The Garden Conservancy is a wonderful organization. It was established to recognize exceptional gardens. It helps preserve selected gardens and transition them to public gardens. The Chase Garden is a local garden that is in the preservation process.

Saturday was an Open Day for the South Sound Region. Six local private gardens were open for viewing with the proceeds going to the Chase Garden Preservation. The list sounded very interesting. And the forecast was for a sunny warm day.

I made it to four of the gardens. They were all wonderful but Edgewood and Ernie and Julia Graham gardens were my favorites.

Edgewood Garden was definitely the highlight. There was a buzz about the garden since an article was published in the Pacific Magazine in the Sunday Seattle Times. I was looking forward to seeing how the owners renovated the property and took advantage of the views.

It did not disappoint. I wish I had researched more on the garden because I realize now that I missed one or two sections of the garden. It is located on 32 acres between Seattle and Tacoma. It is on a hill overlooking the Puyallup Valley with a killer view of Mount Rainier in the distance. They have created several different diverse areas of the garden.

Located near the house entrance is an extensive Asian garden. It includes a Japanese bridge, gate, wall and several statues. It is a wonderful reflective area near the entrance.

Also near the front of the house is a large pond – almost a lake. It is surrounded by lovely banks providing gorgeous vistas of the different sections of the garden. Along the banks are also several interesting art pieces.

The paths lead you to a large border area – on one side are shade borders and on the other side sun loving borders. The borders flow into the lawn where the rose garden is located. A large pergola and gazebos are located on the lawn spotlighting the climbing roses. The border is lined with roses and perennials.

Behind this area is the potager vegetable garden. I loved the fences lining the area for the climbing vines and roses and the door and arches which invited you into the garden. The beds are raised and terraced. Behind the garden, the owners were doing some creative vegetable plantings. Tomatoes and squash were planted in hay bales – the latest trend from England. There were numerous 20 gallon pots filled with potatoes. I wondered how many people the garden was feeding.

Moving on from the potager garden and back into the border garden, you come to the piece de resistance – a large open vista of Mount Rainier raising up above the Puyallup Valley. Chairs scattered in the area invited you to relax and admire the majesty of the mountains.

The garden has a wonderful website with gorgeous photographs of the sections of the garden. I totally missed several of the garden features such as the labyrinth and the well house. I hope that I will have another opportunity to explore more of this beautiful garden.