Our garden through other eyes

During the garden visits of summer 2012, many visitors took photos and I acquired just a few of them.  It interests me deeply to see what in the garden someone else chooses to photograph.

photos by Thomas Gerard

photographer Thomas Gerard

Thomas getting up close.

Smokey

Smokey on the east path

cat bench

the purple camellia

looking east from behind the cat bench

looking east

looking west

Achillea (yarrow)

Mary and Smokey

shasta daises

teacup tree

Maddy

photos by Wendy Murry

photographer Wendy Murry

the old clothesline

yellow lily with green throat

photos by Carl or Christie Hofelt of Arcadia Court Hotel

elephant garlic and plume poppy

back garden

It would be fun to have a garden party, offer food and refreshments, and just ask people to photograph what strikes their fancy and then send us the photos.

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summer visitors, campfires and flowers

Never in my old garden did I have as many visitors as we do in our garden on Lake Street.  It’s a much more comfortable garden, being in light rather than shade and flat rather than extremely up and down.  Garden tour perfection lingered well into the fall and made it a paradise to be in.

Elly, bestower of “Bestest Garden Ever” award

At the end of July, the granddaughter of our friend and client Lorna (Andersen’s RV Park) visited with her mom and grandma.  We had to work that day, but Lorna sent us this photo and message: “The Bestest Garden I’ve Ever Been to AWARD. So designated by Ellie Anna Follis on Sunday, July 29, 2012. She loved the kitty with the fluffy tail, all the little doors, the cups trees, the doors in the fence, the purple tree…….. All the things her grandmother loved. Thank you so much for letting me take them there!!”

Our campfire was a good gathering spot on a late July evening with our friends Don and Jenna and their son Joe.  I was so not a social animal in the old garden that this was especially pleasing to me and I hope to do a lot more campfires in 2013.

fire, 6 August

Lisa grazing

On August 8th, our friend Lisa of Crank’s Roost came to visit with two friends and sampled the Sugar Ann peas growing in the wire fence.  (Growing them is easy; finding time to pick and eat them proved to be much harder.)

Lisa brought two friends, one of whom took photographs with a large and impressive camera.  I’ll post his photos (with permission) in my following entry.

Thomas in the garden

On August 11th, I informally opened the garden for friends who had not been able to make it on tour day.  Wendy Murry of Jake the Alligator Man fame (she organizes his annual birthday party) came to visit with her daughter Avery and some adult friends.  Avery had been to the tour of our previous garden back in 2008 and still remembered being entranced by Allan’s flower pot water wheel.  Neither she nor her mother were too old to appreciate the fairy doors in the bogsy wood.

Wendy and Avery and a fairy door

Wendy and Avery

Wendy’s friends truly GOT the garden; they were wonderful guests.

Wendy’s friends

Wendy took some photos as well which I will share in the next entry.

Also on August 11th Sarah Sloane came by.  We had met on garden tour day and talked for awhile.  She’s new to the Peninsula but was a well known garden designer back in Rhode Island.  Just out of kindness, she brought me one of her topiaries.

Sarah and her dogs

topiary artist Sarah Sloane

on the cat bench

Sarah’s topiary

Sarah’s topiaries will be for sale this spring at NIVA green (my most favourite ever art and gift shop) in Long Beach, and she has also recently published a children’s fantasy novel called The Marble Game which is available at NIVA green and at Time Enough Books at the Port of Ilwaco.

Fred and Nancy from The Basket Case Greenhouse came to visit on our August 11th Open Day;  Fred had also been here on tour day but Nancy had been out of town and missed it.

We also took them four doors down to see Tom and Judy’s, where Fred and Nancy recognized every Basket Case plant in the Hornbuckle garden where the plants are not all jumbled together as they are in mine.

Fred and Nancy

I had flowers on display in a container that was a present from Nancy.

Maddy (shaved for fur mats earlier in the summer) enjoyed attention from every visitor.

Allan was not here on the 11th (off to his dad’s birthday party in Seattle) so I made sure to get photos to show him that everyone admired his fern garden.

