Susan Brown was the talented landscape designer of the garden where this gate was temporarily placed for the
2006 NW Flower and Garden Show in Seattle. This is my version of French Flowing, but it's also been used for a Spanish themed garden benefit for Fusion in Federal Way.
The size of this gate is 56" H x 70 1/2" W.
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The home of this gate is the Highline Seatac Botanical Garden in South Seattle. If you haven't visited this garden it is worth a trip. It is a beautiful and peaceful place. It is a newer garden and it is still growing, they just added the Seike Japanese Garden which was a garden that was relocated to this site. If you would like to take a peek, click--
www.highlinegarden.org .
I grew up in a neighborhood nearby the garden, back then houses and my junior high school were on this property. When the noise level from the airport became too much, they closed three schools, my elementary, my junior high and my high school, plus condemned many of the homes in the area and removed them. It became a suburban brownfield.
A few years ago, I accidentally ran across the garden's website and found out that the garden was being built mainly by volunteers. I thought it would be nice to donate something...like a birdbath, that would be something that we could handle, as we were both working full time jobs, actually Steve's shop takes up alot more than 40 hours a week, not to mention his commute of 60 miles each way, plus we were doing shows just about every weekend during the summer...So a birdbath I thought we could handle. I emailed Greg Butler the landscape designer and ran it by him. Yes, a donation would be great! We met with him and I guess you could say that Steve and Greg, well...two peas in a pod. Next thing I new, we were donating a gate, not just a gate, but a bazillion inches of gate! While I was feeling pretty sick to my stomach, Steve and Greg...well they were all proud of themselves, all buddy, buddy...this will be great, Sherry can design it...!....!...!..."But, but, but, I thought we were going to donate a birdbath," I said. Steve said, "Oh, well, we can donate one of those too!"....yeaaaah....I think that's what I said, hmmm. Sure am glad we did, thank you to Greg and all the people on the board for giving us this chance!
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Special Note*Family Friends Bill and Maxine Bowlin continued to live in the neighborhood for many years after I moved away. Bill was the main person who spearheaded the idea to turn that area into a place that could be used and enjoyed by the public. I know that he spent countless hours working to make this dream come true. I would like to dedicate this gate in memory of
William Bowlin. He was like a second father to me growing up, I am sad to say that he passed away the day after my own father and wasn't able to see the garden or the gate.
Beautiful Port Townsend is where this next piece has a home. This is Steve's design and he has a ton of hours into both the design and fabrication of this gate and arbor. I think it is a grand piece of art. We were at a festival, Harbor Days in Olympia, WA, it wasn't a very successful show for us, but I can honestly say that the people were some of the nicest and most complimentary people that we have come in contact with. Anyway it was the end of the show and we were loading everything up, Steve threatened
to dump it all in the bay, "Ahhh, I bet that water is pretty cold and you'll be the one fishing it out," I said... After thinking about it for a minute he agreed. So we continued loading it, a stranger who we learned was named Charles, had drove by when the arbor was on the trailer, he came up to us and said, "I drove by that and I didn't know what it was, but I knew it was ART!" Now that made Steve's day!
]
The home of this gate is the Highline Seatac Botanical Garden in South Seattle. If you haven't visited this garden it is worth a trip. It is a beautiful and peaceful place. It is a newer garden and it is still growing, they just added the Seike Japanese Garden which was a garden that was relocated to this site. If you would like to take a peek, click-- www.highlinegarden.org .
I grew up in a neighborhood nearby the garden, back then houses and my junior high school were on this property. When the noise level from the airport became too much, they closed three schools, my elementary, my junior high and my high school, plus condemned many of the homes in the area and removed them. It became a suburban brownfield.
A few years ago, I accidentally ran across the garden's website and found out that the garden was being built mainly by volunteers. I thought it would be nice to donate something...like a birdbath, that would be something that we could handle, as we were both working full time jobs, actually Steve's shop takes up alot more than 40 hours a week, not to mention his commute of 60 miles each way, plus we were doing shows just about every weekend during the summer...So a birdbath I thought we could handle. I emailed Greg Butler the landscape designer and ran it by him. Yes, a donation would be great! We met with him and I guess you could say that Steve and Greg, well...two peas in a pod. Next thing I new, we were donating a gate, not just a gate, but a bazillion inches of gate! While I was feeling pretty sick to my stomach, Steve and Greg...well they were all proud of themselves, all buddy, buddy...this will be great, Sherry can design it...!....!...!..."But, but, but, I thought we were going to donate a birdbath," I said. Steve said, "Oh, well, we can donate one of those too!"....yeaaaah....I think that's what I said, hmmm. Sure am glad we did, thank you to Greg and all the people on the board for giving us this chance!
*Special Note*Family Friends Bill and Maxine Bowlin continued to live in the neighborhood for many years after I moved away. Bill was the main person who spearheaded the idea to turn that area into a place that could be used and enjoyed by the public. I know that he spent countless hours working to make this dream come true. I would like to dedicate this gate in memory of William Bowlin. He was like a second father to me growing up, I am sad to say that he passed away the day after my own father and wasn't able to see the garden or the gate.
Beautiful Port Townsend is where this next piece has a home. This is Steve's design and he has a ton of hours into both the design and fabrication of this gate and arbor. I think it is a grand piece of art. We were at a festival, Harbor Days in Olympia, WA, it wasn't a very successful show for us, but I can honestly say that the people were some of the nicest and most complimentary people that we have come in contact with. Anyway it was the end of the show and we were loading everything up, Steve threatened 
to dump it all in the bay, "Ahhh, I bet that water is pretty cold and you'll be the one fishing it out," I said... After thinking about it for a minute he agreed. So we continued loading it, a stranger who we learned was named Charles, had drove by when the arbor was on the trailer, he came up to us and said, "I drove by that and I didn't know what it was, but I knew it was ART!" Now that made Steve's day! 
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