Saturday, 29 June 2019
After the Surfside Yardscape Tour, we had three visits to make on the way home. The first was another Surfside garden which should definitely be on any future tour.
Georgia’s garden
Georgia had come to our plant sale and toured our garden. Now it was our turn to visit hers.
Georgia’s husband, a carpenter, built the house and the guest house.
I met Georgia a year or more ago, although I don’t remember that, and gave her a start of Darmera peltata that I was clearing out of the Fifth Street Park pond.
Georgia made all of her stepping stones.
You can see why I think this garden simply must be on a future Surfside tour.
Lezlie’s garden
On the way south, we visited the garden in progress of a new friend who we met through this blog. She had introduced herself to us at the hardware store last October. Being my usual reclusive self, I had not followed through on my promise to visit her garden until today. This was mainly because I have felt overwhelmed with work, and because we rarely get north of Cranberry Road these days.
She had sent me a photo of what the house looked like after 13 years of sitting empty after her beloved mother died.
In the carport, a lemon tree had grown across the front door of the house. (I had recently been thrilled to learn that like ours, the house is an old double wide.)
When we arrived, I was honored to learn that our business card was right next to a bumper sticker for Elizabeth Warren.
We had cold refreshing drinks and sat for awhile in the carport, now a glorious sunroom.
Her darling dog, Winston, sat with me.
Lezlie told me she’d acquired Winston while living in England. That immediately stopped me from feeling shy. Anglophile that I am, I started asking questions about her time there. That is when this delightful, witty woman, who had not tooted her own horn at all as I had slowly taken months to get around to finally coming to visit, told us about her previous life before she came here to restore her mother’s garden and live a quiet life at the beach. In England, she toured with her husband, Buddy Greco, in a tribute show for Peggy Lee. Just have a look, and a listen, here. And also here.
Buddy, a renowned musician whose career goes back to the thirties, had passed away in 2017 at age 90. I’ve been reading about him, an all around delightful fellow.
We walked around the property that she is trying to bring back to her mother’s remembered garden.
The home has the comfy name of Hearthside.
Lezlie had read in our blog about pruning sword ferns, pruned one and not the other, and thus gave me the perfect opportunity to show clipped and unclipped.
Plans for the future garden…
A darling little vintage trailer that she plans to restore:
I have had this garden on my mind since this visit, thinking of plants that would do well there (deer resistant!), thinking of the path that the bear takes through the garden, and thinking about what it must be like to have such a quiet oceanside retreat after such a glittering world. I have heard many people have come here for the quiet and peace (which is why I asked her permission to write this).
Although I am cautious now about making friends, this visit made my heart sing.
We departed because we had one more visit on the way home to…
Devery and Jasmine.
Our dear Devery is moving and we are adopting her three year old cat. I wanted to meet Jasmine first. We hit it off just fine, making for three happy social visits in a row.
I don’t reaalllly want a third cat, and yet…we are the home for cats of friends; that is how we got the little family of Frosty, Smoky, and Mary, and then Skooter, and in a few weeks, Jasmine.
Outside we admired a beautiful nurse log……
And a flock of chickens.
Devery gave me an intensely fragrant white rose from the garden.
On the way home after our excellent day, we saw another family going on a garden tour just down the street from us.
I am sure they would love to tour our garden, as well.
Those are both terrific gardens. I think Georgia and I would hit it off if we ever met. I like her style. Lezlie’s garden, dog, and her vintage trailer are also sweet. Her before-retirment life sounds like fun, not that she is truly retired because she’s now a gardener. Enjoyed this post! (I’m also partial to Warren.)
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These are more delightful gardens. I really felt like I was there; the photos drew me in. Georgia’s garden and ocean-view chair would be delightful to visit!
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She says she doesn’t have much time to walk way out there and sit in it. 🙂
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I love Georgia’s garden! The Beware of Dog sign made me laugh. Great photo of the beach sitting chair! I enjoyed watching the videos of the very talented Lezlie and Buddy Greco. Nice to meet purrball Jasmine!
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I think the dogs are Yorkies 🙂
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How thrilling to have Moms old garden included in your blog this week! I wish it looked like it had when she was caring for it.. 45 years of work it was quite lovely.. I share your blogs w garden friends in Portland, Vegas and England but will be sending this all over the place, thank you for the great pics too. The first pics of me here. This week worked on reseeding parts of lawn.. Working on front flower bed .. such slow going and still up in the air about what to do with kiwi. Wishing I had sown the Shasta daisies right in the beds but didn’t have them ready yet and still hoping that maybe you would give a class on something.. Success w Seeds would be be good! I’ll bring the wine!
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I have a terrible time with seeds. This fall we will do a class with you on Dividing Perennials and give you some new plants for your garden.
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Loved all your visits. I agree that Georgia’s garden needs to be on the tour and Lezlie seems to be making great progress with the jungle she started with. How nice of her to allow all of us fans a peek. I remember meeting Devery at your place. Is she taking chickens with her? Jazmine will have a really good home with you.
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I don’t think Devery ever had chickens.
She’ll probably be back when she retires so I may not have Jasmine permanently (which is fine).
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Would it be discriminatory to exclude deer from a garden tour?
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I’ve had deer in my former garden on the day it was on tour, because the gates were open. They came in at the end when it was quieting down and munched some roses 😀
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Well,, at least they were sort of polite about it. Did I send you a link to ‘Timmy in the Garden’?
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I don’t think so, do send!
Sent from my iPad
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Pretty darling but oh the poor garden!
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Darling?! hmmm
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