Gardens by the Sea Tour: Hopkins-Young Garden

29 July, 2012, a benefit for Clatsop County CASA

formal patterns

The fifth garden we visited was supposed to be garden six, which would have bracketed the tour with green and white gardens.  But we wanted to end up at Back Alley Gardens nursery, so we switched the order.  The programme says of the garden of  David Hopkins and Rick Young:  “The strength of this beautiful green and white landscape is laid out in a pattern you will not soon forget.”

palm planter by front fence

At one side of the front yard, a tidy work area

In the work area, a potting bench and woodshed

looking back to the garden from the work area

 

Next to the area with potting bench and woodshed stood the most exquisite guest house, which was open for tour guests.

guest house

inside…perhaps a Murphy bed?

inside, showing door to back deck

Garden tourists kept poking around the guest house, peering through side windows to try to figure out whether or not a Murphy bed hid behind the tall doors. One gentleman said, “It looks like storage back there.”  Perhaps some sort of rollaway bed is deployed?

 

 

 

On the shelf atop the cupboards (right), a photography book was on display.  We were not sure if the choice of photograph had been selected by the owners, or had it been opened by a tour guest, and in what way was it a glimpse into the lives of the couple who had opened their garden and guest house to our inquiring minds?

from this book

 

 

 

 

 

the photo book

the bathroom

and out the back door to a secret deck

I love the simple, sandy path that runs along the back of the guest house.  So beachy!

path from deck to potting bench

and from potting bench back to deck

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

the main house from next to the guest house

boxwood circle

On the other side of the guest house from the work area the formal intricacies of the garden began again with a boxwood circle, Lutyens bench, and clipped backdrop.

Next to and behind the house the strong white and green theme probably takes some dedicated upkeep to be so pristine.

 

 

white on white patio

around to the back

garden tower

back garden

Around the main house we strolled…

passing a fountain that I imagine is viewed from a dining table.

an elegant view

returning to the front garden….

boxwood in a box

Allan took a close up lawn shot for lawn expert Tom Hornbuckle.  And then we were off to the final garden of the day.

Interlude:

window?box

I loved this windowbox on a hour across the street.  Wait, it is not a windowbox without a window, is it?  A planter then.  I want to get some little trees and do an offset design like this.

After the formality of the green and white garden, I found it differently pleasant to gaze upon an unlandscaped scene of trees and floats.

 

tree floats

the old red house

Driving, we took a wrong turn and saw the back of the old red house I had remarked upon earlier in the day, that it might be an affordable Gearhart house, but probably not.  The lot does not go all the way through as I had imagined.

We stopped the car to take photos of a beautiful house and a garden that I liked best of all, even though I did not get to enter it.

a dreamy garden

detail of dreamy garden

A neighbour caught me lurking outside the fence on this dead end street and just said, “Liking the garden?” as he walked by with his dog.

Back in the car, we drove to the final garden, right across the street from our destination nursery, and next door to the tour garden, we admired this geometric landscape.

Next: the last tour garden of a very good day.