Kubota Gardens

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The weather forecast for Sunday morning was favorable for getting outdoors and the fruit trees are all in full bloom. So we decided to go on another outing to Kubota Gardens in the south end of Seattle. The gardens were a commercial nursery for decades, owned by a Japanese family who were interned during WWII. But after the war they came back to their overgrown nursery and continued to build it into an amazing huge garden. It later fell into neglect and into the hands of the city, which almost built condos in the site. But citizens saved it and it is now a city park.

I love the overgrown nature of it. I'm always curious what it looked like when the family was tending it, but the half-wildness of it is different from any other park and makes it interesting.

The girls love it, as I would have when I was a boy. There are many small trails that wind through the vegetation with limited sightlines so you can feel lost even though you're in a fairly small space. And then you'll round a corner and come across a cool little stone bridge over a brook or an interesting bench. The entrance to the park is higher than the main part of the garden. On the main zig-zagging path into the garden I always feel like I'm descending into another world, and when we ascend back out I have a clear sense of leaving a dreamlike place and reentering the city. After a lifetime living in Seattle I finally visited Kubota Gardens for the first time last year. It has become one of my dearest places in the city.