21 April: bayside garden picnic

Thursday, 21 April 2016

Tulip ‘Leo’ at home.  A Christmas gift from Todd that we have been admiring daily.

Garden Tour Nancy and I had our first “swanning about” day of the year as she drove us by five of the excellent gardens she has picked out for this year’s Music in the Gardens Tour.  (She could use a couple more large gardens for the tour, so if you know of any, let me know.  The garden tour rule is that a garden cannot be repeated till four years have passed since last time it was on the tour.)

We picked up delicious chicken salad sandwiches at Roots Juice, Salad, and Java Bar in Ilwaco.

Roots, a drive through for espresso, juice drinks and lunches

inside Roots

I did not take any preview photos of the gardens as we were viewing them just from the road.  Soonish, we will have a proper walk through for the purpose of description writing.

the bayside garden

We took a lovely break for a picnic at one of my two favourite private gardens on the Peninsula: Steve and John had invited us to include their bayside garden, now at its rhododendron peak, in our day of swanning about.  (It was on the garden tour just two years ago and also on last year’s Rhodie tour).

along the driveway, rhododendrons going back to when this was Clarke Nursery

redtwig dogwoods coppiced along the right side of the drive (for brighter red stems)

an old rhododendron to the right of the long drive

Advance garden touring is hungry work, so our picnic came first.

a perfect seat for a picnic

Nancy had brought me a bag of birthday gifts, delightfully stretching my birthday celebration out for an extra month.

Clever wrapping for a St Patrick’s Day birthday book: Chicken Soup for the Gardener’s Soul

and a bunny to go in a flower pot, and a pot holder much too pretty to hold pots with.  It will go on the wall.

And a customized card by our good friend Artist Don Nisbett with a perfect quotation inside:

Roots picnic lunch: chicken salad sandwich on flatbread

the view from our picnic spot

picnic view

Satisfied with our yummy sandwiches, Nancy and I took a walk all around the garden.  Formerly part of a rhododendron nursery, it is a skillfully planted combination of young plants intermixed with mature shrubs and trees.

Nancy inhaling the fragrance of Rhododendron loderi ‘Venus’

Rhododendron loderi ‘Venus’

The garden abounds in young rhododendrons.

hostas and perfectly trimmed sword ferns

(Last week when driving north on the road past this garden, I had noticed that even the ferns along the highway are perfectly trimmed.)

Ulmus x hollandica ‘Wredei’ by the pumphouse

The succulents on the pump house roof have sailed through the mild winter:

the Willapa Bay side of the garden; in winter, the highest tide comes up to (and maybe over) the plantings.

clipped naturescape of evergreen huckleberries and sword ferns

north side path

the north upper garden

old rhododendrons

woodland glade with rhodos and evergreen huckleberries

along the south side of the driveway

This tidal stream marks the south edge of the acreage.

The old irrigation pond

Due to my knee playing up today, we did not walk across the lawn to explore the pondside bed.

east of the pond

As always, this garden refreshes and inspires me (and makes me go to the internet to try to find a source for buying a reasonably large Rhododendron loderi ‘Venus’).

Meanwhile….Allan’s day at work

Allan took the opportunity to work on his own particular garden job at

The Ilwaco Community Building

Rhododendrons and Tulip ‘Flaming Spring Green’

Tulip ‘Flaming Spring Green’

Tulip batalinii ‘Bright Gem’

Rhododendron by the bus stop

the curse of horsetail before weeding

in the tiered garden bed

before pulling the accursed bindweed in the tiered bed

Long Beach

Allan went on to continue the weeding of the center berm by the Long Beach parking lot.

before

It is a hard packed and miserable challenge.

some progress made

after

after

There are still several feet to go.

Ilwaco

Allan and I briefly intersected before I had an evening of quiet reading whilst he went to dinner at the Salt Pub with his former spouse, Arlene, who was having a Long Beach interlude on her way to a beach vacation on the Oregon coast.

