Tuesday, 7 November 2017
We had run into Steve and John at the 6×6 art auction three days before and were invited to tour their latest garden expansion. On this cold and windy late afternoon, we bundled up and examined the entire garden…except for the beds on the east side, by the bay, from whence the wind came. The tour was so interesting that we hardly commented on the cold.
Our tour started as we drove up to the house.
Met by Steve and John by the house, we began our walking tour.
This bed to the south east of the house was salal just a few days ago. It is a hard task to get all the roots of that vigorously running native out of the ground, especially under a tree.
The whole south side has been cleared of scrubby trees, including holly.
The tidal stream marking the edge of the property is now revealed.
I teased Steve and John that they would now be stretching a plank across the stream to lie on and trim the sword ferns on the other side.
I would have thought for sure the new shrub, below, in a new bed, was a rhododendron. It is not.
Here is how it looked (not from exactly the same spot) earlier this year:
We continued our walk to the west.
Arbor Care from Astoria had done the expert clearing and had also limbed up the remaining trees. Steve and John said that when Arbor Care is done, you can’t even tell they were there (other than the results), because all the debris is chipped and cleaned up.
The photo below from January 1st demonstrates the difference in how the trees look now.
We crossed the driveway, where the garden beds are also expanding.
At least one big tree has been removed from this view, looking east over the pond.
Compare to May 2 of 2015.
We walked back up the driveway, admiring the pushing back of scrubby salal and undergrowth on the south side, giving the garden greater depth..
Even though the photo below, from May 2, 2015, is from a little further to the east, it shows the difference that the clearing and limbing up has made.
We admired more plants in the mature beds, planted in late spring 2009, to the northwest of the house.
From the kitchen, we looked across the lower level to the stormy bay. At a high winter tide, the water will come up over the rough grass.
A friend had given John and Steve some quinces, from which John had made a special treat, Quince membrillo, served with Monchego cheese, a delicious cheese made from the milk of Manchega sheep. Served on crackers, it brought back memories of my grandmother’s quince jelly.
We admired a new piece of art that they had recently acquired from local woodcarver Jim Unwin.
We visited till early evening, about gardening and politics, little knowing the glorious news of the blue wave of Democrat victories that awaited us in the evening news.
If you would like to virtually tour this garden in different seasons, here are some of our past posts about it:
Wonderful to see this garden in November. I was surprised at the tidal creek because I didn’t even realize it when I visited the garden. I was amazed by the effect of the limbing. It did give so much depth, as you say. Is the Yellow Hammer rhodie blooming at its usual time? I cannot imagine how difficult removing salal is. Well, actually I can, from trying to remove a very small amount and not succeeding very well. What, no runcible spoon for the mince. Edward Lear would complain: They dined on mince, and slices of quince,
Which they ate with a runcible spoon;
And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,
They danced by the light of the moon,
The moon,
The moon,
They danced by the light of the moon.
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I love that poem!
I have photos of Yellow Hammer blooming in spring so maybe it is unusual for it to bloom now. I’ll ask Steve.
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Steve says, “The yellow hammer does bloom, usually, at this time in the off-season — sometimes later, like January. It’s never had such a nice bloom. And, as we’ve noticed, there are several rhodies putting out blooms that really shouldn’t be yet.”
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Thank you for taking us along on your tour of John and Steve’s garden. What a gorgeous setting and view of the bay! I love the rhodies, especially the rhododendron pachysanthum with its silvery green foliage. The coral bark trees are stunning.
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Thank you for joining our walkabout! I wish you could have tasted the quince jelly.
Sent from my iPad
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I think that the pond was improved by the removal of the tree.
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Agreed, Mr T.
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