Where Gardens Tell Stories: The Gig Harbor Garden Tour in Bloom

Summer in the Pacific Northwest is always worth celebrating — especially in Gig Harbor, where, after months of rain-washed gray, the longer light of June feels almost sacred. It’s then that you get to witness all the fruit that the rain produced in the form of some spectacular gardens.

And for two days each year, private gardens across Gig Harbor graciously open their gates for the annual Gig Harbor Garden Tour. The tour has become a cherished seasonal ritual — part celebration, part inspiration, part invitation to linger. Beneath the layers of lawns, foliage, and color lies something deeper: a steadfast commitment to literacy in the community.

“Each year we select gardens to appeal to seasoned gardeners, those just beginning, and those who simply love beautiful landscapes,” said Jan Reeder, president of the Garden Tour Board of Directors. “But at the heart of the tour is giving back.”

Founded by community members who believed gardens could help grow more than plants, the tour proceeds benefit local literacy grants. In 2025, more than $35,000 was distributed to six community groups and 11 schools to fund books and programs that support a love of learning.

Additionally, the tour partners with a local artist whose work is featured across its promotional materials — a tradition that underscores the event’s celebration of horticulture, literature, and the arts.

This year, Gig Harbor watercolorist Jeanne Anderson has been chosen. Her painting, “Daisies,” will appear on the tour’s brochure and poster, capturing the quiet vibrancy and seasonal optimism that defines early summer. Anderson will also have select works on display and available for purchase at one of the featured gardens, allowing visitors to experience her artistry amid the very landscapes that inspire it. In other words, beauty here serves a purpose.

This year’s six featured gardens — from waterfront estates to woodland retreats to artfully composed in-town lots — reflect personal visions as much as horticultural achievement. Each tells a story.

A Sanctuary Rooted in Stillness and Healing

Tucked along Peacock Hill, Zach and Rebekah Blue’s garden feels less like a yard and more like a retreat. Their mantra of “Connect. Heal. Release” is a living philosophy. The property has been in Zach Blue’s family since 1977, but the garden itself took root during a season of caregiving, first for Zach’s mother and later for Rebekah during her own health challenges.

“This garden grew out of necessity,” Rebekah said. “It gave us a place to breathe. Each moment working in the soil gave us time to be fully present.”

Today, more than 100 Japanese maples are planted across the property, their leaves filtering light in shifting shades of green and crimson. Rhododendrons bloom in layered succession. A waterfall spills into a koi pond whose fish are named after beloved rock and roll musicians, and towering sequoias provide shelter for songbirds.

What began as a small, cultivated patch has expanded and unified naturalistic landscapes.

“The garden possesses flow of form and texture, with an ecological focus and artistic expression of color and emotion,” Zach said. “It invites you to slow down.” During summer, the couple hosts and curates Garden of Peace Sessions in their beautiful space, a series of intimate live music performances. These gatherings bring artists and listeners together in the garden where, as Zach noted, “music and nature invite presence, wonder, and connection.”

Returning Home, Reimagined

With commanding views of Puget Sound, Vashon Island, and Mount Rainier, Beverly Ash Gilbert’s childhood home has entered a new chapter.

As the custodian-steward of her family home, Ash Gilbert and her husband, Jerry, got to work with a bold vision to reimagine multiple gardens while preserving and actively managing their 20-acre Ash Family Forest.

The redesign is both dramatic and refined.

A mid-century modern-designed art studio that echoes the design of the original residence now replaces a former carport. Themed gardens once filled with cutting flowers have evolved into perennial compositions with names such as the Serenity Garden and are filled with creamy whites, and the Romantic Garden, exuding sorbet and pastels.

Most striking is a recreational four-foot-deep pond (designed by “Mark the Pond Guy”), filled with koi, and positioned beside the studio deck.

“I love being able to swim around with the koi,” she said. “We wanted beauty, but also accessibility.”

The garden is purposefully designed for intentional aging in place, including many ADA-accessible pathways. Extensive soil restoration, through generous applications of compost, brought new vitality to previously compacted ground, and Jerry has embraced the role of orchardist by carefully pruning the family’s heirloom orchard and adding new specimens such as fig and peach trees.

From sweeping water views to the expansive forest, to cultivated flower beds, this garden frames both view and memory, serving as an anchor to the family for generations to come.

