DUNGENESS — The house, the horses and the hawks . . . they’re staying.
But the “I do’s” are just about done.
The Cutting Garden, site of some 350 strolls down the flowery outdoor aisle, is cutting back — way back — by mid-September.
“We’re retiring from the wedding business,” said Catherine Mix, who with her husband Tom built The Cutting Garden’s blossoming displays and pathways in 2000.
Sept. 9 is the last scheduled wedding, and then there’s one more public event: the Opulent Art Show, a food-and-fine-art fair (www.opulentartshow.com) set for Sept. 15 at The Cutting Garden, 303 Dahlia Llama Lane, off Woodcock Road.
Also over the next few weeks, the Cutting Garden’s you-cut rows of dahlias and other blooms will stay open to the public as usual, Catherine said — now through the first Saturday of October.
Cut-them-yourself mixed bouquets cost $8.50, while the garden is open daily 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. — but on that last day, Oct. 6, the flowers will be free for the taking, since that’s the annual Clallam County Farm Tour day.
As for the display gardens where the weddings take place, the Mixes are inviting plant lovers to a you-dig party.
“We’re going to take out 40 or 50 percent of our gardens,” Catherine said.
“I thought a fun way to do it would be invite people to come dig them up.”
September is an ideal time for transplantation, she added, and it won’t be expensive: $2.50 per plant for smaller things like Casablanca lilies, and $5 for the bigger ones, like irises.
Shovel-wielding visitors must first make appointments, by phoning 360-670-8671.
Diggers can also preview the gardens any Wednesday between 10 a.m. and noon.
More details on the transplant sale and on 5-foot-round tables and linens also being sold off await at www.CuttingGarden.com.
Yet the 24-acre spread is not closing completely.
The Cutting Garden farmhouse will be available for gatherings of 50 or fewer guests — bridal and baby showers, art workshops, retreats, birthday and anniversary parties — for $40 per hour; $30 for nonprofit organizations.
Later this fall, after the display gardens are scaled down to just the mature trees and shrubs, Catherine will maintain a xeriscape: a low-maintenance, drought-tolerant refuge.
To visitors, Catherine says: “Bring your camera, bring your paints, and you are welcome,” between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. most days.
It’s a good idea to phone The Cutting Garden number above to check on whether an event is happening at the farmhouse, she added.
As the news of no more nuptials at The Cutting Garden gets out, the response is “shock,” Catherine said.
But the time has come for her to develop her other passions: art and teaching art.
As her garden grew, Catherine has painted it — and the stupendous surroundings, including her Olympic Mountain view.
She hopes to continue her development as an artist, while teaching painting at Peninsula College.
“When Tom and I moved here [in 1999], I was 48: too young to retire. I got a wild hair and decided to put in these gorgeous gardens,” Catherine recalled.
While she got the wedding business going to pay for the gardens, Tom kept the grounds in shape and ran an adjacent horse-boarding business.
He’ll keep that going; those with horses to board can reach Tom at 360-582-0460.
Catherine and Tom have worked together since 1986, when they were both at Boeing’s Seattle plant.
They married in 1991 and bought their Dungeness land, back then a big pasture, in 1998.
“My husband is the engineer, the strong back and the big heart of this place,” Catherine said.
For Tom, the best part of running The Cutting Garden is watching what happens when people walk in.
“They park in an old hay field,” he said, “and then they walk through the tall grass, get in about 30 feet, and say, ‘Oh, my God.’
“I enjoy that ‘wow’ discovery.”
Something these two ex-Boeing workers have discovered: how gardening and otherwise working outdoors invigorates body and mind.
While Catherine has grown her gardens, Tom has volunteered, and will continue to work, with the Back Country Horsemen of Washington on trail-building and maintenance across the Olympic Peninsula.
“We decided we would stay physically active,” he said, “because we’ve seen that the people who do that enjoy life.”
________
Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5062, or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
