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Before she and her married man buy this two - acre waterfront property perched on a cliff near Olympic National Park , owner Bonnie Kuchler had dreamed of owning a seam and breakfast for a decade . With a vision in mind of Thomas Kinkade ’s painting , Home is Where the Heart Is , she has turn painstakingly to recreate anEnglish gardensimilar to his , one bursting with color and grain and filled with delicious surprises .
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English - style horticulture was unfamiliar territorial dominion for Kuchler when she first take over the garden , but it ’s 2nd nature to her now , as evidenced in vignettes such as this one . Here , pinkish roses flank either side of the opening in a white picket fence , and brilliant prime in purples , Bolshevik , and pinks greet visitant as they walk through to the other side .
“ Now we partake in our gardens with about 2,000 guests a year , which is what finance my horticulture obsession , ” says Kuchler . “ I try out to inventory the plant , so I ’d have a counting to pass on to guests . ” Between perennial and bulbs , trees and Mary Jane , self - seeding annuals , and a fairy garden , Kuchler ’s best estimate is that there are around 10,220 plants of about 170 different specie - plus a few voluntary .
In addition to her passion for gardening , Kuchler loves to write and is the author of 20 natural endowment books . Her dream is to hold writing retreat at her B&B where writer can be inspired by her garden , the beauty of the ocean , the towering evergreens , and the mountain vistas .
Boldly colored blooming service as a gorgeous foreground to the picturesque view : the Strait of Juan de Fuca , toward the shores of Victoria , British Columbia .
INSPIRATION
Kuchler was born in Hawaii and go there for 40 years , so she had never seen an English garden in mortal . As she puts it , she thought of daffodils as “ something you buy in a refrigerated guinea pig . ” In the 90s , though , she bought a garden print by Thomas Kinkade . Captivated , she recalls thinking that — the garden in the photographic print — was her Bed and Breakfast . It would be many years of search before she find Sea Cliff Gardens Bed & Breakfast .
The garden was earlier the vision of the anterior proprietor of Sea Cliff Gardens . Raised in London , she was recreate the long , mixed borders she loved as a nestling . “ I ’ve made lots of change , manoeuvre the garden with more structure , ” Kuchler say . “ But the romantic , spill - over - the - border style remain . ”
At Sea Cliff , more than 100 bloom rhododendrons dazzle between March and June .
EXPERIENCE
When asked about her horticulture experience , Kuchler jokes , “ Oh , was I reckon to have experience ? ” She describe not really knowing thedifference between an yearbook and a perennialbecause tropical works grow every day of the year in Hawaii .
She employ a “ fabulously patient ” master gardener to facilitate and guide her those first mates of days . That nurseryman still comes around to visit . “ We saunter through the garden , and she stops and points—‘Bonnie , that ’s a weed , ’ she tell me . Of of course , she ’s talking about a plant I ’ve carefully rear and mulch . ”
The theme of taming an English garden endure angry is continued in this domain of the garden where marvelous purple digitalis intermingle with maroon poppy and other vivacious blooms . All throughout the garden , guests can descry lilliputian surprise such as this sundial that seem overshadow among all the marvellous plant .
PLANT SELECTION
Kuchler ’s top priority ? Color . “ I would live in a color - coordinated humankind if I could , ” she say . Though she ’s of course drawn to blues , purples , and pink , she does let in the episodic pop of peach , xanthous , or red . “ I lick to create vignette that can be catch by the camera , ” Kuchler says .
Bloom clip is also crucial . “ I want our October guests to be as delighted by my garden as our April and July Guest , ” Kuchler enounce . There ’s even interest in January with magenta heath , flatware - moundartemisia , ruby - twig dogwood , dozens of pink and chartreusehellebores , Viola tricolor hortensis , snowdrops , bald eagle , and Anna ’s hummingbirds .
Late - summer fuchsia and ‘ Emily Mckenzie ’ crocosmia adorn garden bed along the rolling lawn .
FAVORITE PLANTS
“ My favorite industrial plant are well - acquit and spiel beautifully with others , ” Kuchler say . Here are several of her favorites .
