Happy Friday GPO players!

Sadly, Cherry Ong’s visit to the Nancy Heckler Gardens in Indianola, Washington, has come to an end. While Nancy’s garden seems to have endless treasures and places to explore, we’ll leave some to the imagination. Nancy occasionally opens her gardens to the public, so we highly recommend keeping an eye out for garden tours of the Puget Sound area for a chance to see Nancy’s incredible spaces first-hand. Of course, if you can’t make it to Washington, you can always scroll through all the gorgeous photos of Cherry she’s shared with us over the weeks (Part 1 , Part 2 , and Part 3 ).

Today we explore another garden room filled with art! 🦎 This room is hidden on the other side of the garden where Fergus and Brocc took us. The first thing that greets you upon arrival is this unique inanimate lizard climbing up a tree. Nancy said a friend made it and it looked like it had been living in the forest for many years. She won’t move the piece because every time she does, part of it falls off.

Throughout the visit, the sweet smell of the forest enhanced our experience, especially in this garden room.

There are a few more rooms, but this will be the last part of the series. Until next trip to the garden.

King Cherry

Cherry on that incredible lizard sculpture mentioned above. It’s hard to tell what materials this piece of art is made from, but that’s part of what makes it so interesting.

If you’ve looked at other parts of this garden in the series, you’ll have seen many examples of the colorful glass spheres scattered throughout Nancy’s garden. As well as some really beautiful garden art, they are a way to tie all of Nancy’s incredible designs together and add even more sparkle to her shady garden beds.

The structure in a garden is just as important as the surrounding plants, and Nancy intentionally made each of these “garden rooms” cohesive yet unique. Such a small shed might be bland, but the addition of the gorgeous little windows and exaggerated roof eaves gives it so much character.

All of Nancy’s garden art is eye-catching while blending seamlessly with her garden and landscaping. To many other locals, a partially fallen tree would stick out like a sore thumb, but among the many towering trees in and around Nancy’s space, it’s actually the perfect base for creating something new.

Even on a small porch, Nancy was able to find some space to place some art and plants that would be as interesting as the pots in which they were planted. A row of simple black mondo grass (Ophiopogon japonicus “Nigrescens”, zones 6-11) add more interest without overwhelming the small space.

In a garden with so much green, a little rust is the perfect addition. Likewise, in other landscapes, old tree stumps need to be pulled or screened, but the stumps in Nancy’s garden are the perfect base to provide height to garden elements that need a little lift.

Nancy was also able to make all of these old tree stumps look like a cohesive part of her garden by incorporating lots of natural wood elements into her design. A colorful, rustic loft bed would look out of place in Nancy’s woodland wonderland, but the bed’s rustic decor makes it feel as natural as her other beds.

Of course, no Pacific Northwest woodland garden is complete without a fair number of ferns. I’m by no means a fern expert, so I’m not sure what species this is. Any fern lovers out there know what this beauty is?

Finally, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a little stump among all of Nancy’s rustic woody plants. I knew all those old tree stumps would become a natural container.

Finally, a big thank you to Cherry for sharing this very special trip to Nancy’s Garden with us. Cherry has always generously shared her gardens and the many private and public gardens she visits, and this visit with Nancy Heckler was no exception. I can’t wait to see Cherry’s adventures continue in 2025!

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