Bellingham couple's home awash in color and beauty

Home is part of the Whatcom Horticultural Society 22nd Annual Tour of Private Gardens

ZOE FRALEY

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White is a four-letter word at the home of Steve and Laurie Satushek.

Every inch of the couple's home is an explosion of color: inside, outside and all eight acres of their Marine Drive property. But it was exactly the opposite when the couple bought the home six years ago.

"The property was beautiful, but everything was kind of plain," says Laurie, 51, a teacher in the Mount Baker School District. "All the walls were white," she says with an imperceptible shudder.

Josie Liming | JOSIE LIMING THE BELLINGHAM HERALD

IF YOU GO

What: Whatcom Horticultural Society 22nd Annual Tour of Private Gardens
When: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. today
Where: Local homes
Cost: Tickets are $15 for society member, $18 for general public and free for kids 12 and younger. Tickets are available at local nurseries and at featured homes the day of the event.
Details: Go online at www.whatcomhortsociety.org for a listing of homes and their addresses.
Steve and Laurie Satushek also will sell local outdoor art at their home, including Steve's colorful nature photography, which is treated to survive the outdoors.

Landscaping fans have a chance today to tour the Satushek's colorful acreage, along with several other private gardens, for the Whatcom Horticultural Society 22nd Annual Tour of Private Gardens.

People can see the butterfly garden with its butterfly-painted chair, an elaborate mosaic that takes up an entire wall leading to the home's front door and cobalt-blue bottle sculptures swaying in the wind.And that's just on the upper tier of the yard.

Past the cutting garden, the outdoor shower and the ornamental grasses, a steep stairway is etched into the hillside. Up top is predominantly Laurie's domain, but down those sandy steps, through the emerald green branches and down to the water � this is Steve's wonderland.

"(It's) a getaway, a sanctuary, a place where time doesn't really exist anymore," says Steve, 56, a photographer whose work is hung outdoors as well as in. "When I start walking back up the steps, it's like I'm coming back to reality."

A winding path leads its way over a stream and down to the beach, but not without meandering past collections of beach glass and a menagerie of pastel driftwood sculptures that Steve likens to a zoo.

But the real jewel for Steve is an open room with pillows and books nestled to the side of the path.

"It's the jungle hut," he says. "It's a good place to camp out and listen to the bird songs in the morning."

The vivid home and yard have been a slow evolution from their plain beginnings. The couple has tinkered here and there to achieve their garden vision, finding what works and what doesn't.

"We're probably more creative than knowledgeable," Laurie says. "We take lots of risks. We're not perfectionists. We love color."

Though the couple, along with their kids Mia and Mick, have been building up the yard over the years, the focus now is on keeping what they have healthy and happy � and enjoying the beautiful setting they've created.

"For me, it's one of my favorite things to do," Laurie says, "to be in the garden listening to music and the birds."

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Wednesday, Jun. 25, 2008

Bellingham couple's home awash in color and beauty

Home is part of the Whatcom Horticultural Society 22nd Annual Tour of Private Gardens

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