An English Garden In Chehalis: Garden Club Offers Tour of Local Home

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Because she grew up in England, Ann Stedham has fond memories of the spring tradition of touring different gardens along the countryside.

“What we do in England is a community will have a garden open day and a lot of people will open their gardens for tours,” Stedham explained. “You get a cup of tea and a slice of cake.”

This year, the Friendly Neighbors Garden Club, of which Stedham is a member, will bring that English tradition to Lewis County. 

On June 11, Stedham will host “Tea, Cake and Roses” at her Chehalis home as a fundraiser for the garden club. The club of about 25 active members is nearly 80 years old and is a part of the Black Hills District of Washington state’s chapter of the National Gardening Club. Members meet once a month for different presentations on gardening topics. The group also usually holds a plant sale fund-raiser in the spring.

“Which means us standing around in the rain selling plants,” Stedham joked.

This year, Stedham, whose husband Mike’s parents were founding members of the garden club, offered her home for a different kind of fundraiser. She suggested a garden tour along with the plant sale as a way not only to raise some money but also meet fellow garden enthusiasts.

Stedham said one of the things she believes makes her garden a great one to tour is that their 8 acres of land is divided into eight different garden “rooms.” 

She explained that when they purchased the land on Yates Road in 1995, the whole property was completely bare.

“It was covered in thistle and cows and the only trees were on the edge,” she recalled.



As the home was completed in about 1997, Stedham began planning out what she wanted her yard to look like. She said design books and magazines are her primary source of inspiration. But she found there were just so many design styles and features she loved, it was difficult to choose just one.

Some of the garden rooms include the “sunset tea room,” an Asian inspired pergola set in the center of their circular driveway that one reaches via flagstone steps across a small pond, and that faces the direction of the sunset; the “formal lawn,” which is flanked by hedgerows and leads to the “sunken garden” pond; the nearly hidden “Canal Bed,” a small water feature in a Dutch pattern best viewed from the porch above; the “Spinney,” or little wood, also called the bluebells wood, created to draw birds to their home; The “Monastery Glen,” which looks plucked straight from a cloister and features an octagonal pool and formal ponds; “The Long Walk,” a stretch of lawn with a bench at the end as an eye catcher and a spring garden of mostly lily varieties along one side and a rolling hill of orchards on the other; and the “Logia,” a two-story porch-like tower inspired by structures they encountered at many homes on a trip to Greece. Stedham said her goal is always that the rooms be distinct but also flow into one another.

“I wanted everything to flow,” she said. “You need to be able to move around but you don’t want any dead ends.”

While each space is unique, all are planted in what Stedham calls an English Country style, meaning planting so that plants are allowed to reseed and spread, closing the gaps between individual plants. This makes for a softer, more relaxed feel. Every room is also anchored by an evergreen structure of some sort. Stedham said she has spent many years researching plants and finding the right ones for each area so that she has interest, structure and color for all times of the year. And walking through her garden is an education, as she can name every plant in the eight acres of rolling hills.

“I think it can be good inspiration for someone,” Stedham said. “Maybe someone will come here and say ‘I have this much room’ and they’ll see what they can do with it.”

For a suggested $10 donation, visitors to the Stedham home will get a cup of tea, a pastry and a chance to walk the gardens and be inspired. At the garden open, the Friendly Neighbors Garden Club will also hold its annual plant and craft sale. Club member Sandy Grady, owner of Grady’s Gardens, will also have plants from her nursery for sale and half of every sale will benefit the garden club.

Though the Stedhams, home is wheelchair accessible, she noted that many of the garden paths are paved with pebbles, which are difficult for wheelchairs to traverse.