Saturday, 14 July 2018
Colorful Coastal Gardens tour
Grayland, Washington
presented by the Master Gardeners of Grays Harbor and Pacific County
Our ticket to the tour is a beautiful booklet with photos and a write up about each garden.
Each gardener chose a quotation to go with the garden description.
I must give credit to The Outlaw Gardener for the idea of using snippets of the garden descriptions throughout these posts.
As you can see, we were close to salt water all day.
Charles and Hans’ garden, Grayland
Gardeners’ quotation: “Gardening requires a lot of water, mostly in the form of perspiration.” -Lou Erickson
From the description, I expected a low maintenance and perhaps rather sparse garden. We were delighted to find instead a lush but wisely planted garden of great beauty.
Allan’s photo
Each garden has a poster with a list of which sustainable garden practices were employed.
Hans and Charles’ garden
Our greeter and ticket stamper had on a most delightful garden hat.
A docent, neither Charles nor Han (Allan’s photo)
up the driveway (Allan’s photo)
looking back to the entry
“When one of this gardener team, Charles, decided to remove a patch of lawn to install a dry river bed, he was responding to the summer drought situation this coastal region experiences. Except for small plantings, this part of the garden is watered only by rainfall.”
Allan’s photo
Allan’s photo
Allan’s photo
Allan’s photo
Allan’s photo
on up the driveway past the two story garage
along the side of the garage
handsome brunnera and enviably perfect hostas
farther up the shady border
Allan’s photo
across the front lawn to the sunny side
Allan’s photo
on the front porch
green and lovely table setting
At the back of the garage, on the shady side again:
Allan’s photo
looking back
from whence we came
The path around the side of the house beckons.
looking back along the side pathway
entering the back garden
Allan’s photo
“The garden behind the home invites guests into a private peaceful space of manicured lawn edged in stone block. This formal setting contrasts with the informal dry river bed in front of the home.”
straight ahead
to my right
Allan’s photo
Allan’s photo
“The Lazy Gardener”
looking back
gorgeous tawny achillea
behind: the garden shed
Allan’s photo
Charles identifies a plant. (Allan’s photo)
Linaria (toadflax) was perhaps the plant in question. (Allan’s photo)
Allan’s photo
Allan’s photo
Allan and I almost always walk through the garden by different routes and at a different pace, crossing paths occasionally, so it always interests me when we take almost the same photo.
Allan, in blue shirt, is in the above photo.
Allan’s photo
looking back
further back garden exploration
Here is the entry, through a hedge, to the field where the vegetable garden resides.
entry to the vegetable garden area (Allan’s photo)
“The vegetable garden continues to the rear of the formal garden and slips over the hillside to the raised beds designed for efficiency of labor.”
Allan’s photo
“Sand was the challenge to overcome. Compost and mulching was the answer.”
Allan’s photo
Allan’s photo
Allan’s photo
Allan’s photo
Allan’s photo
The next door neighbour also had a vegetable garden.
Next door (Allan’s photo)
What a great start to the tour!
Tangly Cottage Gardening 
Liked the marigolds in the terracotta pots, what a bright and cheerful way of putting a collection of those little pots to use.
And the “Lazy Gardener”. 🙂
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I liked that, too.
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What a delightful garden! I’m not fond of pebbles and gravel in a garden area, but that dry river is clever, particularly as a way to conserve water. Also liked the Lazy Gardener — haha!
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The Lazy Gardener was quite a hit.
I find river rock painful to walk on but attractive as a feature as long as I don’t have to weed it.
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The lazy gardener made me laugh out loud; what a fun idea! I love the idea of not having to drag hoses around so the rainfall-only aspect of that part of the garden appeals to me. Thanks for the link love. I like to use the snippets from tour books because gardeners know their own spaces so much better than visitors and because I’m lazy and it’s an easy way not to have to write so much myself.
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Yeah it’s a great idea. I hadn’t even thought of the aspect of not having to write, but that is so, so true.
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