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<< Previous   of   Next >> Dan Bates / The Herald  (click to enlarge) Gail Lovell peeks from behind a Heartthrob dogwood tree at the rear of her garden. Lovell's garden will be one of seven at the Rhythm and Blooms garden tour in Edmonds on Sunday. Dan Bates / The Herald  (click to enlarge) This colorful ice plant is one that grows wild on the central California coast.   ADVERTISEMENT   Rhythm and Blooms When: 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. Tickets: The self-guided tour costs $15. Buy tickets the day of the tour at Garden Gear, 102 Fifth Ave N., Edmonds. Tickets may be purchased in advance at the following businesses: Garden Gear, 102 5th Ave N, Edmonds; Emery's Garden, 2829 164th Street SW, Lynnwood; Espresso Buono, 5106 196th Street SW, Lynnwood; Sky Nursery, 18528 Aurora Ave N, Shoreline; Frances Anderson Center, 700 Main Street, Edmonds; A Muse In The Garden, 21031 76th Ave W, Edmonds; and Wights Home & Garden, 5026 196th St SW, Lynnwood. Information: 425-771-0120 or online at www.edmondsinbloom.com/rhythm.htm   CONTACT THE HERALD Melanie Munk, Features Editor munk@heraldnet.com   Published: Thursday, July 10, 2008 Edmonds in Bloom garden tour set for Sunday By Debra Smith Herald Writer Visit Gail Lovell's garden perched on an Edmonds hillside, and you won't spend much time taking in the view. You'll be too busy bending down to see all her cool plants. The self-described flower junkie tends hundreds of kinds, many uncommon. This is a gardener who grew 300 perennials and annuals from seed this spring, who knows her way around an obscure pictureless plant catalog. "I'm a passionate gardener," she said. Just a few of her many finds: Himalayan blue poppy, dwarf lady's mantle and a California poppy that's peachy-pink, not the usual road-cone orange. You can see Lovell's place and six other private gardens on the Edmonds in Bloom Garden Tour from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. This year the Edmonds tour features a variety of gardens, including one with chickens and fruit trees and another with a Zen design. It's hard to believe that a few years ago Lovell's garden was a lawn with a few ho-hum shrubs. She and husband, Phil, purchased their home and this land as a retirement spot. The two remodeled the house, then out went the lawn and in went a network of stone paths, trellises and dozens of boulders. The couple had help with the bones of the garden from landscaper Ken Box at Somerset Gardens in Edmonds. The plants were nearly all hers. "The variety of plant material as well as the color Gail has introduced make it interesting both as a botanical garden and as a summer garden with lots of color," Box said. Good soil is essential to good gardening and Box got rid of the lawn by mounding the grass, letting it compost for several months and then spreading it across the ground. Then the company tilled in the composted sod and an 8-inch layer of compost. Workers also mixed sand into the front yard. Box added wide stone paths, which he said feel less confining. Adding paths at different levels in the garden allows visitors to see plants from different perspectives and brings fragrant or smaller plants closer, he said. The large boulders provide a place to sit, relax and take in the garden. The plants in this open, sunny garden are intentionally low, so the panoramic view isn't obscured. Mixed evergreens planted along the couple's property line provide a measure of privacy from uphill neighbors. This is an everything-in-its-place garden. Lovell doesn't mind seeing some bare earth and plants stay neatly in their mounds. All the better for visitors to appreciate every detail of the eclectic mix, including a low-grower that looks like daisies for Lilliputians, an annual with purple tubular flowers that bees love called cerinthe and dwarf mountain laurel with teeny-weeny flowers like wedding cake decorations. Lovell favors plants that offer continuous blooms rather than a quick show. That's why she loves hardy fuchsias; she grows 40 varieties. She also collects tuberous begonias, an exotic, lush plant that pumps out roselike blossoms for months. To give the garden cohesion, she layers plants -- for instance, swaths of astilbes along the shady backside of the house. She also thinks about color, choosing to limit the palette to mostly pinks, purples, blues and white. You won't see much yellow or stiletto red in this garden. After gardening for 30 years, she has learned patience. She has learned that gardening is a process and her garden is dynamic, ever-changing. She never gets everything at once and things seem to turn out different than she expects. That's OK. "To me, the joy is in the effort, in the being outside on a beautiful day," she said. "In digging in the earth and enjoying the birds and seeing the plants in a way you don't when you walk by." Reporter Debra Smith: 425-339-3197 or dsmith@heraldnet.com. Resources Somerset Gardens 21220 Pioneer Way, Edmonds 425-775-9708 www.somersetgarden.com

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