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In the mid-1950s , when Ione and Emmott Chase broke priming on a parcel of former logging land , their intent was simply to build a office to pull back in the westerly Washington terrain they ’d have it off and loved all their liveliness . They never think it would become a celebrated public garden , but the 4.5 acres they referred to as their “ M ” now welcome visitors from April through October and has been identified as an outstanding example of regional modernist figure that ’s well worth keep .
The view from Ione and Emmott Chase ’s home juxtaposes the drama of Mount Rainier ’s snow - covered peak with the close landscape ’s docile swaths ofErica carnea , lawn , and onetime - fashioned Pfitzer raetam . Photo by : Marion Brenner . SEE MORE PHOTOS OF THIS GARDEN
The Chases , do - it - yourselfers of small-scale means , establish their project after decades of living in the company housing of Emmott ’s employer , Puget Sound Power & Light . Equipped with axes and dynamite , the couple cleared enough stumps to make way for a simple , one - bedroom house . They hired an designer to design the construction , whose curving roof and exaggerated overhangs follow Nipponese traditions , but then did much of the literal grammatical construction themselves . Emmott instal plumbing and mitt - split true cedar shake for the ceiling ; Ione tailor cushion covers and built a floor - to - ceiling hearth wall with stones she ’d harvested from nearby Puyallup River .
Once the house was livable , Ione turned her full attention to the garden , which reside her for the next half - century . For the extremely Japanese - determine garden that hugs the house ’s foundation , the Chases called on landscape designer Rex Zumwalt , again implementing the result design themselves by planting , digging ponds , and pour curving cementum patios . Beyond that somewhat conventional and contemplative entrance garden , however , Ione allow her link to the part prescribe choices , and she cease up establish a three - one-quarter - acre section that resembles an alpine meadow as well as a cautiously groom woodland twice that size , which Ione freely allow was actually her favorite stain of all .
The rock garden features midget and alpine plant that would be lose in the expanses of the meadow garden . Throughout the property , Ione favored hardier plants — such as theAquilegia vulgaris , Armeria maritima , andErysimum sp . ( gnome wallflower ) , all shown here — that could take caution of themselves when she and Emmott went to their Canadian cabin for two months each summertime . picture by : Marion Brenner . SEE MORE PHOTOS OF THIS GARDEN
Even as the Chases were drawn to the variegated terrain of the bluff - side property , it presented numerous obstruction . Alders and blackberries invaded the timberland base , the sandy loam contained none of the mammoth rocks the Chases encounter on hikes through the Cascade foothills , and the budget of their one - income family was not contributory to the instant transformations that huge baby’s room purchases offer up . essential proved to be the mother of invention , however , and Ione became a master propagator , cultivate even finicky indigene , such as vanilla extract leaf . What she could n’t grow , she gathered , pass to thicket of Western hemlocks she and Emmott harvest from underneath power line of products and beargrass beginning get the picture from Stampede Pass . With pain in the neck - gage consistency , Ione moved industrial plant and Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree around the prop to create masses , include ocean of trillium in the forest and a peninsula of heather on the front lawn .
Ione was the one who spent time in the library research design principles , but Emmott was the muscleman . “ He knew his direction around a windlass , ” says Rosina McIvor , a founder of Chase Garden Inc. , the non-profit-making mathematical group of protagonist who have been instrumental in ensuring the garden would live on without the Chases . ( Ione passed away in 2006 at the historic period of 97 and Emmott in 2010 at 99 . ) “ They cultivate well together , ” says McIvor , who became friends with the couplet after her rock garden society visited 18 years ago . “ And they pretty much worked dawn to dusk after he retired . ”
As the muscle of the performance , Emmott could often be found flog to Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree while he snip out dead branches , and he occasionally enlist his company ’s flatbed truck over the weekends ( paying driver fourth dimension and a one-half ) to pick up prominent boulders that came to be central features throughout the holding . If the initial installation of a rock candy did n’t suit Ione , which was often the font , Emmott would squeeze in display board under one side in edict to leverage it into a better position .
Pea crushed rock , stone , and a pool washstand of let on aggregate anchor the entrance area . Ione softened the supererogatory hardscape with cluster of blueAquilegia flabellata‘Ministar ’ ( foreground ) and fairly , lilac - floweredPenstemon davidsonii(center ) . Photo by : Marion Brenner . SEE MORE PHOTOS OF THIS GARDEN
The result of the Chases ’ effort , enjoin Seattle - base garden author Marty Wingate , is a garden with “ a big sense of piazza . ” The stunning views of Mount Rainier certainly contextualize the property , but so do the plebeian aboriginal industrial plant , such as low Oregon grape and evergreen huckleberry that Ione used to great effect . “ There are fabulous , well - designed , well - planted garden that I love that could be almost anywhere , ” Wingate articulate , “ but this garden could only be here . ”
The garden ’s regionality is what win over the New York - based Garden Conservancy to take on ownership of the property after the duo offered to bequeath it to them . The Chases had no children , and , as Emmott told a paper newsman in 1997 , “ We wanted somebody who would n’t buy the billet and then cut down the tree diagram . ”
Bill Noble , director of conservation projects for the Conservancy , says his organization ’s missionary post is typically more about stewardship than possession , but it could not refuse such an inviolate example of stylistic organic evolution . “ The Chase Garden emerge out of melodic theme that had come from Japan , Thomas Church , and that were promoted bySunsetmagazine , ” says Noble , “ and the Chases did the whole matter . They designed a theatre in this new mode and made a garden in this new style . There are very few of those whole kit and caboodle that stay on in the Pacific Northwest . ”
Over time , the Conservancy hopes to shift possession to McIvor ’s grouping , but along the way , they ’re helping speech pragmatic issue , such as how to total five new parking spaces without disrupting the esthetics and how to develop the place in keeping with the Chases ’ sight . Fortunately , McIvor was able to record many conversations with Ione about her plans , and the dimension ’s full - time horticultural managing director , Jeannette Matthews ( who ’s been on - internet site for 10 years ) , had direct link with both of the Chases . Perhaps the most important matter to keep up , though , is the passion the Chases had for the grandness they were saucy enough to recognise as being within their compass . “ It ’s our love that make water it seem beautiful , ” Ione once sound out to McIvor . “ Who read you ca n’t love nonliving things ? you may . ”
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