Sunday, 7 June 2015
Friday night, I hadhappened to open an email from the Hardy Plant Society of Oregon, thinking it might be about the study weekend. Instead, it was the weekend garden tour update and there was Beth Holland’s Cannon Beach garden on the list for Saturday and Sunday! So much for getting my ladies in waiting planted; I could not miss the chance to tour Beth’s garden. I had been there years ago (in 1998) and hadn’t had the opportunity to see it again. She is a gardener whom I greatly admire, as she was instrumental in a lot of the business landscaping in Cannon Beach.
Because the cold north wind still blew fiercely across our garden, I did not feel the loss of a good at-home gardening day.
First, of course, I have to write about crossing the Astoria-Megler Bridge.

approaching the bridge: a surprising field of coreopsis

a field of coreopsis and daisies at the south end of the bridge, by the Columbia River
Due to bridge work, the crossing was slow, just the way I like it.

below us: fishing on the Columbia

one lane traffic because of workers (shows how narrow the 4+ mile bridge is)

Allan says I should show the lumberyard to the west of the bridge, as it was in the final scenes of Dexter.

work vehicles at the top
On the other side, we heading south of Cannon Beach, about a 50 minute drive in reasonable traffic. Today was not only a weekend, but also the 30th anniversary of The Goonies movie, and Astoria was hosting a huge celebration. We saw some signs of it even though we did not go into Goonieville.

an interesting spelling of “doubloon”?
We skipped our usual swingaround of Pam Fleming’s Seaside gardens because of the heavy traffic, and made the requisite stop at 7 Dees nursery south of Seaside.


7 Dees

at 7 Dees: Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

purchases: Allan’s photo; I don’t remember what the little tree is, and it’s too cold as I write this to go outside and look at the tag!
I only bought three plants (a variegated nepeta, a fancy papyrus, and I forget the name of the third) because I am getting anxious about the number of ladies in waiting that I now own.
Beth Holland’s Garden
From the HPSO Open Gardens book: In 1989 my husband, Mike Moran, and I bought 3.6 wooded acres adjacent to our home in South Cannon Beach. I owned Holland’s Flowers downtown at that time, and we started a garden nursery and built a greenhouse to support the shop until its closing in 1995. Since then I have enjoyed twenty years of designing both public and private gardens as well as my own. The garden is surrounded by forest and filled with the sound of the surf.

under the highway and through the woods to Beth’s garden

Allan’s photo
It was clear to me as we walked along the road that Beth has done some pruning of old fronds of the ferns by the side of the road.

the first glimpse

on the other side of the road: steps I am glad we did not have to take

Allan’s photo: I was contemplating who has to go down those steps to the pumphouse.

the gate and a greeter

Allan’s photo
We were greeted by Mike and by one outgoing Corgi named Chippie; the other Corgi is shy.

meeting Chippie

the shy one
The greenhouse is the grand centerpiece of the garden. Its windows came from an old Astoria grade school. The memory of it has stayed strong in my mind since my visit here long ago.
Here it is in 1998:

Beth Holland’s garden just outside Cannon Beach., 1998

Beth’s greenhouse was constructed with large old windows from a school. (1998)
And today:





the greenhouse, bigger than some houses I’ve lived in

in we go

looking out the other side

the old Hollands Flowers sign
How well I remember Hollands Flowers from when I first lived at the beach in 1993 and 1994. It was hidden in a little courtyard off the Cannon Beach main drag and even though tiny, it always had interesting plants for sale.

with Mike in the greenhouse, which must be the best private greenhouse in the Pacific Northwest.

in the greenhouse

Chippie in the greenhouse

in the greenhouse (Allan’s photo)

Allan’s photo
We went back outside to tour the gardens, preceded by Chippie, an excellent tour guide.

terracing

winding paths leading to new vistas

the pond
When I was here in 1998, the pond landscaping was so new that its edges were still raw dirt in places. Mike said it has large koi, that were not visible today.

the greenhouse barely showing from the pond walk

waterlilies

Allan’s photo

Chippie guiding us

Allan’s photo

looking back up the slope

path along the greenhouse, south side

To the left, the slope down to the pond

overlooking the pond

approaching the west flower beds

a sit spot by the pond

Mike told us that the heron figure keeps real herons away.

Allan’s photo

seating at the west end of the greenhouse
The garden had no annoying wind, and just as the description said, one could hear the surf, perhaps ten blocks of less away to the west.


looking west

a large hebe in flower

Cotinus (smokebush) all aglow

Chippie shows off

Allan’s photo, with Beth, and me fawning over Chippie…again

looking back at the greenhouse

Allan’s photo


returning to the greenhouse

Chippie at the door

my new friend walks with us some more

lots of small touches

tall nicotiana

nicotiana flowers

diverging paths
Beth gave us a postcard of a painting of one of the paths.

this one


Japanese iris at the east end of the garden

Iris ensata

east end of the garden
We had to leave although I could have happily wandered around some more. We would have if there had been more tour guests than just us.

Allan’s photo: Beth and the shy corgi

on the way back down the road
As we returned to the van a couple of blocks away, we saw Ann’s foam green Fiat arriving, so we met up with Ann and Kate and chatted with them for awhile. They headed off the the garden, and Allan ran up to the viewpoint to snag a couple of photos of Cannon Beach.

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo, with escallonia in bloom
As we departed, we saw Kate and Ann walking toward Beth’s garden.

Later, Ann commented how much she liked the way that Beth had edited her woods arund the garden, and I realized we had not even gone into any woodsy paths, so I do hope she blogs about that.
going home again
The obligatory grocery stop at Costco:

I wonder if the Seattle Costcos have crab pots.

ceanothus in the Costco parking lot

On the Astoria Megler bridge: Here is why one end of the bridge is so tall.

looking east from the bridge

in the work “tunnel”
As soon as we got out of the van at home, we were hit with the wind again! At 5 o clock, I went to the shelter of the patio, thinking I might pull a few weeds.

view south from the patio

Paul’s Himalayan Musk rose, windblown…

Paul’s Himalayan Musk rose, windblown…

petals strewn across the lawn
Allan got on a ladder up there to install a holder for some blue bottles (too windy to put up the bottles yet) and was closely observed by a chickadee.

The chickadee has a nest around here somewhere.

chickadee atop the arbour
Three hours later, I had potted up my new papyrus, and two Juliet tomatoes (given to me by Ray Millner of The Planter Box) in the greenhouse, tidied up the greenhouse just a bit, planted a couple more ladies in waiting, and most miraculously, pulled out a bunch of errant raspberry, a task that had seemed almost impossible last week.

from June 4: “I must get the running raspberry OUT of here.”

today: I found the strength

Smokey kept me company; you can see the new papyrus to the right of the topiary bird.
What an excellent weekend. Tomorrow, we are planning to take up the beach approach weeding job again…only if the horrid wind dies down.
Read Full Post »