Saturday, 20 July 2019
Markham Farm
We arrived back at our guest cottage at 6:45 and had a look at the little garden there, where I saw tadpoles in the pond.
After a brief rest, I walked on down to the farm ahead of Allan. The evening sun highlighted the garden bed that I saw the first time we visited here two years ago; I remembered that moment when I knew we had arrived at a wonderful place.
While I am not well traveled, I have toured dozens of Pacific Northwest gardens and this is my favourite of all.
One of the reasons I love this garden best: It has horses.
I kept wandering, with Barry and Gus the only residents I had seen so far.
The property includes many wooded acres and a beach. The garden itself is three? or five? acres.
I entered the shrubbery.
Another reason I love this garden best: It is multi-layered and intricate with little or no space between plants, and yet the plants are also well defined.
Another reason I love this garden best: lots of hydrangeas.

dinosaur footprints, which I soon learned were a recent acquisition, destined for the grandchildren’s woodsy camp
Right about here, I heard rustling and met Terri and Ilsa wandering the paths from the other direction. We then wandered together, soon joined by Allan, and Terri showed us some favourite plants. She said she had recently realized she “gardens in vignettes.”
(Terri, Ilsa, Bill, and Barry are four more reasons that this is my favourite garden.)
We walked to the other side of the driveway to admire some new daylilies.
Terri had limbed up the Fuchsia magellanica by the pavilion (an old remodeled garage, site of an old forge).
I remembered how I’d limbed up fuchsias in my old garden and now felt inspired to do so again when we returned home. Another reason this garden is a favourite: it gives me ideas.
I doubt I have the story entirely right about the sculpture, below; something like…it used to be in Terri and Bill’s old Seattle neighbourhood, and then it was sitting out for free and they were able to snag it and bring it to Markham Farm.
Another reason this garden is my favourite: It abounds in garden art, much of which is found, upcycled, or gifted, nothing ostentatious, nothing that tries to be more important than the garden.
After our garden walk, we entered the house…
..for some cheesecake garnished with three kinds of berries. The dessert was deliciously photogenic but good conversation distracted me from saving its image for posterity.
We were able to return to the guest cottage without feeling the sadness of departure, because tomorrow we’d be in the Markham Farm again with friends.