2 February: more new plants

Thursday, 2 February 2023

at home

I continued planting, mostly perennials today instead of shrubs, from Secret Garden Growers. I hope the weather doesn’t change back to freezing nights. It very well might not. If it does, I might be out covering these with pots.

The gold saxifrage went into the new deep path end bed, bottom centre.

A golden brunnera went by the rhododendron path. It and some others will need an application of Sluggo.

I put a new primula by the new bridge.

And another new primula by the deep swale.

I wonder if I will regret this plant:

I put it here, where it won’t interfere with anything delicate.

A new to me grass went into the bed that borders the north side of the Deep Path.

That’s just around the corner from this view…

I finished out the daylight with some very focused weeding, including the center bed.

Before

After

Allan made me a new garbage can lid planter.

In the evening, I read the first of Derek Tangle’s Minak Chronicles, memoirs about leaving a sparkling high society city life for a flower farm, off the grid, in Cornwall. I have three paperbacks that I bought in a used book store in the early 80s, before it was easy to look up what order the books were published in. And I have now learned there are 19 or 20 in the series which appeared from 1961-1996! So I’m getting the first two through interlibrary loan but may buy the rest. I have the third one from my decades old purchase.

book one, 1961

It was simply wonderful. I want to read them one after another but must wait for the second to arrive. (The only regrettable thing is that this American edition is edited to replace pounds with dollars, as if Americans of 1961 had to be coddled that way.)

This passage reminds me a bit of Ilwaco, which, compared to Long Beach, is more of a community than a strident tourist town.

The Lizard Peninsula was home to many flower farms.

This passage happened to Robert and me when we vacationed here in 1991. We fell in love with the Long Beach Peninsula, and a bartender at the Heron and Beaver pub was one of the locals we talked to about moving here.

He told us his story of moving to Seaview with $100 to his name, into a house with no hot running water and holes in the roof. (Housing was different here back then, and even places with solid roofs were affordable.) We made an offer on a house in Ocean Park but it fell through (the seller went out fishing and while at sea, he changed his mind). Due to various unfortunate health problems, it took another year before we arrived…and then we had to prove that we were serious and meant to stay. Even now, locals say that newcomers tend to leave after just one stormy winter.

Oh, how very much I relate to this story of ditch digging on the new property!

Even though we did not live off the grid, our 360 square foot cold and leaky little shack was a challenge.

When I reached this passage, and another in which Derek and his wife Jeannie go to a pub in the village of Mousehole, I realized I had been so very close to their house in 1975. I had been to Mousehole and to the Merry Maidens!

Their cottage was near Lamorna Wink on this map.

my photo from 1975

What a thrill to realise this. Cornwall is my ancestral home, and distant cousins on my father’s side had taken me on tour of the area that day.

In other entertainment news, we’ve been watching the mystery series Endeavour at night, and last week we followed it with a British comedy series called Miranda, which I loved so much that I moped around the garden sadly the day after we finished it. I will miss her! Nature loving friends might join us in viewing Winterwatch which, if you don’t have Britbiox, you can find here.

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1 February: ditch digging and new plants

Wednesday, 1 February 2023

at home

Allan did the first mowing of the year, at home and next door. It is unusual for Alicia’s lawn to be dry enough to mow in winter. The cold weather has made the ground firmer. We have ordered a battery powered full-sized chain saw to deal with situations like this fallen tree trunk in her garden and any tree problems in ours. I am sure it will also come in handy sometimes at work.

Although our own lawn paths were not at all tall grass, mowing them picked up and ground up a lot of the spring clean up mess I have been making.

Some of the paths that I shifted last autumn aren’t grass quite yet.

The ground up debris in the grass catcher got dumped into the leaf bin.

Allan helped me by pulling out a deceased and much mourned Salix magnifica next to the Deep Path. The heat dome of 2022 had scorched it so badly that it never recovered.

Meanwhile, I had been inspired to do some digging in the Deep Path in order to fill in along the side beds (including the hole where the salix had been). Yesterday, I found a passage in The Wild Silence by Gaynor Winn that explains why I dig. Her childhood memory is exactly the feeling I want to evoke.

