Local roots: The Fribergs would miss their yard too much to move

Nancy Draper / guest columnist

The property where Gregg and Lorraine Friberg’s Puyallup house sits was originally the Schaefer property — fertile valley berry fields where Lorraine, like so many other locals, picked berries as a youth.

“We’ve had four different landscapes out here over the 52 years we’ve been here,” she said.

Gregg built the out buildings, which include a huge potting shed and a child’s playhouse and it looks just as it did when their now grown daughter enjoyed it. He also created brick pathways from the house to the buildings, carved out curved beds around the perimeter of the yard and lined the beds with a concrete edging.

The Friberg’s yard offers the chance to experiment with both sun and shade gardening, and they each have an herb and vegetable garden as well. Gregg enjoys planting leeks and tomatoes, while Lorraine’s space includes chives and other culinary plants. Other plantings in the Friberg’s yard include beautiful rhododendrons, heather, climbing roses, camellias, Japanese maples and trillium. Lorraine said that she is primarily the gardener while Gregg enjoys tending to the lawn.

One of their favorite spots in the yard is their covered back patio, which is a true outdoor room filled with year-round blooming plants, comfortable furniture and offering shade from the hot summer sun. A few years ago, Lorraine and a friend hand-painted the concrete slab and it’s only on a second look that you realize the patio floor is not real brick.

“We consider the patio to be part of the garden, and we live out here all summer long. In the winter months, there are plants out here with some greenery on them, so it never looks bare during those months,” she said.

“It wasn’t intended to be our forever house,” Lorraine said, showing off her inviting back yard. “It was only going to be a starter house, but then it became a family house, and now the kids are grown and gone, and we know we just can’t leave. We love the yard so much, and there aren’t a lot of houses you can buy today with this much property around them.”

Lorraine and Gregg, both retired local educators, have lived in this development, originally named Valley Manor, since 1956.

“So many people at our age are moving into condos, but we just can’t — we both love to garden. As long as we can continue to care for this space and enjoy it, we intend to do so. We could leave the house, but we could never leave the yard,” Lorraine said.

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Readers:

Do you have a garden that you’ve spent hours slaving over and would like to show it off to Herald readers? Each week, The Herald’s newest columnist, Nancy Draper, will profile an East Pierce County gardener. If you want to show off your hard work, send information about your garden photos of your yard and a way to get in touch with you in an e-mail with “GARDEN” in the subject line to nancydgardens@yahoo.com.

Nancy Draper can be reached by e-mail at nancydgardens@yahoo.com.