Arlington Garden Club

Kian Soh's Garden

Kian came to Arlington and gardening from quite an interesting route. She was born in Singapore, and, as a young girl, she wasn’t really involved in gardening, although she remembered that her grandmother grew tropical houseplants and orchids in the extreme heat of the tropics.

Later, Kian traveled to New Zealand to attend college. She recalled visiting the sheep farm of a classmate and was intrigued by all the plants growing there, including herbs and vegetables. Soon she bought a purple petunia to brighten up her room at college. The seed was planted!

After marriage, Kian moved to the midwest United States. While her husband attended graduate school, she found herself with time on her hands. Kian joined a community garden where she learned vegetable gardening from fellow gardeners. When her husband completed school, they moved to the Bay area in California and from there to Redmond, Washington. Each new home had established gardens, and Kian maintained and expanded the plantings while developing her gardening skills.

When moving to Arlington two years ago, Kian transplanted many of the plants from Redmond. Her newly-built home landscape was a blank canvas that included a pasture. She designed and developed her garden from bare ground. Immediately she started working on the hardscape surrounding her home which gives the sense of a garden much older than it is. Kian orders from many seed catalogs and reports good luck with her vegetable garden and perennials. She only wishes she had better luck with tomatoes! The anchor plants of her garden are her ornamental grasses, which are her favorites. She thinks ahead about her garden and the desire for easier maintenance as she ages.

Kian is itching to get together with garden club members. Because of the pandemic, meetings have been postponed until it’s safe to gather again. Fortunately, her garden has kept her busy in this strange time we all find ourselves in.

Books, websites and other fun and helpful information

HD Clump website

Kian S shared this link. It's a great website for exploring fun and informational garden videos. Explore the Chelsea Garden Show, for example. Or a video on A to Z gardening. If you're into cooking or documentaries there are many more videos to explore. Click here: hdclump

Ask Dorthy

Dorthy Massey gave a presentation at one of our club meetings about solutions to garden problems. Members also asked questions and she answered. On our Members Only page we've included a handout but the public can view her YouTube channel or check out her Facebook page. Thank you Libby A for sharing this.

Karen Chapman of Le Jardinet Designs

One of our favorite local gems is Karen Chapman of Le Jardinet Designs. She's a garden designer, speaker, teacher and author. Check out her website, Le Jardinet Designs and make sure you take a peek at her blog while you're there. Karen's three information packed books are available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

Charles Dowding - "No-Dig" Gardening

Charles Dowding is a renowned market gardener who advocates a "no-dig" gardening method for vegetable growing. He also has a YouTube channel where he provides vegetable growing tips. He gardens in Zone 8 which is similar to our NW climate, so his tips are useful.

Monty Don - advice from a British gardener

Monty Don OBE is a British gardener and presenter of the long running gardening show Gardening World (which is available via YouTube or HD Clump).

Piet Oudolf Garden Inspiraton

Piet Oudolf is the designer of the famous High Line Garden in NY and the Lurie in Chicago. He is famous for naturalistic gardening plantings. His website showcases pictures of the famous gardens all over the world that he has designed.

Margaret Roach's "A Way to Garden"

Margaret Roach’s website has useful interviews with various gardening experts in the US, useful gardening tips. She does, however, garden in upstate NY, so climate is more extreme than ours.

Garden Answer

AGC member Kathy E shared this website: www.gardenanswer.com. Laura and her husband Aaron post videos of everyday gardening they do in their garden in eastern Oregon. Laura is an experienced gardener. While growing up, her family owned a garden center and she worked there as well. They have 1.3 million followers on Facebook and post videos on Youtube.

Floret Flowers

Here is another website shared by Kathy E that cut flower enthusiasts should definitely check out!

Floret Flowers is a family-owned business supplying cut flowers and seeds - it is located in Mount Vernon but is followed worldwide! Considered to be the country’s most influential farmer-florist, Erin Benzakein has shaped floral design trends, redefined micro-farming, and inspired thousands to grow and share seasonal flowers. Erin has a free three-part mini-course for people who want to grow a cut flower garden. She has published two beautiful books and has a third one in the works. Her story is fascinating.

https://www.floretflowers.com/

Virtual Garden Tours

Here are a few recommendations published by the Everett Arboretum:

Highgrove Gardens is the home of the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall. Its gardens are spectacular--and sustainably managed.

Kew Gardens is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and home to over 14,000 trees and 50,000 different plant species.

The Gardens at Waddesdon Manor were built by Baron de Rothschild (well, actually by his gardeners) and are an amazing example of Victorian garden design.

Another site worth visiting is The National Garden Scheme UK which is the largest funder of Hospice UK's work. Owners of private gardens open up their gardens to the public to raise funds for nursing and health charities and made an annual donation of £3 million in 2019. This year, private garden owners are providing virtual tours of their gardens.
Here is another link to 11 gardens you can visit virtually: https://www.gardensillustrated.com/gardens/gardens-to-visit/virtual-garden-tours-best/ (the Everett Arboretum recommendations are also among the 11 gardens listed).

Potpourri

Member Garden of the Month

Kian Soh's Garden

Kian's Garden