But how deep can I go? I haven’t hit the bottom of the sand yet and don’t think I will reach any hardpan. It does seem unlikely it will get deep enough to be hidden in (or, yikes, for the sides to collapse and bury me). I do think though that I can attain the feeling of deep path mystery when trees and shrubs leaf out along the sides.

In the continuing quest to use up materials, Allan carried some semi rotten boards (once used for potted plant display) to the wayback corner.

He wired them in to make a wall, or the beginning of one. We miss the free wood pile at the port where we used to find good boards! We will have to keep watch at the city works dump pile for more. We only had three, now upright behind the little red table and chair. (The shutters were also scavenged.)

I spent the rest of the day planting new plants from Forest Farm (yellow tags) and Secret Garden Growers (white tags). The cold nights are gone for awhile and I think they will be happier in the ground than in little pots.

This new fern went next to the deep swale.

I added to my epimedium collection in the willow grove.

I switched out an Olearia (one of many I made from cuttings) for an Arbutus unedo (strawberry tree) by the southeast gate. Like many of the new shrubs and trees, it is too tiny to show much in a photo. It is there to the left of the gate. Wish it luck!

I planted a sad looking yew from Forest Farm, which I think will revive because it has new bright green growth at the base. Research tells me it might have turned brown from an abrupt temperature change. The tag just reads “RED-FRUITED ANGLO-JAPANESE YEW”, as does the order form, and that is not very helpful for looking up plants on Plant Lust! It went at the back of an expanded bed to the south of the fire circle. I will clip some of the brown off when the weather is more settled.

A willow leaved stachyurus went at the back of the front east bed to replace one that had died in the heat dome. It is small!

That’s where it goes!

Nearby, a hamamelis and some epimedium:

My new mimosa (Albizia julibrisson ‘E.H. Wilson’) is now in the ground in the expanded danger tree bed (more upright after I took the photo!). It is a gamble as I don’t know if it will like seaside life. But I do know of a local woman who has a happy and well established one in her garden.

Coyote willow is supposed to be silver and quite the runner, so I put it in a tough spot where it is welcome to run if it is able.

Evan Bean suggested I try this willow, so it went by the water bin, with some wood piled up so that frogs can get in and out of the bin.

I planted my new weeping willow on the south side of the deep swale, which involved moving a black pussywillow to the north side to make room.

I have a new Salix magnifica (blue circle), which I planted on the west side of the new bridge, to balance the Salix ‘Gigantea Korso’ (red circle) to the east side. Both will have very large leaves.

Two shrubs with golden leaves went on either side of the Deep Path, where maybe I will get to walk underneath them. The Prunus is the blue circle and the Sambucus is the yellow.

By then, I was running out of energy to do the rest of the plants justice in thinking about where to put them. More planting tomorrow! (I usually try to avoid exclamations points, so easily overused. New plants, however, are very exciting.)

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6 April: like summer, at home

But first, here are some extra photos from Thursday that did not make it into the blog.

the unusual sight of a newt crossing the lawn (usually we find them in hidden places)

Some photos of the bouquet that Allan took to the Shelburne:

Physocarpus ‘Dart’s Gold’ provides the foliage.

inside the pink tulip

Friday, 6 April 2018

Frosty at the bedroom door (Allan’s photo)

Instead of rain ahead of the storm, we got a perfectly calm windless day.  Allan went on a non- boating outing (tomorrow’s post) while I stayed home and planted almost all of my ladies in waiting.

view from the front porch

When I emerged into the late morning sunshine, I found a most unusual guest low down in an old apple tree by the front porch.

Usually, the flock of doves hang out way up on the power lines.  (I’ve thought of them as pigeons till Montana Mary said this looks like a dove.) Not long after, I heard a distinctive cry and looked up to see one male and two female bald eagles circling overhead.  The pigeon, and some of its mates, had been hiding low down in the trees.  I started to worry about how Skooter goes up on our white, flat roof and took some time to research whether the eagles might snatch him.  Audubon says that would be most unlikely.  “No, no and Google it”, Audubon says to the question of whether an eagle would take an adult cat.  But when Googling, youtube videos say otherwise.  (I did not, could not watch.)  I talked to Allan about putting some loose wire mesh around the arbour posts that we know Skooter uses to access the roof, but he probably has another way.  One site pointed out, not too meanly, that for an eagle to take a cat would reverse the usual cat-bird situation.  I looked at Skooter and said, “You do eat birds.”  I wish I could warn him in words he could understand.  (If he is kept indoors, he sprays angrily on the door and elsewhere while glaring at us.)

