How do their gardens grow?

Published 6:00 am Wednesday, April 20, 2005

Quite nicely, and four will be open to the public this weekend.

Deep inside of Ginny Brewer’s soul was a gardener, who emerged on Bainbridge Island 15 years ago.

That’s when Brewer began transforming her family’s two-acre property off Tolo Road into an abundantly layered series of garden rooms on gracefully sloping land, surrounded by tall firs.

“It’s taught me patience,” said Brewer, who has lived in the blue farmhouse on the property for 25 years, with husband Tom and two now-grown sons.

“When you put something in the ground, you don’t see it again for a year or two. It’s been my life’s teacher.”

The Brewer garden is one of four that will be open to the public for viewing Saturday, as part of the Garden Conservancy’s “Open Days” tour of the best private gardens in the West.

The cost is $5 per garden, with the proceeds going toward the conservancy’s mission of garden preservation and education.

Brewer’s garden contains an amazing variety of plantings, all of which flow from one outdoor “room” to another.

There’s a slope ringed by spring flowers and massively planted with hellebores, pulmonarias, stachys and Japanese anemones.

Below it is a shady woodland garden, reached by a brick path, planted heavily in white blooms, including hydrangeas, rhododendrons and azaleas.

Heading up toward the house again, there’s a sun-loving English-style display of herbs next to a bed of roses. A kitchen garden in raised beds is behind the house, planted with artichokes and lettuce and bunches of tulips for the table.

At the north side of the house are Mediterranean plantings, accessorized by two pools, one of which contains a bubbling fountain made from a tall clay pot. In the distance are the silhouettes of Japanese maple.

Nearby is a yellow garden with a large perennial bed full of “hot” colored flowers that will bloom in the summer.

Brewer tends to her garden without the use of pesticides or artificial fertilizers, and she is an advocate of composting and mulching to produce lush growth.

The garden is Brewer’s passion, and she weeds, plants and toils in it about 20 hours a week. Her husband likes to sit in it; she prefers working in it.

“I think that’s the essence of the garden: doing it,” she said.

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Open gates

Four Bainbridge island gardens will be featured in Saturday’s Garden Conservancy “Open Days” tour, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The cost to view each garden is $5. Locations include:

• The Brewer Garden, 5895 Tolo Road

• Garden of Linda Cochran, Froggy Bottom: 10132 Kitsap Street

• Roose Garden, 14796 Sivertson Road.

• Waterman Gardens, 6886 Wing Point Road.

Another four gardens will be open on June 25.