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.
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.
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.

I turned back here, lacking time and a walking stick for balance. The destination of the enticing paths must remain a mystery.

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).
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.

our friend Shelly of Flowering Hedge Design helped with the flower planting by the deck and patio. Photo by Shelly Hedges.
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.)
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.
I’ve fallen down almost every set of steps everywhere I’ve lived, so accessibility in a garden is something that I think about.
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.