FIRST 9 PHOTOS BY OLIVER HAMLIN FOR WSB

If you’re in a garden-related business, chances are you have a great garden yourself, as does Marcia Bruno (above), owner of West Seattle Nursery and Garden Center (WSB sponsor) – her west Admiral garden was the first stop on the map for today’s West Seattle Garden Tour. Ten gardens were chosen as tour stops. Here’s the fifth on the list, in west Seaview:

This garden was laden with art, including “Steel Roots” by Steve Tobin:

A notable feature of the eighth garden on the list, toward the south end of The Arroyos – its Puget Sound view:

At the ninth garden, in Seola, we photographed gardeners Janyce Lauhon-Horton and Kent Horton beneath a magnolia tree:

This is Janyce’s childhood home.

She told us she’s been gardening there for 50 years, and she’s especially fond of shade-loving plants!

These hydrangea blossoms were eye-catching too:

Container gardening was in view at some stops too, like the tenth on the list, on Puget Ridge:

And containers also caught our eye at the seventh mapped garden, in Gatewood (photos from here by WSB editor Tracy Record):

But the most striking features of this site are the gardeners’ efficient use of space, including the planting strips:

Not shown, but also notable, this home once had a golf-course-quality lawn out front. One of its owners told us they knew when they bought the house they’d never be able to maintain that. Over the years, more and more of the lawn has been carved away and turned into garden beds.

The West Seattle Garden Tour raises money for grants to nonprofits – here’s this year’s list; nominations are still being accepted for next year’s grants.

(Seen on last year’s West Seattle Garden Tour)

If June showers enhance June flowers, then Sunday should be a spectacular edition of the annual West Seattle Garden Tour, as the forecast suggests some showers before then (though the current outlook for tour day is “partly sunny”). We checked in with the WSGT today to, for starters, see if any tickets are left. Answer: No – they sold out as of Sunday. So if you haven’t already bought a ticket, you’ll have to wait until next year. If you have – here’s an important reminder:

We’d like to remind folks who’ve purchased their tickets online for will-call that they will be available for pickup on Sunday only between 8:30 – 11 am at West Seattle Nursery at 5275 California Ave SW. This is a change from prior years where pickup was at Metropolitan Market. There will not be additional ticket books for sale at the West Seattle Nursery.

Tour hours on Sunday are 9 am to 5 pm – please be considerate of the garden hosts, no earlybirds, no late stragglers. And please follow tour etiquette:

-Stay on paths and be careful not to step on bordering plants
-Do not collect any plant material without the gardener’s permission
-Do not bring pets to the gardens (service animals are permitted)
-Please watch children closely

P.S. As we’ve reported before, Garden Tour proceeds go to grants for other nonprofits – here’s this year’s list of recipients – and applications are still open if your nonprofit is interested in next year’s grants.

While we’re talking about flowers, we have updates from the West Seattle Garden Tour organization. Above is the winning artwork that’s being used to promote this year’s tour (June 22), “Pool Party” by Gay Waldman. WSGT has more winners to talk about – the recipients of this year’s grants – and also wants to encourage applications for the next round money it’s ready to give – all explained as follows:

Each year West Seattle Garden Tour, a 501(c)(3) organization, seeks out other nonprofits whose goals fit our mission—to promote horticulture, education, and artistic endeavors within West Seattle and neighboring communities. Your donations and purchase of garden tour and raffle tickets, along with the generous support of our sponsors, allow the West Seattle Garden Tour to fund projects in our community.

We are proud to present the ten nonprofit organizations selected to receive a total of $53,250 in West Seattle Garden Tour grants this year. ArtsWest, A Cleaner Alki, Delridge Neighborhoods Development Association, Endolyne Children’s Choir, GROW, New Start Community Garden, Rainier Beach Action Coalition, Shadow Lake Nature Preserve, Urban Raptor Conservancy, and West Seattle Community Orchestras have received grants to fund projects that might otherwise not be possible. You can learn more about these organizations and the specific projects we’ve funded on our website at westseattlegardentour.org/grants. Be sure to visit their tables in the gardens on tour day!

The West Seattle Garden Tour is also pleased to announce the opening of our 2026 grant application. We’d like to invite 501(c)(3) nonprofits in the greater Seattle area to apply for grant funding from now until midnight on July 15th, 2025. Grant applications, eligibility, and submission instructions can be found on our website at westseattlegardentour.org/grants.

This year’s West Seattle Garden Tour takes place on Sunday, June 22nd and tickets are now available for sale on our website and at West Seattle Nursery, Swansons Nursery, Wells Medina Nursery, and Zenith Holland Nursery.

The WSGT invariably sells out, so if you’re considering going, you’ll want to get your ticket book sooner rather than later.