I delighted in the visit from Mary of Klipsan Beach Cottages, truly a dream gardening client, and her mom (also Mary) and their friend Joanie.  Mary had been stuck with cleaning cottages on tour day as often happens when one runs a resort.

Mary and Joanie and the river of Geranium ‘Rozanne’

Joanie and Mary-mom

Joanie on the cat bench

We also trekked down to Tom and Judy’s so that Mary and Mary could see the exquisite Hornbuckle courtyard; there is a private courtyard by the KBC residence that is similar in size.

in Judy’s courtyard

Visitors arrived on and off through the rest of the summer, sometimes asking to visit while we were at work, sometimes (and more fun for us) when we were at home.   On August 18th our good friend and great gardener Patti from Seaview, three members of her family, and her adorable new puppy, Cosby.

Cosby

Patti’s family in the shade garden

Patti and Cosby

The Patti Clan

On September 19th another client, Jo from Long Beach, came by with friends.  Her mother had been my very first gardening client back in 1993 when I lived at the Sou’wester, Maxine was half a block away and admired the garden I created there.  She snagged me to weed her garden, and Jo followed, and then from word of mouth a whole gardening business was born.

Jo and a friend

admiring the Rozanne river

Later the same day, Stymie came to visit Frosty.  (Judy brought him.)  Frosty, a cat we adopted the previous January (more on this some time later), grew up with dogs and wants to have a dog friend.  Stymie found this unusual and interesting.

Stymie meets Frosty

Frosty wants to be friends

friends

Stymie and Frosty

Beep meets Frosty

(At the end of August, Judy brought the much smaller Beep to meet Frosty and Beep found it rather startling to meet a cat bigger than he, especially when Frosty started licking Beep’s ears.)

To conclude the excellent visiting day of August 19th, Tom and Judy returned in the evening with their neighbours Larry and Robert, proprietors of two Ilwaco antique stores.  We had made a garden for the Larry and Robert home, just across Pearl Avenue from Tom and Judy’s.  And we had plans to expand their garden in the fall and wanted to show them our garden boat.  We sat on the patio till well after dark.  (Should have realized we were in for a long chat and started a campfire!)

Allan, Larry, Robert, Judy, Tom by the bogsy wood

On August 24th my friend of 34 years, Carol, came with her friend Vernetta from Seattle for Kite Festival and came to see the garden.  On Carol’s last visit we were on our way to the Sylvia Beach Hotel in rain and wind and the garden was not very walkable.

Carol and Vernetta

To close the busiest part of the summer visiting season we had another fire, again with Don, Jenna, and Joe on September 1st.

last fire of the season

We lit the way to the fire with a row of little artificial candles and it looked pretty magical.  Next summer I want to remember how much fun it is to take some time off and actually enjoy our own garden instead of working seven days a week.

Thanks to all the guests who helped to make 2012 a wonderful time in the garden and for visiting it in its summer of perfection.

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Cannon Beach Cottage & Garden Tour: last cottage

As we approach the final cottage on the 2012 tour, I reflect that I would have had these daisies deadheaded.

approach to last cottage

cottage eight

front garden

This was was described in the program as having an especially nice cottage garden.

rather weedy

This is a garden that has been much loved and planted with interesting plants.

Front garden bed has choice perennials like Echinops (blue globe thistle)

side yard and garage with arboreal hydrangea

garden by front porch

The owners have made a good start here, by the front porch, at bringing back the garden to its former glory.

mown back to back yard

Perovskia (Russian sage)

Black Eyed Susans and the dreaded bindweed

A new gardener might not know what a scourge the bindweed is.

more good plants, with dwarf fireweed

Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’, daisies, and buddleia

daisies along the garage

Sedum and Roses

The beauty of this garden must have been spectacular in its heyday.  Now it needs bringing back; the new owners could read The Secret Garden for inspiration in bringing back a lost garden of tangled roses.

an old climbing rose on the garage

Phormium

I think if the gardeners are new, they will be surprised how big that Phormium can get right by the path.

Having thoroughly explored and wondered about the history of the old garden, we now enter the cottage.

a very modern kitchen

but an old cottage-y window

an upstairs view of the garden

in the garden

Postlude

Heading back to the car, we find a trail similar to the Ridge Trail in Gearhart.

trail, east side Cannon Beach

Someone had built a tepee of branches.

