Better Homes and Gardens

Country Gardens Review

CHARM SCHOOL
A garden in the Pacific Northwest shares a lesson in lighthearted design... matches the fun-loving personalities of it's creatores.

Bunny appreciates dahlias, such as this peachy-orange 'Hamilton Lillian', for their versiatility.

Bunny discovered her winged guests prefer a birdhouse sheltered by a tangle of plantings such as these pink, red, and purple sweet peas

Whimsy blooms in Bunny and Bob Meal's carefree landscape on Whidbey Island, Washington. Their garden's gravel paths wind nonchalantly past fence rows adorned with fanciful birdhouses and imaginative accents. The walkways pass raised flower beds brimming with dahlias, hollyhocks, nasturtiums, and other pass-along plants. The land readily displays Bunny and Bob's spontaneous, lighthearted approach to gardening and life.

That feeling inspired the garden's cottage-style design. "I've read a person's garden reflects the personality of the gardener, and that's definitely true of mine," Bunny says. "I'm not one to have a formal garden. I seem to have gotten more whimsical with age, and so has my garden."

Bunny, who grew up in Atlanta, avoided battling the heavy red clay, heat, pests, and disease at their former Georgia home. But Washington's mild climate, longer summer days, and alluvial soil have helped Bunny discover her untapped horticultural bent. "We went from one extreme to the other," she says looking back on the move. "I was so thrilled. You can literally just drop something in the ground here and it grows."

Bob and Bunny's move to Whidbey Island 15 years ago brought improved growing conditions and inspired them to embrace the Northwest's more lighthearted approach to gardening and living. "It was definitely a move of the heart," Bunny says. "Here in the Pacific Northwest it's very casual. We have a much more rustic country home and garden—simple country style that integrates with the nature that was here to begin with."

When the Meals first discovered the island property, the garden comprised three modest raised beds and several abandoned outbuildings, including a lean-to potting shed that leaned a bit too far. But Bob and Bunny looked past the uninspired landscaping to the property's captivating 6-acre location on a bluff overlooking Saratoga Passage on Puget Sound.

"Washington State is a phenomenal place because it has rain forests and deserts, rolling plains, the Sound, and the mountains," Bunny says. "When you live in such a beautiful place, you feel the need to be a good steward of it."

Part of that stewardship includes potting up plants in their new garden shed. Bob and Bunny surrounded the plot outside the shed with a wire fence to keep it off-limits to hungry deer and rabbits that might munch on Bunny's beloved dahlias, sweet peas (Lathyrus odoratus), and other tempting perennials. "It's a highly concentrated garden for that reason," Bunny says. "A lot of plants I like to grow wouldn't stand a chance outside the fence."

Bunny packed her garden with birdhouses and tempting forage plants to attract a bevy of songbirds. Each of the 14 fence posts that surrounds the garden is home to a birdhouse to encourage winged friends to take up residence. Bunny refers to the cupola of the nearby barn as the bird condo, with its 60 inliidual nesting compartments.

Some of the plants, such as strawberries, blackberries, and blueberries, even provide fresh treats for human guests. Bob and Bunny's congenial personalities prompted them to convert a guest bungalow, a dovecote, and an old potting shed into bed-and-breakfast cottages. Now they welcome a never-ending stream of visitors.

The couple finds that the more people they share their garden with, the more they enjoy it themselves. Bunny's generosity is evident in her rationale for gardening. "We're open year-round and have a lot of return guests," Bunny says. "That's really the reason I do the garden, because they seem to love it."

The couple's latest project is the cultivation of a wildflower meadow, which they hope will attract even more birds and bees. And if it happens to bring a few smiles to the faces of satisfied guests, so much the better.

COUNTRY GARDENS -- Spring 2005