Friday, 26 June 2015
Hardy Plant Society Study Weekend, Portland 2015
Hyland-Beckman garden
We will proceed through the garden in a more or less orderly fashion.
the entry driveway
by the street
Allan’s photo
the lower side of the entry garden
garden art, Allan thought the ball was made of firewood chunks.
Allan’s photo
looking up (Allan’s photo)
upper side of driveway
Allan’s photo
view to the northeast
house and greenhouse
These were for sale.
Oh! I fall in love immediately.
love the containers, too
wish my Tetrapanax would get this big.
Allan’s photo
We walk between the greenhouse and the garage and to our right is this stone stairway. I’d already figured out I could go up the stairs and then back around by a sloping lawn. I was glad I’d brought my walking stick. (I’ve learned that’s the euphemism often used for cane.)
Allan’s photo
flowing, Piet Oudolf-y kind of garden beds.
We look up the stairs and there at the top is Todd. He bounds down like a tall gazelle.
Not only does this show Todd, but also how the greenhouse, stone walls and stairs, and garage relate to each other.
Allan’s photo
Allan’s photo
I covet this.
Allan’s photo
I couldn’t take photos going up the stairs because of my various height neuroses.
I made it up! to the midway level
Other determined tour guests who had climbed despite some difficulty.
at the top
looking way back down at Todd and Allan
Allan halfway up
Allan’s photo
Allan’s photo
Allan’s photo
Allan’s photo
Allan’s photo
above the garage
eucalyptus
spraypainted Allium schubertii tumbleweeds
Allan’s photo
looking down on the driveway from the upper lawn
Allan’s photo
Allan’s photo
Allan’s photo
Allan’s photo
Allan’s photo
Allan’s photo
Allan’s photo
Allan’s photo
I find a path clearly defined enough to lead me out to the street without having to go down a short stone staircase.
To my right: the short stairway to the driveway
from the little path
Yay, my path comes out at the street!
I do spend a fair amount of time in hilly gardens trying to find ways to avoid vertiginous and knee-bothering stairs and slopes.
I walk back up the driveway to the deck of the house.
On the way: There he is again!
around to the porch
I have an attack of acrophobia when I see car going by on Highway 30 below, and have to edge back off the porch…
with just one photo of these enticing chairs.
I asked Allan to take porch photos.
the mossy table: Allan’s photo
Allan’s photo of a staghorn fern
Allan’s photo
Allan’s photo
Allan’s photo
Allan’s photo
Allan’s photo
Allan’s photo, looking down from the porch
Allan’s photo
on the deck
on the table
Allan’s photo
so adorable
as we depart
a last look
postscript
Todd had already left to go to the Wakefield-Grossnickle garden on Old Germantown Road. That is my favourite garden of any I’ve ever seen. We were skipping it today for three reasons: I really wanted to go to Xera nursery in Portland, and would have no other time to do so. I’d seen that garden just last July, and I also knew it would be hard on my knee to navigate its steep entry drive and its slopes. But mainly, the curvy stretch of Old Germantown Road between Highway 30 and the garden scared the bejeezus out of me. After a trip down that road in 2007, I swore I would never ride down it again, and that I would only visit the garden on the less precipitous, curvy road from Highway 26!
At the Hyland-Beckman garden, we had met a gardening friend from Seattle, who had already been to the Germantown garden and said she had “white knuckled” her way down. I was relieved I wasn’t the only one scared by that road.
However, I feel bad to not have visited that most amazing garden, my favourite of any I’ve ever seen, so here are blog posts from our previous visits.
2007, a Hardy Plant Society garden open
2011: Hardy Plant Society study weekend
Later, Todd said that he loved it. I knew he would, and I’d been eager for him to see it. I could so happily live in that garden, if I had someone to deliver groceries so I never had to leave. Those who live in the hills around Portland are made of sterner stuff than I. (That is not difficult.)
We also missed another tour garden that was right across Old Germantown Road from My Favourite Garden Ever.
Our next stop, Xera Plants, wonderfully made up for the poignancy I was feeling, and that will be in our next post, a bonus post this evening. It will also include some lecture notes so that part may be of interest only to those who wish they had been at the study weekend.
Tangly Cottage Gardening 