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 6: Rita and Ken’s Garden
The landscaping on Rita and Ken’s property, located on a ridge between Nahcotta and Oysterville, surrounds a lodge-like home. The front gardens and meditation alcove and upper pond are connected by a cascading stream to a lower pond, home to fish and frogs. The courtyard, deck and gazebo overlooking Willapa Bay will invite you to sit, relax and enjoy the beauty and peacefulness of the view.
We parked in a field by the road and walked up the long driveway. (Allan’s photo)
driveway circle garden
driveway circle garden (Allan’s photo)
Allan’s photo
storage shed and potting shed
the back of the driveway bed, looking west (photo by Kathleen Shaw)
Shed, photo by Kathleen Shaw, with one of the original signs for Clarke Nursery.
Clarke Nursery may sound familiar to regular readers; it was on the properties now owned by Ron Barclay and Steve and John. All longtime gardeners on the Peninsula have fond memories of it.
potting shed, photo by Kathleen Shaw
turning south, walking toward the front (west side) of the house.
I digress to take a path going west into the woods.
The woodland paths have been extended and refined by local gardener Sara Zaga.
I turned back here, lacking time and a walking stick for balance. The destination of the enticing paths must remain a mystery.
looking east toward the potting shed from the woods
tour guests in the front garden; to their right is the newly created meditation alcove.
meditation alcove
photo by Kathleen Shaw
front garden with Acanthus mollis
front garden and house (Allan’s photo)
photo by Kathleen Shaw
Rita and Ken built this wall. The white signs said which year each area had been created.
west side of house. from below the rock wall in previous photo
Rita plants up all her own containers and baskets with plants from the Basket Case Greenhouse.
upper pond at south end of the lawn, the start of one of my favourite water features ever
upper pond (Allan’s photo)
by the upper pond: bench and garden mirror that reflects leaves and sky
fire pit seating on south side of house
stream emerging from upper pond: Rita and Ken built this water feature.
This recirculating stream is my favourite thing here; I would love to have this in my garden (but my present garden is too flat for it to seem real).
coming around the SE corner of the house
looking down at the lower pond, into which the stream falls.
photo by Kathleen Shaw
the deck
Acústica World Music, from Astoria, was playing from the gazebo.
photo by Kathleen Shaw
Acústica World Music; They probably liked it up there in their own world.
Rainyside’s Debbie Teashon made this video featuring a song by Acustica while she was at Rita’s garden (at a different time of tour day from us).
I had the problem of not being able to get down to the deck because of stairs with no railings. However, because Allan and I had weeded here one summer years ago (before we started cutting back on private garden jobs), I knew another way down.
alternate route: across the lawn and around the north end of the deck.
and next to this little patio…
…there is a path around to the deck level.
north side of house, below the potting shed
north side of house, photo by Kathleen Shaw
photo by Bob Duke well shows my path around to the deck level.
the deck, pretour photo by Bob Duke
photo by Bob Duke
our friend Shelly of Flowering Hedge Design helped with the flower planting by the deck and patio. Photo by Shelly Hedges.
dahlias, photo by Shelly Hedges
the deck
view from the deck
I saw Our Kathleen sitting by the pond and joined her.
I especially like the way the deck is right over one side of the pond.
one of the nicest little garden ponds around; imagine the splashing of the waterfall.
photo by Kathleen Shaw; we were told that Rita had made the mosaic sign.
the frog in question (spotted by Kathleen)
lower pond wall, photo by Kathleen Shaw
hydrangeas, photo by Kathleen Shaw
photo by Shelly Hedges
mosaic bench by Renee O’Connor, photo by Kathleen Shaw
photo by Kathleen Shaw
the stairs from lawn path to deck patio
Railing-less stairs flummox me with dizziness and uncoordination. I think there were refreshments up on the upper deck, but for me, they might as well have been up a rickety ladder. (Our Kathleen said that as soon as she saw the stairs, she knew I would have a problem.)
pretty but impassible to me without a railing
I was reminded of that garden in Portland where I sent Allan up the railingless steps to take photos of cool collectible plants on the deck. This time, I could not find him to see if I could get him to bring me some water or food. We had no phone signal, but fortunately I found him eventually when he came down to the deck level. By then, we had to move on to see the last two gardens (and one non-garden). Because I was feeling flustered and frustrated, I am sorry to say that I did not take as many photos of the flowers as I otherwise would have. This garden was a favourite of many people, so I feel I “let down the side”. Being unable to preview the garden for “sneak peek” photos also means I have fewer photos to work with here.
steps
I’ve fallen down almost every set of steps everywhere I’ve lived, so accessibility in a garden is something that I think about.
Allan’s photo when he finally found us.
Kathleen was heading out in reverse order from us, so we would not see her again until our post-tour dinner at The Depot. Her camera battery had died; I lent her the camera known as Spot so that she could keep taking photos. Garden Tour Nancy had just arrived, but I was on a quest for a drink of water and toddled back down to the parking field as fast as I could.
Next two posts: one of my favourite gardening situations, two gardening neighbours.
