Waterfall helps make Thomson yard a winner

One look at Carol and Jim Thomson’s yard, and you’ll never want to go home again.

Instead, you’ll want to lounge on their patio and listen to the trickle of the waterfall while gazing at their incredible gardens. One look, and the flower garden in your yard will feel like a pale imitation.

The Thomsons’ yard creates that kind of envy among visitors. The Inland Empire Gardening Club judging panel was so impressed that it selected it the June Garden of the Month.

One judge went out on a limb by calling this Spokane Valley garden “one of the nicest gardens I’ve ever seen.”

Although ever square foot is a manicured masterpiece, it’s the waterfall that makes the setting so special. The couple built the waterfall themselves after a company brought in boulders from around the area.

The waterfall runs on a swimming pool pump that churns 85 gallons per minute. There’s a bridge that makes for a perfect place to sit and admire the alpine firs, mountain hemlock, Serbian spruce and other trees that frame the falls. Flowers are everywhere.

Carol said she’s a bargain hunter when it comes to plants and shrub shopping and is known to pick up sickly plants and nurse them back to health.

The Thomsons, who don’t have children, also have planted unusual trees, perennial beds and interesting grasses throughout the yard, which sits on a natural slope. They have seven bird feeders, including one that hangs from a dead tree that was brought in and mounted into the ground.

Carol said it gives birds an ideal place to build nests.

The Thomsons also installed outdoor lights, making their private arboretum inviting under the stars.

Aside from the main patio, which is closest to the waterfall, there are two small sitting areas and a hot tub on the grounds. The deck overlooks the back yard.

A bubbling fountain, built from one boulder, has been placed near the entrance of the house.

“I’ve always liked to garden,” said Carol, a longtime paraprofessional at an accounting firm. “My husband took a little longer.

“There was more convincing, but once he got going, he’s become just as enthusiastic as I am.”

Carol said her favorite shrub in the yard is a Japanese umbrella pine, grouped in their Japanese garden peninsula. The unusual pine has soft, twisted needles with a rubbery feel.

“To me,” Carol said, “I don’t like mass planting. I love texture, so it has to be something I can touch.”

The Thomsons, who bought their home in 1996, began digging in the dirt about five years ago. They also bought more land from a neighbor, bringing their property area to three-quarters of an acre.

Formed in 1982, the yard had been neglected to the point where it was mostly scrub brush. The only trees on the property were a few tall pine trees.

Little by little, Jim, a diesel mechanic, and Carol weeded and cleaned the yard and prepared it for planting.

“We really don’t know what we were doing in the beginning,” said Carol. “We winged it.”

And they passed the test with flying colors.