Barbara Asmervig, a Laurelhurst resident, is an avid gardner. So avid, her beautiful garden was featured in the Pacific Northest Magazine 2 years ago.
Living fairly near to the Laurelhurst Elemenary School, many people see her garden, including one of our staffers who has driven by many times always admiring her garden. Our staffer contacted Barbara curious to know more about Barbara's interest in gardening and how it all came about.
Pacfic Northwest Magazine says "Although Barbara Asmervig has lived in her Laurelhurst home for 23 years, she didn't pay much attention to the garden for the first decade or so. It was only after she retired from her medical sales job nine years ago that she began gardening. And she's been making up time ever since."
And in her own words, Barbara told us "I must emphasize that I am not a professional horticulturist and that gardening is strictly my hobby. This avocation began thirteen years ago when I retired from a long career in sales. Since being project driven and focused I needed something creative to occupy my time.
I joined Northwest Horticultural Society, and immediately began taking classes and attending lectures to absorb all the knowledge available to begin this project. Through NHS I found that gardeners are very generous people eager to share their gardening knowledge."
If you've gone by Barbara's house you will see the very organized blending of lovely colors - various colors of greens contrasting with dark burgundy shades. It's quite a sight to see when everything is in full bloom!
The magazine comments on Barbara's thoughts on these colors, "Flowers have to earn their garden space with strongly saturated color; no pastels allowed. Oranges prevail, in tulips and dahlias like 'David Howard' and 'Ellen Huston.' Asmervig admires dark-leafed plants, but avoids a too-shadowy look by mixing the deeper tones with gold and chartreuse."
Barbara told us that "Gardening is a project which is never finished. It has been referred to as the 'slowest moving of the performing arts'. It is a process.
Depending upon one's own personal attitude toward this activity, gardening can be lots of work or it can be lots of fun. I choose to see it as the latter.
Playing in the dirt is great exercise and can be very rewarding.
Sure there are negatives about gardening: the bugs, the slugs, the mildew, the squirrels all playing their role in eating, mutilating, killing, and moving your plants (re: bulbs..I refer to squirrels here). You have to water, fertilize, prune, mow, treat for disease and your back is killing you.
But the fun part is hunting for those plants and finding them, placing them in the right spot, watching them grow well, and standing back to admire your work. I prefer to do the last part with a glass of wine.
Gardening can be frustrating but it is also very gratifying."
Stay tuned in our next post for Barbara's tips and great information on container gardening.
In the meantime check out Barbara's garden just past NE 50th on 46th Avenue NE.
(Photo courtesy of Pacific Northwest Magazine)
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