A creek winds its way from a nearby pond as two handcrafted bridges connect pathways to a lawn. Flowers, small plants and shrubbery border the creek on one side and align the fine-gravel trail on the other. The path, surrounded by foliage leads to a bamboo cove with a tree swing that hangs in the middle.
This is just the front yard.
“The little kids, oh they love it,” said garden owner Susan Gillman, referring to her grandchildren. “They have what they call the bamboo trail and they make camps and stuff out there.”
The backyard is not short of gazebos, trellis archways and a green house. The fenced-off vegetable garden includes artichokes among other vegetables planted in a garden patch. And after all of that, there’s still enough backyard space for a lawn and an outdoor table for a summer’s supper.
The Gillman’s garden is one of five gardens that will be open to the Kirkland community June 29 for the Kirkland Garden Tour.
This will be Gillman’s first time opening her garden to the public. She speculates her garden club, the Totem Lake Garden Club, recommended her for the tour.
Gillman and her husband have worked on their garden since 1994, slowly planting, digging and designing a space that was once nothing.
Four months after purchasing their home in the North Rose Hill neighborhood, the structure burned down.
“They bulldozed the house down and we just had a big mess,” she said, noting the fire was from wiring issues. “We’ve been fixing it ever since.”
But instead of throwing the random house scraps away, the couple used bricks from the fireplace to construct the garden pathways and used an old dining room window frame that hangs on the shed as a piece of decor.
“We just spent a lot of hours working on it,” Gillman said.
Fifteen years ago, the Gillman’s daughter certified the backyard as a wildlife habitat by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Aside from the crown bee cage she keeps for pollination purposes, Gillman said she sees rabbits, raccoons, birds and sometimes owls in her garden.
As a part of the Kirkland Garden Tour, members with the Kirkland Community Wildlife Habitat Team will be providing tips on how spectators can certify their garden as a wildlife habitat.
Tia Scarce, a co-leader of the Kirkland Community Wildlife Habitat Team, said backyards must have four elements to be certified: food for animals, a water source, cover and a place to raise young.
“Most people will find they qualify,” Scarce said, who will also showcase her garden during the garden tour. “When it comes to food, most people have what it takes – big trees, seeds, berries, nuts, leaves and bugs for rabbits.”
Scarce said her garden is a mix of foliage with colors and different textures of native and exotic plants. Her 1956 home is located in the south Houghton neighborhood.
This is the first year the Kirkland Garden Tour is sponsored by the Juanita Neighborhood Association with the city of Kirkland’s Neighborhood Grant Program, Columbia Athletic Club and the Juanita Bay Veterinary Clinic. In the past, the Kirkland Arts Center has sponsored the tour.
Ken Albinger, chair of the Juanita Neighborhood Association, said through the grant program, the city gave the association some “seed money” to put together certain events such as the garden tour.
In turn, the association profits from the $15-a-ticket prices. Albinger said the funds will be put back into their neighborhood activities such as summer socials, park clean ups and Juanita Christmas tree light decorating.
The Kirkland Garden Tour will be from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. June 29 and will begin at the Forbes House, located at 11829 97th Ave. NE.
City staff will also be available to answer questions about how to create a rain garden, which is located near the Forbes House.
Tickets can be purchased at brownpapertickets.com or at 9:30 a.m. the day of the event.
For more information, visit www.kirklandgardentour.com or contact info@kirklandgardentour.com.