Arlene, who had recently acquired a darling mini Cooper.

reading

I have been reading the first of the Cazalet Chronicles by Elizabeth Jane Howard.  The library only has the first so I’ll have to acquire the rest of the series through interlibrary loan.  I am completely smitten with The Light Years.  EJH had been a favourite author of mine years ago.

How well she captures the joy of a child making a miniature landscape:

and the English landscape itself:

Tomorrow:  If we can get enough work done, we can have another three day weekend.

Ginger’s Garden Diaries

from my mother’s garden diaries of two decades ago

1995 (age 71):

April 21:  Wasted whole day waiting to go to the store.  Bought 12 pansy plants from Gordon’s [Nursery].

1997 (age 73):

April 21:  about 2:30-6:00   It was warm enough to work outside.  I planted the 2 astrantia replacements from VB in the patio bed next to RR ties.  Planted the 10 raspberry plants that have been potted since Feb.  Then cleaned weeds out of RB row and the path between RB and SB rows [raspberries and strawberries].  When I quit and came in it was 6 and Tabby was starved.

1998 (age 74):

April 21:  Dentist appt 1:00 for a filling.  The dentist office asked me to change appt to Thurs due to emergency in other office so this day is shot.  I called in $150 Bluestone order—mostly mums.  I cut the tulip flowers in tam area.  There are lots of weeds again.

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2 September in the Bayside Garden

Tuesday, 2 September 2014 (part one)

Steve and John’s most amazing bayside garden deserves its own separate post, so I’m dividing today into two parts.

After dining with them last Thursday night at the Cove, we were invited for a garden tour and lunch at Steve and John’s bayside home, where all is soothing and uncluttered.

We took some tomatoes and a bouquet of flowers and foliage from our garden; the bouquet went into the most perfect vase of wood (with a water holding insert).

in their kitchen

Plant lovers that our hosts are, we spent quite some time discussing the various plants (including one I had to look up later, Clematis heracleifolia ‘New Love’ to the right, and Rubus lineatus, a few types of boxleaf honeysuckle, Hypericum (maybe ‘Albury Purple’), sanguisorbas, etc etc. Just the sort of conversation I love to have, although of course my mind went blank on some plant names till later.

the bay view (east) from the house

and the north view to the flower and kitchen garden with the newly planted green roof (which we will examine closely later).

The window reflection above shows the bay and a good architectural feature: the opening into the lower level of the house has cross pieces like a window frame; Steve and/or John’s idea to enhance local architect Eric Fagerland’s design.

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

I wish I had taken a photo of the luncheon table, a few steps down from the kitchen. Sometimes it seems intrusive to take photos showing the inside of friends’ houses, so I tend to avoid it even at moments when it would be appropriate.

Allan did take this photo in the kitchen.

I hope I am counting and not pointing. (On an earlier visit, I did point at the drawer and cupboard handles, whose shape is the shape of a wave, so perfect for a home by the water.) The book is Eden on Their Minds, which I took to show them.

I did (of course) photograph Chef Steve’s delicious food.

the salad, with greens picked from the kitchen garden

mushrooms in sauce on polenta cakes

so delicious

After lingering over coffee, we went out to tour the garden. To Allan’s and my surprise, a very light mist had begun to descend. Before we went to see the new green roof on the pumphouse, John showed us the diagram he had made on his computer.

I wish I could remember how many inches each layer represents. It is a very exact diagram.

The view from John’s computer desk would prevent me from getting much done; I would just gaze.

Then outside and to the north of the house…

…to the patch of dahlias by the kitchen garden.

the renowned dahlia ‘Bishop of Llandalf’

dahlia with a glimpse of Willapa Bay

an extra that the catalog added to the order

a dahlia guest

The dahlias came from Old House Dahlias (Mark Harvey) in Portland (purchased at the Portland Home and Garden Show).

We turned to a close examination of the newly planted green roof of the pumphouse with its collection of succulents generously sent by Garden Tour Nancy’s friend Mary from Pasadena. Mary had been here for Music in the Gardens and clearly appreciated Steve and John’s garden.

green roof

John gives a sense of scale.

succulent forest at eye level

Pink salvia by the pumphouse with Cuban oregano

Now began our walk through all the borders.

a hydrangea flower on one long sideways stem

Hydrangea fading into subtle autumn hues.

