What is your favorite kind of garden?  Do you like a formal garden with lots of straight lines and geometric shapes?  Do you like the planned chaos of a cottage garden? Or maybe your tastes run more toward a calming Japanese or Chinese garden…My favorite kind of gardens are expressions of the creativity of the gardener, rather than an execution of a particular style. I’m looking for a window into someone else’s vision of meaning and beauty.  These gardens express the relationship of the gardener’s ideas and the characteristics of his or her particular bit of land, and evolve over time, as relationships do.

The most inspiring gardens begin with the enthusiasm, vision and hard work of one person (sometimes two) and some of the best features of these gardens are a result of “failure”.  In a real life garden things go dormant, die, tree limbs fall; animals, insects and seasons cause destruction.  Things don’t always go as planned but there is always another opportunity to edit or add to the landscape. The overall theme or plan for your garden can be refined over time. When I told Judy that I am constantly moving things in my garden (even when they are not dormant) she said she does the same thing! Gardens are not static, they are dynamic. This is the lesson that stood out most to me when I visited Judy Thomas‘ garden in Woodinville last week.

As Judy led us through the garden, she knew the names of all the different plants and trees, and talked about many of the sculptures and totems that are in her garden. The garden has different areas that have different themes.

For example there was the Yellow garden or the First garden (which includes a vegetable garden),

the Matisse garden with blue tones and one of Judy’s pear sculptures,

the Silver garden which must be stunning on a moonlit night,

the White garden, and others.

When you see yet another inviting little path going off into the trees there’s a sense of anticipation of the next delight. The gardens are so lush and rich with detail I think it would require many visits (in all four seasons) to really take it all in. Judy has a great sense of proportion, design, color and texture that my garden sorely needs.

Judy shared a few tips:

• Have a focal point

• Combine similar colors to give the eye a chance to rest. Then you can play with texture.

• Edging is important in drawing the eye and creating perspective.

Last winter was particularly hard on the both the garden and some of the sculptures but Judy saw the pieces that didn’t work out as an opportunity to come up with a better plan. In some cases she decided to just leave a piece that had broken in place. We didn’t realize anything was broken until she told us. In the case of a giant pear she had sculpted with re bar, dirt and sedum I would never have guessed the project was a “failure”.

I’ll be writing more about Judy in the next couple of months. Not only is she an inspiring gardener but she is also an artist with a wicked sense of humor. When you watch the slide show you’ll get an idea of what’s coming next. If you feel like you can’t wait to see more of her work, or you need to have one of her pear sculptures for your garden,  take a trip out to Bassetti’s Crooked Arbor Garden and ask Leanette to show you around. Don’t wait – they are only open through the end of September.

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Editor’s note: The photos for this slide show were taken by budding artist Ella Schwab.