I put that worry out of my mind (leaving it in Allan’s, perhaps) so that I could concentrate on planting.  Perhaps because planting is not my favourite gardening activity, I moved slowly and mopily through the day, thinking how much I miss seeing Calvin sitting on the cat door ledge watching the world go by.

I dumped the gauge of this week’s rain because I needed it.

a lily coming up inside an old stalk (winter clean up neglect)

I love the backdrop of stacked crab pots.  It will not last long, because surely the gear shed folks will tarp the pots to protect them from weather all summer long.

Skooter kept me company throughout the garden.  I will keep on missing my Smoky’s constant garden companionship and his enjoyment of campfire evenings.

I realized that if the wind stayed away, we could have a campfire tonight.

The tiny cupped narcissi are my favourites.

(By the way, Allan bought me a better camera from ebay, a pocket sized Lumix (yes, trying Lumix again despite many “system error zoom” fails in the past) with a Leica lens.  It arrived today but with a dead battery and no charger, so we can’t use it till a newly ordered charger arrives.)

What I planted:

My first mission was to plant four roses that have been languishing in small pots.  I had been thrilled to find Ghislaine de Feligonde there, and had ordered three other kinds of roses just because.

Ghislane de Feligonde and Rosa palustris in my old garden

Rose ‘Ghislaine de Feligonde’ in my old garden; my transplant of it here died last year.

The other three roses are Old Blush, which gives a at least one flower most every month, Golden Wings, because I like yellow roses, and Félicité et Perpétue, which I used to grow in Seattle and in my year at the Sou’wester Lodge.

Rose ‘Felicite and Perpetue’ by cabin 9, east side, at the Sou’wester

As I sit writing this the next day, I think I planted Felicite in the wrong place.  It had to get out of the pot.  I must ponder a better place for it to climb than just over a big fuchsia in the west back bed.  I will move it to the fence on the east side…as soon as the storm is over.

I played musical chairs, moving the sad and probably dying Pittosporum ‘Tasman Ruffles’ to the back garden (insane to have any hope, but at the last minute I could not bear to throw it out), replacing it with Pittosporum ‘Wrinkled Blue’, and trading around with a small epilobium and a small callistemon and a small Japanese maple whose name completely escapes me at the moment.

This one, at Westport Winery last August

The rest of the the plants:

Far Reaches Farm, east bed, south end

Now that I have found out that the height is six feet, I am rethinking this spot.

From Far Reaches Farm. Now at the south end of west bed.

Ajuga incisa ‘Bikun’

From Select Seeds, now in a pot in the greenhouse, Sempervivum ‘Gold Nugget’

Also planted, but not photogenic or rare, an Eryngium ‘Blue Glitter’ and a Helenium ‘Mardi Gras’.  I had already planted the ever so pink leaved Eupatorium ‘Capri’, a birthday present from Todd, which is supposed to be shorter than ‘Pink Frost’.  The only plant of mine that I did not plant was my other Todd present, because it needs a special place and I want to protect it from the battering storm.

I might try to talk Allan into adding this to his garden, where we can see it from the porch.  His garden is better maintained and plants don’t get lost in it.

With the plants in the ground (even though two may be moved again), I had a couple of hours for weeding, a task I enjoy so much more than planting.

center bed, yesterday

this evening

I wish I had four more nice days at home to weed.

Allan had returned in the early evening and set about making a fire.  I remembered one more plant, an Eryngium ‘Jade Frost, and I ended the planting session badly by slicing a lily bulb (of course, one I had recently planted only one of) right in half.

Eryngium in, lily collateral damage, stuck the damaged bulb back in anyway.  So much weeding to do!

I swear I will not buy a whole bunch more plants (except for cosmos and nicotiana) this year so that I can….oh…wait…I have another order coming from Digging Dog.

Near the fire circle, I had finally remembered to divide a Japanese iris today:

It takes two to make a thing go right.

It takes two to make it outta sight.

The area below used to be the campfire wood pile along the edge.  Allan and I had a bit of an argy bargy when I said I was going to move the wood pile in order to make this a garden.  I won that round.

