Margie Wilson uses the word fanatical a lot when she talks about her relationship with her garden.
It seems an apt description.
The Bothell mother of three teenagers — Julia, 18; Josh, 16; and Jeannette, 13 — points out that when it’s peak gardening season, the kids don’t exactly get home-cooked meals.
“I just kind of stay out there,” she said. “I’m not the kind of person who can go out for an hour and come back inside.”
In early spring and late fall when it doesn’t stay light out very long, she uses floodlights to extend her precious green-thumb time.
“It’s not really work for me at all,” she said. “Weeding, everything, it’s not work.”
Indeed, Wilson’s homestead on 1½ acres in unincorporated Snohomish County has been well-loved since Wilson and her husband, Dave, moved in, childless in 1992.
Myriad shrubs, perennials, fruit trees, berries, statuary and even some art adorn the secluded, picturesque property.
Creative gardening fans can see Wilson’s work Saturday as part of the start of the Snohomish County Master Gardener Foundation’s annual tour fundraiser, featuring 13 residential gardens over five different Saturdays this summer.
Visitors here will be treated to a woodland escape, situated at the end of a shady driveway lined with sword fern, salal and towering cedars.
Wilson, whose yard includes sunny and shady spots, is hoping some of her favorite plants — lace-cap hydrangeas, lupines, honeysuckle, day lilies and roses — will bloom in time for the tour.
But if they don’t, it shouldn’t be a problem.
Many other botanical feasts for the eyes abound here.
Two wooden Adirondack chairs recline on the lush front lawn next to a curvaceous berm accented by a cherry tree Wilson saved after a bad winter storm, plus perfect hostas and a little stone rabbit, frozen in time.
Flanking the high front steps are mixed borders full of color, texture and interesting structure.
Be sure to look for the chartreuse chair on the top front step. Its seat is planted — by fellow master gardener Janice Tallman — with lush grasses, heucheras and primroses, a whimsical treat.
Rhododendrons and azaleas also are at their peak here, where laceleaf Japanese maples provide punctuation in all the right spots.
Down the steep grassy hill in the back yard, a vegetable garden basks in the sun with an old wooden door presiding over it like a scarecrow, perhaps keeping the resident rabbits away from the lettuce, peas, spinach, chard, carrots, onions and potatoes.
Native huckleberries, clustered around the base of a massive conifer, provide fruit for cobblers every summer.
This summer, Wilson will be growing all her hot crops in containers on her sun-soaked deck, including tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, peppers and basil.
Wilson, 49, actually started out as a vegetable gardener more than 10 years ago, while staying at home with her young children.
“Flowers shmowers, I want to grow food,” she remembers thinking.
But as the kids grew older and she and her husband started to revamp their property — including removing all but a small section of a large juniper hedge — it made sense for her to fall in love with all kinds of plants.
And composting. And chickens. And the Snohomish County Master Gardeners.
In 2010, after years of her friends urging her to take the Washington State University extension training, she graduated from the master gardeners program, and now she is a volunteer.
Gardening is a great stress relief for Wilson, who is a caregiver for members of her extended family, too.
She also likes gardening for the challenge.
When everyone said she couldn’t grow roses easily in the Northwest — certainly not on a moist, wooded lot like hers — she wasn’t daunted.
“I’m not going to let a difficult plant beat me,” she said.
Wilson also knows when to give up a fight. That includes moss in her back lawn.
“If something doesn’t work, I’m not going to force it,” she said.
Also, the lawn isn’t her domain. That’s her husband’s job.
“I’m not a lawn person. That is the one thing I won’t do,” she said with a smile.
Sarah Jackson: 425-339-3037, sjackson@heraldnet.com.
Take the tours
What: The Snohomish County Master Gardener Foundation’s annual fundraiser tour will show off 13 residential gardens over five different Saturdays this summer.
When: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays, including June 18 and 25 and July 9, 16 and 23
Where: Locations are clustered on each day in different areas to minimize driving, including Kenmore, Bothell and Monroe (June 18), Snohomish and Machias (June 25), Stanwood (July 9), Edmonds and Brier (July 16) and Everett and Snohomish (July 23).
Cost: Tickets for $25 are good for all five tour dates. Buy them at the Washington State University extension offices at McCollum Park, 600 128th St. SE, Everett.
Information: Call 425-338-2400 or go to www.snomgf.org.
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