PowellsWood Garden
I finally had a chance to visit PowellsWood Garden in Federal Way. This is a relatively new garden. It has started to be open to the public more frequently than a few special days. There was a special open house on during the Federal Way’s Buds & Bloom Festival on Mothers Day. It was warm and sunny so I headed south to take a look.
The garden is amazing. The Powells purchased the land in 1992 and started turning what was previously a dumping ground into a spectacular 2 acre urban garden. Much of the early years were spent restoring the soil polluted from the years of dumping. Once the soil was restored, the plantings began.
Today there are 8 different garden ‘rooms’. You enter with the bright entry garden which has a tropical feel. Then you move to the entry overlooking the perennial borders. The stairway is absolutely stunning. I loved the large leafed petasites and hostas on one side and ferns and rhododendrons on the other. Meandering on, you come along a stream lined with ligularias and a pond. Next are the shade and woodland gardens which take advantage of the towering Douglas fir trees. Circling back, you move into the Spring garden lined with flowering cherries. These were finished blooming but I could image what a cloud of blossoms they were in the spring. The final room is the new House Garden which I loved. It used lots of interesting combination of dark foliage and hot yellow and orange flowers.
I really want to return and see how the beds progress through the summer. They are participating in the Garden Conservancy’s “Open Days” Tour on June 12th. They are also open Tues – Saturday 10am – 3pm. For more information – see the PowellsWood website.
Petasites japonicus
Hosta
Stairway to Perennial Border Garden
Perennial Border area
Cherries leafing out in the Spring Garden
House Garden
Looks pretty much like my back garden – I wish! Great photos for inspiration. m
Looks like a wonderful garden! I thought of you and G today – went to the Foster Botanical Garden today. I brought my camera with me and used my 60mm macro lens. Interesting day taking photos with this lens.
Missed your private tour explaining all the plants and also needed you to find my way out! It took me 30 mins (even with asking for directions twice and trying to read the map) to find the exit!
Interesting that many of your photos look so similar to the plants and views at the Foster Botanical Gardens.
It looks like the weather was nice for you. Yay!!
What a great space! I hope you’ll visit again – would love to see what it looks like in different seasons.
Girasoli – it sounds like you had a great time trying out your new lens at the Foster even if you did have problems finding the exit. I know what you mean. It is confusing in the garden.
How is the lens working? I got an adapter for some old old Olympus lens. They now fit on my Canon. One is a 50mm Macro lens which I’m enjoying trying out.
Don’t you love that a dumping ground can be turned into something so beautiful! One of these days when I am in the Pacific Northwest I’ll have to give these gardens a visit.
It is really hard for me to judge since I really have no idea how to set the aperture. The strange thing was that I could not get a higher shutter speed than 60 (I am sure I am saying this speed incorrectly) with the aperture set at f11 and sometimes f8 and it was noon. Granted some of the shots were in the shade.
The other thing I noticed is that the contrast or color is weird for the reds (I guess normal since this happens with reds) but also with some of the yellow flowers. I may need to play with the settings a bit. I really need to figure out how to shoot raw.
I did have a lot of fun though and realize that I am just learning and need to be patient.