Lakewold Garden

One of my favorite things to do is visit other gardens. They can be inspiring, peaceful, motivating and just plain enjoyable. Walking into a garden takes you out of the busy day to day rush of the real world. Gardeners are a different breed of people and being in their garden lets you peek into what they think might be a perfect world. Some are simple and serene while others may be over stimulating and exciting. They change depending on the season. Some are only interesting at a specific season because that is when the gardener enjoys being in their garden while others might be interesting year- round.

Entry of Lakewold Garden

One day this past week I had the opportunity to visit Lakewold Garden in Tacoma Washington on one of their closed days. I arrived for a meeting a bit early so wandered the garden alone. The staff had not yet begun to work so I was the only person in the garden. What a unique way to experience this very formal old estate garden. It was kind of a misty morning which added to the atmosphere.

I was struck by the strong structure in the garden with formal hedges and large structures. Because of the size of the house these design elements seemed very much in scale. I really wasn’t thinking much about that at the time. I just enjoyed being there and soaked it all in. Maybe a bit literally, since it was kind of misty.

Long walk at Lakewold Garden

We are very lucky to live in an area with so many public gardens and beautiful parks. I encourage all of you to visit and support these wonderful places. If you find one that really speaks to you, there just might be some kind of volunteer opportunity. I volunteer regularly for a couple organizations and it really does bring an all new energy to my own garden.