The Garden of Jennifer and Elroy Carlson

The Carlson house and garden have been "completely integrated to showcase sustainable building and gardening practices."



As one travels further, the colors remain constant but the plants change a bit. Pink is really a shade of plum, right.  Notice the golden hop vine weaving around on the lower right.




While repetition is comforting, it's also fun to shake things up a bit  in spots.  I'm in awe of gardeners who put this much thought into their gardens.  Don't get me wrong, I put a lot of thought into my garden as well but mostly it's along the lines of what can I put there to cover up that giant mistake.  The Carlsons obviously thought before they planted, an admirable thing to do!




There were little signs taped on various parts of the garden so that you'd not miss them.  The patio pavement is, the sign proclaims, permeable.





There were three of these 625 gallon cisterns to collect water from the gutters on the eaves of the house.  I can see these filling up fairly quickly in the winter and drying out even faster in the summer.


 "A productive organic garden features low-maintenance plants, Northwest natives and edibles.  The backyard is a demonstration site featuring rainwater harvesting with cisterns, a compost fence, permeable paving, a large kitchen garden, a flock of chickens, doves and an Angora rabbit." Unfortunately the bunny had passed away



"The Carlson garden has been featured in many local and national magazines:  Seattle Homes and Lifestyles, Organic Gardening, Natural Home and This Old House, to name a few.

Jennifer is a seasoned public speaker who instructs on sustainable landscape-design topics for Seattle Public Utilities, Snohomish Conservation District, Seattle Tilth, and others.

Her landscape-design company, Haven Illustrated, is the proud winner of the Envirostar Green globe Award."

Thank you Jennifer and Elroy for opening your garden of wonderful ideas for us to enjoy and learn from.