Saturday, 19 July 2014
Music in the Gardens Tour, Long Beach Peninsula
a benefit for the Water Music Festival
McCormick-Stephens Garden
I did not take as many photos as I would have liked to do this wonderful garden justice, as I was hobbling around and eventually I just sat on the east side patio and listened to the music and had delicious snacks. Meanwhile, Allan was helping out with something over at the Barclay garden and only got a few photos himself. Fortunately, we have visited the garden before….and Garden Tour Nancy collected some extra photos for me from herself and another photographer, and I got some from Kathleen Shaw and Pam Fleming, who were touring in a different order than Allan and I. Kathleen now has a vacation cottage here and traveled from the Olympia area for the tour. Pam is the gardener for Seaside, Oregon and runs the fabulous Back Alley Gardens nursery in Gearhart, Oregon, a source for many cool plants in this garden.
I did make it though the whole garden, though, just not with as much close attention as it deserves. Because of my excuse of mobility issues, I have also filled in a bit with some photos from earlier visits.
True plant nerds can drop to the bottom of this post for the amazing list of plants in the garden.
It was possible to simply stroll across the bayside lawn from Barclay’s to Steve and John’s garden; both gardens were part of the vastness that was once Clarke Nursery:
As best as I can, I’ll number the photos for those who wish to refer to the excellent map. Any mix up in numbering is mine alone.
The trees and shrubs collected by these two CPNs (certified plant nuts) come from all over the Northwest; I do know that some of them come from our local collectors’ nursery, Back Alley Gardens in Gearhart. (Owner Pam Fleming provided some photos for this blog entry.)
I first entered through a path from Barclay’s south side garden to Steve and John’s kitchen garden.
Around the south side of the house, a path built by landscaper Steve Clarke makes an easy transition for wheelbarrowing mulch.
My goodness, that certainly looks like our good friend Lisa of the hydrangea house!!
Steve and John had specifically suggested Wilho Saari, a fifth-generation Finnish-American player of the kantele, the Finnish psaltery. John’s Finnish heritage made it extra special to have Wilho be the featured musician.
I was suddenly called back over to the Barclay garden for a tour-related question, and when I returned to Steve and John’s garden, I entered by a different way, down by the pond far to the west of the house.
The large rhododendrons date back to Clarke Nursery.
We were fortunate to have visited this garden in springtime when many of the rhododenrons were in bloom.
Blueberry Lemonade
Blend:
1 cup lemon juice (bottled is fine)
6 oz. blueberries (fresh or frozen)
1/2 cup sugar
Add 3 cups water and ice
Voila!
The garden tour menu was:
Skewered pepper jack cheese, cherry tomato and fresh basil.
Crostini with caramelized onion and crumbled Gorgonzola.
Hard salami, cream cheese, and arugula wraps. Warm beef meatballs. Salmon spread with crackers. Grapes. Hot coffee with ginger snaps.
More plant photos by Pam Fleming and Nancy Allen:
At a little before three, I realized that we simply must move on as there were two more gardens to see and I knew that the next one would take awhile to tour as it would be all new to Allan, so we took our leave.
I hope to get back to this garden later this year for some fall colour (a hint to Steve and John!) and get some better plant photos of their wide selection of collectors’ trees and shrubs.
The Plant List
…is a work in progress, which has not been edited for publication, so there are still likely changes/corrections/additions to be made. Any wobble in the formatting is mine from making screenshots of the document.
Wow. This has certainly inspired me to think about going out and cataloging my own garden so that I stop losing track of plant names!
wow, thanks for publishing the plant list!
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It is mind-boggling, no?
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