Angie Narus brings a tremendous attention to detail in “Walking Washington’s Gardens”, which is the perfect size for keeping in the car for quick reference. She limits her scope to non-profit or public gardens in Washington, and hopes her book “…encourages more people to not only visit gardens, but also join the effort to preserve them for the enjoyment of future generations.”
Each garden narrative is supplemented with a page-length table of all the important facts, including nearby gardens and other attractions to batch together on your tour. She does the best I’ve seen of any “outsider” in understanding the scope of the University of Washington Botanic Gardens and its spread over two sites, the Washington Park Arboretum and the Center for Urban Horticulture.
The activities of each garden, including annual events, plant sales, and education programs, are well documented, encouraging the reader to think of these gardens as year-round resources. For example, did you know that the Meerkerk Gardens on Whidbey Island offer a class on “fairy house-building” or that the Highline SeaTac Botanical Garden has an annual Ice Cream Social? More immediate questions like “Can I have a picnic?” or “Do you have restrooms?” are also answered—faster than you could ever find on your smart phone.
Excerpted from the Spring 2015 Arboretum Bulletin.