9 August: Edible Tour—Little Tyke Garden

Sunday, 9 August 2015

Long Beach Peninsula Edible Garden Tour

The annual edible garden tour, presented by the Long Beach Grange, is a benefit for local food banks.

Little Tyke Garden

John and Judy named their garden “Little Tyke” and describe it as “simple, easy, fun”.  I visited it with Garden Tour Nancy not long ago and on that day was able to tour the flower garden part.  Today, that had caution tape because the paths are narrow.  The main edible tour feature was John’s container kitchen garden, but for me the whole garden is a delight, especially his garden art from found objects.

Little Tyke

front garden

Only the balloons hint at the artful garden in back. (Allan’s photo)

compost sifter on wheelbarrow

garden table divides kitchen garden from flower garden (Allan’s photo)

one of John’s cool art creations

I like it very much.

driftwood and found objects make art

looking south into the flower garden

Driftwood protects a fish pond from raccoons.  (Allan’s photo)

The sign is one that they found.

A tour guest in the container veg garden peer into the flower garden.  (Allan’s photo)

tomatoes on south wall of garage

container kitchen garden

backlit chard

looking back at the house

deck railing

on the deck

on the deck (Allan’s photo)

another critter by John

deck windows looking east (Allan’s photo)

a shovel critter that rocked (Allan’s photo)

Allan’s photo of me photographing John and a tour guests. John’s in the Hawaiian shirt.

Allan’s photo: tour host Judy and me.

I said to Judy “Your voice, the way you move, and the way you look are so much like a Judy I used to know that it’s spooky.”  She said “I AM that Judy!”  It was funny.  She modestly had a name tag just saying “John’s wife”, because she said the kitchen garden is his project.  She made me laugh.

She invited me in to see a wintertime project of John’s:

a button head with watches for eyes

her friendly little dog (Allan’s photo)

very friendly – I wonder if he is “little tyke”

flowers on the deck (Allan’s photo)

looking northeast over the garden

SE view

all kinds of fun objects

John his ownself

from my pre-tour visit

I was sorry to leave because I’d really taken to John and Judy on both visits to their garden.  However, we have seven more gardens to see.  Before we leave for the next one, let’s look around the charming cul-de-sac on which John and Judy live.

intermission

This house is at the entrance and is next to the original house on the block.

You can just see a taller house behind it that was the first house on the block:

An arbour on the other side of the street from Little Tyke:

pretty window boxes at the end of the little street

a pond makes a nice view for end of the block houses

Next: the garden behind the Planter Box garden center that feeds a large family.

 

 

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24 July: some swanning about with Nancy

Friday, 24 July 2015

Garden Tour Nancy and I had plans for some Edible Garden Tour pre-touring, but first, we went by invitation to see a charming small Seaview garden.

Sue’s Garden

My Facebook friend Betty had told me about the garden of her neighbour, Sue.  First, Nancy and I had a look over the fence at the well-grown vegetables on Betty’s “Farm”.

Betty’s farm

and her darling dog, Ella

We then went to view the cottage garden next door belonging to flower-loving neighbour, Sue.  Betty had told me it was a good example of how someone on a budget and a small space can have a garden with, as Betty says, “just love and hard work. She looks for ‘deals’ and nurtures them into lush, healthy plants. Sue grows most of her garden from seeds which she shares freely.”

Black Eyed Susan vine at the gate

Sue’s flower garden, staged in containers. Later there will be sunflowers along the fence.

zinnia

zinnia

beans

morning glory

We had an audience.

sweet peas

sweet peas

Nancy and I were both delighted.  I would much rather see a tiny garden grown from scratch and from sharing than the grandest estate.

Dawson Garden

Next, Nancy and I visited another small garden in Long Beach to get some sneak peek photos for the Edible Garden tour (which, by the time you read this, will have taken place on August 9th.  Although I’ll save most of the photos for my edible tour posts.  Upon arrival, we were offered a free hydrangea which Nancy happily arranged to dig up this fall.

the hydrangea in question

a well grown delphinium

The edible portion of the garden is in containers, and I am sure, or at least I assume, that’s because, like me, the gardeners are more into using the majority of the space for a flower garden.  Because the paths are narrow, they’ll have that part of the garden blocked off during tour day.  Owners John and Judy let us go through it.

