Photojournalist Kim Robinson took the West Seattle Garden tour and filed reports as she toured. We added updates from each location and photos to a slideshow from each of the gardens.

Here's our primary story about the Garden Tour.

Master Composter's Garden

She started this garden from grass in late 1999, working little by little with a lot of composting and cover cropping. She began the garden more seriously in 2003. The gardener said, "It's food for the birds, the bees and me!"

Birdland Garden
Everything here looks like a place to live for birds and people. There are dozens of places for birds to set up residence and the garden is adjacent to a converted carport which provides a great place to watch the wildlife. There are numerous benches around the garden where you can sit and observe.

His and Her's or Her's and His Garden
River rocks are big feature of this garden and they encircle the parking strip plantings. The owner took a landscape deisgn course from South Seattle Community College and this led to changing their yard (and lives) forever. The 'His" of the couple, Mr. Vinson offers this observation from the tour, "Grow and leave me alone."

Treasures of Strange Origin Garden
This garden is 6 years old and was designed to be "Disneyesque". They took out the lawn and put in edible and native plants. There's sunken patio and they are building a 3 story 'dream studio' on the property. There are unique items all over this garden including some golf clubs in a pot and a giant purple flowering plant.

Tree Lover's Garden
Over a decade ago the owner of this garden purchased a fixer house but the plot was tree-less. She envisioned a natural, meandering and informal look. Throughout the garden are Euphorbia, Bamboo and Hebe. She started with trees for structure, privacy and bird cover.
There is a goldfish pond, a waterfall and a tiled bench built by the owner. She uses a kitchen fork for weeding!

South Seattle Community College Arboretum
It used to be a clay pit but they have transformed this 5 acre site into a living classroom for students of horticulture and the public. Three years ago they adopted organic gardening principles, amending the soil, getting rid of invasive plants and redesigning older planting beds.
The Arboretum is really a collection of gardens including the Entry Garden, the Upper Rose Garden, The Acer Garden and the amazing Coenosium Rock Garden which took six years to create. There are also the Milton Sutton Conifer Garden and the Brickson Garden on the site.

Long Live the Bird Tree Garden
A madrona tree in the front yard is bare and looks dead but really serves as a home and perch for all the birds that just love this garden. It's a "Bird Tree" The owner is a professional landscape designer and you can see the professional's hand in the way the plants work together. She uses her garden to test plants. It has taken 25 years to get the garden to this point and the 50 roses that go from front to back end up in a tree fort. There are driveway containers full of plants sit next to a laurel arbor.

Set to Go Garden
A Tuscan theme is present in this garden with roses, lavendar, and a glory vine growing up some maple trees. There are banana trees, and a terrace with a view of the Sound. There's a container garden here growing jasmine.
A back arbor has Wisteria growing and from where you can see a pond. The entrance has a gorgeous green arbor.