Plant Talk: Time for a Plant Expedition to Far Reaches Farm in Port Townsend to Check Out the Shade Garden

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June 02, 2012

Time for a Plant Expedition to Far Reaches Farm in Port Townsend to Check Out the Shade Garden

Earliest June is shade garden time supreme, and nowhere more so than at Far Reaches Farm nursery in Port Townsend. Worth a day trip all by itself, especially this time of year, Far Reaches will blow your mind with plants unlike any you've ever seen before (my excuse for not being able to identify the ones in the photos below....)....and most of the plants are for sale!

Starting this spring, Far Reaches offers mail order as well as retail, but nothing beats seeing the plants growing in the ground in the shade house and display gardens...and it's like a course in horticulture (a very fun one) to chat with proprietors Sue Milliken & Kelly Dodson, who know and love plants beyond reason. They're great communicators and enthusiasts who love sharing their gardens and knowledge with visitors...

Far Reaches Farm is just a few blocks from downtown Port Townsend, at 1818 Hastings Avenue; (360) 385-5114. You can read more about Sue and Kelly in this Seattle Times story , and enjoy a peek (below) at what's in bloom in the shade garden right now at Far Reaches...thanks, Kelly, for sending photos...

Posted at 08:00 AM in shade gardening | Permalink

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So, they actually grow and sell the trillium floro plena in your photo?

Posted by: DariaW | June 03, 2012 at 10:39 AM

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Bayview Farm and Garden

Swansons Nursery

B&D Lilies

Dig Nursery

Far Reaches Farm

Soil Science Products

Renee's Garden

New Book: Petal & Twig

Petal & Twig Made The New York Times!
From Anne Raver's review: "Valerie Easton, a Seattle-based garden writer, discusses the art of growing and arranging cut flowers in “Petal and Twig: Seasonal Bouquets With Blossoms, Branches and Grasses From Your Garden” (Sasquatch Books; $16.95). Written as an informal diary, with photographs of arrangements from her own garden, and tips on cutting and keeping flowers fresh, the book inspires ideas not only on what to grow but on how to combine (or not) those beauties inside. See review here: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/29/garden/new-books-on-growing-and-arranging-flowers.html?scp=1&sq=petal%20&%20twig%20anne%20raver&st=cse
The first reviews on the new book are in! From Publisher's Weekly:
"Open your eyes and keep it simple: those are two lessons Easton passes on from her own 40 years in the garden. When selecting and arranging flowers for bouquets, you needn’t spend a bundle buying a bundle of imported flowers.....The result will be unique, local, imaginative, and inexpensive. Color photos throughout illustrate and inspire."

In the News

Montreal Blogger Reviews "A Pattern Garden"
I was so pleased to find that "A Pattern Garden" is still being reviewed...check out Allan Becker's generous review on his Garden Guru blog.. I felt like Allan really understood what I was working towards in that book....he writes...."There is a delightful abstract quality to this publication. In it, the author takes good garden design to a higher, more spiritual level. Instead of discussing the aesthetic and scientific elements of design, as so many traditional garden design books do, she focuses on the role played in garden design by archetypal ideas - a.k.a. patterns - that reference the longings of human beings. These pleasure and comfort-rooted ideas are those that inspire designers to create gardens that are satisfying beyond their beauty." see more at http://allanbecker-gardenguru.squarespace.com/journal/valerie-easton
Planting art
Check out this interview with Val in the Chicago Tribune on using art in the garden...

About

The New Low Maintenance Garden

Reviews Are In....
"Over the years, countless books have espoused a low-maintenance approach to gardening. None have been as engaging, practical, or inspiring as this latest of Easton's contributions to the gardener's bookshelf,"
- Pacific Horticulture magazine, Jan/Feb/Mar 2010
"A handy guide to a garden you can raise without a corresponding increase in your blood pressure..handsome and informative...."
- Metropolitan Home, Dec. 2009
"This book is an invaluable addition to the garden library – destined to be a classic for many years to come."
- Garden Design Online

Val's Books

Photo Credits

The banner and portrait photos were taken by Jacqueline Koch; all other photos by Val Easton unless otherwise credited.

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