This driftwood is piled over a little fish pond to protect the fish from the local raccoons.

protected pond

John makes garden art from objects.

driftwood decor

screened fish tub

and another tub protected with driftwood

view from the deck

potted plants on the deck

overlooking the garden

another creation

ingredients

a pond next door

The home is on a cul-de-sac where several other homes also have gardens, and one gets the feeling it’s a friendly street to live on.

a tidy house at the inside end of the cul-de-sac

42nd Street Café

Nancy and I replenished our strength..and talked about garden tours…over lunch at the 42nd Street Café.

locally canned albacore tuna sandwich with house made potato chips

Russian vegetarian scramble with sour cream

homemade jellies

Gene Miles, retired Long Beach city administrator, was at the café and showed us some photos of how he is remodeling his garden, which was on the garden tour in 2013.  I got him to email them to me and will share them a little later.

On the way to our next pre-tour, Nancy and I went to the

Columbia Pacific Farmers Market 

It takes place every Friday afternoon at Veterans Field in Long Beach.

produce stall

flowers

Nancy admires some fresh berries.

Double J and the Boys on stage (except more girls than boys today)

our neighbours’ farm, Starvation Alley

Our Vet Field corner garden bed makes a nice backdrop.

the Humane Society raffle booth…with kitty litter buckets holding down the tent in the ubiquitous wind

plants

onions and flowers

Nancy’s bouquet

Pink Poppy Bakery

squash blossoms from Pink Poppy Farm

another good backdrop: our flag pavilion garden

Garden Tour Nancy

The Planter Box garden

Next, Nancy and I went on a sneak peek pretour of the expansive vegetable garden grown by Ray Millner, patriarch of The Planter Box.  He and his wife, Barbara, have pretty much retired and passed on the garden center to their son and daughter, Raymond and Teresa, and Ray devotes himself to growing enough food to feed his extended family.

Ray and his grapes, protected from dew. He says he will remodel the top to be domed.

I am saving the photos for the edible tour coverage.  But here is the hand of a gardener:

On the way home, in Long Beach, we saw the family of deer that eat from the planters on Seventh Street (which is just north of where they are).

at home in the town

in my own garden

This is a before photo of an upcoming project area.

I had thought I was going to spend most of my weekend painting lumber and was thrilled to find that Allan had already done it.

posts

And he was now mowing the lawn.  At least the part in back that is still growing.

While watering, I found a Todd plant that had suddenly sprouted! I up-potted it right away.

The tadpoles in the water box are refusing to turn into frogs.

passion flowers

with sweet peas

After dark, I heard the sound of rain.

rain, making a puddle! thrilling!

Gene’s Garden

Gene had emailed me the photos of his Long Beach garden and here they are.  You may remember his garden from the 2013 garden tour, or from this article by Debbie Teashon.

the driveway container garden

new: a two tiered deck on the west side, surrounded by garden beds…and do I see a new fence?

the view from the driveway…hey, that fence is new along the street!

I am so impressed with the new streetside fence and sweet peas.

sweet peas

Eryngium ‘Sapphire Blue’ might have come back from 2013.

what was a too-narrow straight edged bed along the house

Thanks, Gene, for the virtual garden tour.  You have done grand improvements.

 

 

 

 

 

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Cannon Beach Cottage & Garden Tour: Kroft garden

June Kroft’s garden

From the program: “The Kroft home and gardens have been featured in national publications. Kroft’s gardens were featured in Village of Flowers, a photo journal of Cannon Beach gardens. Her gardens are well known by landscape architects, gardeners, and flower enthusiasts around the Pacific Northwest.”

To see this garden again, one I had not seen since a memorable tour led years ago by Ann Lovejoy and Lucy Hardiman… I don’t think a day went by all summer when I did not look forward to it. I had hoped fervently that her cottage would also be part of the tour…because I am inquisitive that way… It wasn’t. Some of the cottages on the Tenth Anniversary Cottage Tour were cottage only with no garden, and June’s was garden only. (I could tell from the outside that the cottage interior is just adorable and in a perfect world I would somehow have become friends with June, not just a fan from afar, and had tea with her there!) I treasure her picture book “A Village of Flowers” and was thrilled to get a series of photos in her garden today.

