22 October: touring artists’ gardens, part one

Tuesday, 22 October 2019

A new-this-year gardening friend had invited me to tour a garden with her today, one I very much wanted to see.  Because we would have time to visit at least one other garden first, I suggested we go to the home of an artist couple who had invited me and Allan to see their autumn garden.  In the early afternoon, Beverly and I set off garden touring, while Allan decided to get a hedge trimming job done.

The Toepfer Garden

….is one of my top three favourite local gardens. It is the haven of two artistic plant collectors and up-cyclers.  You can read about Kent and Betsy’s art on the Northwest Artist’s Guild site, here.

The big wheels on the fence are something to do with (I think) cable tv.  At least, I think these are the circles that once were a big structure in the garden itself, as you can see in this post from my first visit there.

Coincidentally, the next day Allan saw the big circles in use an electrical utility truck.

Although the garden creators had to be gone today during our tour time, we had permission to wander.  We were greeted by a purple donkey.

To the east side of the entry drive is a dry garden whose red theme is now enhanced by bright autumn foliage.

We noticed a theme of cotinus (smokebush) throughout the garden, beginning with the blazing red one above.

Turning to the west, we walked along a shaded path.

(I think) Cotinus ‘Golden Spirit’

I remember this horse from previous tours and had been looking for it.

The glorious main is all wire.

We turned to the garden around the house.  Beverly pointed out that the repurposed pot covering, left below, is the whirly vent thing that goes up on a roof.

Left, below, another smoke bush of a more subtle hue and I think a rhododendron with dark foliage.

mirror ball

I would like to trade with them a start of my very silver pulmonaria for a start of theirs with long and narrow leaves:

another fancy rhododendron

Coming around to the north side of the house:

I was filled with envy when I saw their Pseudopanax ferox; I have tried and failed three times to grow it, and it is not readily available to replace after a failure.

It is perfect for  a garden with lots of repurposed metal accents.

I lingered covetously…

…but finally moved on to a hydrangea with exceptional fall colour.

I think I spy another smokebush.

The outdoor fireplace would be sheltered from winter wind.

.

by the back deck

on the deck

I bet that Betsy’s art, or maybe mirrors, get hung here during summer days.

I hope Beverly and I can return next spring to see the garden in a different season.

We still had an hour before our arrival time at our garden destination.  Beverly suggested the long way round and I suggested that we could go to one of the furthest north gardens in Surfside and at least look at it from the road.

Somsri’s garden

We arrived at our second artist’s garden, and Somsri, being home, welcomed us in.  You can see full tours of her garden here (2015) and here (2019, summer).  Today, I was focused in on the art pieces she has created.  Beverly is artistic and crafty herself and had good questions about how the art was made.

Somsri’s two greeters were ever so sweet and welcoming.

Somsri’s magnificent septic vault garden is always the high point for me.

I am particularly smitten with the bowling balls decorated with marbles.  Another way Somsri gets the orb shape is to cover a light globe with cement and then break the bulb…or something like that!  (Not quite sure why you’d have to break it; I think Beverly understood the crafty parts better than I did.)

We both loved the orbs covered with glass shapes other than marbles.

Another local artists had made the plate and bowl flowers, screwing them together, which would work much better than gluing.  I have noticed that glued ones soon fall apart.

Somsri even makes her own stepping stones.

And these realistic squashes were made, in a method that mystifies me, out of paper and (I think) crumpled nylon…

We had to tear ourselves away because we were now running a quarter of an hour late for our arrival at our original artist’s garden destination.

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December 10: welcome garden visitors

Monday, 10 December 2018

We’d had this much rain since Saturday evening.

Before and after a visit, I spent my afternoon potting up shasta daisy starts for my plant sale.

Our dear friend Tony came to visit the garden with Maryann and Linda.

Maryann, Linda, Tony, and me

You might remember that MaryAnn is the former owner and the designer of the beautiful garden at Tony and Scott’s beach home.

Maryann, who visits family in England every year, gave me a Gardeners’ World book! I was thrilled!

Thank you, MaryAnn!

By the way, I do intend to get back to watching as many new-to-me episodes that I can find online of Gardeners’ World as soon as I can break away from my reading binge.

Poor Allan had to leave to have a wisdom tooth pulled.

The rest of the photos from today were all taken by Tony Hofer himself as we wandered the garden.

my one and only phormium

plant table in the bogsy wood

SW bogsy wood corner

bridge to the south gate

through the south gate: Linda just bought a house on the peninsula so I look forward to seeing her around.

outside the fence, at the meander line, the south property line that used to be riverbank.