It had been bright blue like this…

The subtler colours have their own beauty.

Chamaecyparis obtusa ‘Lemon Twist’ (Lemon Twist Hinoki Cypress)

Salvia guarantica

This plant was from Seaside gardener Pam Fleming.

Rudbeckia fulgida var. sullivantii ‘Little Goldstar’ backed with Salvia guaranitica

red fountain grass backed with Salvia ‘Black and Blue’ (backed with Eupatorium (Joe Pye Weed)

red fountain grass, a dahlia, and a dwarf conifer that looks like a fern

Senecio greyii with leaves edged in silver

dahlia

Asclepias by the pond

Caryopteris ‘Blue Balloon’

Genista: I like the airy appearance without the flowers.

a bright pink hebe

pond garden; the pink phlox is ‘Sherbet’

Coronilla valentina variegata (with the pale foliage, had bright yellow flowers, common name scorpion vetch!)

the pond garden from the other side (with rain making splashes in the water)

The spruce (left) will get outsized and will be removed soon.

On the other side of the entry drive, we took a close look at Hydrangea ‘Plum Passion’.

Hydrangea ‘Plum Passion’

delicately fluffy lacecap flowers

Pittosporum, love the black stems

The bench may get an arbour soon.

As the rain became a bit harder, we strolled on up the driveway.

On the left of the driveway is a new bed, created with painstaking effort to get the native meianthemum (false lily of the valley) out, at least for awhile. The exposed root reminds me of the stone crevice garden at the John Kuzma garden in Portland.

new bed with new species rhododendrons

looking east toward the house

young species rhodo with old snag

We all wondered at this red rhododendron blooming now.

seems odd!

an impressively large fungus at the base of some salal

with Steve’s hand for comparison

an offshoot of the fungus

on up the drive to the house

Hebe ‘Quicksilver’ to the north of the driveway

Steve and John’s ladies in waiting section is admirably small. They had just been to Whitney Gardens and Nursery and returned with a few treasures (limited by plant hauling in a Prius).

Pinus densiflora ‘Golden Ghost’, stunning

Just gaze upon that foliage.

and look some more

Rhododendron ‘Cherries and Merlot’

along the front of the house

the drainage swale between the wings of the house; water from the roofs drips into here with a pleasant sound.

With the rain coming down in earnest now, we prepared to leave, although we were not sure if we were going to be able to work or not.

Rain or not, we had to examine the upper garden more thoroughly.

the form of the almost human, huggable tree

Steve says “The huggable tree is:

Xanthocyparis Nootkatensis ‘Green Arrow’ (Green Arrow Weeping Cedar)

The foreground shrub in the same shot (to the left) is:

Ulmus x Hollandica ‘Jacqueline Hillier’ (Dwarf Elm ‘Jacqueline Hillier’)”

the clearing of the white hydrangea

a kiwi among rhodos seeks hosts on which to climb

a bank of heather dating back to the old garden (pre Steve and John)

I was still taking photos after we got in our van to drive away.

looking north from the parking area

and northeast back to the house

This spectacular garden will be on a Water Music Festival rhododendron garden tour next spring; I will let you know as soon as the date is set.

For our previous visits to the garden, see:

our first visit, Sept. 26 last year

a springtime visit, April 23

a June visit, June 21

the garden on tour day, July 20

I want to live a long life to see young parts of this garden mature over the years.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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13 July: John Kuzma Garden

Sunday, 13 July 2014

Garden Bloggers Fling, Portland

The itinerary for our bus was different than on the schedule.

crossing one of Portland’s many bridges.

Along many areas beside the city freeways, drifts of roses are planted.  (photo taken from the bus, of course)

John Kuzma Garden

As soon as I saw this garden, I again wanted to tear up all of my grass (as is usual when I see a gravel garden).  One of the main thing that stops me is that we cannot get decomposed granite or even washed gravel.  The only gravel around here is full of “fines” and is not the proper sort for building a garden like this (as far as I know).

the bus arrives and we are greeted by our host, John Kuzma

Allan’s photo

Gravel drifts all the way to the street.

