EDMONDS
When Ann Reite sees something she likes for her garden, she gets it.
“I’m not one of those people who studies gardening,” she said. “When I see something I like in a catalog, at a nursery or at a friend’s house I buy it.”
The method has gotten her into trouble a few times, she added. But since moving into her Edmonds home 10 years ago, she has created a garden that spans the majority of both the front and back yards.
“When my husband and I moved in, I said that I had to have space to garden and he didn’t want much grass to mow,” she said. “He got the better end of the deal – there is not one blade of grass and it’s all garden, which is a little bit much sometimes.”
Reite has put extra energy into her garden this year to make sure it’s ready to be one of seven featured gardens in the Edmonds in Bloom 2009 Garden Tour from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on July 19.
Although the tour falls too late in the year for her tulips, those who tour Reite’s garden will see an assortment of plants including colorful roses, lilies, an ornamental avocado plant, a candy corn vine, several varieties of hosta and shades of heuchera — some of her favorite plants.
The biggest surprise for visitors to her garden, Reite said, will likely be the creek that crosses the middle of the garden in the back of her house.
“It’s a surprise to have a real creek,” she said. “That’s the real secret of (the garden).”
The garden has transformed over the years, she added. She and her husband, Fred Waits, removed a waterfall in the front yard and added rockery. In the back yard, the couple uncovered a tree they didn’t know existed, added flower beds, a patio, a fence, a bridge and several rock paths that help Reite reach different spaces in the garden.
“We just uncovered a yard that we didn’t know we had,” she said.
Family members have also added to Reite’s garden. Her father-in-law brought her a black hollyhock plant from Kentucky and her daughter-in-law designed a mosaic piece featuring a bird bath, a tree and a bird.
Tending to her garden is work but also enjoyable for Reite, who works as the director of administration for rehabilitation medicine at the University of Washington. After many hours on the job, working in the garden is her therapy, she said.
“This is her thing,” Waits said. “I don’t know the difference between a weed and what’s really something that should be kept.”
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