Friday, 20 June 2014
Hardy Plant Society Study Weekend
Hummingbird Hill
I walked round and round and round in this garden and felt like immediately going home and replacing all my grass paths with gravel and learning to make stuccoed concrete block walls.
I also felt again the poignancy that I experienced at the Froggwell Garden, where the garden co-creator had also passed away, while at the same time the upbeat mood and colours of Hummingbird Hill made me happy and uplifted.
street view of the garden
from the street
Allan’s photo
Allan’s photo
We were invited by Bob Barca’s sister-in-law to enter this way. She said she had done the hardscaping for the garden.
outside the gate
beside the gate
NPA= Northwest Perennial Alliance, the Seattle area version of the Hardy Plant Society of Oregon and the sponsor of the study weekend
stepping inside
I immediately had to step back outside to tell the sister in law how enormously impressed I was with her stucco wall hardscaping!
The second time I entered the gate!
Garage/outbuilding forming one wall of the garden
All the raised beds and warm walls help the plant collection thrive.
inset tiles and plants growing atop the walls..and a water feature!
another angle
The garden is completely fenced.
Allan pondering. I wonder if he is also wanting to change from lawn to gravel paths!
I did enjoy having no lawn at all in my former gardens…hmmm.
luscious eremurus
I wish I had a closer photo of that blue flowering plant! (If a salvia, it is huge.)
Allan got a close up…so what is it?? A solanum??
another close up of the same area by Allan: “a piece of rebar solves a twisty problem”
Allan’s photo
a scree garden of tiny treasures. have to rethink my scree garden plan now!
Allan’s photo
Allan’s photo
more eremurus envy
plants thriving in the warm microclimates
beside the garage
on the garage wall…
Tropaeolum tuberosum ‘Ken Aslet’
stone and water
I wonder if at one time each of these ovals had a small plant?
My grandmother, who used a wringer washer well into the 1970s, would have loved this wringer washer water feature. (I want one!)
looking back at the areas I had walked through.
Allan’s photo
and now am in front of the house with my back to the wringer washer
the house
a corner of the front garden
peeking in the potting shed; I think it was a wing of the house
a little stream
Allan’s photo
Allan’s photo
a bed of peas beside the potting shed
walking behind the house
shade and moss
Fatsia japonica ‘Spider’s Web’ (I was thrilled to recognize a plant!)
a private sit spot behind the house
shady corner
coming around from behind the house
I may be going round in circles now.
a table with magazines, free for the taking, from Bob Barca’s collection. (I was reeling from the pleasures of this garden so did not even think to take any!)
the late Bob Barca
Allan’s photo; Bob Barca loved birds.
Who can tell us what bird this is?
earthly paradise for plants and birds and people
Wow…pineapple broom….Argyrocytisus battandieri…HUGE
Have grown it but moved before it bloomed, tried to move it and it died, and it is hard to find where I live. Want!! (Would it even bloom at the coast??) Sheila grows it successfully and says the flowers indeed smell like pineapple. (I could not get close enough to smell them.)
on the front porch
another dahlia view
from the front of the house, a bridge to the garden by the garage
by the front porch
by the front porch
in front of the house
looking back at the house
not wanting to leave…but we must…
Oh dear, now I feel my garden is so SOFT and GREEN and COOL, and I want the warm, bright, gravel-crunching underfoot feeling of this garden instead.
I would linger, but we have more gardens to tour.
Here are two other blog entries about Hummingbird Hill on the same garden tour:
Tangly Cottage Gardening 
I like the gravel, too….but how DO you keep it weed-free????? I like the “by the front porch” view, the bridge, and the clock gears. And is it an oriole?
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It might be. I only know the basic birds.
My gravel would have a horsetail problem.
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This was such a great garden, I just loved it. I too loved the walls and the gravel. I think the bird is a Black-Headed Grosbeak. I would definitely have plants sitting in each of those chimney liners.
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Black-Headed Grosbeak indeed. All the grosbeaks are noisy feeders, and such hogs (12# of black sunflower seed and squawked for more!) but entertaining visitors. Could the blue flower be some sort of anchusa? I’ve never seen any so large, but yet, it looks similar.
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I think Anchusa is the answer for sure!
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A lovely garden.
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perhaps Anchusa azurea “Loddon Royalist”
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Agree on the Anchusa, I lost mine this past winter too wet. The tour of the garden was great.
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