Allan’s photo

As we arrived, it began to rain.

taking shelter by the front door

Allan’s photo

front porch, Allan’s photo

the front garden

Allan’s photo, a rhodo for Steve and John

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Now…walking around the side of the house:

side garden

And into the truly enormous back garden:

entering the back courtyard

an elegant water feature

against the house

in the courtyard

And now into the upper level of the back garden:

just a few steps up; I’d hardly had to do any stairs all day.

The garden was big enough to let us spread out.  Also so nice and level for my walking comfort.

 

 

crevice garden

 

 

Allan’s photo; I was smitten with his crevice garden idea.

The rain had begun to bucket down.

I hustled to a shed at the back corner of the garden.

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

with a living roof

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

shelter from the storm

I had to get back out for more photos.

Soon it seemed I was the only one who had stayed out in the garden.

gunnera toward the back of the garden

a small kitchen garden

looking back to the house

When I heard thunder and saw dramatic forked lightning strike on the other side of the house, I decided I had better get inside!

a quick route via an unexplored area

rose, maybe Mutabilis?

 

Eucalyptus at the edge of the garden

I found the bloggers clustered on the back porch, donning garbage bags as rain gear.  One of the organizers had thought to bring them after seeing the forecast of thunderstorms.

 

the donning of rain gear, Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

our gracious host, Mr Kuzma, who let us drip into his house for lunch if we so desired.

This was our lunch spot; the other bus would be dining at the Floramagoria garden at the same time.

view from the back porch

stairs to the upper level

Along with several other people, I went into the house to eat.

another delicious sandwich from Elephants Deli.

view from the kitchen window; you can see one side of the upper back garden does not have stairs to enter.

kitchen view

kitchen view

front door view

view from the front porch

In the house, garden designer Sean Hogan’s plant encyclopedia (Allan’s photo)

During lunch, the contigent of California bloggers were talking about Instagram and one of them gave me a quick tutorial.  I had it on my phone but had only used it once and had not realized it had become such a big thing.

Then the bloggers fanned out into the garden to take photos, rain or no rain.  (It had almost stopped.)

after lunch

With the rain stopped, I could finally take photos looking up.

And with my phone, I took and posted my first Instagram.

Allan joined the other bloggers for a post-rain tour of the garden; photos below are all his:

 

Xera plant tag

Aw….I had this back in 2012.

Fatsia japonica ‘Spider’s Web’, I believe, and a little rhodo

This is the sort of garden where I have no clue what most of the plants are.

If I were twenty years younger…I might dig up every scrap of sod at home and find a way to get the right sort of gravel.  Beth Chatto’s Gravel Garden is one of my favourite books. I had no lawn at my old garden and liked it, but even better I like the way the paths, courtyards, and plantings are as one in a garden like this.

I think that Robert Nold of The Miserable Gardener would love this one.

Next: Floramagoria, a garden which I have heard is rarely open for tours.

 

 

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13 July: Rhone Street Gardens

Sunday, 13 July 2014

Garden Bloggers Fling, Portland

Sunday’s well-worn itinerary

On the way from Ernst/Fuller Gardens to the Rhone Street Garden, our tour bus was halted by a freight train. We were all astonished that in the middle of the city, a train that long was allowed to block so much traffic. Since then, I’ve done some reading on freight trains in Portland and found this was probably not unusual.

Again, the two Fling tour buses were going in a different order to the small gardens so that only 40 of us at once would descend on each one.

trainwatching

It is no exaggeration to say that the train had us sitting there for at least fifteen minutes, cutting into our Rhone Street Gardens time.

Rhone Street Gardens at last

Joy!! I was so very excited to visit Rhone Street Gardens, as that and Danger Garden are blogs that I adore. To see both of these gardens in person will deeply enhance my blog reading experience. I also was very much enjoying the smaller gardens, as they were much more accessible to me in my sore legs state of being, and I did not have to go far afield and away from all the other humans to find a place to sit. In the small gardens, one can go round several times and catch every detail.

