Get Ready for the LFP Garden Tour on June 17, 2023

Sequoias in the Secret Garden Tour June 17

By Beth Weir

Now the calendar is featuring June, be sure to check you have the 17th marked for the Secret Garden Tour of Lake Forest Park. The six gardens on the tour are testament to the Pacific Northwest’s ability to host to a variety of landscapes, not to mention towering trees. For those we can thank Ole Hanson who platted the first lots around 1910 and so established the town of Lake Forest Park and its culture of trees.

Some of these now giant sequoias and sequoiadendrons border one of the ‘tour’ gardens. They envelope you in a warm Pacific Northwest welcome as you walk the long drive and appear to be protecting the plants, the landscape within and you as a visitor.

Its owners have taken upon themselves the care and further development of a classic Northwest Garden with a significant history. It was becoming overgrown when they took it over from folks who had lovingly invested themselves in the property over an extended period. If the enthusiasm of the gardeners for their self-assigned task could be bottled the world would cease to need power plants.

The garden is natural, large and moves effortlessly around a stream and lawn from small rooms and vignettes to larger views. It has touches of the personal, as in little art pieces left by children, new plantings to enhance the existing and areas of wilderness that have their own charm.

The trout will probably be hiding in the stream and the birds will have ceased their dawn chorus when the average visitor will be there. Rest assured, neither will be hard to imagine in such a peaceful and contemplative space.

Discount tickets are available on line at LfpGardenTour.com and in person at Wild Birds LFP, Third Place Books LFP and Sky Nursery Shoreline.