Article written by Jim McCausland and published on Sunset magazine, November 2014 issue.

Walking Washington’s Gardens

Download the section dedicated to Albers Vista Gardens

Journalist Terri Gleich reviewed the Albers Vista Gardens in her article published on July 24, 2014.

BREMERTON — Albers Vista Gardens might be the best-kept secret in Bremerton.

Perched on a sunny, southwest-facing slope overlooking the Port Washington Narrows, the tiny garden is an unexpected gem set in a residential area with sweeping views of Mount Rainier and the Olympics.

John Albers designed and built the garden from scratch, starting with a 2-acre orchard and adding 2 acres of horse pasture that was covered with blackberries and Scotch broom. He recently purchased another .2 acres to save a towering California redwood.

Since 1999, he’s crisscrossed the property with paths that link 14 distinct garden areas, and created swaths of four-season color across the hillside. More than 1,000 species and cultivars from around the world fill the space.

Albers and his wife, Santica Marcovina, both medical research professors at the University of Washington, moved to the hillside from West Seattle in 1998. She fell in love with the house; he with the land.

Growing up in southern Illinois, Albers’ family always had a large vegetable garden. But he developed his passion for ornamentals when he moved to Washington after completing his education. Despite a demanding work schedule, Albers boasts of taking nearly every UW horticulture class during his 43 years as a professor.

In 2007, Albers created a nonprofit foundation to preserve the garden as a permanent tribute to his wife, whom he calls his inspiration. Garden tours began in 2008, primarily attracting visitors from Seattle and Tacoma. He believes the garden’s future depends on pulling in more locals.

“The only way we’re going to be successful is with the involvement and support of community volunteers,” he said.

In the long term, Albers wants the garden to be an educational center where visitors can learn about sustainable practices, such as using plant selection, compost and mulch to reduce the need for water and fertilizer. His 2013 book, “Gardening for Sustainability,” details how he put those practices into place and what he learned along the way.

“Everybody’s yard and garden can make a difference in the environment,” he said.

Highlights at Albers Vista include:

A woodland garden of striped-bark and Japanese maples created to shade a one-of-a-kind rhododendron collection

A northwest Asian garden planted with dwarf conifers, succulents, lace-leaf Japanese maples and witch hazel

A biofiltration garden above the septic drainfield that features shallow-rooted, drought-tolerant perennials, including yarrow, sunroses, salvia, heather and lavender

A Stroll Gallery that includes 55 different heaths and heathers and masses of colorful flowers designed to attract pollinators

Sam’s Conifer Reserve, named after a home-schooled volunteer, which showcases 100 dwarf conifers

A hilltop screened white gazebo and rose garden developed for Albers’ wife

A woodland area featuring all northwest natives, including a century-old madrona

Albers hopes his work will inspire imitators. “If one person can develop this huge site, then you as a gardener should be able to do the same thing at home. It’s basically inviting you to form a partnership with nature.”

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Article by Valerie Easton published Sunday, February 2, 2014 on the Seattle Times’ magazine.

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John Albers is a research scientist, University of Washington professor of medicine and passionate environmentalist. For years he squeezed horticulture classes into his busy schedule and gardened wherever he lived. Then in 1998, he and his wife, Santica Marcovina, bought a hilltop home near Bremerton. They started with two acres of native woodland and lawn, then bought a weed-infested horse pasture for a total of four acres now in cultivation.

Albers grew up raising vegetables in Illinois, but he’s taken to gardening here as if born to mountains, seascapes and glacial till. Undeterred by Himalayan blackberries, morning glory and Scotch broom, Albers set in to make a garden showcasing plants that adapt to Northwest conditions as readily as he has. And what rich cultivation it is, with thousands of plants from around the globe growing harmoniously together on this Northwest hillside. “I favor plants that look compatible, as if they should be living here. I wouldn’t plant a monkey tree,” he says.

Albers dug out invasives by hand, creating a pile of ivy that towered 15 feet high by the time he finished. He adds compost and mulch to improve the clay soil, planting ribbons of lavender through the sandy areas of the garden. Albers constantly culls plants that don’t measure up. “Ceanothus is off my list, it’s too short-lived,” he declares.

How can one person, even with part-time help, maintain such a huge garden? “I don’t think globally . . . you’d go nuts. I work one area at a time.” In the woodlands, he edits out invasive plants and lets natives fill in. Is he daunted by the garden’s steep topography? “Never,” says Albers. “I get my exercise out here.” The newest garden of roses, planted for his wife, is way up top. A pergola offers a widescreen scene of a garden tapestry so complex and textural that it competes with the view of Mount Rainier.

“I’m a collector, obviously,” Albers admits. About a quarter of all the plants at Vista Gardens are natives, from robust madrona trees to patches of ankle-high, Pacific Coast iris. Whether he’s working with natives or ornamentals, Albers adheres to his goal of sustainability by planting a garden that consumes as few resources as possible.

Once plants are established, Albers expects them to stay healthy with a minimum of pruning, watering, fertilizing and deadheading. From swathes of ground-hugging conifers and helianthus to meadows of wildflowers, the plants seem to live up to his expectations. And how about self-seeders? “Forming a partnership with nature is part of sustainability,” says Albers, who lets most volunteer plants stay wherever they happen to pop up.

Conifers are a specialty; he grows 150 kinds. He’s turned an old driveway into a Japanese-style garden with islands of dwarf conifers softened by sedums. The bio-filtration garden, over the septic system, is an open, sunny meadow planted in grasses, native flowers, rosemary and lavender; no supplemental water needed.

The four acres are divided into garden rooms, with a pollinator pathway, a rain garden and a stroll gallery featuring bamboo and various grasses. When a friend gifted Albers a number of unique rhododendron hybrids, he planted a canopy of Japanese and stripe bark maples to shade his new collection. All the gardens are woven together with pathways made of stone hand-picked and laid by Albers. Planted for seasonality, the garden ebbs and flows around the permanence of stone and artwork placed to distinguish the various rooms.

This ambitious gardener is working on what he considers his most important projects yet. He’s writing a book on preserving biodiversity in urban environments. Close to his heart are his hopes to preserve his own masterpiece of a garden in perpetuity. “I’ve planted all these oak trees for future generations to enjoy,” says Albers.

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Valerie Easton is a Seattle freelance writer.