Town and Country Gardens tour: an old garden made new

Saturday, 22 July 2023

Elma, Washington

WSU Master Gardeners of Grays Harbor and Pacific Counties present:

garden one: Making an Old Garden New

The first garden was also the site of the Master Gardeners’ plant sale.

A good legal sign, which I keep meaning to copy for any day that I might open my garden to guests:

The street-facing garden beds were all shrubs that had proven to be deer resistant, we learned, with the exception of Euonymous alatus (burning bush), which the deer find delectable. The trees and shrubs were well spaced and pleasing to walk among on the paths by the house.

Down the side garden, to and from the plant sale…

…and around to the front of the garden.

The lawn in the front and side garden had some experiments in progress.

We entered the enclosed back garden of many seating areas. I heard several tour guests saying how much they liked it.

Garden owner and creator Ann’s chosen bark mulch was aged enough to not have that new bark smell that one often runs across on garden tours and was mostly a dark brown colour of which I heartily approve.

A stumpery corner would be good for critters.

This fenced garden, mostly off to one side of the house, offered privacy without being overlooked.

I regret that we somehow missed the outdoor room described in the progam as containing compost bins and greenhouse! A bad oversight for a compost lover like me.

I returned to peruse the rest of the front garden.

The katsura tree inspired many identification questions.

The other side of the garden was bordered by an alley rather than sidewalk and street.

How very much I love and miss alleys. I used to so enjoy taking alley exploration walks in Seattle, and had an alley at the back of my garden there.

I returned along the sidewalk. As you can see, the lot is wide, giving much room for a beautiful front garden.

And then we were off to the second of six gardens.

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Gardens, Sea and Art Tour: Flower Power

Saturday, 20 July 2019

Gardens, Sea and Art tour

presented by the WSU Master Gardeners of Grays Harbor and Pacific Counties

Ocean Shores

garden five: Flower Power

Through an archway from the garden next door, we were greeted by a gardening neighbour sitting on her porch.  What an ideal situation to have a friend and gardener sharing a side gate between gardens.

Allan’s photo

Kilyn’s photo as the canal side beds merge between gardens

shady border between the two houses

on the porch (Allan’s photo)

rugosa roses and Phormium in bloom

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

The dock has a bench for viewing wildlife and boaters.

view of the canal and little simple white house that is my dream house at the moment.

Neither Allan nor I went around the corner at the end of the porch, above, which I believe is how we missed finding the little greenhouse.  I asked Kilyn if she had found it, and she said she was too busy chatting with the owner on the porch and eating tasty cookies that were on offer.

I love the big wraparound covered porch on two sides of the house.

The bay window room must be delightful.

A deer fence would be an essential part of an Ocean Shores garden (unless you want a deer park garden).  We saw deer wandering everywhere.

deer fence (Allan’s photo)

interlude

We drove from the canal gardens to gardens on the ocean side and took a comfort break at facilities by one of the beaches.

Allan’s photo; this boy immediately flopped into the sand in delight.

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

a house by the sea (Allan’s photo)

When we arrived at the next garden, Evan of Castle Rock and Ann of Portland had caught up to us. Evan’s shirt had been a big hit all day.

Tomorrow, I am returning to once a day posting because there is much to show you in the next two gardens.

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Gardens, Sea and Art Tour: A Garden for All Seasons

Saturday, 20 July 2019

Gardens, Sea and Art tour

presented by the WSU Master Gardeners of Grays Harbor and Pacific Counties

Ocean Shores

Gardens four and five were next door to each other on one of the canals, joined by a friendly archway.  Having a companionable gardening neighbour is my ultimate dream.  I am in my mid 60s and feel that every passing year lessens the chances for this one dream to come true.  (I like my neighbours on both sides, but none of them are passionate gardeners.)

garden four: A Garden for All Seasons

Allan’s photo

The front garden:

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

I bet the bay window room has a beautiful green light inside, just as I like it.

