Ohme Gardens

Herman Ohme bought forty acres for an orchard in 1929, and the parcel came with a dry, rock strewn bluff nobody had a use for. He and his wife Ruth spent the next forty two years making a garden of it by hand, carrying small evergreens down from the Cascades and hauling stone up from the Columbia for the paths and the borders.

For years they watered it out of five gallon milk cans, until a pumped system took over. It was meant to be a private retreat and opened to the public only because friends kept asking. Herman died in 1971. The family sold to Washington State Parks in 1991, and Chelan County looks after it now.

The season runs from the middle of April to the middle of October, nine until six, with the last entry at quarter past five. Two things catch visitors out. No pets at all, and the steps and uneven ground rule out wheelchairs, walkers and strollers.