It’s been a week since the Northwest Flower & Garden Festival opened and we could finally show our entire display garden to everyone. We loved giving sneak peaks on our socials but it feels so good to not have to hide it anymore! From our incredible installation crew at Alliance Landscape Services and Neucon Construction to our amazing artists featured in the garden to the many volunteers, everyone was such a dream to work with and we could not be anymore thankful and appreciative of everyone’s hard work to bring The Gathering Garden to life.
A display garden really is a labor of love and the planning and designing starts way before we were allowed to construct the garden on the show room floor. Our planning started immediately after attending 2024’s show, a full year ago! The first couple months was spent working on the design and vision for the garden and trying to figure out what we could do with the space size and shape that we had chosen. We worked in both cad and Sketchup so we had both 2-D and 3-D drawings of the design.
Once we had a general layout and vision for the garden, we solidified our installer and started contacting local artists and vendors for the pieces in the garden. This is one of the more time consuming elements but one of the most rewarding. We loved getting to collaborate with artists and suppliers that we’ve worked with in the past while creating relationships with new vendors for various parts of this project.
In the fall we also had to start ordering our trees, shrubs, perennials, and bulbs so that we could finalize the planting plan. The gorgeous blooms in our garden were provided by T&L Nursery while the trees and shrubs were provided by Western Nursery Sales.
Alliance & Neucon also worked behind the scenes to pre-build the 3 arbors and the deck platforms so they coordinated with the height of the trough pool.
As we got closer, quantity of materials were verified, countless deliveries were received, and layouts were double & triple checked to ensure a smooth installation.
The building of the display garden took place over a very short window of time. We were allowed in at noon on Saturday, the 15th and had to be out by noon on Tuesday, the 18th. This time includes moving everything in, the actual garden build, planting, placement of art, furniture staging, and cleaning. It’s a lot to fit into such a small amount of time!
By the end of Saturday the entire block wall layout was completed along with the pool placement and deck platforms installed and pavers were laid in place.
Most of Sunday was spent placing and installing all the plant material, labeling plants, getting the pool & shower up and running, and installing lighting. The sculpture, by Shannon Buckner of Bent Productions, was also placed in the garden.
By Monday we had the bulk of the build completed! We added in a few more filler plants for more color and cleaned as much as we could. We also staged our furniture, fire pit, stools, and pizza oven. Our glass artist, Jesse Kelly, delivered and placed his pieces in the fire pit (ModFire) and the planters (Iron Age Designs) on Monday afternoon.
Tuesday morning was spent scrubbing blocks, cleaning the deck, sweeping pavers, and finessing plant material as much as we could. All the final touches were completed by noon and then we had to vacate the floor so the judging could start. It was a whirlwind 3 days! Our garden won a Silver Medal!
We couldn’t be happier with the end result and if you came to the show, we so appreciate your support!! Everyone we worked with made the Gathering Garden go in seamlessly and we are so thankful to everyone!
If you want to learn more and dive into an inside peek at the design and creation of the display garden and cover how to create a vision and goals for your garden, we have a free class on Wednesday, March 12th, at 10am PT. You can sign up for this Zoom-based class here. Both homeowners and designers are welcome!
