How’s this for a description of a future botanical garden:
Overgrown lot. Bank-owned property. Washing machine dumped down a bank.
Morning glory, blackberry bushes and other invasive plants threatening to overtake the property.
Kelsey Woodson sums up her first impression this way: “A jungle in a bad way!”
She found it hard to understand her husband Jesse’s enthusiasm for the lot with a 1940s house with holes in the roof. It was in such disrepair that neighbors considered buying it just to tear it down.
There was one thing he knew might persuade her of the worthiness of this ugly duckling property. “I looked at the back yard and realized I had a selling feature,” he said. It had a greenbelt surrounding Shell Creek.
That was 4½ years ago, and the couple took on the duel projects of renovating the house as they constructed a botanical garden.
If that term sounds a bit over the top, consider this — there are more than 500 plants on a quarter-acre lot.
That’s part of the reason that it was selected to be one of six gardens on this year’s Edmonds in Bloom tour on July 15.
Many plants in the garden are native to countries around the globe: Peru, Morocco, New Zealand, Australia, Chile, Brazil, Mexico, China. Nevertheless the couple has found ways to make this international collection feel at home. If one spot doesn’t work, they try another.
They’ve seen plants go from unhappy and droopy, to happy and thriving. “Every time you move a plant, many times those are the ones that have thrived the most,” Jesse said.
One might assume that the couple came to the project armed with gardening expertise. Not so, Kelsey said. A lot of it was trial and error.
“We don’t think we knew much of anything when it came to plants,” she said. “You wonder what the heck you do wrong and plant something else.”
That’s the philosophy they embraced. Try it and if it doesn’t work, no worries. Try something else.
“As far as gardening, if we can do it, anybody can,” she said.
Being selected as one of six stops on the tour was like getting a college acceptance letter, Jesse said.
They describe their house as mid-century modern with Mediterranean touches, a look and feel they tried to extend to the garden.
Both the house and the garden projects were done on a budget, what Jesse likes to call acknowledging the constraint and just working around it.
“We bought so many second-chance plants that never sold at retail that need a little love,” he said. “The next year, they’re exploding. Half our yard is all those kind of plants.”
All their labor was crammed into the nooks of their work schedules. “Go to work and then come home and work more,” Kelsey said. “We were determined to do it all ourselves.”
Jesse, 39, works on the Boeing 787 program in Everett. Kelsey, 31, trained in French cooking, saw the trajectory of her career make a sharp turn.
Her and her husband’s work finding just the right thing for the garden or house from unlikely places, such as Craigslist and building castoffs, led to a new job and the establishment of a new small business, Timber and Twig.
“This whole journey of getting the house and yard has completely changed our lives for the better,” Jesse said.
Even as work on both their garden and home continues, they finally have some time to see the realization of their goal — “so when we come home, we feel like we’re on vacation,” he said.
Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486 or salyer@heraldnet.com.
If you go
The 23rd annual Edmonds in Bloom is 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. July 15. The tour features seven private gardens, six in Edmonds and one in Woodway. Tickets are $15 in advance or $20 the day of the tour. Purchase tickets online at edmondsinbloom.com or in person at Garden Gear, Bountiful Home and the Frances Anderson Center, all in Edmonds, Sky Nursery in Shoreline and Lil’ Sprout Nursery in Mill Creek.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
Gallery
