Horticulture enthusiasts, whether professional or amateur, are patient creatures. They have to be. Gardeners plant seeds and seedlings and trees and wait for the miracle of growth and serendipity. They are not creatures of instant gratification. So when a husband-and-wife team of horticulture professionals decide it’s time to build their dream home, surrounded by expansive gardens, they’ve probably spent several years thinking about exactly what they want.

Much-lauded American contemporary architect Jim Olson, FAIA, and award-winning landscape designer Daniel Hinkley worked with the couple to create a home that would also serve as a professional workshop and an ever-changing outlet for creativity – with a green roof, ornamental and vegetable gardens, water features, entertainment spaces, a potager and various themed beds.

“I was brought in on the job quite late in the overall plan development,” Hinkley said. “So, the gardens I made did not directly influence Jim Olsen’s design. It was my job to embellish the exquisite architecture, so I had my challenges from the beginning.”

Fortunately, Hinkley and Olson had recently worked together on the design of the Bellevue Botanical Gardens new visitor center, and brought much of that experience to bear on the design of this private residence. Of course, there were programmatic differences – this is, after all, a private residence. But what remained consistent was the desire to create an ever-present dialogue with the gardens through intimate, inspirational spaces for exploration and reflection, and to blur the boundaries between the built and the organic.

A sheltering roof, vine-covered walls and small garden spaces unite nature with architecture, creating a flow between indoor and out. Hundreds of trees, shrubs, perennials and bulbs were selected and planted for their year-round interest, suitability for the Pacific Northwest, fairly low-maintenance requirements and, of course, beauty – the most essential criteria for most home gardeners.

Drainage proved the only significant hurdle. The site is irregularly wet which resulted in some significant plant losses over the first year. Most of that has now been mitigated, and some beds were repositioned. Working with two enthusiastic landscape and horticulture professionals, Hinkley’s role was often that of mediator – bringing an impartial, expert view to the creative process and the practical installation.

“They were both quite hands-on, and extremely engaged during the entire process which is just the way I like it,” Hinkley said. “The clients went plant buying with me and had definite opinions about what they liked or did not. Very little went into the landscape design without their approval first, so I consider these gardens a product of three imaginations rather than just my own.”

For Hinkley, one of the most enjoyable aspects of this project was that the clients’ professional capabilities offered the opportunity for him to be less involved during the final planting stages.

“There was, and still is, a real excitement at seeing the vision on paper become a garden in what seemed like a relatively brief period of time.  Because I live four hours away, each visit during the installation process was filled with anticipation of how things were settling in. It would have been a much different story had I been required to be on-site more regularly.”