June’s front garden: view from the street

a bit of caution tape on a branch sticking out

looking west from outside her garden….you can see the ocean

Fuchsias on the side of shed across the lawn

I think that last time I was here, the little building above was covered with a pink climbing rose.

front porch

Just to the west, another family cottage: Sea Shadows

Sea Shadows

a from the side peek into June’s front garden

west side of the cottage with Allan and the volunteer greeter

You can see how intriguing the cottage itself is!

west windows

gate to June’s back garden

June’s garden was every bit as magical as I remembered.

tour guests entering the garden

upon entering the garden (looking south)

tomatoes

June, in blue, talks with a guest; June’s daughter also helped host the tour.

I never did converse with June during this time in her garden. Allan listened to her telling guests how the garden was originally swamped with blackberries and how over the years she has created this tiny paradise. I tend to be shy on tours and not engage much with people, but when I tour a garden like this I feel that the garden IS the person and it communicates to me a great deal about the gardener.

dahlias

I never thought to prune an old Santolina like a gnarly little tree!

a rosemary also pruned in an artfully beachy way

little path into the garden by the rosemary

and by the santolina

On the south side of the house is the most enchanting deck I have ever seen, with an area enclosed by wings of the cottage. On the south side of the deck sits a garden shed..

looking onto the back deck

with tour guests for scale, showing the garden shed to the right

It is genius to include the garden shed as part of the deck, giving shelter from south wind and a wonderful sense of enclosure.

pots on the stairs to the deck

a gorgeous container

on the garden shed wall

closer

The faded print seems to read “little window to open to do what I can”.

wall container by the old window

Could this garden be where I got the idea to hang old windows on a wall?

side view of the garden shed

looking east at the west wall of the garden shed

The old window with the caption on it is to the right, and I now realize I did not find out (despite all my inquisitiveness) what was behind that wall!

door into the garden shed

peeking inside

next to the door

view of deck from garden shed door

Doors to left and to right lead into wings of the fascinating cottage.

the sheltered nook between cottage wings

I just cannot get enough of looking at this beautiful nook out of the west wind.

I failed to get a photo of what it would be like to sit in those chairs and look back at the garden shed… Can I go back?

shingle patterns

cottage door

containers everywhere

looking west from the deck

against a south wall of the cottage

On the east side of the deck, just past some rustic boxes of flowers…

… a couple of steps lead down to a narrow area with lawn and clothesline.

looking back from the east side of the deck

I think there was a gate that could close to provide even more shelter.

Yes, there it is…

side yard with clothesline

bird bath and hydrangea

old beach pine in back garden (SW corner, I think)

old mossy bricks

The brick edges are raised in areas quite near the cottages and become softer in the shady areas toward the back of the tiny garden.

a blue bench

and June in blue

I appreciate that Allan got photos of June herself; I was awestruck to be there again and kept circling around and around the garden itself.

Allan’s photo of a rose…

and of blue flower sculptures

south side of garden shed

Ah. now I understand how the shed works; it is also accessible from the back!

sweet peas on the garden shed

I heard June say she plants her sweet peas later at the beach than she would in Portland because we do not get too much summer heat for them here.

June with garden guests.

spilling over

Sea Shadows cottage shows to the west in this photo.

a trellis against the west garden shed wall

It was a special experience to walk round and round in this garden and if we had not had twelve other places to see on the tour, we would have stayed even longer.

June Kroft, cottager, gardener, quilter

As we left, I took a telephoto view to the west, because that is how I see things…looking to the garden views that lay between June’s garden and the beach.

Indeed, a village of flowers…

Around the corner, before we left the Tolovana neighbourhood for the rest of the tour, we saw four cute little cottages called Carefree, Comfy, Cozy and…? Allan tells me there was a fourth one but I missed it till the moment there was a car behind us and we had t drive on.

Care-free and Comfy

and Cozy!

I am left with the usual pondering of how I can make the area around a manufactured home look as nook-like and charming as June’s garden, the archetypical and ideal cottage garden.

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