from sunny and dry to wet and shady, allowing her to nurture a wide range of plants through three different seasons. Focusing on perennials, Margaret’s garden offers colorful lilies, crocosmia, lupine, roses, columbine, and clematis. Tucked throughout are different garden rooms featuring ornamentals, herbs, native plants, vegetables, a variety of fruit trees and different berry patches. Don’t miss the outdoor kitchen, greenhouse, and charming garden art featuring vintage tools and a display of state license plates.

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Tucked on a picturesque hillside, this lovely garden offers expansive views of Victorian Valley. In the garden are a variety of fruit trees including cherry, apple, plum, peach and pear, as well as lots of veggies, including lettuce, tomatoes and beans. The hillside garden offers a charming gazebo set amidst an English flower garden featuring many flowering shrubs and perennials that attract birds, bees and butterflies. If you have time, go on a guided walk across the road to visit the Victorian Chapel, the site of many summer island weddings and wander through the adjacent meditation garden.

Tucked behind the Outlook Inn lies a magical garden that has starred in many wedding celebrations. As you step into Sara Farish’s enchanting garden, you’ll cross a charming bridge whose arch twinkles with fairy lights. After you enjoy the colorful rose garden that edges the pond, wander through the gazebo and explore the beautiful chapel with local artists displaying their work.

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Located in Crow Valley, just north of Turtleback Mountain, Kaj Dawg Farm is a gorgeous farm with an inspiring story. In 2014, a group of visionary islanders created the project and provided the infrastructure and expertise for the garden which is a model of Community Participatory Agriculture. Laid out like a quilt in a beautiful setting of field, forest and pond, the farm supports people in growing their own food. This community garden provides participants with abundant organic vegetables, fruits, herbs and flowers as they work together throughout the growing season. The outdoor kitchen offers another opportunity to share and learn about food processing and canning.

The Doe Bay Garden offers over an acre of garden beds and fruit orchards that provide a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, herbs and flowers for the Doe Bay Café and Resort. Following methods of sustainable, organic gardening, Doe Bay uses seed-saving, crop rotation, and composting to ensure the health of the produce and the soil. Tour the large greenhouse and don’t miss visiting the chickens, housed in a large enclosure, who will provide entertainment as they consume leftovers with gusto.

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The 2019 Orcas Island Garden Tour was held on Saturday, June 29th and Sunday, June 30th. The tour featured 5 lovely gardens offering interesting plants (annuals, perennials, fruit trees, veggies, natives, woodland, bird/insect friendly, deer-resistant), unique features (greenhouse, garden pond, rain catchment, berry cage, raised beds, drip watering, garden art) and/or creative design ideas that our fellow gardeners enjoyed seeing.

Located in a lovely pastoral setting, Ann and Richard Griot’s garden overlooks scenic pastures, ponds, and forest. Stroll the arbored walkways covered with wisteria, roses, and clematis. At the center is a pavilion, designed and built by shipwright Chris Smart with a roof of succulent plants. Radiating from the pavilion are raised beds featuring dahlias, roses, delphinium, iris, peonies and zinnias. Visit the chicken house, meet the friendly birds, and enjoy the fruit orchards and the vegetable, herb, and berry gardens.

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Nestled in beautiful Crow Valley, OrcaSong Farm invites you to explore beds of colorful annuals and perennials surrounding the Sky Lodge, a covered open-air structure designed for gatherings. This working farm offers a delightful pond and waterfall as well as a variety of fruit trees, the Three Sisters garden and a greenhouse. Learn about the different varieties of lavender that are raised in nearby fields and visit the urban demonstration garden where backyard produce and herbs are raised.

Tucked behind the Outlook Inn lies a magical garden that has starred in many wedding celebrations. As you step into Sara Farish’s enchanting garden, you’ll cross a charming bridge whose arch twinkles with fairy lights. After you enjoy the colorful rose garden that edges the pond, wander through the gazebo and explore the beautiful chapel that has hosted many marriage ceremonies.

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A rose-covered entryway welcomes you to Robin and Lyn Kucklick’s garden where you can explore a variety of different gardens designed by Robin offering four seasons of bloom and leaf color. After visiting the pond and resident koi fish, wander the expansive hillside setting of native trees and plants. Stroll past viburnum, hydrangeas, clematis, roses, camellias and rhododendrons. Amidst flowering magnolia, bamboo, crab apple, Japanese cherry, dogwood, plum, pear and apple trees, visit the rock garden, kitchen garden, herb garden, vegetable beds and fruit gardens.

Through a cedar gateway, you enter Barbara and David Evans’ peaceful Japanese inspired hillside garden. Following the Japanese design aesthetic that celebrates form, texture, color, mood and season, this woodland garden features bamboo, rhododendrons, wisteria, roses and lilies. Meander along paths through native madrone, maple, alder, red cedar, hemlock and Douglas fir that hug the shoreline. You can spend some time at the waterfall, listen for melodic windchimes, discover garden art pieces and visit the moon garden. Don’t miss exploring the delightful Teahouse of the Orcas Moon.

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The Orcas Island Garden Club was proud to present five fabulous Orcas Island gardens for the 2017 Tour. This annual fundraiser for the Garden Club is a highlight for local garden enthusiasts as well as gardeners throughout Washington state. These gardens display the diversity of foliage, art, design and represents thousands of hours of loving work that goes into these glorious gardens. Click on the images to see the full photo.

On a rocky outcropping above Spring Point, with a territorial view to the west, the Harris garden uses rock as the sculptural base for a remarkable collection of mosses, succulents, grasses, and dwarf deciduous and coniferous trees. Beautiful Asian & Northwest Indian sculptures on and around the timber-frame house complete the artistic vision.

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Bruce and Marty Coffey’s family compound at the entrance to Grindstone Harbor offers five whimsical cottages and their surrounding gardens that echo the color, creativity, and warmth of artist Carl Larsson’s artistic vision. Pathways lead you under native firs, through charming gardens of exuberant perennial and annual flowers, across a lawn to a historical orchard and raised-bed vegetable gardens with a lovely waterfront setting as magical as the gardens.

At the Brennan garden, stone walkways meander through bamboo groves and native willows and offer an expansive view across tranquil fields. Buddha statues abound, including atop a native rock outcropping carpeted with native mosses and mahonia. Explore numerous raised-bed vegetable, flower and fruit gardens inside a fenced garden with a 20x48-foot hoop house and a wisteria-covered dining pergola.

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Set at the base of Mt. Entrance & Moran State Park, the Miller/Chavez garden reflects Ray’s love for horses and Patty’s passion for plants. Extensive ornamental, native plant, raised-bed vegetable, water, and fruit gardens climb a terraced hill behind the barn-red farmhouse and stables. From the front door, your gaze settles on grazing horses in pastures framed by deep coniferous forest.

On a waterfront setting, the DiCaprio garden combines rocks and rock-garden plants to create an imaginatively playful garden. A rock “waterfall” tumbles down the steep hillside to the water. At its base is a sculptural garden that integrates plants, rocks, glass, and windfall limbs from the madronas lining the shoreline.

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