I used to try to control nature out there, but now I let it go and I think the frogs are happier that way.

fortifications on the south fence

Back in the civilized garden again:

the cat bench that Allan made

at the edge of the patio

I gave Tony a great big clump of sarracenia.

the lean-to

lambs ears that I have been potting up

white rhododendron by Allan’s shed

old apple tree in front garden

treecups

east wall of house

front path

hellebore by front path

We all talked about how Allan and I could visit Tony and Scott’s Vancouver (Washington) home this spring, before they pack everything up to move to the beach.  MaryAnn would make dinner…I know it would be a wonderful trip and we could combine it with a visit to Cistus and Joy Creek Nurseries.

I love getting to see what someone else notices in our garden.  Thank you, Tony!

 

 

 

 

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1 December: lead-up to the Crab Pot Tree

Saturday, 1 December 2018

This is the day leading up to the Crab Pot Tree lighting.

In the mid morning, Allan hurried down to the Crab Pot tree to provide a mallet for anchoring an anchor.

It will be lit to commemorate a crabber who was tragically lost in an accident in Willapa Bay this past summer.

Allan then checked on his book at Time Enough Books.

There it is, lower right.

After trying and failing to get enough sleep (too much crab pot excitement brewing?), I had three hours to weed.

We had had this much rain yesterday.

We still have mild weather and some flowers in bloom.

Salvia ‘Amistad’ and S. elegans (pineapple sage)

pineapple sage

Salvia leucantha

fuchsias

fuchsias

fuchsias

and more fuchsias

Rose ‘Radway Sunrise’

and even an agastache, with annual sweet pea foliage

I worked on a section where creeping buttercup had swamped the base of shasta daisies.

before

got this far…

It was hard to tear myself away from the garden at ten to three.  I knew, though, that the temperature would start to drop in about half an hour.

Allan had been working on the greenhouse lean-to.  We hurried to put tools away and to get down to the Salt Pub to meet Our Kathleen for a late lunch.

Salt has been remodeling so that the main pub is now downstairs instead of upstairs.   Allan’s photos were taken earlier in the day.  When we got there, we were lucky to get the second to last table.

The new bar downstairs (Allan’s photo)

The old bar upstairs. This room was reserved for an event tonight. (Allan’s photo)

Downstairs window seating. (Allan’s photo)

Salt Pub

Kathleen’s brisket bowl lunch

my delicious tuna melt

Allan’s “breakfast sandwich”

We were joined a half an hour later by Ann Amato, who praised the cranberry cobbler.

Ann is catching up on the past year in her blog, which you can read right here.

Allan left us at four to help test the lights at the tree.  It would be unfortunate if they did not go on properly!  We lingered for another forty five minutes and then walked the two blocks to the crab pot tree….

…….where we hope you will join us as we share the evening on our other blog (as soon as I get around to writing it).

Allan had picked up some library books for me today.  I rather wish the weather forecast was for rain rather than a sunny and temperate week.

 

 

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24 Sept: The Oysterville Garden

Monday, 24 September 2018

We continued the Oysterville part of our Peninsula garden tour with Ketzel Levine and Beth Holland.

The Oysterville Garden

For posts which show how this extraordinary garden all ties together, see here, here, and here.

Today, we wandered through in bright sunshine which was not conducive to photographing any shady/sunny areas.

It is aster time in the Oysterville garden, where the gardener collects them because they are his mother’s favourite flower.

cotinus viewed from the road

 

Joe Pye, a grass, alliums

looking in the driveway

by the south terrace

on the dreamy terrace

Beth, Ketzel, Allan on the terrace

Allan’s photo

The bright sunlight made it difficult to capture the allée of Hydrangea ‘Incrediball’.

at the north end of the north-south back path

emerging from the allée onto the big north lawn

This lawn is what I think of every time I am tempted to make my grass areas smaller in order to have larger garden beds.

asters aglow

Ketzel and Beth

Discussion was had about two kinds of ilex.

One was taller; one had redder berries.

Allan’s photo

We wished we knew the names of the assorted aster cultivars.

curving back around to the front of the house

Allan’s photo

On the front porch…

We stood and admired the white begonias.

looking north

at SE corner of the house

front border

Gomphostigma virgatum (Allan’s photo)

We turned our attention to the garden to the south, now owned by a friend of the Oysterville gardener, who has extended the garden theme onto that property.

looking south into the neighboring garden

I think this is Senecio ‘Angel Wings’, also seen in the Kuestner garden last month.

