A Living, Growing Memorial
A community comes together to honor the founder of Plant Amnesty with the Cass Turnbull Garden
Gardens are built by hand and heft, over time. Remarkable gardens are invested with great heart. The Cass Turnbull Garden, a collaborative endeavor involving a community of designers, gardeners, and horticultural craftspeople, is a testament to the love and respect for a singular plantswoman.
In 1987, Cass Turnbull founded a non-profit member organization dedicated to arresting “the senseless torture and mutilation of trees and shrubs.” Plant Amnesty grew into a respected local resource for homeowners and landscape professionals with a reach that now extends well beyond our region.
With her unique blend of wit and whimsy, coupled with a fierce commitment to healthy landscapes and the protection of trees in the urban canopy, Turnbull was an irrepressible force of nature. Her unexpected death in January 2017 rocked the horticultural community.
The idea for a Cass Turnbull Garden was conceived at her memorial service that March. By April, Katherine “Kay” Bullitt, well-known Seattle philanthropist and champion of education, racial equity, arts, and the environment, had offered up the west facing slope of her Capitol Hill property.
Read the entire story in the link below