Seattle Sun Newspaper - Vol. 8, Issue 5, May 2004

Copyright 2004 Seattle Sun. Please feel free to use the article below in your research. Be sure to cite the Seattle Sun as your source.

Delicious scenery featured

on Wallingford Garden Tour

By JAMES BUSH

From the row of dwarf pear trees that screen his front porch from the street to the apples, plums, berries, vegetables and salad greens found elsewhere, Kent Dickson's garden is good enough to eat.

There's a simple explanation behind Dickson's fascination with fruit trees. When he and wife, Lauren Sonik, lived in Portland, they planted a cherry tree in the yard, but had to move after three years. Then, after relocating, they planted another cherry tree in their next yard, but again had to move. "So we never got the advantage of the fruit," he says.

Their garden is one of several to be featured in the Wallingford Garden Tour, which will be held Saturday, May 22 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The cost is $10 and tickets, maps and programs will be available the Saturday preceding the event at the Wallingford Garden Spot, Pirformis Nursery, or the Wallingford Neighborhood Office. Tickets can also be purchased at these locations on the day of the event.

When Dickson and Sonik moved to their Wallingford home 14 years ago, they did so with the intention of putting down roots both figuratively and literally. Dickson got his fruit trees: from the row of dwarf pears, to the apple trees at each end of the front yard, to the plum tree which screens a side window from his neighbor's house.

In their backyard, which features a patio of pavers surrounded by green, there are more plums, both sweet and sour cherries, raspberries, cascade berries and boysenberries plus three new additions in pots (Italian prune, pear and peach trees).

Dickson's garden isn't entirely edible. The front yard features a camellia and a rhododendron which predated their tenure, plus a dwarf boxwood hedge that probably dates back to the late 1920s. A large bush of antique roses scents the backyard air with its powerful fragrance in early summer, until the Oriental lilies bloom and make their own sweet-smelling contribution.

"We spend an awful lot of time outdoors, so my thing is to have a garden that looks nice throughout the year," says Dickson. Using a diversity of plants is a good tactic for dealing with Seattle's sometimes unpredictable summer weather. "If it's a bad year for cherries, it's probably a good year for something else," he says.

Dickson fell in love with the green Northwest when he moved here from Chicago in 1975. "That Christmas, I picked a rose on Christmas Eve and I was just flabbergasted," says the veteran of the Chicago snows. "I was so taken by the evergreens. It just seemed so lush."

He started his own garden and soon began working as a self-employed gardener. After several years working in nurseries as a manager, he was accepted into the University of Washington's Landscape Architecture Program.

His first work as a professional landscape architect came as a designer, but he decided he preferred the design/build field. He and two partners formed the design/build partnership, VanSanden Wood Dickson Inc.

The advantage of a design/build firm is that it eliminates the challenge of ensuring the finished work would match the design, he says. Now, "it always looks like the way I designed it and that's a real joy."

Dickson uses his own garden to try out new plants before featuring them in designs.

"This is where I try out perennials," he says. "If they survive under my lackadaisical care, they'll work for my clients."

He says his favorite aspect about his fellow Wallingford gardeners is the way they eschew grass for unique and clever plantings on parking strips.

He says this "very Wallingford" trait caught his attention when he was working with others to compile the neighborhood plan. "At the time," he says, "I thought it would be lovely if Wallingford were known as the garden district of Seattle."

* * *

Wallingford Garden Tour

DATE: Saturday, May 22

TIME: 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.

COST: $10 adults

Map and programs are included with ticket. Buy tickets as early as a week in advance.

BUY TICKETS AT:

Neighborhood Office behind Tulley's at 2100 45th St.· 632-3165.

Wallingford Garden Spot: In the Wallingford Center at 1815 N. 45th St. · 547-5137.

Piriformis Nursery & Garden Art: In East Fremont off Stone Way at 1051 N. 35th St. · 632-1760