Our garden has been particularly inspired by the recent publication Shrouded in Light: Naturalistic Plantings Inspired by Wild Shrublands by Kevin Phillips Williams and Michael Guidi of the Denver Botanical Gardens.  The authors challenge our industry to embrace the lessons gleaned from wild spaces in terms of resilience and adaptation that honor the cyclical rhythms and relationships of the natural world.  

The Mountain West settings displayed in  Shrouded in Light relate to another inspirational text; Harvesting Color: How to Find Plants and Make Natural Dyes by Rebecca Burgess.  The author explores the wild spaces of the Mountain West, Southwest and California using mostly native plants to wildcraft natural dyes that create beautiful textile displays. 

Through this research, we became further emboldened to highlight the ways in which natural spaces inspire artistic endeavors and the infinite opportunities for creativity offered through the natural world, lest we be open to exploring through a more thoughtful, restorative and ecologically beneficial lens.  Mix this enlivened attempt with a dash of alchemy, and we hope to create a space that is steeped in ancient practices that honor the abundance of spring and the seasonal, life-giving cycles of the natural world. 

Our work is dedicated to the idea of rewilding the urban garden by prioritizing natural materials for low-impact garden and creative endeavors, a practice built upon centuries of wild-crafting now actively being reclaimed by modern ecological landscape designers and those designers like us that like to explore what is just slightly off the beaten path.

Our garden is nestled in the scrub/shrublands and woodlands of the mountain west as the setting for our garden. This location has provoked multiple layers of intention:

• Create lush and unique climate adapted planting combinations inspired by the alpine-style scrub/shrublands and woodlands of the Mountain West.

• Exhibit a range of dye plants that can be added to the PNW garden that are both ecologically beneficial and offer opportunities for artistic endeavor.

• Accentuate the reciprocal relationship between ecological gardens and our chosen forms of botanical artistry: naturally dyed textile weavings, natural building and floral design.

• Showcase the power of prioritizing natural materials in landscape design/construction to create landscapes that are bursting with life and creative musings that also thrive in a changing climate.

Embrace the concept of rewilding as a grounding principle in ecological home garden creation.  
Thank you to all of our nursery sponsors for sharing the extensive plantings in the garden:  LB Nursery, JB Nursery, T&L Nursery, Plants Northwest, Northwest Nurseries.  A huge thank you to Mutual Materials and Pacific Topsoil that make this event possible!

Naturally Dyed, Woven Silk Panels from Artist Rachel Grunig

The Dye Garden will feature work from artist Rachel Grunig, whose ethereal works are created from foraged and cultivated plants rendered into natural dyes.  Rachel uses dyes repurposed silk to create unique textile weavings and installations that emulate natural forms.  We are honored to partner with this super talented creator!  

Natural Willow Arbors Festooned with Dye Florals and Silk Weavings

The whimsical natural arbors have been created by woven branches (a mix of willow and twig dogwood spp.) inspired by the ‘Shrub Witch’ featured in the Shrouded in Light and the visceral natural sculptures of Andy Goldworthy. The arbors offer an exuberant celebration of spring color paired with the silk weavings installed by Artist Rachel Gruning.  The arbor features cut- flowers, foliage and blooming branches, many of which are dye plants.

The arbor is decorated with: Forsythia, Flax, Delphinium, Butterfly Ranunculus, Marigold, Eucalyptus and more.

We are so grateful for the Seattle Growers Market, who seasonally offer cut- flowers from throughout the region.

Thank you SO SO MUCH to our sponsors: T&L nursery and Lake Washington Tech Horticulture School for access to the beautiful willow varieties! 

The Central Gathering Space with Live Edge Benches and Dye Bath

The central gathering space offers a moment of quiet reflection around the stainless steel water bowl with views of the artwork and plantings from all vantage points.  This still water feature is symbolic of the dye bath used to create the natural dye process.  This location also aims to offer a place for peaceful reflection, an essential component to the creative process.

The live-edge benches are the creation of internationally recognized stone sculptor, Alexandra Morosco.  These custom pieces have been fashioned with 100% natural and local materials including: local maple slabs with a sturdy granite base preserved with all natural wood oils.  Constructed on Whidbey Island. 

Crevice Garden, Alpine Style Boulder Arrangements and Stone Carvings 

The alpine style crevice garden offers a distinctive form of stone retention that emulates the stone arrangements found in wild spaces while also offering homeowners a unique, drought tolerant planting inspiration.  The vertical arrangement of the stone is a site to behold.  

Thank you to our sponsor, Rock Mountain, for the Dye Bath water saucer and all of the flat and feature stone. 

The stone carvings nestled throughout the garden are hand crafted by Lacewing’s stone mason, Ben Schultz, using sandstone locally quarried in Tenino, Washington.  These primitive pieces have been inspired by ancient stone renderings that have honored spring throughout the ages.

Photos of our work behind the scenes to prepare for the show. This section will be updated as our installation grows. (Photos may take a moment to load)

The plantings of the Dye Garden offer multi-faceted intentions for planning the naturalistic garden with creative intention. Our inspiration for this garden has been further heartened in learning that so many of the plants we already love are ALSO valued for their dye qualities.   

To create this space, the plantings will feature summer dry plantings for sun and shade gardens in the PNW that are inspired by wild spaces of the Mountain West, many of which are also dye plants.   Please visit our Plant List to learn more about the featured plants and their dye qualities.

It is our hope that the public embrace the intentions of The Dye Garden as whimsical inspiration for home garden design by also prioritizing natural materials, building with ancient techniques and committing to climate-adapted design principles, a powerful set of principles that provide hope for the adaptation and future of our industry.

The plantings of The Dye Garden offer multi-faceted intentions for planning a naturally designed garden inspired by the power of natural spaces while also offering opportunity for further creativity, reflection and transformation.  The power of plants and building with natural materials continue to astound us and we feel that this knowledge is a gift to share with the world.  We are thrilled to be able to share our intentions for the second year at the NWFGS.