Saturday, 14 July 2018
Colorful Coastal Gardens tour
Grayland, Washington
presented by the Master Gardeners of Grays Harbor and Pacific County
Gary and Kristie’s garden, Grayland
Gardeners’ quotation: “Gardening is a matter of your enthusiasm holding up until your back gets used to it.”
Allan saw some history that I somehow missed.
The gardeners seem to be winning over the depredations of slugs and snails.
“Clematis are their passion…”
“The first plant Kristie placed in her garden from the coastal region is the calla lily at the entrance of her home, greeting guests.”
At the back of the house, I admired the well grown vines.
Like Chie and Bill’s garden, this one had enviable outbuildings.
“...carvings abundant in the garden…”
“…ease the soreness of gardening with the charming outdoor shower and spa...”
Behind the smaller shed was a grandchild’s play garden.
The center area of the back garden has a fire circle and hot tub.
At the back of the garden:
Allan looked toward the back for compost heaps because the description had mentioned “tons of compost” to overcome the challenge of sand. We learned that they have bought compost (as we did at first and still do sometimes) and had it delivered.
On the shady side:
All this on what realtor info sites say is a lot slightly under ten thousand square feet. That is one of the great advantages of having a tiny house with a small footprint.
Right across the road, this sandy road led over a dune to the beach.
Takeaways: I haven’t had a Helichrysum italicum (curry plant) for a few years. Must get some.
Ask Allan if he would be so kind as to collect reasonably sized not too difficult driftwood on boating trips. And some beach rocks.
Interlude
Nearby, we saw this cute little trailer painted like a lady bug.
Plant Sale
Next up was the Master Gardener group’s plant sale at a different house.
It had an enticing front garden that was not on the tour because, as the owner said, she had been spending all her time on the plant sale.
I got some good plants, including some Crambe maritima, and some hakonechloa grass at a great price, which I got with Alison of the Bonney Lassey blog in mind.

I am holding (and will buy two) one of those cool teucriums that I liked last year in Markham Farm garden…which will be our last stop on this garden tour.
People were trying to ID this plant and could not. I couldn’t remember what it was, either.
It has blue flowers. I know I have had it before. Does it start with a p…? a b….?
Two more gardens to go on this tour!