Gardens by The Sea Tour: prelude

July 29, 2012, Gearhart, Oregon

At the end of a shopping trip preceding our own garden tour, I had seen a flyer for the Gearhart tour.  There had been Gearhart tours that I had not known about every year since the glorious one I had been on in 2008?  If so, we had been missing out!  (But I do not recall the 2008 one being a benefit for Casa.)

FIFTH annual?? Argh.

At the starting point, a lawn next to the Trail’s End Art Center, fliers explained the mission of CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates for children), and delicious treats were offered.

starting point

bouquets and plants for sale

on the ticket table

The Ridge Trail

Could this fascinating collection of plants be the first garden?

On the corner, a collection of my favourite Eryngiums!

Acacia pravissima

We were all stopped in our tracks by this garden, which was not on the tour. The owner, Roger, was busy painting something and did not make any effort to lure us in. We were all buzzing around so he came to talk to us, of course.  As I suspected, A lot of Roger’s plants came from my favourite nursery, Cistus on Sauvie Island…including the Acacia (above) which I once had till it got broken off when snow slid off my roof in an unusually bad winter.

 

Acacia pravissima detail

Eucalyptus

Roger’s glorious Eucalyptus collection also spoke to me of Cistus nursery; it turned out he is a professional landscaper, not at all to our surprise.

Roger’s house

in Roger’s garden

 

Roger’s wonderful dog

He also had an exceptionally sweet dog.   But while his garden had been on the tour before, this year it was just a serendipitous find on the corner of the block which had, further down, an actual tour garden.   After  much dog petting and plant admiring, we finally moved on to tour garden number one, half a block away.