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In the mid-1950s , when Ione and Emmott Chase break basis on a parcel of former logging land , their intent was simply to work up a place to withdraw in the western Washington terrain they ’d known and make love all their lives . They never thought it would become a observe public garden , but the 4.5 acres they referred to as their “ yard ” now welcomes visitors from April through October and has been identified as an spectacular object lesson of regional modernist design that ’s well deserving save .
The view from Ione and Emmott Chase ’s home juxtapose the play of Mount Rainier ’s snow - cover peak with the near landscape ’s easy swaths ofErica carnea , lawn , and old - fashioned Pfitzer juniper . exposure by : Marion Brenner . SEE MORE PHOTOS OF THIS GARDEN
The Chases , do - it - yourselfers of modest agency , launched their project after decennium of living in the ship’s company caparison of Emmott ’s employer , Puget Sound Power & Light . Equipped with axes and dynamite , the distich cleared enough stumps to make way for a simple , one - bedchamber family . They hired an designer to design the building , whose curved roof and exaggerated overhangs comply Japanese traditions , but then did much of the genuine construction themselves . Emmott install plumbery and hand - split cedar trill for the roof ; Ione sew cushion overlay and built a base - to - ceiling open fireplace rampart with stones she ’d harvested from nearby Puyallup River .
Once the family was livable , Ione turned her full attention to the garden , which occupied her for the next half - one C . For the highly Japanese - act upon garden that hugs the house ’s foundation , the Chases called on landscape architect Rex Zumwalt , again apply the result plan themselves by planting , poke ponds , and pouring curved cement patio . Beyond that somewhat formal and brooding entrance garden , however , Ione let her connection to the region dictate choices , and she ended up establishing a three - quarter - Accho discussion section that resembles an alpine meadow as well as a carefully train timberland twice that sizing , which Ione freely allow was in reality her favorite berth of all .
The sway garden feature dwarf and alpine plants that would be lose in the expanses of the hayfield garden . Throughout the dimension , Ione prefer hardy plants — such as theAquilegia vulgaris , Armeria maritima , andErysimum sp . ( dwarf wallflower ) , all shown here — that could take care of themselves when she and Emmott went to their Canadian cabin for two months each summer . Photo by : Marion Brenner . SEE MORE PHOTOS OF THIS GARDEN
Even as the Chases were take out to the vary terrain of the bluff - side place , it give legion obstacles . Alders and blackberry bush invaded the forest level , the sandy loam contained none of the mammoth rocks the Chases encountered on hikes through the Cascade foothill , and the budget of their one - income home was not tributary to the crying transformations that Brobdingnagian nursery purchases offer up . necessary proved to be the mother of invention , however , and Ione became a master propagator , civilize even particular natives , such as vanilla leaf . What she could n’t grow , she gathered , leading to coppice of westerly hemlocks she and Emmott harvested from underneath power strain and beargrass starting dug from Stampede Pass . With pain - staking consistency , Ione go plants and trees around the property for produce masses , including ocean of trillium in the forest and a peninsula of ling on the front lawn .
Ione was the one who spent time in the program library researching aim principles , but Emmott was the muscular tissue . “ He knew his way around a winch , ” says Rosina McIvor , a founder of Chase Garden Inc. , the non-profit-making chemical group of booster who have been instrumental in ensuring the garden would live on without the Chases . ( Ione passed away in 2006 at the old age of 97 and Emmott in 2010 at 99 . ) “ They work well together , ” enunciate McIvor , who became friends with the couple after her rock and roll garden society visited 18 years ago . “ And they fairly much work dayspring to gloaming after he retired . ”
As the muscle of the cognitive operation , Emmott could often be found lashed to trees while he pruned out dead branch , and he occasionally enlist his company ’s flatbed motortruck over the weekends ( paying drivers prison term and a one-half ) to clean up large boulders that came to be central features throughout the property . If the initial installation of a rock did n’t suit Ione , which was often the case , Emmott would squeeze in boards under one side for leverage it into a near position .
Pea crushed rock , rock , and a pool basin of exposed aggregate mainstay the entrance area . Ione softened the spare hardscape with clustering of blueAquilegia flabellata‘Ministar ’ ( foreground ) and fairly , lavender - floweredPenstemon davidsonii(center ) . Photo by : Marion Brenner . SEE MORE PHOTOS OF THIS GARDEN
The result of the Chases ’ elbow grease , says Seattle - based garden author Marty Wingate , is a garden with “ a great good sense of place . ” The stunning views of Mount Rainier certainly contextualize the belongings , but so do the vulgar native plants , such as low Oregon grape and evergreen huckleberry that Ione used to great core . “ There are fab , well - design , well - planted gardens that I love that could be almost anywhere , ” Wingate says , “ but this garden could only be here . ”
The garden ’s regionality is what convert the New York - ground Garden Conservancy to take on possession of the property after the mates bid to will it to them . The Chases had no children , and , as Emmott told a newspaper reporter in 1997 , “ We wanted somebody who would n’t buy the place and then write out down the trees . ”
Bill Noble , theatre director of preservation projects for the Conservancy , says his organization ’s mission is typically more about stewardship than possession , but it could not reject such an inviolate model of stylistic evolution . “ The Chase Garden emerged out of ideas that had come from Japan , Thomas Church , and that were promoted bySunsetmagazine , ” says Noble , “ and the Chases did the whole thing . They designed a business firm in this new style and made a garden in this Modern style . There are very few of those works that remain in the Pacific Northwest . ”
Over meter , the Conservancy hopes to transplant possession to McIvor ’s chemical group , but along the way , they ’re helping address hardheaded issue , such as how to add five new parking spaces without disrupting the aesthetics and how to evolve the attribute in hold on with the Chases ’ vision . Fortunately , McIvor was able to record many conversations with Ione about her plans , and the place ’s full - clock time horticultural manager , Jeannette Matthews ( who ’s been on - site for 10 days ) , had direct contact with both of the Chases . Perhaps the most crucial thing to save , though , is the passion the Chases had for the splendor they were smart enough to recognize as being within their reach . “ It ’s our sexual love that makes it seem beautiful , ” Ione once said to McIvor . “ Who says you ca n’t love inanimate thing ? you could . ”
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