The Long Run / by Michael Johns

Approaching 40 has put me in a bit of a funk. I wouldn’t call it a midlife crises, but turning the corner of middle life has forced me to reflect on my priorities for the next 40 years…assuming I make it that far. Apparently a new priority, potentially a product of my aging, is gardening. Casey and I were fortunate enough to acquire a small 5,000 square foot parcel of land on the north end of Tacoma in 2021, where we now call home. Since then, we have been spending most of our weekends reshaping the yard into a meandering narrow garden oasis full of eclectic plants, with a specific bend towards those found in the southern hemisphere or bordering on the edge of surviving in our Pacific Northwest climate.

The garden consists of 4 primary terraces, sloping down from South to North, each with distinctly different microclimates. The upper terrace is where the house sits. A small rectangle space at street level on a southern aspect, with reflected heat from the house and sidewalk creating baking hot conditions during the summer months and a milder climate during the rest of the year compared to the lower terraces. Shaded by the house and a mature cotoneaster is the second terrace, which naturally contains many shade loving plants like ferns and mosses, a large koi pond, and a modest lawn framed by linear beds and bisected by a curved foot path. The third terrace is dominated by gravel that encircles a central round “dessert bed”. Delineating the entrance to the fourth terrace is a crescent bed containing a mixture of old roses and new introductions, and what we call “The L Wall”, a shaded seating area shrouded by vines, blueberry, and raspberry bushes. The lowest terrace, which is currently under construction, will be our “kitchen garden”, with raised beds containing a mixture of vegetables and cut flowers. Past the woodshed and through the gate house leads to a mature big leaf maple forest that the property backs up against, providing some protection from cold northerly winds in the winter.

So that’s the garden in a nutshell. As time goes by I plan on highlighting specific plants I find interesting, document how the garden changes over time, and do a bit of research on the plants we’ve selected to cultivate and grow. Oh, and we’re calling the garden “Long Run”, due to its long skinny shape, the age of the house and property (100 years old this year), and the duration of time required for many of the new plantings to reach their full maturity and splendor.