Wednesday, 4 July 2018
We next toured Dave and Melissa’s garden just north of Oysterville.
Now we are going to the Oysterville Garden. See you there in an hour!
Posted in garden touring, journal, tagged Sea Star Acres on Jul 15, 2018| 12 Comments »
Wednesday, 4 July 2018
We next toured Dave and Melissa’s garden just north of Oysterville.
Now we are going to the Oysterville Garden. See you there in an hour!
Posted in journal, tagged Oysterville, Sea Star Acres, Thanksgiving on Nov 30, 2017| 3 Comments »
Sunday, 26 November 2017
We visited Melanie and Mike, three blocks east, to see Mel’s new foster dog, a gentle and timid chihuahua.
Later, Allan tried to build some window boxes outside. He got driven in by rain.
I procrastinated on unloading the trailer load of debris from our last two jobs (Anchorage and Depot gardens on Friday). When I finally got started, I first emptied the grey rain gauge.
Compost bins before adding debris, looks like Artemisia ‘Powis Castle’ cuttings want to live, and I should do something to save them.
I regretted my procrastination. By the time I got a heaping, overflowing, tippy grey wheelbarrow back to the compost pile, a serious downpour began. I became drenched as I piled the debris up on the towering pile.
I did not make it back to the porch at first, taking shelter in Allan’s workshop halfway there.
In the early evening, we made the long drive to north of Oysterville for a belated Thanksgiving feast with Melissa and Dave at their Sea Star Acres. On the way, we detoured through Oysterville and saw the seasonal ponds.
At Sea Star Acres, Dave and Melissa had prepared a traditional feast.
While the squash did not grow big this year, they did make good decorations.
me and Coulee, the handsome Hovawart. Barely showing in the foreground is the other Hovawart, Anna.
We feasted, perhaps to excess, talked about our gardening work, and made plans to meet again for next weekend’s Crab Pot Christmas Tree Festival in Ilwaco.
Posted in garden touring, journal, kitchen gardens, perennials, plants, private gardens, tagged Acer pseudoplatanus 'Eskimo Sunset', deer fence, gardening, gardens, kitchen garden, Morina longifolia, Sea Star Acres, Sea Star Gardening, shade garden, Spigelia miralandica 'Little Redhead', Todd's garden, Willapa Bay on Jul 29, 2017| 8 Comments »
First, an exciting announcement. The Astoria garden tour is back! Read more about it here.
We continued our peninsula garden tour day, with Ann and Evan, at Dave and Melissa’s Sea Star Garden on the outskirts of Oysterville. On several acres, much of which is ungardenable wetland, our friends have spent the past two years using their rare days off from their gardening business to create their own paradise. Because they used to own a nursery called Glauca Moon, they arrived here with a large palette of plants in pots.
Sea Star Garden
On the left as you enter the driveway is a large raised garden where once a decrepit old house stood (a house that was unsafe to even enter). This garden came about when a new septic system had to be installed last year.
On top, a carpet of sedums will solve the problem of not being able to plant anything deep rooted on the septic system.
Dave, me, Melissa, Ann, Sean (Allan thinks this looks like a landing party from Star Trek.)
By the back deck of the house is a water feature with waterfall, made by a friend of the previous owner.
The property had been owned by a gardener before and abounds in interesting trees and shrubs.
As Dave and Mel clear the underbrush, they are finding all sorts of hardscapes like two small ponds and a big stone circle with a stone bench.
Next, we went to the garden of a North Beach Garden Gang friend, just south of Oysterville.
Todd’s Family Garden
As we drove up, Todd was weeding.
Around the family home, Todd has planted his collection from his years as the display garden curator at Plant Delights nursery in North Carolina.
Spigelia marilandica ‘Little Redhead’
The kitchen garden, which one of Todd’s family describes as “a real garden, none of this foo foo stuff” lay far below. Because my heel was hurting, I sat this part of the trip out. (Todd kindly offered to go get a truck but I did not want everyone to have to wait.) Allan’s photos of that part of the excursion:
Meanwhile….
While I waited up top, I looked at my present from Lorna. She had given me a book as we parted ways at The Oysterville Garden.
I also pondered curmudgeonly thoughts about garden tour programs that I feel compelled to share. If curmudgeonliness annoys rather than amuses you, please avoid.
One of the gardens on today’s informal tour, Martie and Steve’s, had been on the local tour the day before. The tour program suggested its symmetry was “reminiscent of centuries old British estates” and “will put you in mind of Downton Abbey”. Perhaps because it had a cricket lawn? Perhaps because of the green lawns in general? It reminded me of my thoughts about garden tour descriptions, something that is always on my mind during garden tour season.
Martie and Steve’s garden completely stood on its own and did not need to be compared to any other place. The garden’s lines seemed clean and modern to me and certainly did not remind me of Downton Abbey. Other than my usual desire to be in the UK, I would rather visit their garden than the site of Downton Abbey, anyway.
I was reminded of the previous year’s comparison of a small garden to an Italian courtyard, leading to confusion on the part of tour guests (much of which I heard about later…even unto it being mentioned this year, and at the time, a friend texted me from that garden asking for enlightenment about the description). I think that serious garden tour guests take every word of a description into consideration. Raising expectations is not wise. That particular garden (the non-Italian-courtyard) also stood well on its own because its big pots and hand made pavers were all portable; I would have described it as being a small garden that showed perfect solutions for folks who are renters rather than property owners. There’s no need to get fanciful and make tour guests expect something grander than what is there. Instead of describing a garden as “extensive” when it isn’t, describe it honestly as small but plant-i-ful. (To be fair, this year the word “extensive” was used to describe a tiny local garden in a newspaper article, not in the program itself.) I think it is especially important not to aggrandize a garden.
The Master Gardeners’ north county tour, which I have now attended for two years, is good at avoiding hyperbole (with only one exception out of 12 garden descriptions in two years…a solid record of accurate descriptions).
The Hardy Plant Society Study Weekend programs tend to be accurate and non-aggrandizing (although I do remember, just once, looking for a cactus garden that turned out to be a couple of specimens in a pot).
I also do not like being told to walk here, stroll there, sit there, admire this, ask the gardener that. Just describe the garden in a factual sense. Here is an imaginary example: If I am told that “a salvaged window defines the edge of the garden by the river”, I will find it and admire it on my own without being told “Be sure to admire the salvaged window,” or “Ask the gardener where she got that window.” (Clearly, I do have issues with being told what to do—thus 41 years of self employment.)
I don’t expect all readers to agree. Now, let’s go on to one of my favourite peninsula gardens, the bayside garden of Steve and John.