13 July: John Kuzma Garden

Sunday, 13 July 2014

Garden Bloggers Fling, Portland

The itinerary for our bus was different than on the schedule.

crossing one of Portland’s many bridges.

Along many areas beside the city freeways, drifts of roses are planted.  (photo taken from the bus, of course)

John Kuzma Garden

As soon as I saw this garden, I again wanted to tear up all of my grass (as is usual when I see a gravel garden).  One of the main thing that stops me is that we cannot get decomposed granite or even washed gravel.  The only gravel around here is full of “fines” and is not the proper sort for building a garden like this (as far as I know).

the bus arrives and we are greeted by our host, John Kuzma

Allan’s photo

Gravel drifts all the way to the street.

Allan’s photo

As we arrived, it began to rain.

taking shelter by the front door

Allan’s photo

front porch, Allan’s photo

the front garden

Allan’s photo, a rhodo for Steve and John

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Now…walking around the side of the house:

side garden

And into the truly enormous back garden:

entering the back courtyard

an elegant water feature

against the house

in the courtyard

And now into the upper level of the back garden:

just a few steps up; I’d hardly had to do any stairs all day.

The garden was big enough to let us spread out.  Also so nice and level for my walking comfort.

 

 

crevice garden

 

 

Allan’s photo; I was smitten with his crevice garden idea.

The rain had begun to bucket down.

I hustled to a shed at the back corner of the garden.

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

with a living roof

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

shelter from the storm

I had to get back out for more photos.

Soon it seemed I was the only one who had stayed out in the garden.

gunnera toward the back of the garden

a small kitchen garden

looking back to the house

When I heard thunder and saw dramatic forked lightning strike on the other side of the house, I decided I had better get inside!

a quick route via an unexplored area

rose, maybe Mutabilis?

 

Eucalyptus at the edge of the garden

I found the bloggers clustered on the back porch, donning garbage bags as rain gear.  One of the organizers had thought to bring them after seeing the forecast of thunderstorms.

 

the donning of rain gear, Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

our gracious host, Mr Kuzma, who let us drip into his house for lunch if we so desired.

This was our lunch spot; the other bus would be dining at the Floramagoria garden at the same time.

view from the back porch

stairs to the upper level

Along with several other people, I went into the house to eat.

another delicious sandwich from Elephants Deli.

view from the kitchen window; you can see one side of the upper back garden does not have stairs to enter.

kitchen view

kitchen view

front door view

view from the front porch

In the house, garden designer Sean Hogan’s plant encyclopedia (Allan’s photo)

During lunch, the contigent of California bloggers were talking about Instagram and one of them gave me a quick tutorial.  I had it on my phone but had only used it once and had not realized it had become such a big thing.

Then the bloggers fanned out into the garden to take photos, rain or no rain.  (It had almost stopped.)

after lunch

With the rain stopped, I could finally take photos looking up.

And with my phone, I took and posted my first Instagram.

Allan joined the other bloggers for a post-rain tour of the garden; photos below are all his:

 

Xera plant tag

Aw….I had this back in 2012.

Fatsia japonica ‘Spider’s Web’, I believe, and a little rhodo

This is the sort of garden where I have no clue what most of the plants are.

If I were twenty years younger…I might dig up every scrap of sod at home and find a way to get the right sort of gravel.  Beth Chatto’s Gravel Garden is one of my favourite books. I had no lawn at my old garden and liked it, but even better I like the way the paths, courtyards, and plantings are as one in a garden like this.

I think that Robert Nold of The Miserable Gardener would love this one.

Next: Floramagoria, a garden which I have heard is rarely open for tours.