Deer fence with bamboo extensions (Allan’s photo)

Turning the corner to the side garden:

Under the pergola at canal side is a pond and waterfall.

The sunroom in the back garden, overlooking the sloping garden and the canal, is what dreams are made of. An upper path goes by the sunroom, and the lower path goes by the pergola and canal.

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Let’s go to the pergola and the path along the canal.

canal-side fencing to keep deer out

under the pergola

Allan’s photo

I think living on the canal would be glorious, especially for Allan and his kayak.

I appreciate that the edge of the water in this garden has long grass and foliage for happy insect life. Someone told Allan that because the canals are stocked with carp to keep the water clean by eating aquatic plants, there are few frogs (carp eat pollywogs, he was told).  I am trying to join an Ocean Shores gardening group online to find out if that is true. For more about the carp, read here. For more about plant life in the canals, read here.

The canal path ends at the gunnera.

Looking up at the sunroom:

Sedum-planted steps connect the upper and lower garden paths.

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Kilyn enjoying the garden

I was surprised to see Nicotiana langsdorfii (center, below) in the hillside bed.  The owners must have to go far afield for cool plants; we could not find a garden center in Ocean Shores. The one that we had found online was no longer there.

Nicotiana langsdorfii, one of my favourites

Another chartreuse nicotiana

Allan’s photo

We’ll take the upper path around the sunroom toward the next garden.

Perhaps I could be a neighbour across the canal in the white house.  I would surround it with flowers.  We could visit Kim’s garden by boat.

Next: Through an archway into the neighbour’s garden.

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Gardens, Sea and Art Tour: community garden

Saturday, 20 July 2019

Ocean Shores

From Markham to Ocean Shores was an hour’s drive.  Upon arrival, we were surrounded by water on three sides.

This tourism map hints at the complexity of roads and canals in the small city of Ocean Shores.

Gardens, Sea and Art tour

presented by the WSU Master Gardeners of Grays Harbor and Pacific Counties

We began at Garden by the Sea.

Peter and Kilyn awaited us there so that we could do the tour together.

I found it an excellent idea to have the plant sale at the first tour stop instead of somewhere in the middle.

Allan’s photo

Kilyn told us that in Richmond, British Columbia, community gardens are not allowed to have fences or even signs warning against plant theft! Nor can they have sheds.  I thought about how in the UK, each allotment plot gets a little shed of its own.

plant sale

Speaking of sheds…

We toured the garden beds of both flowers and food.

Wouldn’t it be nice to live in a place with a view of a community garden?

At the center of the garden stood a beautiful carved pillar. I could not make out what it said, lacking the patience to go round and round.

And there was compost….

…with a list of compostables.

Now the four of us were off to the first of eight private gardens.  To my delight, these were not designed gardens of the rich but gardens from the heart.  One of the missions of this tour each year is to show gardens that are created by the owners, often without big money.  Please remember that while reading and commenting, and especially remember that the garden owners might be reading the posts. There are blogs that criticize and review gardens.  This is not one of them.  I appreciate anyone who dares to open their garden for a tour.

 

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Colorful Coastal Gardens tour: Charles and Hans’ garden

Saturday, 14 July 2018

Colorful Coastal Gardens tour

 Grayland, Washington

presented by the Master Gardeners of Grays Harbor and Pacific County

Our ticket to the tour is a beautiful booklet with photos and a write up about each garden.

Each gardener chose a quotation to go with the garden description.

I must give credit to The Outlaw Gardener for the idea of using snippets of the garden descriptions throughout these posts.

As you can see, we were close to salt water all day.

Charles and Hans’ garden, Grayland

Gardeners’ quotation: “Gardening requires a lot of water, mostly in the form of perspiration.” -Lou Erickson

From the description, I expected a low maintenance and perhaps rather sparse garden.  We were delighted to find instead a lush but wisely planted garden of great beauty.

