Evey posted that she wanted some Pacific Northwest gardens on her new forum so here's mine. I better get this posted because already I can see that I'm going to be spending some good amounts of time looking through the fabulous photos of people's gardens on this forum! Just the thumbnails are enough to draw a person in!
I think in order to start the tour of my garden, we'll start inside the house, since that's where I always start myself. This is the door I use most as the family room opens out into the back yard and garden. This photo is taken during high summer and the grass goes dormant during that time. I don't bother watering it since I'm too busy watering the garden and I don't care much about grass. Of course, the garden is always best in the summer, but I'll post photos of what it looks like during all times of year.

Our property is 3/4 acre in Lakewood, Washington, just south of Tacoma. We are right at sea level and allegedly we are in zone 8, although most of the time our weather man doesn't know that. We generally have very wet, mild winters with a lot of wind and rain and warm, dry and sunny summers.

Walking out into the back yard, this is the perennial bed underneath the birch tree. This was last spring. It will look totally different this year as I've removed lots of things, and the voles have removed lots of things. This bed is to the right of the pond.

Probably should have posted this one first. The birch tree bed is hidden in this photo by the yellow rhododendrons. The pond is straight out the back door. This is my favorite part of the garden. I could probably spend most of my life right here and be just fine. The pond is about 4000 gallons and is home to 5 koi, 1 shubunkin, and 2 comets that were too small for me to know they were there when I was removing all the other comets after the first season. I had about 400 baby fish. Ever try to find homes for 400 baby fish?
Last year I had more koi and more shubunkins. That was before the great blue heron. This year there is fishing line across the pond to thwart enemies.

Here is my oldest koi, Nishiki. She is also my favorite. I though she was a 'he' until last year. Now I know. But there were no baby koi.

If we walk to the right of the birch tree, we get to the concrete patio, made from recycled concrete. There is a path behind the birch tree that returns to the pond. This area gets almost full sun in the summer, but it's not hot, scorching sun.

Here's the shady path back to the deck by the pond.

If we go back to the concrete patio by the birch tree and turn around, this is the view. This is in May, whereas the first photo is taken in the middle of the summer. So the grass is green in this photo. The red rhododendron has been removed, after careful consideration for about 10 years.

That's all for now. I will post more of other parts of the garden tomorrow.

Wow, wow, wow! I'm crazy about your garden. It reminds me of the display gardens at some of my favorite local nurseries. One of them, in fact, has those very same dogs. There usually are four or five Australian Shepherds on the nursery grounds because everyone that works there seems to have one. They all bring them to work. I wonder if it's a hiring requirement.

The yellow rhododendrons are spectacular.

I have one of those dreaded blue herons too. It sits on my roof and waits for a flash of orange before swooping down on the pond. It flies away when I come outside and sounds almost like a helicopter as it takes off from the roof.

Beautiful gardens, Pixie,

You have a greenhouse!!! I would spend most of my time there if I had one. I don't have one but I WANT one. Looking forward to more pictures.

Thanks for sharing.

Teri

Thanks for sharing, Pixy!

I love the view from the birch tree. I could just imagine hiding back there as a child, playing hide and seek with the pups and kitten, as if you're in a jungle of beauty! Your garden is very inviting. I can't wait to see more!

Wow, I am in awe!

Pixy your gardens are a treat!! Loved the tour can't wait to see what else you have to show us.
Veronica

Well, I am in full blush! Aren't we always happy when people love our gardens? Roses, I do spend a great deal of time in the greenhouse. There is almost nowhere I would rather be, unless it's outside in the actual garden.

It's hard to know exactly which direction to go from here, so we're just going to back away from the poor little birch tree (which has been so damaged over the years by freezing rain and needs to someday be replaced). In the foreground is the rock garden in front of the pond.

And now we can see the pond. This was taken last September. The fishing line is for that heron. Zuzu, they really are huge aren't they? I do love herons and have much respect for them (and for their giant beaks), but really, there are plenty of bodies of water around here for them to fish in. They do not need my particular fish.

So then, here is the path to the left of the pond, which leads to the greenhouse. The rose is Madam Plantier. This bed changes a lot every year because I have an infestation of voles and have lost a lot of plants because of them. I have been systematically either digging up plants and protecting them with gravel or waiting to see what things they will take from me. I have lots of lilies planted in this bed, at least I did have. They are almost all in pots now.

Step back from the rose and toward the house, and fast forward a couple of months. This is one of the wild perennial beds that surrounds the lawn. It also looks a little different every year, but there are always roses and lilies. I've stuck a couple of evergreen shrubs in the bed because someone one said gardeners were supposed to have seasonal interest in their gardens. So now I do.

So here is part of the 'Hot Bed'. Up toward the top, when the rhodys were blooming, I mentioned that I took out those red rhododendrons. It took me 10 years to finally bite the bullet and do it. I kind of miss them this spring, but that's going to be short lived. I was so happy with the space they provided last year as this bed finally took off and started coming together for me.

Here's another photo, before the addition of the red banana, which I got toward the end of the season. It's in the greenhouse just now.

Absolutely gorgeous, Pixy! You have such an explosion of color in your gardens... a treat for the eyes.

You mentioned voles as a problem. Zuzu has posted about her vole problem in Cali many times. She wrote that she now plants all of her roses in cages to prevent the voles from attacking them. Are you familiar with the cages? If not, maybe Zuzu could share her strategies with you. (Sorry, I can't help you with voles... but I could help you with snake eradication if you need it!)

So now we will stand just at the arbor with Madam Plantier, with the greenhouse behind us and to our left, looking at the family room door from whence we came and to the other part of the backyard. This photo was taken on April 14 of last year and those same narcissus which I planted in the yard are already blooming this year. That's how far ahead my garden is so far this year. We'll go over and take a look at the kitchen garden.