Beth botanizing

We viewed the garden from over the picket fence.

outside: barrels with mounds of armeria (sea thrift)

Beth said some of the armeria cultivars keep their neat round shape.

a green echinacea

looking north

Allan’s photo (Solidago ‘Fireworks’)

Allan’s photo

an aconitum with shiny leaves

Leaving Oysterville after viewing its three most excellent gardens, we drove south down Sandridge Road to finish our touring day at Steve and John’s bayside garden.

 

 

 

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23 Nov: sunny working

Thursday, 23 November 2017

 I woke up to find that Allan had made a workday breakfast (more nutritious than cold cereal).  The weather showed signs of unexpectedly clearing, belying a forecast of constant rain.  So off we went to work.  I was willing to work in drizzle to get a couple more tasks erased from the work board.

First, even though we had no mail to pick up on this holiday, we did some clipping at the Ilwaco post office garden.

in the post office window (Allan’s photo)

Before: The Gaura ‘Whirling Butterflies’ had been blown about by wind.

after

rain on the post office wall

big raindrops falling

Long Beach

I am weak on just pulling the annuals out once and for all.  At the welcome sign, we stopped to pull the yellow bidens.  We ended up leaving most of them, after all.

On the edge, bidens still showing a bit of yellow. (And some bulb foliage has emerged.)

In Long Beach, I had noticed when driving through on an errand that wind had battered the Geranium ‘Rozanne’ in the police station planter.  I steeled myself to cut it back so that I wouldn’t have to wonder every day at home whether or not it still looked good.

I find it hard to cut when the flowers are still so blue.

Allan’s photo

But we did it!

It looks like the wind took away the “orman” part of the Stormin’ Norman’s sign.

I also made a special stop to cut this knautia back hard:

another plant I am tired of thinking about

With very little wind and increasingly clear weather, we drove out to the Bolstad beach approach to tidy the planters and to pull the stands of Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’.

Bolstad Avenue, also known as the beach approach, is named after a young Washington State patrolman who died trying to save two young swimmers in 1957.  I often think about his valor when I type the name of the avenue. You can read about him here.

The weather turned fine and almost summerlike as we began tidying the westernmost planters.

The crocosmia in the long garden bed has beauty still to offer.

We pull it now anyway because soon it will be all brown and tattered, and we’d rather not be out pulling it on a stormy winter day.

I tidy for the passersby who would not understand the beauty of a fall and winter garden with perennials left standing.  In my own garden, I leave plants up for the birds.  I wish I could assign a couple of books to anyone who doesn’t understand the splendor of a wilder garden.

And pretty much any book by Piet Oudolf shows fall and winter landscapes with plants left standing.

I’m sad to see how weedy the long garden has gotten with the autumn rains.  There will be much to do when work starts up again in February.  The city budget doesn’t run to a late fall/early winter seven day long weeding of this narrow but enormous garden.

looking west

It will be a carpet of grass by late winter.

looking east

crocosmia intertwined with thorny rugosa roses (Allan’s photo)

before

after (Allan’s photo)

The weather could not have been better for this job.

a glorious day

tourists taking the classic Long Beach arch photo

one last rose hip

I swear someone has been picking the rose hips to produce tea.  It is too suspicious that someone asked to pick them several weeks ago, and we said no, and yet a week afterwards there were very few rose hips left.  Perhaps I am being paranoid and suspicious.  Usually they would still be clinging to the roses all the way along the approach, although most would be brown by now.

shiny new buds

In the easternmost section, I decided that the roses had to be clipped from along the sidewalk.

before

after

In next year’s spring or late winter clean up, we must dig out the roses from along this inner edge.  Some members of the Peninsula Gardeners Facebook group want starts, so the diggings won’t go to waste.  I have warned them of the vigor of this rose.

As I tidied the easternmost planter, I suddenly felt like a hot wind was on my face.  I looked up, and it was the reflection of the sun in the hotel across the road.

reflecting on me like a heat lamp!

a coppery golden willow in the hotel landscape

At city hall, we’d had a request for the Lavatera outside the west office window to be trimmed back for a good view.  I had decided that we should remove the whole shrub.  When it came to doing so, I changed my mind…for now.  We just clipped it hard, and will think about it over the winter.  It probably should be replaced with something that will stay below the windowsill.

We did not plant it.  We used to have Lavatera ‘Barnsley’ in the city gardens, until one year they seemed to lose their vigor, and even newly planted ones seemed to get diseased and peter out all around town.  This one, in a place where it has to have its flowering stems trimmed, is vigorous and happy…of course.

before

after (Allan’s photos)

My nice variegated hellebore on the north side, that had gotten all lanky, had its stems broken off.

