How often can you walk through a work of art? While some may lament this early summer weather, the cool, temperate conditions are ideal for enjoying some of the area’s most beautiful and inspiring cultivated gardens.
One of the best to start with is at Historic Deepwood Estate — a veritable garden museum, designed with “rooms,” ranging from a boxwood garden to an English tea house garden, covered arches and gazebos, ornamental gates and fences to The Rita Steiner Nature Trail weaving its way through the western border of the property toward Bush Park.
The formal gardens at Deepwood showcase the genius of landscape design team Elizabeth Lord & Edith Schryver, the Northwest’s first female landscape architecture firm. Deepwood is the only residential example of their work currently open to the public. In the 1970s the gardens became part of the Salem parks system; today they are maintained by Deepwood’s dedicated volunteers and the Lord and Schryver Conservancy, which began preservation work in the gardens at Deepwood in 2003.
Gardens have inspired countless artists. If you would like to join them, you may want to explore one of Deepwood’s “Sketching in the Garden” sessions. According to the Deepwood Web site: “Participants will learn the basic principles of design, visual perception and organization while sketching garden plants and the landscape of Deepwood. Using a sketchbook, we will begin with pencil and progress through a range of drawing media. Limited to 12 per class. Cost is $40.00 plus material (approx. $20). Monday and Wednesday evening sessions are available. Click here for more info.
