My last '24 Fling post; the Sparler/Schouten Garden

Our July 2024 Puget Sound Fling visit to the Sparler/Schouten garden was my second opportunity to take in the fabulousness of this garden. I'd previously visited in June of 2022 as part of the NPA Study Weekend.

Here's part of the garden description from our Fling booklet: "We call it the Garden of Exuberant Refuge, but it’s bound to evoke other “e” words for visitors: exotic, eccentric, erratic or even egregious in the many ways it flouts convention. Design purists beware! If you see anything remotely tasteful, we assure you it’s purely coincidental. Now in its 33^rd outrageous year, this is a collector’s garden in which the wild and wacky plants have taken over the asylum."

The fist time I visited this garden I went through the spaces to the left of the driveway first (taking the pathway shown above), and came up through the plantings on sunny side of the house to finish the tour. This time I reversed my steps.

Sunny side first!

The plants up against the brick house are treated to an enclosure over the winter, during Seattle's rainy season. I wrote a short post back in 2023 that shows the lengths these guys go to protect their plants, if you're curious you can see that here.

Variegated Agave victoriae-reginae.

Stepping into the back garden now, and here's more of the garden description: "In addition to stuffing our 1/3-acre lot with cosmopolitan plants representing upwards of 4700 taxa, we installed a network of pathways to link patios, shady resting spots, an elevated circular pond with dripping columns, a viewing pavilion, and a tiled, tiny Italianate “piazza,” all of which we designed and built with our own hands. Every bit of this garden is do-it-yourself."

I was rather shocked at how perfectly spiraled this spiral cactus (Cereus forbesii 'spiralis') was. I've seen many of these in gardens and nurseries and it's kinda rare that one maintains such an even pattern.

If you didn't click on the post I linked to earlier about how the pair overwinters the containers I'm giving you another chance now (here).

I find their dedication rather remarkable, as one crazy container collector gardener to another.

There are many aeonium in the garden.

And of course several pseudopanax, both P. ferox and P. crassifolius. On the right below is a P. ferox planted in the ground.

At the base of the viewing pavilion mentioned in the garden description, Aloe plicatilis.

A wide-shot of the same area.

There are several tree ferns (Dicksonia antarctica) of various sizes around the garden.

I'm particularly fond of this tiled pond at the backside of the viewing pavilion. I believe there is a small leak that means it's not currently able to hold water.

Columns of the "Italianate piazza."

Agave parryi

And now I've back-tracked a bit to take photos of the other pseudopanax in the ground. Apologies to Daniel, as I can't remember exactly what was damaged by winter of 2023/24, but I think what you're seeing here is new growth from the base.

One of two tall plants showing some serious die-back.

And another looking better.

Moving on thru the back garden now, preparing to walk on up the opposite (shady) side.

I wish I remembered what this is. The foliage reminds me of a kid's kaleidoscope that you twist and the patterns drop into place subtly different than what came just before.

More tree ferns...

And one of those rare bromeliad/tree fern hybrids. AKA when your tree fern dies but you want to do something interesting with its trunk.

Colorful pop!

Moving back into the front garden now.

Can you make out those two trunks that were cut back about waist high?

They were once tetrapanax trunks.

I think I told people on the Fling I thought they'd been lost to winter cold, but that may not have been correct. Whatever the reason the make nice perches for the local frogs.

I was glad to see the monkeys were still hanging out.

Begonia bonfire, I believe.

I've almost come full circle now, from my first image.

But there are still a few more vignettes to share.

Here's the elevated circular pond...

With dripping columns...

Up near the house again, these totems are new since my last visit.

They caught my eye, but then I noticed the the large leaves with an outline...Farfugium japonicum 'Kinkan' I believe. What a great plant to wrap up this visit. Thank you Daniel and Jeff for letting us Flingers wander your garden!

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Local garden landmarks at Moonlight State Beach, north of San Diego

While exchanging messages with Jim Bishop (working out the details for my visit to his garden during our trip to San Diego), he shared photos on Facebook of a garden near the beach in Encinitas that was open for people to explore. He narrowed down the location (Moonlight State Beach) and I put it on my itinerary for the day I visited Bird Rock Tropicals (which I still haven't written about!). When bookmarking the spot I discovered Dave's Rock Garden just up the street...

How can you not love a garden with the tag line "Bringing Unity to our Community"?

Agave shawii

From the website: "My name is Dave Dean and In 2015, I started picking up trash and pulling up weeds on an old abandoned lot owned by the State. After the weeds were cleared, I began planting drought tolerant succulents to prevent the run-off of soil. Next, I created pathways with rocks that I gathered from the beach. One day, a lady left a painted black and white heart medallion rock at the end of the garden pathway and the magic began. I thought instead of one black and white rock, one day I will have a thousand rocks, painted by a thousand people, in a thousand colors. So I began to provide paint and brushes and invited visitors to paint a rock. Today, we have over 7,000 painted rocks, from over 115 countries and from the ages of 1 to 103." (source)

I liked the Cat in the Hat with a rather Seussian backer.

That's a lot of rocks!

The plants are pretty fabulous as well.

Velma, missing her glasses. I wonder if she can see the rocks?

Gorgeous kalanchoe flowers...

That's Moonlight State Beach in the distance.

What a fun garden to walk through!

Then we were off to the private garden Jim had photographed. It was closer to the beach and much more densely planted.

I ended up just circling the perimeter, looking for a way in.

Turning back to go up the other side.

Yes I wanted to walk up the driveway, but I did not. 

Soft and chalky + spiky. 

They had one of the best trash/recycling corrals I've ever seen...

Final view of the garden compound from the beach.

We parked by this nice minimalistic garden design.

The angle I took these photos from makes it look like the garden belongs to the black home, but no. This is the front garden of black house.

The columnar and barrel cactus, Yucca rostrata playground...

Belonged to the white tile (brick?) home.

Here's their living fence on the other side.

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All material © 2009-2025 by Loree L Bohl. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.