Urban Landscape, Native Landscape: April 2015

Friday, April 3, 2015

Barbie's Garden

These photos were taken in October 2014.

Barbie's Garden is on my street in the next block south of my house. The house was built in 2013, along with 11 others of the same shape & size (tall & narrow) in the Rainier Vista development in Seattle. I call it Barbie's Garden because of the candy colors that remind me of Barbie's Dream House. I spoke to the woman who lives there. She told me the garden was created by her sister. Plants in Barbie's Garden include Canna, Dahlia, Lantana, Zinnia & Pink Polka-Dot Plant (Hypoestes phyllostachya) which is just perfect for Barbie. Many of these are annual plants. I wonder what will replace them next season. It is the most interesting & best-maintained garden on that block & perhaps in all of Rainier Vista, which has a lot of dismal landscaping.

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.