Christianson's Nursery & Greenhouse

At Christianson's Nursery & Greenhouse

Laura and I are lifelong gardeners.  We've taken the yards of three homes from nothing to gorgeous, through sweat equity and what we learned out of books.  Along the way, our style has leaned toward what I call Northwest inspired Japanese.  Our current home's yard started out as wall-to-wall grass, but over time we transformed it into a peaceful oasis.  Because of our interest, we like to search out the local nurseries to see what gardeners have to work with.

There's nothing I don't like about this sign.  From the texture of the wood to the choice of fonts, someone did an awesome job.

Christianson's feels organic in that everything isn't perfect.  The land shows its farming background, and its structures reflect a business that has been making a go of it since 1946.

The remnants of old wood structure greenhouse tower over rows of scrubs

The nursery is known for its specialty rhododendrons.  We walked up and down the rows snapping pictures of the ones we loved.  It wasn't a surprise we were drawn to them, considering we have more than thirty growing in our yard back home.

We found a lot of rhododendron varieties we liked.

We have been in the Pacific Northwest for twenty-one years, and along the way, we stopped trying to make everything in the yard look new.  We've come to appreciate moss, and the patina concrete gets as it weathers.  There is charm, and sense of comfort that comes with used things.

OMG!  That is gorgeous.  

They have plants stashed everywhere.

We were at the nursery two and half hours, so it was great to be able to sit down and grab a bite to eat.

The chowder, Philly, and polish were great.

Part of a wood framed greenhouse.

Laura taking a break from a lot of walking under the cover of the greenhouse.

Seriously, I didn't pose this, it was lying like you see it.

The greenhouse was a whole nother form of cool when it came to plants.

It invites you to take a stroll.

Despite the chill in the air, we were happy to be out.  Laura out front of the home goods shop.

Home Goods shop

Manual tiller, the soil must be more loam than the rocks and clay where I am in Vancouver, WA. 

The nursery hadn't originally been on our list of things to do on this trip, but having every moment planned ahead of time feels like too much schedule to keep, that can suck the fun out of the experience.  We've learned from our cruising that we love to linger, and the longer the better.  We will be back because nurseries are living spaces, and as a result, they are always changing with new things to see.

Live well, Laugh often, Love much