It makes a good view from the campfire.

I do wish the ground was not thick with meianthemum (the heart shaped ground cover).

mahonia (Allan’s photo)

bogsy wood alder catkins

campfire supper

Allan’s photo

Post script:

At midnight, after an evening that had continued windless, the rain finally arrived.  The wind did not kick up till after 2 A.M. and I slept through the supposed storm, waking to learn that the wind had only reached a mere 44 mph.  But as I began to write this blog post on Saturday morning, I learned that the storm had gotten distracted along the way and is now due to arrive later on Saturday.

Update regarding the new LUMIX: a charger arrived. Upon testing, the refurbished camera immediately zoomed in and out and said “turn camera off and then on again” so back it goes.

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25-27 August: garden, market, reading

Friday, 25 August 2017

I felt more like sleeping, followed by blogging, rather than weeding and planting.  My first excuse was that the weather was in the mid 70s.

Smokey helped with blogging…

…which immediately exhausted him.

I felt guilty about not gardening till Allan told me I was resting my foot.  He watered the post office garden, for which we had run out of time last night, and saw this:

Grasshopper says it’s late summer.

In the late afternoon, our friend and former client Lorna arrived for a planned visit with her son, daughter in law, and grandchildren.  Lorna used to own Andersen’s RV park and now lives in Seattle.

Ellie heading straight to the bogsy woods to see if the fairy doors were still there.

Lorna’s observant son commented on the ‘Seashells’ cosmos….

and the pink turtleheads.

Lorna noticed the bright hips on Rosa moyesii.

entering the bogsy woods (Allan’s photo)

When we got to the bogsy woods bridge, Lorna’s son asked if the river was right past the willows.  I told him that was a most insightful question because it used to be riverbank before the port was built two blocks out on fill in the 50s.  He said it feels like the river should be there.  I liked that.  (If the river were right there, I’d have a view point clipped out through the willows.)

Ellie revisiting the fairy doors, which she had last seen in 2012.

The children loved the Impatiens balsamina, a noxious but delightful weed whose seeds pop with vigor.  I grow a tiny patch of it in the middle of the garden for the amusement of visitors (and I don’t let it escape).

Grown ups like it, too.

it was noted that the cup tree has a resident (one snail)

The dogwood propellors were a hit. My hand was unsteady.

Before they left, they had to smell the 7 Up Plant (Stachys ‘Hidalgo) and the peanut butter plant (Melianthus major).  Lorna told me later that when they left for home on Sunday, Josh exlaimed, “I want to see the peanut butter plant!”

After this excellent visit, it was time to go to

The Cove Restaurant

for our North Beach Garden Gang dinner with Dave and Melissa.

a painted rock found outside

Flowers in the foyer were provided by Todd, including some glads from corms I had given him.

Ed Strange and Todd joined us for dinner.  Todd brought zucchinis for all; his dad has now grown and given away 950 zukes (a specially nice one with a thin, tender peel) this summer so far, from 54 plants.

delicious dinner salad

lasagna

Ed puts off an incoming phone call.

Saturday, 26 September 2017

After much sleep, followed by news reading, I felt we should go to the Saturday market, as I had taken no August photos of it for the Discover Ilwaco Facebook page—partly because we’d had events on at least one Saturday and partly because of my sore foot.  Today was my last chance for August market photos.   We procrastinated till almost three because the weather was in the upper 70s.

I thought the gardens looked good as we approached.

looking west on Howerton Avenue

This dog did not like hats!

Once I removed my hat, he was a happy, friendly dog.

Port Office garden

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

mushroom (toadstool?) solar lights at Suzy Q’s Magical Glass

Salt Hotel and Pub and OleBob’s Café

tiny birdhouse ornaments from Wood Turnings

hot and windy

cheeeeese

Allan bought some peaches.

Allan’s photo

These are marshmallow guns. (Allan’s photo)  I am mystified as to how they work.

At home again, I did the tiniest bit of gardening by weeding some planters and adding worm castings to the top of the soil.

Frosty helping

Devery arrived home.  I gave her some zukes and a cuke (and a pepper) and she gave us half of a blackberry pie that she had made from blackberries growing against the next door garage.

Devery’s home made pie

Of course, I then had to go next door to see Royal.