I wish I had remembered to ask owner Scott (who also was one of the Fling organizers) what the story was about flooding, as I could not picture how a garden like this floods. Perhaps the story was written in his blog before I discovered it, so I’ll poke back and have a look. (I did, and learned that the flooding was along the parking strips. Allan says he was told the storm sewers backed up as high as the bottom step of the stairs by the sidewalk.)

Bloggers arrive at Rhone Street Gardens; Scott is to the very left

Allan’s photo, approaching the garden

I believe that is Lisa, a blogger who most impressively came all the way from Spain.

(Lisa’s blog: http://descubriendohojas.blogspot.com/)

sit spot by the front steps

steps to the front porch

Leslie from California explores the sidewalk gardens.

(Leslie’s blog: http://www.starappleediblegardens.com/)

along the other length of sidewalk along the front of the house

Below: wood edges on sidewalk, perhaps added recently to counteract flooding?

really paved in 1911???

Allan’s photo: “kit for raised garden lumber detail”

grasses swooping next to the sidewalk

to my right: sloped garden by the house

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Parking Strip: grasses and perennials mixed

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

What is this grass? I must acquire it!

Allan’s photo: “Schizachirum looks better than ‘blue oat grass’ no dead center”

Maybe Scott wrote this down for Allan.

I see that I need to start collecting ornamental grasses again. I used to, then got complacent and slacked off. These are wonderful.

salvia, I believe

galvanized pots mark one end of the L shaped parking strips

looking to the right

I meant to have some of the delicious orange juice on my second walk-through but got so absorbed in the garden that I forgot! As you can see, and as I forgot to mention earlier, the day was not blazing hot and the light on the gardens was not all harsh sun and shadow as it had been on Friday and Saturday.

As I turn up the path, the porch is to my right. (I have a terrible time with left and right, and Allan often reads the blog after it is published and gives me corrections. 😉

 

on the porch, a blogger gets a photo looking out

Allan’s photo from the porch

a somewhat secret sit spot behind the grasses

Scott wrote here about the creation of this sit spot.

I remember Lucy Hardiman speaking about how she likes the secret sit spot behind shrubs in her garden so that she can eavesdrop on what people say about it.

This one caught my eye, of course.

rain chain by the porch

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

standing by the sit spot

birds must love this garden

Allan’s photo

Now I turn my attention to the shed of wood and metal (a look that I like very much.)

with a blogger enraptured with plants

the best green roof, with grasses and flowers

Allan’s photo

(I do hope this inspires Allan to build a little shed like this between us and Nora’s security light… I have no such skills. I used to think that I should wait and see if I get a gardening neighbour next door, but have realized from the Ernst/Fuller garden that a privacy wall is good, even with a friend next door.)

 

Allan’s photo

 

passageway between house and shed

looking back at the shed

with garden detail

I walked around three times and took a photo each time.

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

 

OOOh, Allan took a photo of the building details!

beside the path

just past the shed

little courtyard behind the shed

Earlier this year, Scott wrote about the need to create a privacy screen for this particular sit spot. (In rereading that post, I finally realized that the metal trough planters that I like have a name: stock tanks.)

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

sign on fence by that little sit spot

 

lily at corner of house

Allan’s photo

bloggers turn the corner from the sit spot to the back of the house

I could hear water among this greenery in the back corner.

a little secret bubbler

Allan’s photo: looking out to the driveway

looking back from the arbour that leads to the driveway

looking back from the driveway to the side of the house

Allan’s photo

Scott said the neighbours’ chickens like to visit.

At the foot of the driveway, Scott’s cat (or the neighbour’s orange cat?) was looking suspiciously at the big tour bus parked across the street.

what the heck is that?

I’ll lie down but I’m still keeping an eye on it.

Allan’s photo of me taking the picture

and trying to get some attention from the cat.

