COMMUNAL GARDENING and plant sharing seem unlikely notions in these competitive times. But not in a new little cottage neighborhood designed by architect Ross Chapin on Whidbey Island.
Take a trio of women with a mutual passion for plants and nature. Place them side-by-side in picturesque little cottages strung along a lane, and you've got a recipe for collective gardening that's mutually beneficial. And great fun. In only a couple of years, neighbors Toni Tulley, Paula Kerby and Marta Laven have created individualistic gardens stitched together with thoughtful cooperation and gleeful plant swaps.
Not that there isn't plenty of plant envy. When someone brings home an unusual eucalyptus, they'd better be willing to share. "We started independently, and then this plant-lust thing created some nice continuity," says Tulley. "The rhythm of repeated viburnum knits the gardens together" across the three properties. Each cottage is about 1,200 square feet, and each has a separate guest cottage out back.
Tulley is a native Australian who moved to Whidbey from San Francisco and a tiny city garden. She'd never grown ornamental grasses or deciduous plants. She's learned that plants grow much larger, and more quickly, on Whidbey, and now a nearby hedgerow is known as "Toni's mistake garden." But she has learned. Her home is filled with horticultural books. And she has plumbed the nurseries, growing adept at tracking down unusual plants.
How they keep it together
• Marta Laven takes photos of all the gardens when the others are traveling, so they can compare notes later and enjoy what bloomed in their absence.
• All the women have planted native and berried plants, put out birdbaths and hung bird feeders, attracting a wide variety of wildlife including hawks and hummingbirds.
• When the Kerby and Laven families wanted more privacy, they built a double-sided bench topped with a stained-glass window to cast colored light into both gardens.
• All three have paid close attention to the diminutive scale of the property, sticking with plants designated "nana" or "compacta" whenever possible. Shrubs grown too large are transplanted across the driveway to a hedgerow.
• Each sought professional help with stone work, fencing, construction and backbone plantings. Mary Fisher of Cultus Bay Nursery helped Tulley select plants appropriate to the Northwest, and Dana and Byron Moffet of the local Cottage Garden landscaping firm installed the Laven and Kerby gardens.
In Australia, Tulley's father cultivated native plants at the back of the house while her mother kept a staunchly English garden in front. In the Northwest, Tulley has combined both influences into a charming, flowery garden anchored with collector-quality trees and shrubs. In early spring, Cornus mas blooms bright yellow, with little purple pulsatillas, Crocus sieberi 'Bowles White' and dark-flowering hellebores covering the ground. A native white-flowering currant (Ribes sanguineum 'Icicle'), a white birch and a stunning 'Yellow Lantern' magnolia put on a springtime show. Marta Laven, a California native who arrived on Whidbey via Montana, has created a serene garden of mostly low-maintenance evergreens. Perennials and annuals are consigned to a cutting garden across the lane. Groupings of uncommon trees and shrubs, such as azaras, eucryphia manzanitas and enkianthus visually reduce the height of her home, the tallest of the three. Laven installed a stone patio to accommodate her husband's wheelchair, softening the hardscape with sweeps of evergreen shrubs for a durable, all-season garden.
Paula Kerby, a Northwest native, was the first to move in. She wanted a woodsy look, especially in front. "It was daunting to start from scratch," she says, but now her garden is divided into three distinct areas. The front is mostly trees and bamboo; a scented Grandma's garden is in back. A water feature dubbed "Paula's Folly" drips softly in a green corner. Kerby exercises the most self-control of the group, saying, "I can live with a bare spot for years while I figure out what to put there."
In the meanwhile, there is the harmonious whole. "We're so close together, it's like we have much bigger gardens," says Tulley. "We often enjoy each other's gardens more than our own."
Valerie Easton is a contributing editor for Horticulture magazine. She can be reached at valeaston@comcast.net. Mike Siegel is a Seattle Times staff photographer.
