13 July: Rhone Street Gardens

Sunday, 13 July 2014

Garden Bloggers Fling, Portland

Sunday’s well-worn itinerary

On the way from Ernst/Fuller Gardens to the Rhone Street Garden, our tour bus was halted by a freight train. We were all astonished that in the middle of the city, a train that long was allowed to block so much traffic. Since then, I’ve done some reading on freight trains in Portland and found this was probably not unusual.

Again, the two Fling tour buses were going in a different order to the small gardens so that only 40 of us at once would descend on each one.

trainwatching

It is no exaggeration to say that the train had us sitting there for at least fifteen minutes, cutting into our Rhone Street Gardens time.

Rhone Street Gardens at last

Joy!! I was so very excited to visit Rhone Street Gardens, as that and Danger Garden are blogs that I adore. To see both of these gardens in person will deeply enhance my blog reading experience. I also was very much enjoying the smaller gardens, as they were much more accessible to me in my sore legs state of being, and I did not have to go far afield and away from all the other humans to find a place to sit. In the small gardens, one can go round several times and catch every detail.

I wish I had remembered to ask owner Scott (who also was one of the Fling organizers) what the story was about flooding, as I could not picture how a garden like this floods. Perhaps the story was written in his blog before I discovered it, so I’ll poke back and have a look. (I did, and learned that the flooding was along the parking strips. Allan says he was told the storm sewers backed up as high as the bottom step of the stairs by the sidewalk.)

Bloggers arrive at Rhone Street Gardens; Scott is to the very left

Allan’s photo, approaching the garden

I believe that is Lisa, a blogger who most impressively came all the way from Spain.

(Lisa’s blog: http://descubriendohojas.blogspot.com/)

sit spot by the front steps

steps to the front porch

Leslie from California explores the sidewalk gardens.

(Leslie’s blog: http://www.starappleediblegardens.com/)

along the other length of sidewalk along the front of the house

Below: wood edges on sidewalk, perhaps added recently to counteract flooding?

really paved in 1911???

Allan’s photo: “kit for raised garden lumber detail”

grasses swooping next to the sidewalk

to my right: sloped garden by the house

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Parking Strip: grasses and perennials mixed

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

What is this grass? I must acquire it!

Allan’s photo: “Schizachirum looks better than ‘blue oat grass’ no dead center”

Maybe Scott wrote this down for Allan.

I see that I need to start collecting ornamental grasses again. I used to, then got complacent and slacked off. These are wonderful.

salvia, I believe

galvanized pots mark one end of the L shaped parking strips

looking to the right

I meant to have some of the delicious orange juice on my second walk-through but got so absorbed in the garden that I forgot! As you can see, and as I forgot to mention earlier, the day was not blazing hot and the light on the gardens was not all harsh sun and shadow as it had been on Friday and Saturday.

As I turn up the path, the porch is to my right. (I have a terrible time with left and right, and Allan often reads the blog after it is published and gives me corrections. 😉

 

on the porch, a blogger gets a photo looking out

Allan’s photo from the porch

a somewhat secret sit spot behind the grasses

Scott wrote here about the creation of this sit spot.

I remember Lucy Hardiman speaking about how she likes the secret sit spot behind shrubs in her garden so that she can eavesdrop on what people say about it.

This one caught my eye, of course.

rain chain by the porch

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

standing by the sit spot

birds must love this garden

Allan’s photo

Now I turn my attention to the shed of wood and metal (a look that I like very much.)

with a blogger enraptured with plants

the best green roof, with grasses and flowers

Allan’s photo

(I do hope this inspires Allan to build a little shed like this between us and Nora’s security light… I have no such skills. I used to think that I should wait and see if I get a gardening neighbour next door, but have realized from the Ernst/Fuller garden that a privacy wall is good, even with a friend next door.)

 

Allan’s photo

 

passageway between house and shed

looking back at the shed

with garden detail

I walked around three times and took a photo each time.

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

 

OOOh, Allan took a photo of the building details!

beside the path

just past the shed

little courtyard behind the shed

Earlier this year, Scott wrote about the need to create a privacy screen for this particular sit spot. (In rereading that post, I finally realized that the metal trough planters that I like have a name: stock tanks.)

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

sign on fence by that little sit spot

 

lily at corner of house

Allan’s photo

bloggers turn the corner from the sit spot to the back of the house

I could hear water among this greenery in the back corner.

a little secret bubbler

Allan’s photo: looking out to the driveway

looking back from the arbour that leads to the driveway

looking back from the driveway to the side of the house

Allan’s photo

Scott said the neighbours’ chickens like to visit.

At the foot of the driveway, Scott’s cat (or the neighbour’s orange cat?) was looking suspiciously at the big tour bus parked across the street.

what the heck is that?

I’ll lie down but I’m still keeping an eye on it.

Allan’s photo of me taking the picture

and trying to get some attention from the cat.

I think the standoffishness indicates that this was the neighbours’ orange cat…or else he was really obsessed with that bus.

from the foot of the driveway, looking down the parking strip toward the corner from where I started

Allan’s photo: “soft sidewalk edge”

Allan’s photo

Echinacea pallida (must have!!) and a verbascum

parking strip

fireweed against the house

I just so much appreciate touring a garden in a house that was made for the working or middle class!

I can imagine living here.

Having come full circle, here are the stairs to the front porch.

parking strip plants

I back up for some more street views.

the kitty appears

 

I’m mystified as to where Allan took this photo; maybe from the front porch??

I found out that Scott’s husband likes Star Trek!

As our time at Rhone Street Gardens drew to a close and we all began to gather near the front steps, Boots decided it was time to pose.

(I hope I have his name right.)

Allan’s photo: Kylee from Ohio and Boots

Kylee’s blog: http://ourlittleacre.blogspot.com/

Allan’s photo: cat admiration society

Allan’s photo: more cat photos

Allan’s photo of a photo of garden owners (all three of them)

happy family (Allan’s photo)

and then…some territory defending! (Allan’s photo)

At the end…We had difficulty tearing ourselves away. The garden completely lived up to my expectations and I was sorry to leave.

Next: the John Kuza garden in collaboration with Sean Hogan.

P.S.:

Allan noticed this cute license plate and wondered which blogger it belongs to!

Here’s Pam Penick’s ode to Rhone Street Gardens.

Here’s GardenBook on Rhone Street Gardens.