The West Seattle Junction Association‘s flower baskets are here! Visiting The Junction this morning, we spotted the crews installing the baskets, working their way north to south, west to east. Again this year, The Junction is putting up almost 100 baskets grown by Van Wingerden Greenhouses in Whatcom County, with the purchase and maintenance costs partly covered by “adopters.” We walked down California looking at the baskets awaiting installation – no two are alike, but all have bright blossoms already and will only get more lush as spring/summer proceeds:

Within a week or two, each basket will have a plaque on behalf of its “adopter.”

It’s finally time to get out and grow! In time for spring-and-beyond gardening, we welcome West Seattle Nursery (5275 California SW) as a new WSB sponsor, which means they get to tell you their story:

West Seattle Nursery has been proudly serving neighborhood gardeners for 42 years, offering a diverse selection of perennials, annuals, shrubs, and trees—everything from tried-and-true favorites to rare and unusual garden gems. Quality is at the heart of what we do, which is why most of our plants come from Northwest growers, ensuring they’re well-suited to our local climate. Our knowledgeable team of seasoned gardeners and plant enthusiasts is always here to help, whether you’re searching for the perfect plant or need expert advice on garden care.

This season, you’ll notice some exciting changes—we’ve rearranged the nursery layout to make it easier to navigate and more enjoyable to explore. Our 2025 conifer and Japanese maple collections are ready to browse, our fruits and veggies section has moved behind the greenhouse, and our native plants section is now at the front of the nursery. Our highly anticipated roses have arrived, with David Austin varieties expected in May. If you’re looking for something truly special, we also have a limited supply of rare, seed-grown species rhododendrons and azaleas from Chimacum Woods, along with a large variety of hybrid rhododendrons and azaleas.

We’re also dedicated to growing the next generation of gardeners through our Growing Gardeners Club, designed to help young plant lovers learn, explore, and get their hands in the dirt. This month, our gift to our Growing Gardeners is a zucchini plant — by August, we welcome kids to bring their zucchinis to the West Seattle Farmers Market for zucchini races! And for those looking to deepen their gardening skills, we’re offering a fantastic lineup of spring events, including:

Solitary Bee Class for All Ages – Saturday, April 5, 12:00-1:00 PM
Spring Plant Swap at Hoste – Saturday, April 12, 12:00-4:00 PM
Real Organic Gardening: Compost & Soil Health – Sunday, April 13, 1:00-2:00 PM

Beyond plants, our destination gift shop is overflowing with unique gifts, housewares, books, and indoor plants. In our Garden Center, we also offer a curated selection of seeds, bulbs, tools, and soil amendments to help your garden thrive.

We’re so grateful to be part of the West Seattle community and look forward to another season of helping you grow! Stop by to explore, get inspired, and connect with fellow plant lovers. Find more details at westseattlenursery.com.

We thank West Seattle Nursery for choosing to advertise their business by sponsoring independent, community-collaborative neighborhood news on WSB. Interested in doing the same? Email WSBAdvertising@wsbsales.com – thank you!

(WSB photos)

Yes, the sun really did appear for a while on Saturday, and our photos from West Seattle’s newest community garden are proof. A work party at “Beyers’ Bulldog Garden” at 54th/Edmunds – a block inland from Beach Drive – was on our Saturday event list, and we stopped by to see how things were going. We just missed the biggest wave of volunteers, but there’ll be more events to come. The site has a heartwarming backstory (read it here) – Margi and Bill Beyers used to garden there, and after they died, bequeathed it to GROW. Some of their plants remain – we noted these artichokes:

That’s a hint at what Kristin Parker from GROW explains as the site’s destiny – a community-tended “food forest” including existing fruit trees, some espaliered. Donated raspberry plants are going in, too.

Though this will be operated in connection with the city’s P-Patch program, it won’t be following the model where individual gardeners sign up for individual plots – it’ll be collectively tended. You can sign up to help with this via the P-Patch website; here’s how. Part of it will be used as a “giving garden” – a shed the Beyers installed on the west side of the lot will be used to grow tomato starts!

(WSB photo, basket arrival day, April 2024)

It’s always a sign that spring is here and summer’s approaching when the West Seattle Junction Association‘s flower baskets arrive. Again this year, they’re offering you the chance to “adopt” one – helping defray the costs of keeping them up and maintained throughout the warm months. 93 baskets are available, at $199 each, which includes plaques displaying your (or your business/organization’s) name and a message. You can sign up here while they last. (This year’s baskets are again coming from Van Wingerden Nursery, which WSJA executive director Chris Mackay reports “has already put the little flower seeds in starter soil to give them a head start.”)