Belfair's Crazy Hill wins gold, people's choice awards

Kirk Boxleitner | Mar 03, 20220

Courtesy photo count

Crazy Hill Garden and Botanicals of Belfair won kudos for its entry into the Northwest Flower and Garden show.

This year's Northwest Flower and Garden Show in Seattle ran from Feb. 9-13 and saw first-time entrants Crazy Hill Garden and Botanicals of Belfair win both the Gold Medal overall and the People's Choice Award.

Crazy Hill co-owner Elton Busby credited his partner, Michael Kerkes, with following his dreams to completion by coming up with a design to submit.

The Seattle show accepts submissions only from those it has invited to take part. Although the show had other award categories, Busby said the awards with outside sponsors seemed to be focused "quite heavily" on the question "Can homeowners take what they saw at the show and make that happen at home?"

Busby said, "Our garden was a little outside the box, and I don't think that translated to going home and doing it oneself, however festive it might have been."

Busby said he considers winning the People's Choice Award an honor because it means Kerkes' design proved popular enough with the event's paid ticket-holding attendees that they selected it to be honored. Busby said Kerkes offered a deliberately "dramatic" and "surreal" take on this year's theme of "Greetings from Spring."

"Our nursery is all about offering the unique, unusual and hard-to-find," Busby said. "Accordingly, Michael's design was always going to be art-heavy and feature ingredients that one couldn't just find at a big-box store."

Crazy Hill's submission was up against competitors from as far away as Bend, Oregon, and Spokane, but Busby credited not only Kerkes' "amazing eye" for out-of-the-ordinary plants, but also the contributions of more than half a dozen of Crazy Hill's artistic partners, which allowed Kerkes' submitted design to present a 99% custom-fabricated framework, aside from only two store-bought plant containers.

Ray Hammar of Blue Collar Artwork in Gorst was Crazy Hill's official garden co-creator.

"He was responsible for the fabrication of the custom-designed metal gazebo, giant metal planters and whimsical 'alien tree' sculpture [and] countless hours of backbreaking labor," Busby said. "We couldn't have done it without him, for sure."

Custom concrete work was furnished by Beth Neth of Mossy Maven Concrete in Olympia, while custom live-edge slab steps were provided by Adam Phipps and Tyler Wilson from Treefolk in Belfair. The custom-built Shou Sugi Ban flooring seen in the gazebo was made by Bryan Cridlebaugh from Gig Harbor.

"We had metal plant sculptures from emerging Kitsap County metal artist Patra Vogt, from Girl Friday Welding in Olalla," Busby said. "We had custom large-scale fused-glass art panels hanging in the gazebo made by Dixie Armfield-Rogerson from Eastern Wind Glass in Bremerton and hand-painted stones were distributed about the garden from Crazy Hill's own Anita Acuna."

An unnamed friend did what Busby deemed the submission's "wonderful lighting," but he doesn't wish to be recognized officially because he considers his contributions merely "a gift."

"Everyone clearly put their hearts and souls into that garden design, and you won't find its like anywhere outside of Crazy Hill," Busby said.

Busby said he was surprised to see so many professional peers from Mason County at a King County show. Busby said he and Kerkes (and Hammar) tentatively expect to return next year.

"It was an exhilarating, dreamlike experience that's already earned us recognition in our field," Busby said.