There are two plants that uprise fabulously here , but Kuchler class them as “ bullies”—Japanese anemoneandcrocosmia . “ Their sneaky belowground ball carrier make them high maintenance , but high beauty as well , ” she say .
Kuchler created a miniature Sea Cliff Gardens B&B in this fairy garden sketch , provide yet another smear for guest to admire .
SURPRISES IN THE GARDEN
When Kuchler saw a fairy garden on Pinterest , she asked her husband to convey in stones and soil and straight off start hunt for miniature treasures and dwarf conifer .
With the destination of play a miniature Sea Cliff Gardens , Kuchler paint midget Adirondack benches the same garden pink as the benches on the cliff and even base a miniature “ concrete ” bench and birdbath that mimic theirs . She fashion a flagstone walkway and put in white picket fences and a white bower . Kuchler commissioned an artist who liked pink to make the fairy theatre .
“ In Hawaii , it did n’t weigh whether I cut back my roses in January or July , ” Kuchler says . “ So I had a lot to see . ” Her continuity ante up off , and now Sea Cliff is clothe with many roaring rosiness such as these . Set against a blank picket fence and with shasta daisy , bellflower , and other brilliant flowers beyond , the roses puts on a delightful show for guests .
MAINTENANCE
“ Ease of maintenance is low on my list of care , ” Kuchler says . “ I require our guests to bask a garden that they would n’t have the time to maintain themselves . ” She notes that the garden would be extremely impractical for most people to recreate at household , and that ’s what make it a special home to bring down . She describe exert the garden , which takes at least 20 hr a hebdomad for 11 months of the yr , as her “ bliss . ”
Each yr , Kuchler hire mass to wheelbarrow in 20 yards of compost . She also rent an expert to prune the larger Tree , and from time to time she hires a professional to spray fungicide because the full sprayer is heavy to lug around . “ The rest is up to me , ” she says .
Spring Maintenance
Summer Maintenance
devolve Maintenance
“ Each frame toy with flower and foliage hue and mix up textures and tiptop , ” Kuchler say . That way of intellection leads to stunning vignettes such as this one where plants of varying heights and color complement one another .
CHALLENGES
take on an already - established garden presented its own challenge . “ I needed to tone down an English Garden gone dotty , ” Kuchler says . When she and her husband first arrived at the garden , a chemical group of master gardeners came by to preview the garden as a prospect for their yearly garden tour . Later , she heard from her mentor that they had experience no-count for her because the chore forward was so daunting . But Kuchler constrict on .
The first two year , she concentrated on getting rid of the weeds , earn it her destination to remove every Mary Jane before it went to seed . “ I remember the first twelvemonth , when the poppy seeds jump to aliveness , I meticulously pulled them out , one by one , thinking they were weeds , ” she think . It took a few old age for Kuchler to figure out the name of the plants and where they were going to emerge come spring . Then it take years to empathize the indigence of each plant , to envision their full - grownup sizing , and create the spacing each needed to flourish . “ The job get much easy by the third class , ” she recall .
After decoct on the weeds , Kuchler enter on a mission to remove or check the “ bullies ” of the garden . She call up cry over the horsetail , as she remembers jerk out “ a thousand ” every day . “ They are the cockroach of the garden , ” Kuchler says . In their places , she planted a couple thousand carefully take bulb , perennials , bush , and weed . She also transplanted dozens of plants that had outgrown their jibe or were obliterate in the wraith of now - mature trees .
Kuchler continues to exercise on coloration , examining each bed of the garden in every season - looking for ways to add color and artistic appeal . “ I do a glad dance when I see Edgar Guest point their photographic camera lens at the garden beds I ’ve travail over , ” Kuchler says .
A flagstone walkway meanders through a shaded timber garden carpeted with primrose , hostas , hellebores . Ferns and coniferous tree lend to the woodsy feel .
LESSONS
“ Every day , the garden teach me something , and often the deterrent example has nothing to do with plant , ” Kuchler says . Here are a few of her takeaways .
See more pic ofSea Cliff Gardensand travel along Kuchler ’s blog
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