Urban Landscape, Native Landscape: Volunteer Park Dahlia Garden

Dahlia 'Alloway Candy' August 2011

Dahlia 'Brookside Cheri' August 2011

Dahlia 'Eva' August 2011

Dahlia 'Fidalgo Julie' August 2011

Dahlia Northlake Heritage' August 2011

Dahlia 'Snoho Doris' August 2011

August is a good month for Volunteer Park. You can wade in the pool, climb the water tower, visit the conservatory & see the Dahlias. Dahlias are at their peak in August. The Dahlia Garden lies near the conservatory, east from the main promenade, across the lawn. Watch out for guys playing frisbee or football. The Dahlia Garden is maintained by the Puget Sound Dahlia Association. Volunteer Park is very centrally located on Capitol Hill in Seattle. The main entrance is at 14th Av E & E Prospect St.

About This Blog

This blog began in 2008 as Metropolitan Gardens to provide information on gardening in Seattle & places like it. Click on Gardening in Cascadia. The blog expanded to include Parks P-Patches Public Gardens in the US, Canada & Europe. Then Nature was added. (The difference between nature & gardens is intent. Nature happens. Gardens are planned.) Many recent posts are not about Seattle, or even Cascadia. They are Urban Landscape: streetscape & architecture. Cascadia is the region including the Cascade Mountains of Washington & Oregon. If you want to contact the blogger, leave a message in comments. Comments are moderated & private messages will not be posted.

Our Land & Climate

The city of Seattle rests between 2 bodies of water: Puget Sound & Lake Washington. Puget Sound is a substantial part of the Salish Sea & a very small part of the Pacific Ocean. The Salish Sea is set apart from the Pacific by the Olympic Peninsula in the state of Washington & Vancouver Island in the province of British Columbia. The dense, wet clouds of the Pacific Ocean travel as far as the Cascade Mountains, near the Salish Sea & not very far from the ocean. East of the Cascades lies the desert of the Columbia Basin. The moist, temperate climate of Seattle extends south to northern California & north to southeastern Alaska. The Pacific Northwest Coast from San Francisco Bay to Cook Inlet shares a flora dominated by evergreen coniferous forest. The central portion, west of the Cascade Mountains, is called Cascadia. The climate is cool & wet from fall to spring, warm & dry in summer. The Olympic Mountains block Seattle from much of the Pacific rainfall. Seattle is drier than the Atlantic coast of North America & northern Europe, cooler in summer & warmer in winter. It lies near the latitude of Paris & Quebec City.