2 May: Rhodie Tour—Barclay Garden
May 9, 2015 by Tangly Cottage
Saturday, 2 May 2015
Long Beach Peninsula Rhodie Tour
Ron Barclay Garden
from the programme: “The Barclay property has the original Clarke Nursery home and its cleared field held dozens of the nursery’s tightly packed greenhouses and an array of plants for sale. While the greenhouses are now gone, you will still find mature Rhododendrons growing on this lovely bayside property. This is owner Ron Barclay’s third time opening his garden to a Water Music Society event. We tip our hat in gratitude again to this gracious host.”
Our friends Steve and John, whose garden we’ve written about several times, share an entry drive with Ron Barclay. Along it are planted mature rhododendrons dating back to Clarke Nursery.
I well remember driving in here time and time again to shop at Steve Clarke’s excellent nursery.
along the entry drive
Allan’s photo: plenty of parking on the lawn during tour events
From the road leading to Ron’s house, we look north across the field and old irrigation pond which is part of Steve and John’s property.
looking north from the road to Steve and John’s handsome trees
former offices of Clarke Nursery…
…. now a guest house.
wiegela in bloom to our right
Japanese maple all aglow
approaching the house
I could see Ron and a friend chatting on the patio and would love to have joined them for a moment, but we had to keep on schedule.
north end of the house
north end of house, view of Willapa Bay
and a heron flies by
east side deck with bay view
east side garden with hydrangea, Japanese maple, rhododendrons
Japanese maple and rhododendron
a peachy rhodo
looking back to the north
The lawn flows to the north right into Steve and John’s bayside lawn and huckleberry grove.
south side of house
pale pink aquilegias (columbine)
SW corner of house
rhodo flower
looking back past by an intoxicatingly fragrant lilac
a tour guest strolling
west side of house
Rhododendron ‘Naselle’
Ron (right).
We turn south to walk over to Steve and John’s garden.
We admire bright new foliage on a Pieris aglow in the shade as we enter the grassy path to the neighboring garden of Steve and John.
Thank you, Skyler and Allan, for your friendship and your beautiful pictures of my little cottage and garden. I am delighted to finally access your blog. Diana Canto Date: Sat, 9 May 2015 14:00:45 +0000 To: dccanto@hotmail.com
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We are glad you like the pictures and extra glad you opened your garden for the tour! There’s a post in 2013 about your garden in Butterfly Shores being on the July garden tour.
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PS. A reader asked what your window frame decorations are made of. I believe you made them; can you comment on that ?
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I’ll look forward to finding out more about the window frame decoration. Meanwhile, I’m reveling in the beauty of the Bay. What an amazing setting….
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Diana’s response to your question: Thank you for asking: like all endeavors, it started with an idea – beach-themed tiles to surround all my windows and doors. I contacted Karen Brownlee, a very talented and friendly ceramic tile artist (244-3940) who has a studio on Sandridge Rd. I took a 1 day class to learn basics of working with clay and rolling and cutting tile. I bought clay from her, went home, set up saw horses, made my tile board covered in canvas which I purchased at Joanne’s Art Supplies in Warrenton, then just started. Karen sold me a few cutting supplies, I bought a large rolling pin. I decided on the sizes I needed, cut them out, rolled them, then the fun begins. I used everything from shells I had, a plastic sea horse, kitchen utensils, Brillo pad, anything that gave me the “fossil” impressions I wanted. Karen told me to purchase some used shelving from Oman’s for transporting the tiles to her kiln. Karen fired them, then I went home and paint-glazed them with a paint I bought at Giorgio’s Tile Co. in Portland (paint called “Nassau”), then transported them back to Karen’s for final firing. I love to do activities like this, so I had a ball. Karen was absolutely delightful to work with. Of course I used a nail to make holes for the screws before we fired the tiles. Finally, I came home and used my power drill to secure the tiles. (I took a tile to Oman’s and explained what I needed, and was sold the correct screws). Then, after making about 300 tiles, I wanted a fuller look, so I made about 300 more in just starfish forms, which I have in abundance around my cottage windowsills. These went up with grout which Sue, at Bay Gallery, told me to get at Jack’s. So far so good. I would be delighted to work with anyone who wants to do this. Diana
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I love the view over the bay as well as the blossom.
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