Royal seemed happy to see me.

Devery’s begonias

Frosty, who had followed me over, was eager to make friends with Royal.  Both Frosty and his brother Smokey grew up with dogs and quite like nice ones.

headbutting

We heard voices out front, and there were the J’s, with new puppy Julius Caesar.

Jay, Julius, and Junior (who also got petted)

In the background, you can see that Allan has loaded his boat in preparation for boating tomorrow.

I did manage to run four of the sprinklers in the evening.

Skooter demands a toll of petting as I go to turn on the faucet.

Allan went out to work for two hours.

pruning at CoHo Charters (before)

after

And watering at the Ilwaco Community Building, which can only be done when it is closed.  Someone repaired the concrete that was broken last week.

Sunday, 27 August 2017

Not only was the weather 79 hot degrees, but I had an almost overdue book which I needed to finish.

This certainly spoke to me, as my Social Security will be less than that:

at a campaign rally

I didn’t have much left to read in that excellent book and could not resist reading another one, a gift from Allan that was as much photos as text, The Making of Dunkirk (the recent film).

This inspired some reading of articles online.  I think this short video is especially good and moving.

I did finally go out and managed to plant all of four plants.

In the background is my bright new Thuja ‘Forever Goldie’ from Westport Winery nursery.

And a ‘Full Moon’ Japanese maple from Westport Winery, probably not in enough sun…but in the place where I can see it from the front window.

The wind had knocked tall plants askew in the front garden.

Veronicastrum now sideways.

cardoon at eye level instead of towering overhead

Skooter avoiding the sun

Somehow the many garden projects I intended to do today, like moving a big tatty daylily to make room for more new plants and saving some poppy seeds into a bucket did not happen.  When I walked back to the bogsy woods to arrange a sprinkler, half an hour before sunset, I noticed sheets of bindweed on the east fence by the neighboring gear shed.  I definitely would have addressed THAT problem if I had seen it earlier in the weekend.  Now it will have to wait four more days.

Pam Fleming, Seaside gardener, sent this photo of a charming bouquet picked by flower expert Prissy:

photo by Pam Fleming

Tomorrow: Allan’s Sunday boating

 

 

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4 and 8 July: new plants

Monday, 4 July 2016

We spent the day planting most of our new acquisitions from shopping at the Hardy Plant Study Weekend.  Sources: Windcliff (Dan Hinkley), Dancing Oaks, Sebright  Gardens, Gossler Farms, Secret Garden Growers.

finally, time to plant

more

still more

Here are the two about which Dan Hinkley his ownself said I had a good eye. 😀

First, the exhausting five gallon Acer compestre ‘Carnival’.

Sanguisorba ‘Lilac Squirrel’

A pause to admire my Mermaid rose. She does get a little blackspot.

Dicentra spectabilis ‘Valentine’ has been on my must have list for awhile.

Dicentra ‘Fire Island’

Hakanechloa macra ‘Fubuki’. Not very saveable to have the label on the pot.

Potentilla ‘William Rollson’ (in front of a euphorbia)

Eryngium zabellii ‘Neptune’s Gold’, very exciting to me as this is my favourite perennial and I love gold foliage.

about as tiny as the hazelnut mulch, Eryngium giganteum (camera being annoying)

At Dancing Oaks: Miss Wilmott’s Ghost, named because she supposedly scattered the seeds of it in all her friends’ gardens.

Arundo donax var. versicolor

Calandrinia spectabilis

Calandrinia spectabilis

must go in greenhouse in winter

Eryngium carlinae

Stachyurus praecox ‘Oriental Sun’

from Dan Hinkley

Saxifraga stolonifera ‘Maroon Beauty’

Begonia sutherlandii

Titanotrichum oldhamii

Hacquetia epipactus ‘Thor’

irresistable Hinkley prose

Begonia aff. hemsleyana ‘Chandler’s Hardy’

Angelica ‘Ebony’

getting punchy from planting…no doubt too close to Lilac Squirrel…will move the latter later on. To the right is the Angelica gigas that I bought from Annie’s Annuals earlier this year.

Hibiscus moscheutos ‘Big Girl Pink’

in a pot for now because am afraid snails will get it in the garden

Ruellia elegans ‘Ragin’ Cajun’ …in the same pot…

I clearly need two BIG pots not one medium pot.

