The most ambitious garden in the Puget Sound region, sprawling across 150 acres on the north end of Bainbridge Island. It is not a flower garden — there is barely a bedding plant on the property — but a sequence of carefully framed Pacific Northwest landscapes: an old French-style residence, a Japanese garden with a tea house, a moss garden, a reflection pool, a bird marsh, and miles of woodland trails through second-growth fir and hemlock.
The visit is structured as a two-mile walk along a marked route; allow at least two hours, and ideally a half-day. Reservations are required and visitor numbers are capped, which keeps the place quiet even on weekends. From Bainbridge it is a short drive; from Seattle, take the ferry across.