A BIG GUY carrying traps and wearing a T-shirt that asked "Got Moles?" was an all-too-familiar sight around Kathy and Jim Stoetzer's place. Yes, they had moles, along with a soggy lawn, blackberries, ivy and plants past their prime. The slew of problems was seriously disrupting the paradise vibe of their picturesque Lake Forest Park garden.
It was the green serenity of the acre-and-a-half garden, complete with a stretch of Lyons Creek, that first attracted the Stoetzer family to the property. The 1914 log home, longtime residence of architect Arthur Edwards, completed the charming picture. The Stoetzers used to live right across the street, an ideal perch to admire one of the oldest properties in Lake Forest Park. When the property came up for sale in the mid-1980s, they pounced. It didn't take the Stoetzers long to learn that the garden was badly in need of rejuvenation.
From the towering evergreen trees to the overmature rhodies and expanses of lawn, this was one green garden. The giant muddy pond of a back garden was worrisome. A huge yew tree cast its heavy shadow between the house and creek. "It used to be stinky muck and bamboo out here . . . it was wet, wet, wet," says Kathy of her back garden.
The Stoetzers began by remodeling the house, removing the big decks and adding a new wing. They whittled away at the garden, rather than taking on an intimidating makeover all at once. Removing the yew let light into the back, and transplanting all that bamboo to the edges of the property opened up vistas from the house to the creek. They added plenty of new drainage, and built an oval stone patio that fits comfortably into the contours of the backyard. A heat lamp and firepit warm it up.
New life for an old garden
A goal of the Stoetzer family's garden makeover was to bring more year-round interest. Among the things done to mix it up:
• Witch hazels, sasanqua camellias, hydrangeas and lilies were added for flower and fragrance through the seasons.
• Since sun is scarce in a wooded garden, every scrap of sunlight was planted in flowers. Outside the kitchen door is a riot of white and yellow lilies, daisies, pale astilbe and chartreuse lady's mantle.
• In the damp creekbed margins, dozens of candelabra primroses have been added to bloom among the ferns.
• The tall evergreens have a new understory of colored foliages and highly textured plants such as feathery nandina, purple-leafed Cercis canadensis 'Forest Pansy' and the golden locust tree (Robinia pseudoacacia frisia). Closer to the ground, variegated hostas, dark-leafed heucheras and chartreuse euphorbias add interest.
• The lawn-side borders are packed with red-, white- and blue-flowering hydrangeas for a midsummer show. Bright red lilies and crocosmia (C. 'Lucifer') offer vivid contrast.
Four years ago the Stoetzers got down to business, spurred on by the prospect of an upcoming summer party. They hired the aunt and niece team of Robynswood Landscaping and Tagert Design, and the women set to work cleaning out borders wildly overgrown with ivy and blackberries. They installed stone and gravel paths, with yet more drainage, so it's possible to navigate the garden with dry feet. Overgrown hydrangea and azalea hedges were dug up and dispersed. Against this green canvas, the Stoetzers and their design/build team planted hundreds of new plants, chosen for their colored foliages, fragrance, textures and year-round interest.
The success of the renovation was in part a result of the couple's realism. In a shady area where they'd tried to grow grass for years, they simply gave up and built a little tool shed beneath the cedars. Despite all the additions and renovations, the garden's essential forested quality remains pervasive. "It's like living at Mount Rainier," says Kathy. "You don't often get to see cedars like this close in to the city."
The Stoetzers' place has been chosen as the poster garden for this year's Lake Forest Park Garden Tour on Saturday, June 17.
Valerie Easton is a Seattle freelance writer and contributing editor for Horticulture magazine. Her e-mail address is valeaston@comcast.net. Mike Siegel is a Seattle Times staff photographer.