I think the standoffishness indicates that this was the neighbours’ orange cat…or else he was really obsessed with that bus.

from the foot of the driveway, looking down the parking strip toward the corner from where I started

Allan’s photo: “soft sidewalk edge”

Allan’s photo

Echinacea pallida (must have!!) and a verbascum

parking strip

fireweed against the house

I just so much appreciate touring a garden in a house that was made for the working or middle class!

I can imagine living here.

Having come full circle, here are the stairs to the front porch.

parking strip plants

I back up for some more street views.

the kitty appears

 

I’m mystified as to where Allan took this photo; maybe from the front porch??

I found out that Scott’s husband likes Star Trek!

As our time at Rhone Street Gardens drew to a close and we all began to gather near the front steps, Boots decided it was time to pose.

(I hope I have his name right.)

Allan’s photo: Kylee from Ohio and Boots

Kylee’s blog: http://ourlittleacre.blogspot.com/

Allan’s photo: cat admiration society

Allan’s photo: more cat photos

Allan’s photo of a photo of garden owners (all three of them)

happy family (Allan’s photo)

and then…some territory defending! (Allan’s photo)

At the end…We had difficulty tearing ourselves away. The garden completely lived up to my expectations and I was sorry to leave.

Next: the John Kuza garden in collaboration with Sean Hogan.

P.S.:

Allan noticed this cute license plate and wondered which blogger it belongs to!

Here’s Pam Penick’s ode to Rhone Street Gardens.

Here’s GardenBook on Rhone Street Gardens.

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12 July: Chickadee Gardens

Saturday, 12 July 2014

Garden Bloggers Fling, Portland

Saturday Itinerary with times

Chickadee Gardens

Chickadees were my grandmother‘s favourite birds, and I remember her calling to them, “Chickadee-dee-dee-dee-dee!” The combination of love of birds, love of cats, and the lovely architectural style of the stucco house made this garden a special treat.

Mary Ann Newcomer and a friend of hers had kindly offered me a car ride from JJ De Sousa’s garden to avoid me climbing the tour bus steps, so we got to Chickadee early and were able to take lots of photos with no one else in the garden.

rudbeckias by the sidewalk

Allan’s photo (later)

Allan’s photo after he arrives later on the tour bus.

As we arrived, the owner said to us “I de-spidered everything!” He meant that he had gently removed cobwebs from the garden paths, certainly not that he had hurt any spiders.

by the front sidewalk

You can order yourself a Pesticide Free Zone sign for your garden here, with bee or ladybug.

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

by the front porch

Allan’s photo

Casa de los tres gatos

architecture admiration

I love this style of house.

a path along the woodsy front garden by the house

the front porch

a window detail

It is interesting to me that they have such a large tree in a pot.

I am still trying to figure out where to plant my precious Davidia ‘Lady Sunshine’; I wonder if a very large pot would do?

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

walking up the driveway and looking back to the street

at the end of the driveway, by the garage, refreshments and literature about bird-friendly gardens.

a splash of colour as we peek into the back garden

Wow, just the sort of colours I adore!

colour echoes

Allan’s photo after the bus arrived.

love!

Allan’s photo

looking from the table to the house

back porch

 

Allan’s photo

cat silhouettes on the fence

There was some loose netting at the top of the fence that kept the family cats from getting out. The owner said his cats are not interested in bothering the birds; very good kitties indeed.

Allan got a photo of it!

flowers against the fence, Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

in the back garden

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

by the back porch (Allan’s photo)

back wall of house

The owner told us that a friend lives over the garage. What a delightful arrangement for all!

a green roof next to the garage apartment

Allan’s photo

under the green roof

All the details greatly appealed to me.

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

How I would love to have an apartment to offer to a dear friend.

Allan’s photo

Echinops (blue globe thistle), Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Having gotten there early, I found it mindlessly refreshing to just sit in a chair along the driveway, enjoy some yummy chips and dips and gaze up at the architecture of the house and garage.

looking up at the back corner of the house from the driveway

other Bloggers Fling posts about this garden:

Chickadee Gardens: Alternative Eden

Red Dirt Ramblings

 

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