Art in Bloom set for this weekend

Feed your passion for plants and art — and at the same time help feed the hungry — on July 21 and 22 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., during the fourth annual Art in Bloom in Eatonville.

Tickets are $15 per person, and can be purchased online at www.eatonvilleartinbloom.com or at several retail locations, including Founding Family Antiques (41918 Lynch Creek Rd. E.) and Holly Hut Garden and Gift Shop (129 Washington Ave. N.).

Proceeds from the event benefit the Eatonville Family Agency, which serves both individuals and families in need through its operation of food and clothing banks, a backpack food program for students, activities for senior citizens, and more.

Begin your tour of the private garden of Terry Van Eaton, who owns Founding Family Antiques, before heading to the other four private gardens — all in the Eatonville city limits — at the homes of Rich and Ruth Williams (300 Center St. W.), Dave and Mary Schactler (10415 Campbell Ln. E.), Jason and Chrystal Powell (9107 Ohop Valley Rd. E.), and Charlie and Lynn Butler (13301 444th St. E.).

Van Eaton shared details for each of the featured gardens.

He called the Williams garden a “craftsman style house with extensive shrubs and flowers,” and mentioned the container contest, in which the public can enter any creation as long as it’s in a container of any kind. (For more information, contact Diane Medler at 253-677-3333 or at diane@spilledinkstudio.com.)

“It’s an artsy thing,” he said.

Van Eaton described the Schactler garden as a “full blown nursery, besides the vegetable garden and landscaping materials and blueberries.”

“[The public] can pick some blueberries to eat, but they don’t get to harvest them, just sample them,” he said.

Van Eaton mentioned the Powell garden had new construction, having bought an older place and resurrected the landscaping, putting in an extensive garden.

“Charlie and Lynn Butler have a more complex garden, than the ordinary garden and their house has a regular stream that’s manmade in front of their house into a pond and it’s quite an undertaking with rocks with a spectacular view of the mountain and the Olympics, they’re at the top of the ridge of Eatonville and it’s pretty spectacular,” he said.

And all four gardens offer something different for visitors.

“I think it plays on the fact that gardens in the Northwest are particularly wide ranging, because of our climate and a huge variety of plants are available for the gardener,” he said. Its ideal growing conditions for plants that do not grow anywhere else in the U.S. It’s an opportunity to experience that and an idea factory for your garden. And the benefit is a community based and sponsored event and the benefits are directed to the community.”

But, there’s more to event than just the garden tours themselves. More than 20 vendors will be on hand in addition to live music for the “Art in the Garden” portion of the festivities. Van Eaton also noted the Friday night auction to benefit the food bank.

A full event brochure can be found at area nurseries, including Watson’s Nursery in Puyallup, and has an extensive description of the gardens.

When asked the history of how the event came to be several years ago, Van Eaton said it started as a vehicle for raising money for the backpack program.

“People were concerned about it and wanted to do something about it, versus just talk about it,” he said. That is how the Art in Bloom Committee came into existence.”

Van Eaton expressed the best thing about the event, by stating a famous quote of Abraham Lincoln’s inaugural address, “Of the people, for the people, by the people”. Van Eaton added: “It’s created by the community [the event] and it’s for the community and the benefit goes to the people, not some outside company that’s putting on an event and taking the money out of the community the money is staying here.”

And who should come? That’s easy, Van Eaton says.

“Anybody who wants to get off the busy merry go round of life and enjoy our surroundings,” he said. "It’s kind of a low key thing. We put up umbrellas and there are lots of places to sit and visit. I like it; it’s kind of like taking a time out.”

For more information, visit: www.eatonvilleartinbloom.com