9 August: Edible Tour—Homewood

Sunday, 9 August 2015

Long Beach Peninsula Edible Garden Tour

The annual edible garden tour, presented by the Long Beach Grange, is a benefit for local food banks.

Homewood

“A young food forest on about ½ acre, with some big changes underway this season”

Homewood lives up to its name with such a feeling of hominess.  The house was designed to have windows on two sides of every room and has an entire wall of books, something I always like to see.  Lisa, the owner of this garden, is the organizer of the Edible Tour.  She and her late spouse designed and built the house together.  She is a fiber artist as well as a food forest gardener, and her creations can be found at the Bay Avenue Gallery.  While some of her creations are elegant fashion accessories like her beaded purses, you can see that others are inspired by her kitchen garden.

photos courtesy Bay Avenue Gallery

So what is a food forest?  “A food forest is a gardening technique or land management system, which mimics a woodland ecosystem by substituting edible trees, shrubs, perennials and annuals. Fruit and nut trees make up the upper level, while berry shrubs, edible perennials and annuals make up the lower levels.”

Lisa’s garden lives up to the description, with food at all levels of the garden.

arriving at the garden

entry, with climbing roses

Teresa and I enter the garden (Allan’s photo)

I love the blue trim on the house.  The white cages hold blueberries.

Lisa told us that she had at last successfully managed to make a deer-proof fence all around the perimeter of the property.  The smaller cages are to protect fruit from the birds; otherwise, there would be none left for Lisa of the special delicacies like blueberries.

looking south over the rain gauge: The summer has been exceptionally dry.

I first took the path around the south side of the garden.

past the outdoor sink

sink

handy for washing soil off produce out in the garden

apples (Allan’s photo)

Asian pear, Lisa’s photo

hydrangea

Just this last month, Lisa laid this stone path instead of having grass paths.

nettle, a beneficial plant, caution-taped to avoid accidental contact

aronia (chokecherry)

path destination, a secret sit spot

path back to the house

Malva (mallow) flower

Lisa and Teresa

The sunny center of the garden on the south side of the house is given to kitchen garden rows.

Lisa made numbered edging for the garden beds and told us that she is planning to do so for other beds, with tree names set into the concrete.

concrete mosaic row numbers

beans

beans

I am sure that earlier in the year there were edible peas, as well.  By the almost mid-August date of this tour, the early season crops are done, especially in this hot dry year when the season for most flowers and fruits is earlier than usual.

sunflowers, turned away

cucumber tower, Lisa’s photo

Bay Avenue Gallery art (Allan’s photo)

cat from Bay Avenue Gallery

east end of deck

refreshing herbal tea

edibles on display

Allan, Lisa, and Teresa look at the garden plan and plant lists.

Allan’s photo

looking southeast from the deck

Lisa and her garden, showing the south wall of the greenhouse

figs against the south wall of the greenhouse

fig, Lisa’s photo

in the window

inside the lean-to greenhouse on the south wall of the garage

in the green house

stacked rock art piece, a gift from a friend

We walked between the house and garage to see the north side of the garden.

between house and garage, looking north

the between garden

ladies in waiting against the east garage wall

hydrangea and buddleia

fire circle

north side of house

shed on north side, with a little sit spot

east side of house: A work area is always of interest to me.

almonds, Lisa’s photo

We returned to the deck on the south side of the house and sat with Lisa for awhile as the tour drew to a close.

view from the deck

south view from living room

east windows over bookshelves

one of Lisa’s many books

At five o’clock, the official end of tour time, we departed and saw Lisa taking in the tour sign.

the end of garden tour season

That’s the end of our local garden tour season!  There will be one more tour, the Cannon Beach Cottage Tour, in mid-September.  Meanwhile, it’s back to focusing on work and my own garden.