Paths crossed at regular intervals and we take an ill advised turn leading to a very long trek around the reservoirs behind the downtown parking lots….plenty of time to reminisce about the 2013 tour and how much better it had been that the more modern dwellings of 2011‘s tour.  I hope to see more tiny cottages in 2013.

Of course, we stopped at Back Alley Gardens, our favourite Oregon Coast nursery.  In the parking lot we saw a truck with a hand made dog house on the back.  There were three dogs but I never got them all to stick their heads out at once.

safe riding for well loved dogs

a great nursery

We stop quickly at Home Depot. I stay in the car and ponder the slogan on this display outside the building. Forever is a long time; can they really promise that much?

a promise of forever

After some of the things the co-founder of Home Depot said during the lead up to the 2012 elections, I doubt I will even stop there to check out the occasional choice plant that makes its way into their nursery.  But if they could promise me forever, maybe I would.

Finally, a stop at Costco (whose politics make me much happier), where I see the best example ever of the worst of red bark.  (Our business motto is “Just say no to barkscapes.”)

the reddest bark ever

All in all, it has been a very good day.  We have had our own wonderful garden tour of Cannon Beach including many gardens that were not even on the official tour.

We have reached the end of garden tour season 2012, and it is time to turn our minds to fall garden projects, including a garden which we soon plan to help create with Nancy, the organizer of the Long Beach Peninsula garden tour.

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Cannon Beach Cottage & Garden Tour: Hidden Villa Cottages

Hidden Villa Motel has fascinated me since walking by on a previous cottage tour. I read on Trip Advisor that it was a beloved get away when the owner was on premises; I gather she became ill and now it is run by a management company from afar.  It still appears to be a charming place.  I suggested it to my good friend Carol, with whom I often take brief vacation trips in the spring, but she wants an ocean view every time.

Hidden Villa Motel

cottages; note the curve of the deck.  Nice.

cottage

A few of the cottages are open for tour-goers to enter.

living room

bedroom

door to bathroom

bathroom

view into another cottage

kitchen

living room with river rock fireplace

bedroom

and another kitchen

I would find any of these quite comfy and homey.  The main feature of the garden is the water feature in the center.

water feature

Interlude

We walk on toward the last tour cottage, enjoying the sights on the east side of Cannon Beach.

another pretty garden

nestled in

another little red house

double wide

I was surprised to see manufactured homes are allowed in Cannon Beach (and I don’t say that in snobbery, as I live in one now…although it is as cottaged-up as we can make it).

Any boxy manufactured home can have its exterior softened with arbours, fences, gardens, paint.

east side modern

utterly dreamy

Corgi gate

dog in yard….Is it just the stone dog or is it a real one?

Now we have but one more cottage to tour…and a postlude walk back to the car.

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Cannon Beach Cottage & Garden Tour: Buttons Cottage

First, as we walk from the fourth to the fifth cottage on the tour, an interlude of pretty Cannon Beach vignettes.

Third Interlude

beach sign

another view of the red cottage

picnic table with sand dollars in red cottage yard

picket fence cottage

white picket fence and chairs

a stunning hydrangea

a tour-worthy garden

cottage with seahorse trim

detail

Buttons Cottage

Buttons Cottage

Buttons

front door

fireplace

living room

buttons rug

historic poster

old sink

sandpiper kitchen cupboard trim

bedroom

view of back porch

another bedroom

I could be very happy in such a simple cabin.   The garden:

Buttons Cottage, front garden

Interlude

As we walk along to the next stop on tour, lovely Cannon Beach sights fill our eyes.

a yellow door

an ideal garden

geraniums

(I had taken almost the same photograph of this geranium porch window on the 2008 cottage tour, when the cottages had been so modern that I only saved three photos of the tour.  The woman of the house was just going up onto the porch and smiled at us so I told her that story, and she was well pleased that her geranium pots had been so memorable.  She agreed the tour is so much better when the cottages are truly historic.)

modern

This part of the tour has taken us to the east side of the main road through town, and on the east side are more modern houses and fewer that are clad in the traditional Cannon Beach cedar shakes.