I was shocked at this tag as I had thought for sure I had picked up ‘Hewitt’s Double’. Must have grabbed the one next to it. Phooey, already have this one!

Asphodelus ramosus, in a pot.

trying this because I love Asphodeline ‘lutea’

Asphodel liburnica, also in a pot. Above it: Mentha x villosa (Mojito mint), also new.

That is all I could bear to plant, along with some scented geraniums acquired at the Basket Case end of season sale.

in the garden

The tiny plant in my hand is also a gunnera!

Gunnera monoica! I planted some in my little frog bowl and some in an old watering can.

Far Reaches Farm, from whom I bought it, says, “Very cute little groundcover Gunnera literally overshadowed by its more familiar larger kin.  This avoids the inevitable comparison by growing in New Zealand rather than South America where the big ones hold court.  Loves a rich moist soil where it will carpet freely with dense overlapping rounded lightly coppery leaves.  Little flower spikes with white fruit.  This species and other Gunnera species have been shown to have a nitrogen fixing blue-green algae living inside them which provides the Gunnera with an in-house source of fertilizer.  Protect if very cold.”

If i could ever manage to get more salmonberry out of the bogsy wood, I’d have room for more shade plants.

semi shade bed that is slow to fill in

My dierama reminds me I failed to acquire Dierama ‘Merlin’, the new dark one.

The tallest lilies are coming out.

Meanwhile, Allan planted and photographed:

part of Allan’s garden

after planting, including a dormant Trillium kurabayashii; we got one for Melissa at her request and one for us, from Dancing Oaks.

Watering the front garden

I gave Allan my new vine because I could not figure out where to plant it. Schisandra arisanensis.

Afraid it would get lost near the bogsy wood.

Friday, 8 July 2016

After our work week (next post), I had time to plant the rest of my new plants.

Actaea rubra f. neglecta

used to have this in my old garden, glad to have again

Hydrangea macrophylla quadricolor (center)

another plant I bought, forgetting I already one a big patch of it.

I took a break to pull lots of bindweed from this area.

Deinanthe bifida ‘Pink Kill’ (soon to have horsetail weeded out); looks like snails like the new plant.

Kalimeris yomina ‘Shogun’

sorry so blurry

Acanthopanax sieboldii ‘Variegata’

Beesia deltophylla, which I have wanted for a long time.

Teucrium fruticans azureum

sorry…blurry…hope it does take shearing as it too close to everything else. I am out of room!

Allan got his heucheras from Dancing Oaks planted, in pots on the north wall of his shed, in a frame we got from our friend Sheila (Harley Lady).  He says he shopped a long time only to come up with something ordinary.  I think it looks great.

Allan’s photo

---

Ginger’s Garden Diaries

from my mother’s garden diaries of two decades ago

1997 (age 73):

July 8: Rain  Store and errand day.  Paid Quarterly Pines dues and assessments.

Spent afternoon “pruning’ African Violets.  There were scads of long stems which I removed and put into water in bathroom planter—there must be over 100 stems from only two trays of plants which are now in one tray.

1998 (age 74):

July 4:  11:00 t0 5:00  cloudy and cool  I checked the seedlings in shop.  I moved some plants out of the greenhouse and then moved some from shop to greenhouse and then moved more plants from house to shop.  I think next week I’ll spend time fixing color bowls.  Picked berries.  Had enough to freeze 3 pkgs.  There were quite a few BIG raspberries.

I checked back to 1997 and read that I set out tomato plants on 6/28 so I’m only about a week later this year.   I also planted some tomatoes on June 6 and 13 last year.  Also I read of large berry pickings.  I don’t think I’m getting as many berries this year.

July 8 (Wednesday): Picked berries.  A large amount of raspberries.  Continued the work I was doing Monday.  In the evening I took Tabby out.  She seemed to enjoy it until Alan came over.  She was scared of him so we went in.