Phooey.

We clipped and weeded in the big pop out a block south of city hall.

after weeding a sheet of little grasses

dwarf pampas grass and rugosa rose

We pulled some tatty evening primrose (the tall scraggly yellow one) from the little popouts a block north of city hall.  When I walked up, a flock of little birds burst into the air.

before

Zooming in on my before photo, I can see the little birds were there, by the pole.

Allan said we took their dinner, and we sort of did.

We left a big stand of evening primrose on the other side of the sidewalk for them.

As soon as we were done, they returned to feasting.

We should have/could have weeded the grass better out of those two little beds. But we did not.

We took our substantial load of debris to City Works.

eating what I thought might be our last workday sandwich of 2017 at City Works

We then finished Long Beach by trimming a few planters out on the Sid Snyder beach approach.

still amazing weather at the west end of Sid Snyder Drive

the westernmost planter (Allan’s photo)

I was thrilled that we were going to reach my goal and have time to do the last thing on the pre-frost clean up work list:

Norwood garden

I’ve had on the list for weeks the moving some shade plants to the north side of Mary N’s garden, where earlier this year we replaced mean and thorny barberries with hydrangeas. Allan started weeding the north garden bed while I dug up some plants at home.

I think Allan had reset my red rain gauge and that this is last night’s rain:

Out of this bed, I got some Geranium macrorrhizum and some epimidium.

I looked for some of my best silvery foliaged pulmonarias in Allan’s garden area and could not find them.  I hope they are there, and just dormant.  I managed to find a not so silvery one in another part of the garden, and some hellebore seedlings.

at Mary N’s, a wheelbarrow of some plant starts.

Oh dear, the north bed had gotten so weedy.  I did not mean to neglect it so!

Allan’s before photos, mostly creeping sorrel weed

Yikes.

I took over the weeding while Allan trimmed lavenders in the side garden.

Allan gets credit for weeding the bricks.

lavender, before…

after

before

after

My after picture of the north bed was at dusk.

I am going to have to keep a closer eye on this to keep the sorrel from coming back.

At home, the work list is down to the post-frost clean up and my winter projects at home.

I had planned to declare the beginning pre-frost staycation.  Instead, I consulted with Depot Restaurant co owner Nancy Gorshe and decided that tomorrow, we will pull the old annuals out of the window boxes there, combined with a check up on the Anchorage Cottages garden, which has been on my mind and probably should not be left unattended till frost.  I hope we can accomplish this rain or shine, perhaps with the reward of a late lunch out.

The following morning, Allan got a daytime “after” shot at the Norwood garden.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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27 November: almost winter in the Oysterville garden

Friday, 27 November 2015

Today we drove all around the Peninsula for the Peninsula Art Association Studio tour, and during the tour we made two garden stops, the first being…

The Planter Box

…..Where we took some photos of their seasonal items for their Facebook page.

display including little live trees

Teresa’s charmingly decorated lemon cypress trees

more tiny trees for sale

and an interesting birdcam

and then we drove on to more of the studio tour.  After visiting the northernmost gallery, we crossed over on Oysterville Road to make a late autumn visit to the Oysterville garden that I like so much.

Oysterville Garden

Our dear friends Dave and Melissa (Sea Star Gardening) and Todd (Willapa Gardening) have recently spent several days, some of them wet and windy, working with the owner on some redesign of this garden.  The neighbourhood is lively in summer with many tourists, and a new hedge in front will give more privacy.

The garden owner planted this beech hedge all along the front.

between every little beech, a cyclamen

details

Allan’s photo: luscious mulch

The team of four gardeners has worked hard on transplanting and fall clean up and mulching.

I feel deeply privileged to have an invitation to walk through and permission to blog about it.

driveway garden aglow in autumn sunshine

clipped ornamental grasses and boxwoods

The perfection of the side garden continues to make me weepy with joy.

Allan’s photo

surprise: a gentian still blooming

autumnal allée

at the end of the allée

the tree fern walk

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

cyclamens

shadows of the allée

Allan’s photo

moss and mulch

clipped bay tree

hedge and trees on the other side of the street

nearby: the path to the shore of Willapa Bay

Even though I treasure having time off work, I’m envious in a way of the fun Todd, Dave, and Melissa are having working together on the Oysterville job.  Melissa says it is a joy.

Next:  We visit a friend’s studio that was not on the official studio tour.

 

 

 

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