Seattle Inspiration

I’m totally inspired by the East Queen Anne neighborhood in Seattle where we stayed for a few days.  Street after street of well-kept craftsman homes just oozing with charm.  The houses are very close together (even closer than in our neighborhood!) and the properties are small, but everyone seemed to take advantage of every inch of land available with beautiful landscaping.   Instead of just lining the front of the house with bushes and leaving the rest of the front yard for grass (the signature “look” for most of the country), they maximized their yard’s potential.

Homeowners created layers using stones and retaining walls.  They mix heights and textures and colors with ornamental grasses and bushes and flowers.  Rose gardens, climbing vines on trellises, no space was wasted.  Lawns were only part of the chorus - not the star of the show.  One house filled their entire front yard with wildflowers behind a white picket fence and it was simple yet spectacular.  Many people planted flowers or plants in the space between the sidewalk and the curb.  There were even miniature cul-de-sacs at intersections, just filled with flowers and greenery.

After being in Seattle, our yard seems boring.  While it’s an improvement over what used to be there (or lack thereof), my straight rows of shrubbery against the house suddenly seem so dull and unimaginative.   I’m not about to undo all of our hard work and start digging it all up to create a new arrangement... yet.   But I’ve been inspired.  And the wheels are turning in my head.  It’s not a priority, even as far as landscaping goes we have more work to do in the backyard first... but it’s something I’ll be thinking about in the future.