Each life remembered as a living tree, a flowering shrub, a perennial bed that returns every spring stronger than the last.
"The opposite of grief is not happiness. It is meaning. These families found it here."
“Her magnolia is in its second bloom now. I drove up on a Tuesday and there it was — those white cups open, facing the sky the way she always turned her face toward the sun. I sat under it for an hour. I didn't cry. I just watched it be alive.”
“I bring a folding chair on Tuesdays. I read there. Sometimes I talk out loud. The oak doesn't mind.”
“We chose neighboring oaks. We wanted the roots to find each other eventually. The arborist told us they actually do — through the soil, through the mycorrhizal network. Fifty years from now, they'll be holding hands underground.”
Grove is twelve acres of Pacific Northwest woodland managed under a conservation easement. No pesticides. No synthetic fertilizers. No headstones, granite, or concrete. Every species planted is native or naturalized — chosen because it belongs here, not because it photographs well.
When you choose a tree or shrub, our arborist walks the site with you — or with us on your behalf — and selects the specific location based on soil chemistry, light, and the company the tree will keep for the next century.
“A tree planted in grief becomes, over decades, a fact of the landscape. It stops being a memorial and starts being a tree. That is the point.”
— Grove Arborist, on the long viewDormancy. Roots deepen. We mulch beds with cedar and straw. The garden is quietest here — and most honest.
First emergence. New growth visible by mid-March. Families receive a photo of their tree's first bud, mailed without announcement.
Full canopy. The garden is open daily from dawn. Picnics welcome. We ask only that you leave the grass as you found it.
The turning. Deciduous trees flame before resting. We hold one gathering — informal, no program — for families who want to be together.
Every tree receives a documented annual inspection and care report sent to the family.
The conservation easement ensures Grove remains a garden — not a development site — for a century.
The garden is open to families every day of the year, dawn to dusk, without reservation or charge.
“I'm in my sixties and I wanted my grandchildren to have a place to picnic, to climb a tree, to know that their grandmother loved them enough to leave them something alive. A granite slab teaches nothing. A cherry tree teaches everything.”
“My husband hated the idea of a cemetery. He used to say, 'When I'm gone, plant something that feeds a bird.' So we planted a serviceberry. Last spring a cedar waxwing spent an entire afternoon in it.”
When you’re ready — or just curious — we’re here.
Begin a ConversationThis isn’t a commitment. It’s a conversation held on a bench beneath a tree that someone planted out of love. Tell us your name. Tell us who you’re thinking about. We’ll take it from there.
We respond within one business day. We never share your information. We never use the word “product.”
Download our seasonal garden guide — a 12-page illustrated look at what a living memorial looks like across four seasons. Just an email.