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Music in the Gardens 2015: Real Living Garden

Saturday, 18 July 2015

Music in the Gardens Tour, Long Beach Peninsula

a benefit for the Water Music Festival and music programs in local schools

ticket tour map

Garden 7: Marla’s Real Living Garden

Marla’s urban farm overlooks Willapa Bay and benefits from her early years of living on a Washington farm.  She says, “I am still amazed at nature.  You plant a seed or start and an awesome plant grows.”  In just two years, she has grown and built quite a bit, including fencing, lawn, landscaping, irrigation, flower and vegetable beds,  hanging baskets and a chicken coop.  Her pride and joy are the beautiful hens and the eggs they lay.

I wrote about Marla’s garden a year and a month before this year’s tour.  Garden Tour Nancy and I previewed it this year on June 1st.

Lavatera outside the south fence, June 1st

driveway

tour day!

photo by Bob Duke

in the driveway

front gate at SW corner of the house

a landing spot for baby birds

Allan’s photo

inside the front gate

to the left just inside the gate, south wall by back steps, photo by Kathleen Shaw

clematis seedheads

by the stairway

perennial sweet pea

the glorious porch, photo by Kathleen Shaw

pre-tour visit, June 1st

pre-tour visit, June 1st

containers packed with perennials and annuals

pre-tour visit, June 1st

tour day, with the porch gate open

I love the porch, all its adjacent plantings, its art and decor and the way it wraps around two sides of the house.  I’d like to pick it up and put it right down next to my house!  So we’ll explore the porch first, and then the garden.

view down back porch steps, with Marla’s mother in pink top, seated

Marla’s colourful flower baskets (Allan’s photo)

Allan’s photo

walking along the porch, looking down at the garden

Over the fence, we can see the garage of the next door house, which is also on the garden tour. photo by Kathleen Shaw.

looking north toward the Charles Nelson B&B next door

on the porch

On the east side of the porch, Portland guitarist Terry Robb performed for tour guests.

Terry Robb (Allan’s photo)

Terry Robb

While I listened to him, Marla’s mom (left, in pink) was still up on the porch sitting next to him and enjoying the music.

Terry Robb

Allan’s photo

view to the east

over Willapa Bay

looking down at the north side of the garden from the porch

Now we’ll walk return along the porch to the back steps.

south side of porch, photo by Kathleen Shaw

porch wall (pre-tour visit, June 1st)

down the stairs we go, with a nice strong railing to hold onto.

porch decorations at top of stairs

ornamental grasses skirting the porch

looking down from the porch to the entry patio

patio corner

Marla’s next door neighbour, whose garden we’ll visit next, gave her this sign for the fence by the patio.

on the patio table: Marla’s grandchildren had painted these sand dollars (photo by Kathleen Shaw)

farm whirlygig

Allan’s photo

tags made from cut, painted yard sticks, photo by Kathleen Shaw

Allan’s photo

looking east from the patio, pre-tour visit, June 1st

north side of house, photo by Kathleen Shaw

ornamental grasses skirting the porch

looking back at the patio

astilbes

SE corner of house (Allan’s photo)

SE corner, Alliums, pretour visit, June 1st

east side of house, pre-tour visit, June 1st

pre-tour visit, June 1st

cosmos, tour day

cosmos

over the fence

east side of house, pre-tour visit, June 1st

photo by Bob Duke showing east and north sides of house

photo by Bob Duke showing north side of house and chicken domain (lower right)

north side of house

pre-tour visit, June 1st

hostas in shade, photo by Kathleen Shaw

fuchsias, photo by Kathleen Shaw

deck on north side of house

Plants were for sale by Marla’s brother in law, Greig Warner, who supplies orchids to Portland Nursery!

That explains the orchids in the garden! photo by Kathleen Shaw

I want to get to know this fellow better as he is a true CPN (Certified Plant Nut).  I missed out on a way cool plant here, as you will see in the next garden tour post.  I met him briefly at the tour and learned that he is moving to the beach so I hope we will get to know him.

looking toward NE corner of garden, pre-tour visit, June 1st

gunnera by back deck, looking west

in the NW corner of the yard: the chicken coop and veg garden

Gunnera, June 1st, looking east

photo by Kathleen Shaw

gunnera flowers and lawn clippings to help retain moisture (Allan’s photo)

the hens’ domain

on the north deck

Erysimum ‘Constant Cheer’, photo by Kathleen Shaw

Eryngium ‘Jade Frost’, photo by Kathleen Shaw

painted yard stick plant tag (Allan’s photo)

Allan’s photo of the making of the plant tags

view east from the henhouse corner

raised vegetable beds and chicken yard

pre-tour visit, June 1

On tour day afternoon, because of the unusually hot weather, the chickens were in the shade of their coop.

not a chicken to be seen!

