Saturday, 19 July 2014
Music in the Gardens Tour, Long Beach Peninsula
a benefit for Water Music Festival
Patti Jacobsen’s Garden
I have had a long connection with Patti’s Seaview garden. We’ve been friends since well before she started the Music in the Gardens Tour in 2007; after three or four years, she passed the organizational torch to Garden Tour Nancy.
It was high time that her garden was on the tour again, especially since this may be the last year it is under her care. She has put her home, with its two darling rental cottages, up for sale as she is looking to downsize.
I was sorely tempted by this until I realized how much I enjoy being able to say that Allan and I have completely created our garden ourselves. The design of Patti’s is so excellent that if I bought the place, I would not want to change much at all (except to add more of the weird plants I like). There is also the slight matter of being in debt for the rest of our lives! But for someone, perhaps a garden blogger!, this is a perfect paradise just waiting to be found.
We were among the first tour guests to arrive at Patti’s garden.
When Patti needed some gardening help this year and we were unable to fit her garden in (due to our various extra long weekends of skiving off to garden tours), I recommended a couple of other good gardeners to her. She said she did not want them “because they don’t come with Allan.”
As I look longingly upon the house and try to remind myself of the good reasons to stay where we are, I also remind myself that Ilwaco does not seem to have a big mosquito problem.
I had suggested to Patti over the years solutions for the corner of a yard where a big Cryptomeria had half dead limbs touching the ground. The first thing she showed me was how she had had it cleaned up (because she did finally find a gardener who was as good as Allan!).
We had offered to haul the pile of debris away and then I had forgotten all about it, so I was glad to see it all done and so very welcoming a space now.
The whole space around that tree is so opened up now and it is possible to walk all down that side of the garden.
As the tour began, Long Beach city administrator Gene Miles was among the first to arrive. His exquisite small garden was on last year’s tour.
On the south side of the house, a patio with plenty of room for entertaining is bordered by a river rock bed and a small pond.
The French doors and porch were built by my former partner, Robert, while he lived at Patti’s for a year some time after he and I parted ways. Now there’s a tale! He installed the patio was well with his excellent sense for negative space and for not filling everything up with plants. (I still strive to learn from this.)
As we go around the corner of the house, the patio gravel makes a wide entry to the back deck.
Behind the low hedge (photo above the water feature) in the southeast corner of the yard is Patti’s kitchen garden.
The garage is on the north side of the back garden, with a little lean to greenhouse at the end.
The other gate leads to the little garden belong to Rose Cottage, one of Patti’s rental cottages (studio sized).
While we made our walk around the house, the tour had jumped into full swing. (Over the course of the day, over 371 people would come through the garden.)
Helen is the owner of the fabulous Westbrook garden in Astoria which we must visit again soon; Debbie is a staunch reader of this blog.
Debbie (left) of Rainyside.com had come all the way from Kingston, and Allison (center) had come from Bonney Lake (the Bonney Lassie blog). We were so pleased to see them both.
In the living room, Cheri Walker of the 42nd Street Café warmed up on her harp. One of the unusual features of this garden tour is that because it is a benefit for the Water Music Festival (which in turn benefits music programs in local schools), each garden features an accomplished musician.
We sat on the porch for awhile, even though I knew we should be getting on as we had ten gardens to see!
I told Patti we would be back later (although as it turned out, we saw the last garden in the closing minutes of the tour and never did get back that day to take more photos of Patti’s garden). Although there’s probably no surprise in the news that Patti’s garden was my favourite, there are many fine gardens to come.
For another view of Patti’s garden, see Alison’s post on the Bonney Lassie blog.
I love how thorough your garden tour posts always are, giving the reader a very good sense of how the garden is laid out. Mine always tend to focus on the things that I liked best (or at least, the things I got good photos of). I’m going to add a link to your post to my post, and thanks for putting in the link to mine.
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Thanks, Alison. Sometimes my brain hurts after I have spent hours trying to get photos in the right order, as I tend to walk around more than once, and then fitting in Allan’s views. It is fun to relive through blogging, and the hours fly by.
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What a perfect seaside cottage and garden! My very favorite this season. Thanks for sharing, Tangly Cottage, as I was out-of-town.
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Aw, Jamie, wondered why did not see you in any of the gardens! Saw someone who looked a bit like you for a moment and me heart lifted, and then it was not you!
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What a cool garden and to enjoy it with Alison and Debbie and you two would have been such a treat! I echo Alison’s appreciation of your thorough garden coverage.
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Thank you!
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It looks so lovely and cool! I really need to move…summer here in Houston is unbearable. Thank you for the refreshing tour through this lovely garden!
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You would be very welcome here or anywhere in the Pac NW I am sure!
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http://www.searchallproperties.com/listings/1961338/210%20Pearl%20Street,%20Ilwaco,%20WA
a lovely house that is for sale really close to me 😉
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Darn you Tangley, i so wish I could convince Bill to come back up there , and that house would be perfect for him and me with our babies Molly , Pedro , and now a new one, Jose
You make me home sick.
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Aw…. Wish you could!!
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