Day trip - Cultus Bay Nursery

What a busy weekend we had here.  The Littlest Gardener's ballet rehearsal and recital took up most of Friday and Saturday.  It was a lot of fun, and she loved performing on stage.  I was the backstage helper and was I ever tired when it was all finished!  Trying to entertain a whole bunch of 4 year old girls and keep them clean and ready to go onstage was a lot of work. 
Since my birthday is later in the week, my husband said we could pretend Sunday was my birthday and I could choose what we did.  Lucky me, we woke up to sun and I decided right where I wanted to go.
We hopped on the Mukilteo ferry and headed across to Whidbey Island.  Anyone taking a trip out to the Seattle area should try to take a trip there.  It is full of cute towns, beautiful gardens and nurseries and lots of things to see and do.  Every place I've ever eaten there was delicious, most of the food is local to that area.  In fact the food was so good I had lunch twice!

Taking the ferry across to Clinton we pass the ferry returning to Mukilteo.

Karen from Greenwalks posted on my Facebook page awhile ago when I was raving about another town on Whidbey Island and said to try and visit Cultus Bay Nursery next time we visited.  What a great recommendation that was!  To get there you follow a long gravel driveway through woods.  The owners home was built in the 1980's to look like an old home and if I hadn't read that, I would've been sure it was very old.  I felt kind of funny taking a picture of their house since it was behind the hedges of roses and other tall shrubs.

Lots of cute decor throughout the garden.

The path leading towards the nursery.

There were two long paths lined in espaliered apple trees.

This tattered winged butterfly loved these flowers and kept returning.

I think these are golden Hops growing over the shade perennial house.

Very cute sitting area with gorgeous begonia.

Apparently this little outbuilding is new and I think built by the husband.  I overheard some women talking about him being a wood worker.  This was all screened in with a bed and table and chairs inside.  The wood he used was so unusual.

A goldfish pond right next to the screened outbuilding.

I'm not knowledgeable at all about livestock, but I think this is a steer that was on the other side of the deer fence.  In the middle of this tall grassy field was an old apple tree.  When he stood under it, he reminded me of the bull Ferdinand in the children's storybook by the same name.

On each fence post along the steer's fence were nesting boxes.  We were lucky to see Tree Swallows flying in and out to feed their babies.

This little baby sat on the edge waiting to be fed.

Sweet Pea and I tried many times to get an action shot of the feeding.  With her help counting down the bird landing and me ready with the camera, we finally got the shot.  We stood and watched the birds for a long time.  My idea of heaven was standing there in the sun amongst the trees and flowers watching the birds.  I could've stayed there all day.

My husband was actually the one interested in choosing the plants this time, I was almost overwhelmed by the whole place and I had a hard time just looking at plants.  He chose a Geranium 'Patricia' and Helianthemum and a Campanula.  After the nursery we found lots of other fun things to see and do, but this was definitely the highlight.

All words and photos in this post are property of A Gardener in Progress.