A Niche For The Natural

Orting’s Chase Garden’s Roots Run Deep

SEE IT FOR YOURSELF The garden is open for self-guided tours between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, as well as a guided tour at 1:30 p.m. the fourth Saturday of each month. Details: chasegarden.org

Emmott Chase, in his 100th year of life, may no longer retain his ability to dig up weeds and rearrange the two-ton boulders in his yard as he once did, but his memory and storytelling abilities are as vibrant as ever.

He vividly recalls the life of the Orting acreage on which his home and the accompanying Chase Garden now rest. His narrative spans from the early 1900s, when he and his father traveled on horse-drawn carriage through the land — then a flourishing plateau of tiny green saplings — to his purchase of the property in 1959, to the 1970s when Emmott would climb the fully-grown trees, stretching hundreds of feet into the air, in order to manicure the beasts.

“He once said that he wished he was 70 so he could climb the trees again,” laughs Jeannette Matthews, managing horticulturalist of the Chase Garden and a good friend of Emmott.

The Chase Garden is a 4½-acre landscape featuring one of the finest examples of Pacific Northwest growth. A combination of naturalistic woodland plants like Douglas firs, vanilla leaf and carpets of trillium, balanced by a peaceful meadow of rock garden plants, Japanese maples and perennials, this picturesque garden emulates the plant life of Mount Rainier. The mountain itself majestically breaks the horizon atop the swaying evergreen tips which blanket the garden’s scenic backdrop of the Puyallup River Valley.

Emmott’s strong will and dedication allowed him to complete most of the work on his home and the surrounding area without help from outside sources. Still, he credits the masterpiece to his beloved wife of 75 years, Ione. Though she died April 6, 2006, her creativity still radiates through the natural essence of the land. Ione initiated the design and plant ideas and her husband did whatever necessary to make her dreams their reality. “He can do anything I make my mind up to,” Emmott says Ione used to say.

It was Ione’s idea to purchase the land after the couple spent 25 years residing at the local power plant where Emmott Chase worked.

 “She didn’t want to live at a company house her whole life. I kind of liked it and I’ll tell you why … we got our telephone, water, rent and all the electricity we wanted for $18.65 a month. That’s pretty good,” Emmott chuckled. “But she wanted her own home.”

Once the house was completed, the couple found themselves trudging through acres of mud to get to it. It was then that they brought in the expertise of landscaper Rex Zumwalt.

“It was very rewarding. Everything I did they carried out almost to the T,” Zumwalt remembers. “They put everything into the garden (themselves). I would take my little family up there on weekends and we would go over everything that they were doing in the garden. It was lots of fun. The whole experience was really great.”

Ione’s goal was to create “beauty in nature.” Aside from weekly maintenance, sustained by local volunteers and hired help, the Chases instituted an innate theme. Ione also liked clean, simple lines, as illustrated in the Japanese design of the house and entrance area — the art of simplicity.

“Ione always wanted a garden of her own,” Emmott explains as he introduces their affiliation with the Garden Conservancy. Based in New York, the Garden Conservancy is a national nonprofit organization that takes on a number of preservation projects, offering the guidance and resources necessary for keeping America’s finest gardens alive. Emmott has willed the land to them, reserving it as the first garden to be owned and run by the organization.

“There was a sense of calmness (to the garden) …” Matthews says as she explains the Conservancy’s decision to adopt the Chase Garden. “ … Perhaps from the repetition of plants, lines and the setting with a unique feature of Mount Rainier right out the window.”

The Chases thrived outdoors, from the late summers walking the shore of their Lake Connell cabin to serene hikes around Mount Rainier where Ione found some of her greatest inspiration.

“I was fortunate to have someone as congenial as Ione,” Emmott lovingly notes. “We would camp on the beach and she never complained. She took it in stride as part of the adventure. Our idea of a vacation was going up to the Canada cabin and working in the wilderness and wildlife.”

Prior to Ione’s death, the property was viewable by reservation only, mainly kept for the couple’s personal enjoyment. Since then, Emmott has opened the Chase Garden to the community. The garden now is available for self-guided tours between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, as well as a guided tour at 1:30 p.m. on the fourth Saturday of each month. Other annual events, such as a spring and fall garden sale and several classes throughout the year, help to fund the land.

“What pleases me most is how (the garden) pleased Ione,” Chase says with sweet assurance, wiping a tear from his cheek. “It was her life. She lived for her garden.”

Matthews gives a tour of the property and then stops with a reflective sigh, “(Ione) is still watching over the garden, I suspect.” When spring is announced by the dwarf iris’ bursts of color in the rock garden, or fall turns the leaves of the climbing hydrangea to a buttery yellow, lit like fire in the sun, the incessant life of this garden is undeniable. And be it in their lifetime or the next, Emmott and Ione Chase’s free-spirited fingerprints will forever dwell within the heart of their garden — the Chase Garden.

Kayla Schroader is an editorial intern at South Sound magazine and a recent graduate of Central Washington University in Ellensburg.

 

 

 

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