Two gardens on tour on the same day: What a dilemma. I wanted to experience the whole day in each of them, but on the Music in the Gardens tour day I started at my mother’s garden, made a dash with tour organizer Patti to Laurie’s at mid-day, and then returned to my mother’s.
As we entered Laurie’s driveway, we found an impromptu sign…and a cherub welcoming the guests.
by the driveway
Allan spent more time at Laurie’s to make sure that his oyster shell water wheel functioned perfectly. Its construction and installation had preoccupied him for a couple of weeks since Laurie had requested that he build her a water wheel similar to the small one he’d built at our own garden. Ours had a little bicycle wheel with small flowerpots scooping the water. Laurie’s idea was considerably grander.
our flower pot water wheel…
Laurie’s oyster shell water wheel
The oyster shell water wheel had gotten bigger and bigger, made of driftwood and shells, and mounted on top of a stump along the driveway. Originally, Allan had envisioned something more ground level and less grand. Laurie’s spouse, had laughed kindly and told Allan that Laurie’s artistic visions always became grander as they came to fruition.
Allan made a video of the construction and workings of the wheel. The balance was tricky because each shell was slightly different. It worked beautifully on tour day so Allan was able to help out the other aspects of the tour. (A year and a half later, when Laurie’s health required a move to warm California, the buyers of the house admired and kept the wheel.)
When Allan first arrived on tour day and checked on his creation, he found mounted by the water wheel a poem that expressed Laurie’s gratitude for the realization of her vision.
water wheel poem
oyster shell water wheel
Laurie liked the look of the oyster shells so much that she went up to Nahcotta and collected some herself to decorate another stump. Of course, every fern on the long driveway had been meticulously pruned in early spring.
shells and ferns
The tour program called Laurie’s “The Poetry Lady’s Garden”. She and her personal assistant/horse wrangler Corinne had spent days printing decorative pages of Laurie’s poetry to hang throughout the garden.
poetry reading
I was so pleased to see the tour guests pausing and reading.
Laurie and Mike’s large driveway circle offered a miniature woodsy ramble through criss cross paths. There we had placed a bench and a planted chair as rewards for guests who wandered in under maples, magnolia, and conifers.
woodsy bench
fern planted chair
In this wooded setting more poems dangled from branches.
“Well Planned Path”
Woodsy path
With uncertain wander
Needled trail, mossed hollow
shagged root,
bounded by bracken,
Berried shrub
Spent wild bloom and lichened
Stone by broken bark, perfect
Width of one
Beneath a sky of green
I follow.
Footfalls forgotten if and when
Some forest traveler on claw or hoof
Discovers this solitary way complete
Nosing through musky weight
and quiet import
Void of measured worth
Souls in damp discovery
My own boots nuzzle
The same true earth.
*L Ann Buscher
In this wooded setting, among several poems dangling from the trees, I found this one describing our very own cottage and garden.
Near the driveway circle we had placed a planted chair by a tree stump. I wondered why the horses were not curiously hanging their heads over the pasture fence.
Where were the horses?
Perhaps, I thought, they are in the barn, and went on to walk the garden. It had not quite achieved its heavily-lily-bloomed Jurassic summer stature, but it was impressive enough.
the first section of sunny border
Following the long sunny border’s curve across the lawn toward the view of Willapa Bay, I came upon the sight of a musician and white roses and horses.
Laurie and Allan and I and had spent so many sessions planning the decor of the garden. All of the beautiful touches on the deck that wraps halfway around the house were hers.
on the deck: pictures of lilies
on the deck: one of Laurie’s paintings
on the deck: bonsai
on the deck: flowers and poetry
on the deck: hanging baskets and art
My vision had of this tour day had always been for Laurie to be on the deck receiving visitors or better yet, able to walk through the garden with the guests. She had wanted to make a computer slideshow from earlier years of all her lilies that were not yet in bloom and had wanted to display more writings and art. But her health, always delicate, had taken a bad turn days before the show and she had not been able to complete all of the poetry and art displays. Her assistant took charge of the situation and set Laurie up in the upstairs master suite and guided anyone who wanted to chat with her up there where Laurie, seated by a window with a view of her beloved horses, was able to participate in the day after all.
Laurie’s helper Corrine (right)
the house from the garden
garden detail: Salvia viridis (painted sage) and Melianthus major ‘Antenow’s Blue’
textural foliage against the house
hanging baskets, west wall
I spent some time with Laurie, whose mood was bright with her usual dauntless attitude through spells of severe bad health. She asked me if I had seen a certain poem on the bay side of the deck. I had not and promised to seek it out; I had to leave and return to open day at my mother’s garden. On the deck near the cookies and lemonade I found the poem “My Lily Maker” and was overcome with emotion as it described how she had trustingly turned her garden over to me. (You can read it here.) The next time we came to work she gave me the framed lily maker poem and the one about our tangly cottage. Both are on my wall now.
Later in the summer, Laurie felt better and was able to get out again and enjoy the lilies (which, of course, bloomed profusely after tour day).
the sunny border in early July
I had been right to make sure the garden was on tour in 2009, because by summer of 2010 she and Mike had sold the house. They lived there for awhile longer as the owners would not arrive till fall. By then Laurie, Mike, the horses and their new dog were on a new horse property in the California sun.
In 2010, as if knowing the garden would soon be in new hands, the deer descended and ate the lily buds for the first time. In early 2010 I wrote about the changes and indeed, Allan and I have not been back to the garden since that autumn.
Credits: hanging baskets by The Basket Case Greenhouse
Cosmos and painted sage grown by The Planter Box.
very cool shrubs and perennials from Joy Creek and Cistus Nurseries.
Original garden designed by Dale Brouse in the early 90s.
Poetry by L. Ann Buscher
We miss you, Laurie!
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Tangly Cottage Gardening 