Allan’s photo

Each garden has a poster with a list of which sustainable garden practices were employed.

Hans and Charles’ garden

Our greeter and ticket stamper had on a most delightful garden hat.

A docent, neither Charles nor Han (Allan’s photo)

up the driveway (Allan’s photo)

looking back to the entry

“When one of this gardener team, Charles, decided to remove a patch of lawn to install a dry river bed, he was responding to the summer drought situation this coastal region experiences. Except for small plantings, this part of the garden is watered only by rainfall.”

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

on up the driveway past the two story garage

along the side of the garage

handsome brunnera and enviably perfect hostas

farther up the shady border

Allan’s photo

across the front lawn to the sunny side

Allan’s photo

on the front porch

green and lovely table setting

At the back of the garage, on the shady side again:

Allan’s photo

looking back

from whence we came

The path around the side of the house beckons.

looking back along the side pathway

entering the back garden

Allan’s photo

“The garden behind the home invites guests into a private peaceful space of manicured lawn edged in stone block.  This formal setting contrasts with the informal dry river bed in front of the home.”

straight ahead

to my right

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

“The Lazy Gardener”

looking back

gorgeous tawny achillea

behind: the garden shed

Allan’s photo

Charles identifies a plant. (Allan’s photo)

Linaria (toadflax) was perhaps the plant in question. (Allan’s photo)

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Allan and I almost always walk through the garden by different routes and at a different pace, crossing paths occasionally, so it always interests me when we take almost the same photo.

Allan, in blue shirt, is in the above photo.

Allan’s photo

looking back

further back garden exploration

Here is the entry, through a hedge, to the field where the vegetable garden resides.

entry to the vegetable garden area (Allan’s photo)

“The vegetable garden continues to the rear of the formal garden and slips over the hillside to the raised beds designed for efficiency of labor.”

Allan’s photo

“Sand was the challenge to overcome. Compost and mulching was the answer.”

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

The next door neighbour also had a vegetable garden.

Next door (Allan’s photo)

What a great start to the tour!

 

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Astoria Garden Tour ’17: from forest to flowers

Saturday, 12 August 2017

Astoria Garden Tour:

a benefit for the Lower Columbia Preservation Society

garden four: a garden recreated after the 2007 storm

entering from the lower driveway

Allan’s photo.  Garden owner John is above.

Liatrus (Allan’s photo)

common name Kansas Gayfeather (Allan’s photo)

Stone steps lead up through the garden.

a patio surrounded by garden

By now, we were touring at the same time as our friend Pam Fleming, the Seaside, Oregon city gardener (who had brought us some plants from Xera Plants in Portland, to my delight!).  We were stumped at the identity of the shrub in the photo below. We and the owner had some discussion with the garden’s owner and decided it is a Rhus (sumac).

John, Pam and I

It will have bright berries later.

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

looking back at the stone path

a bright salvia at the base of steps going to a higher level

looking down at the brick patio

the sunroom

the patio and sunroom

I love that the garden owner had put out a selection of her favourite gardening books.

I wish I had carefully photographed this entire article:

Oh, but look! I found it online, and you can read it here.

(I usually remove garden owners’ surnames from tour posts; it’s ok if the names are in a newspaper article.)

at the edge of the patio

Jan said her daisies looked perfect until our recent 95 degree day.

golden foliage by the house

the delectable sunroom

Columbia River view from the front yard

I spy Pam Fleming talking with garden owner John far below.

I saw some other guests, too, and pointed them out to Allan who was much closer to them.

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

The deer decided to go to the Astoria Column road. (Allan’s photo)

By now, I had made my way down to the lower level.

a woodsier garden below

The Astoria regatta parade had finished, resulting in a steady stream of traffic up the hill.  I figured out an alternate route to get back to the flatland for the last two gardens.

looking back at the tour house after successfully crossing the road

Next: a delightful small semi-public garden

 

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