I learned just in time to call it by the right name for this entry that this garden is known as Pink Poppy Farm!
from the program: The Dickerson garden: Allow yourself time to explore this expansive, one acre country garden where edibles and flowers grow in harmony, surrounded by mature conifers which provide privacy and some wind protection. As you enter the front gate, see swirls of lavender and rosemary filling deep perennial beds. After circling a ring of dahlias, head for the cutest chicken house ever, “The Imperial Chicken Palace,” which is filled with 13 gorgeous hens. Meandering through the property you will see 2 poly tunnels which shelter tomatoes, cucumbers, basil, peppers and more. Masters of edible landscapes, the owners have lived and worked on the grounds for 19 years. The garden is full of clever ideas for watering, fencing, and decor.
Expansive indeed, this garden is going to make for a long entry!
Our friend Kathleen got this good shot of the entry gate:
Inside the gate, we saw to our right a lavender garden and ahead, a circle of dahlias and other flowers.
To our left is the front porch and behind us the bright red door of the garage.
After an amazing tour of this garden we will exit through that narrow passageway.
So far, it seems like a normal, nice, restrained garden. Then, coming around the west side of the house….
…we get the first indication of the special delights of this garden. Below, Sheila sees the Imperial Chicken Palace!
There, I am back in love with Petunia ‘Phantom’!
Although it was hard to leave “the girls”, we walk east along the south side of the house.
Below, Allan and Debbie from Rainyside Gardeners, who sets up for a photo while garden owner Mike Dickerson walks forward to greet them.
This garden had been on tour before, but on the same year that my old garden was on the tour, so we did not get to see it, This time, Mike joked “You’ve finally paid to come see my garden!”
Sheila and I always enjoy the true working areas of the garden, like the compost bins. Here, they are enviably large, running along the middle south side of the property and made of old pallets.
Speaking of working areas, we admire the watering system in this garden:
Hoses lead to oscillating sprinklers which are mounted on posts. Each hose connects with a quick connect to the sprinkler which is permanently set for optimum watering pattern.
We intend to adopt this watering system for our garden as soon as we have time. It will save lots of fiddling with the sprinklers.
The first and smaller hoophouse:
The big hoop house and raised beds:
Allan was interested in the details of how it was constructed, and you might be, too:
Way up at the top of garden by a house (which is also part of the property but lacks amenities) is another, smaller hoophouse where Madeline and Jacob grow their produce for the Saturday Market. The garden also provides food for a few CSA boxes.
Because this was the most central garden of the tour, we ran into some of our touring friends there. We found our friends Donna and M.R. photographing flowers on the route from the hoophouses to the north side of the garden.
Set in a fenced garden of its own, the garden shed charmed everyone with its old windows and shingled sides, and windowboxes.
My, how the flowers had grown since June 24th when I first visited the garden!
Coming around a grass path from the garden shed, we followed the beautiful music to the green stage setting for the Mozart Chicks.
I took an iPhone video walking from the musicians’ area around the garden which you may be able to view here.
One garden bed after another abounded with food and flowers mixed together.
The Pink Poppy Bakery booth at the Ilwaco Saturday Market offers bouquets of flowers from this garden.
After going round and round the garden, we came to the patio on the east side of the house where delicious treats awaited.
You can see in the background, above, how popular the Pink Poppy Bakery treats were!
Around the patio, many tour guests converged and lingered and chatted, even though we all had more gardens to see.
Finally, we did have to tear ourselves away because we had three more gardens to see…
And with wistful looks back, we departed for the rest of our tour.
There is no way to express my wonder & appreciation of this garden (or your fine coverage of it). The musicians looked especially stunning and I’m sure the sound was equally pleasurable. Simple things caught my eye – like the random-sized slats on the entry gate & your photo of the 2 chairs & photo album….I, too, enjoyed seeing the “working” parts of this garden. Thanks for including them.
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Thankyou! It took me two days to write it (two evenings) as, it being a garden I have never worked in, and a complex garden, it was really challenging to get the flow of walking through it right…especially since I was using photo from four people and two visits.
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I can think now of better ways I could have sorted the pics in advance, so…next time I have a garden of that caliber to review, it will be easier.
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Oh how gorgeous was the chook palace! I loved the hoop houses too. Just the place to raise new seedlings for the gorgeous garden beds 🙂
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It is all so wonderful but the chook palace had people gasping or going “Omigod!” as they came around the corner and saw it.
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Hahaha I can imagine. I reckon the chooks would love the window boxes too.
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Yes, just everything about it is good!
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A beautiful and a productive garden. Well worth a visit.
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This was very lovely, and I learned the names of some flowers.
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[…] making a better watering system with raised, permanent back and forth sprinklers like the set up at Pink Poppy Farm and I had hope that I would find the new system in place. But no, all was the same as before with […]
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[…] next drove south to Pink Poppy Farm, where we were greeted by garden owner Lynn who had a little time before going to work. In the […]
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[…] arrived! She was a member of The Mozart Chicks quintet who had performed at Pink Poppy Farm on Music in the Gardens tour day and had reprised their performance with a trio during the edible […]
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[…] cranberry bog (which is not next door to us!). Pink Poppy Bakery is associated with the gorgoeus Pink Poppy Farm. The new place will be a pleasant stop on Long Beach workdays if I follow my resolve to actually […]
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[…] flowers from Pink Poppy Farm […]
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