Our Story

S + L Gardens is a journey in progress. Though our story is still in its early years, it’s already filled with dreams and aspirations, many of which are still ahead of us. We’ve been growing plants for years, and we’re Steve & Larry—here’s our story.

We’re located in Edgewood, Washington, where our cozy ¼-acre property offers stunning views of the Sumner Valley and Mount Rainier. Steve’s passion for gardening began in childhood, spending summers with his grandparents, while Larry also grew up in a family that cherished gardening.

Our farming journey started almost by chance, on a small scale. While living in a condo, we rented over 2,500 square feet of community garden plots, growing fruits and vegetables and sharing them with friends, neighbors, and family. This brought us so much joy, and we continued for many years until we purchased a suburban home. It didn’t take long for us to outgrow the space, as our desire to grow more plants expanded.

In 2020, we made a big move to a larger property with the goal of furthering our gardening efforts. The house closed on Friday the 13th, just before the COVID-19 pandemic hit and our state went into lockdown. We started the move with two van loads of plants, including 65 peonies from our old home. The new property was a blank canvas, but it came with its own challenges—a sloped terrain meant we needed to build multiple retaining walls to create terraces. Over the first few years, we had 150 yards of topsoil delivered and used thousands of retaining wall blocks.

Steve’s love for peonies only grew stronger as his collection expanded, and he became involved with The American Peony Society’s Board of Directors, eventually serving as President of the Pacific Northwest Peony Society.

Now, in our fifth year, we’re well on our way to creating our own garden paradise. Most of the hardscaping is complete, and we’ve also started growing dahlias, inspired by the search for summer-flowering plants. Last year, we perfected our dahlia cutting process and plan to expand and offer them for sale soon.

As our property fills up, planting space is becoming limited. Thankfully, our kind neighbor has allowed us to use some of her extra space for growing dahlias and peonies.

While we don’t aspire to become a large-scale farm, we’re committed to offering high-quality plants that any serious collector would be proud to grow.