Fortunately, they had been out and about on June 1st when Nancy and I visited the garden for sneak peek photos.

Marla’s beloved flock

the coop

Marla’s garden was a close contender for my favourite because of its intensive container plantings, its whimsical decor, and the chickens.  While I don’t feel that I have time to care for chickens, I would surely love to incorporate a barnyard corner like this into my garden someday.  And the wrap around porch.  And the nice, friendly neighbours.  When Nancy and I visited earlier, Marla just matter-of-factly put the exciteable galloping dog into the fenced yard of the neighbour to the north.  And her neighbour to the south will be our next garden tour visit.

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Astoria Garden Tour 2012: Westbrook Garden

painted lady

For the first time, the Peninsula Garden tour would be held in late July so the July 14th Astoria garden tour came first.  As always, the tickets were sold next to this beautiful painted lady high on the hill overlooking the Columbia River.

I have never seen this house look less than perfect.  Note that the colour scheme of the garden (and even the fire hydrant) echo the paint colours.

According to the programme, the first garden would be at the Millpond

colour coordinated garden

Village.  Excitement did not fill my heart as we drove downhill and to the east.  I very much like the Millpond Village and admire its landscaping but figured we were in for a repeat of the tour in 2009 which had featured a lot of attractive curbside plantings.  (Ann Lovejoy and Beth Holland were among the designers for the Millpond landscaping so I certainly did not mind a stop to see how the parklike areas were coming along.)

However, when we got there we were treated to a lovely garden on an empty lot between two townhouses.  I had always thought a drawback to living there would be the tiny garden spaces.  What a brilliant solution to just (if one could afford to) buy an extra lot.

street view

From the tour programme:   “Helen Westbrook garden:  This splendid young garden features a lovely river rock rain swale to manage storm water. With the high water table here, birds enjoy the temporary pond surrounded by “wet feet” plants. Birds are also attracted to shrubs…planted as a border for the neighbour’s patio. …It’s hard to believe this gem was once part of a plywood mill.”

As we approached, I still did not realize that an entire lot would be given over to garden.

narrow curbside garden….and bindweed in training!

curbside detail

 

beside the arbour entrance

garden lot

The main garden is between two townhouses on a lot which originally was planned to be another townhouse.

What a pleasurable oasis it has added to this area of otherwise tiny sidewalk gardens.

And what a joy it would be to be lucky enough to be the gardener’s neighbour.  We were told that the neighbour across the lot also participates in some of the gardening.

dry creekbed for water run off…

I very much liked the water swale between the townhouse and a central patio.  In mid July, it still had some water. I wonder if the little creek bed (right) has water in it all winter long?  In fact, if I remembered, I would love to look at this garden on a wet winter day.

water swale, looking east

swale, looking west

seasonal pond

I love the seasonal pond and admired the attention to detail: no underwear showing!

looking west from just outside the garden

townhouse at NE corner of garden

The neighbour toward the river carried the garden theme around to the front of her own townhouse.   The little front garden is more the usual size of the Millpond Village gardens.

neighbour’s front garden

I LOVE gardening neighbours. Here’s the wall of the house north of the Westbrook Garden lot, where the neighbour has added to the ambience.  Her potting bench shows a simple but clever way to display plant tags.

neighbour’s patio

view of the garden from the neighbour’s sit spot

We circulated around the Westbrook garden several times, admiring all the details.

tags: painted paint stirrer and gold paint

little fence

birdbath with sand dollars

tablescape with little polka dot plants

a planted chair

bird nest accent

choice plantings

another planted chair

Across the street from the planted chair at the edge of the garden, you can see a vacant lot gone to yellow dandelions which is probably the same size as the garden whose every nook we had been admiring.

Our own garden would be on the Music in the Gardens tour in just seven days, and after seeing all the bright annuals tucked into Ms. Westbrook’s garden, I knew we had to make haste and see all the gardens in time to fill our car with still more plants for our garden open day.

I needed more colour!

So on we went headed west through downtown Astoria to the next garden.

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