But here, on the east side, is Killian Cottage (not on the tour), a very traditional one whose inside I would love to see on a tour some year.

Killian Cottage

As a plant nut, I would find the deep shade of the Killian Cottage garden frustrating, but it is lovely and restful.

Killian Cottage garden

the lovely Killian Cottage

a little cottage with skylights

And next, several tiny cottages in one at the Hidden Villa Motel.

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Cannon Beach Cottages & Garden Tour: fifth cottage

cottage five

brick path in front

Again, we lost track of our programs at the time I wrote this flashback to the garden tour, so I cannot put a name to any cottage that does not have its name at the door. I do wish the the Cannon Beach History Center website or  Facebook page offered more memories of the tour for those of us who are scatterbrained with our programs. (Their WordPress site is much more active with lots of interesting articles about Cannon Beach history, but still no cottage names.) The fifth cottage was a quick walk from cottage number four.  As always, we checked out the garden first.

 

side path

garden corner

the garden

I was very taken with the red cottage just to the east.  Bright red, like my Grandma’s “little red house”.  Most houses in Cannon Beach are cedar shaked, so a painted one stands out.

the neighbouring red house, from cottage five garden

little red house

Inside the window I could see a stool decorated with the word “shack”.  And a picture of a clam.  Clam shack.

Allan examined the fence between the two properties for carpentry details.

the fence

And now we will turn our attention to the cottage itself.

on the east side, a rustic carport

on an outside wall, a flock of gulls

the front of the enclosed porch

the porch porthole from inside

At one end of the sheltered porch, a heavy old storm door could be closed during a storm, so that one could open the front door of the house (to our right) without being blown away.

front door and storm door

storm door, from the porch

Porch at southwest corner of house with view of the ocean

And now, in we go to the simple and lovely beachy cottage.  This one may be a vacation rental, or else it is occupied by some very tidy people!

happy tour-goers

living room

beautiful table setting

river rock hearth

window seat…Oh to curl up there with a book!

window sill, view of side yard

a green view

window sill, view of deck

kitchen

bedroom with two beds

The room with two beds had a big collection of Sandcastles Day posters.

posters

bedroom window view to back yard

the master bedroom

painting

sand dollar crafts

old pictures

beachy books

Next, two walking interludes and the sixth cottage.

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Cannon Beach Cottage & Garden Tour: fourth cottage

We arrive at the fourth cottage, whose name I do not know because later both Allan and I managed to misplace (me) or discard (him) our programmes.

fourth cottage

Haystack Rock porch chair

The fourth cottage is a well lived in place.  I appreciate that, as so many of the cottages are neat as a pin vacation rentals with no feeling for how one might function day to day in a small space.

I want to see what it is like to live year round in a small cottage with people, dogs, cats, books, computers, sand, books.

at the front door

front door

the original front door opening into the living room

old Cannon Beach cottages often have river rock fireplaces like this.

I am going to throw in a photo here that has me mystified.  I know they are from this cottage tour day.  However, I am not 100% sure it is from this cottage.

photo of mystery 

window views

kitchen window

desert rose

This sweet dog sat on my foot.

off the kitchen, lots of little doors and drawers

another window view

in the hall; someone loves horses

Allan went up the stairs.  I felt like I would barely be able to get my toes on the treads and did not.

a sharp turn at the top of the stairs

roof deck

roof deck

Departing, as I sit to put on my shoes I see again that the little dog is the sweetest!

getting some farewell pets

We very much appreciate getting invited to see a home where people actually live, not one kept pristine for paying guests (even though those are often completely lovely and historic).  It is more meaningful to open one’s home just to share, when there is no profit in it.