A Purposefully Layered Retreat on the Water

On the harbor’s east side, not far from the public boat launch, Jill and Chris Denis have shaped their relatively narrow waterfront lot into a layered textural landscape that gradually unfolds.

From the charming entry flanked by two lovely dappled willows, through a climbing hydrangea-covered gate, past raised beds, and around to a sloping lawn down to the water, this garden is a gracious retreat.

Though they describe themselves as instinctive gardeners who inherited a good foundational garden five years ago, their design reflects a thoughtful eye

“We aim to provide ourselves with a constant flow of greenery, with a focus on layers and textures,” Jill Denis explained. The backyard is where the couple has made the most changes by pulling out some mature, large plants and replacing them with bright, colorful plants like climbing roses and clematis to soften vertical lines. Peonies and hydrangeas anchor seasonal interest while hostas and ferns thrive in shaded areas.

As with a lot of gardeners in the area, they constantly battle with wildlife, especially as plants spring forth in the spring. Their dogs are constant chasers of the wildlife. They now have low, protective fencing around many areas to protect the plants.

Jill offers simple advice to fellow gardeners: “Understand what it will take to make your vision a reality. Be willing to get dirty. And make time to sit back and enjoy the fruits of your labor — preferably with an adult beverage of your choice.”

Color, Contrast and Coastal Light

Leslie and Tom Watkins used to sail into Wollochet from their home on Fox Island. Today, they garden beside it.

Their ‘new’ red-roofed home offered more space, a lot of promise, and a few challenges. The garden had not been touched for years.

After hiring and consulting with regional landscape designer Sue Goetz, Leslie Watkins, herself an interior designer, approached the landscape design through the lens of contrast, structure, and color harmony.

Terraced beds were refreshed with predominantly perennial plantings and accented seasonally by annuals. A pergola defines one gathering space, while a dry creek bed, complete with a bridge and its own island, introduces movement through the garden’s tiers.

Rather than focusing solely on flowers, Watkins incorporated sculptural trees, such as a carefully pruned Japanese maple from Yang’s Nursery, which serves as the centerpiece among plantings. The maple is joined by others in a variety of colors: lime green, deep purple, and burnished rust. “I really want interest in every season,” Leslie said. “Even in winter, there should be structure.”

A Garden of Color and Memory

Downtown Gig Harbor offers its own kind of quiet community, while at the same time, being walkable to shops and restaurants. Tucked into a corner lot, in a neighborhood above the post office, Cindy Bartel’s garden belies its size, serving as an inspiration for any gardener who wants to garden but not have a giant piece of property.

“My challenge is that the lot is small. I stuff plants wherever they will fit,” Bartel said.

As an acrylic painter by trade, Bartel composes her plantings as she would a canvas — layering bold color and texture into every available inch. A rose garden of about 25 varieties anchors the design and is joined by zinnias, delphinium, and a striking curly willow. White and purple lilacs, a nod to her childhood.

It is what brings her joy, something special to focus upon, especially since losing her mother six years ago and her husband a year ago. Bartel is creating special memorial spaces for each of them to keep them close in heart.

When asked what she loves most about her garden, Bartel notes its small compactness and explained: “All the space, every inch, has a purpose and is utilized.”

In its density, the space feels immersive — a testament to thoughtful scale and emotional resonance.

Painting with Plants

Tucked off Crescent Valley Road, the garden of Dan Shoap and Jeff Stelmach’s five-acre property unfolds like a living canvas. It lies in a naturally forested area that has been cultivated into a variety of spaces for different viewpoints, color palettes, and uses.

Shoap speaks of gardening as painting, layering color slowly across time. Sections glow in deliberate color palettes: orange and blue perennials with white dogwood, pinks, lavenders, blues, or another area just of yellows, purples, and whites. These colors come to life in the form of wide varieties of lilies, delphinium, and Japanese maples.

Structure is important to any painting, and in this garden, visitors will find a tunnel arbor covered by golden chain trees, a curved free-standing arbor covered by roses, a fire ring and gazebo for seating and gazing, and a raised veggie garden that provides fresh produce for the couple’s summer entertaining. This garden was on the tour 7 years ago.

Looking back at the garden now compared to just a few years ago, Shoap reflects that it is “so much nicer now, and it is so nice to be able to share our garden with others.”