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Cannon Beach Cottage & Garden Tour: second interlude

We walk back the way we came to get to the fourth cottage of the tour…

past the big stone-scaped house

liking the bumper stickers!

back out to the beach road

another amazing garden along the beach frontage road

a walkway garden by the beach front road

Artemisia ‘Powis Castle’ and Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’

As before, I find the gardens we walk past better than those attached to the tour cottages.  I think a separate Cannon Beach garden tour would be in order.  Although if only I had not missed the 2009 tour due to my mother’s health crisis (I simply forgot!), I would have gotten to see June Kroft’s wonderful garden, which I remembered from 1999 during an Ann Lovejoy and Lucy Hardiman Cannon Beach garden workshop.  (I think that with enough determination, one could find an article about the garden here.)

rugosa roses growing in full salt wind

looking south to Haystack Rock

As we go down the next east-west street, we walk past a cottage with a most remarkable fence.

fence of polished wood

arbour

Look how well the gate fits.

the remarkable fence

And now…near this exquisite little garden, we arrive at the next cottage.

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Cannon Beach Cottage and Garden Tour: Quincy Cottage

Quincy Cottage: the stuff of dreams

This is the same “rock ‘n’ mold” path I used at my old house. It did not work out because so many weeds came up between the pavers, until we figured out to just stamp the design (not cut all the way through) onto a strip of soft cement. We ended up replacing the unstamped areas with plain gravel. I now use the old pavers from those paths as edging stones in my new garden.

cute little sheds in front yard

with Allan for scale

and interior detail

path to the back yard

the back yard

table set for a picnic

an exceptionally nice outdoor fire place

the back porch

two round window on the side of the porch

and one on the back wall of the porch

a look back to the seating areas

coming back up the other side of the house

and to the front yard again

And now, into the cottage we go.  It is a vacation rental so you could enjoy it in person, for a price.

front steps

a comfortable bench for removing our shoes (and it is purple!)

into the kitchen

kitchen table

counter

reproduction refrigerator

kitchen art with cobalt blue counter

view toward back yard

 

table by windows:

blueprints

hearth

downstairs bedroom

bedroom

I love the headboard.

bedroom mirror

main bathroom

under the stairs at one side of the living room

photo display on outer wall of stairway

Where is she now? Is she still alive?

coat rack at base of stairs

upstairs, doors close together

flowers on white

black and white

imagine and dream

windowside table

old phone

a narrow room

the front upstairs bedroom

I want to nap here.

rustic headboard

I suddenly realize the phrase people keep quoting is from a book.

mirror

old photo at side of mirror

shell hooks

old fashioned silhouettes

From the upstairs front bedroom window we can see across the street to the cottage we toured just before this one.

view of Priddy Cottage

Allan’s photo of the same view came out like a pastel dream.

view from one dreamy cottage to another

Now we depart and have a walk of several blocks before the next cottage.

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Cannon Beach Cottage & Garden Tour: Priddy Cottage

After a lovely walk from the first cottage, we arrive at the second official stop on the tour.

Priddy Cottage

The cottage features metalwork by Darryl Nelson, “a third generation Timberline Blacksmith”, starting with the front gate.

front gate

gate detail

garage

We walk past the garage to the back because I want to see the garden first.  (No surprise there.)  My attention is immediately drawn by a gorgeous Hydrangea aspera in the corner, a shrub with which I have had no success.  If it grows this well in Cannon Beach, surely I can grow one in Ilwaco?

Hydrangea aspera

Hydrangea aspera closeup. The leaves are soft in texture.

in the garden

deck behind the cottage

The Hydrangea aspera is in the far right corner of the garden (above).

deck gate with shell detail

In we go at the back door, entering the kitchen first.

kitchen and back door

kitchen

kitchen

kitchen window. To the left, shelves on metal frame.

shelf detail

sea creature

beautiful towel rack

The kitchen opens into the living room.

living room

Off to the side is a ladder to a guest loft.

to the loft

couch with natural light

art wall

display rack

living room/bedroom wall with sliding door; very cool

door slider detail

in the bedroom

bedroom window

metal work mirror

bathroom

beautiful light fixture

detail of light fixture

The cottage is so exquisite in every detail that I have not had to spend a lot of words describing it.  Now we leave and take a walk around the narrow decks, admiring the windowboxes.

windowboxes

a classic cottage window

windowboxes

And on we go to cottage number three.  This time the cottages are so close together that there is no interlude of admiring other cottages and gardens along the way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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