Tillamook County Spade and Wade Tour: A Haven For Birds

Saturday, 21 July 2018

prelude

On the two hour drive down to Tillamook (harrowing when a vehicle suddenly stopped in front of us due to the driver’s sudden decision to go to the beach!), we did a quick driving tour of Pam’s Seaside gardens, which we will include in a post-tour visit to her own garden.

We stopped ever so briefly at Seaside 7 Dees garden center.

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

And, in Tillamook, at Five Rivers Coffee Roasters for a comfort stop before touring.  I like their garden, with tables, at the back of their coffee shop.

from the tour booklet

The five rivers are the Tillamook, the Trask, the Wilson, the Kilchis, and the Miami.

planted garden benches

Allan’s photo

inside

It’s on 101, so don’t miss this charming place if you are driving the coast road.

Guess which comment on their chalk board is mine.

I expected the tour to be farm and food garden oriented because it is in a dairy cow and corn farmland area, famous for its Tillamook brand cheese and ice cream.

We passed many fields of corn on the way.

The smell of cow manure floated in the air throughout the Tillamook area, an odor that is enticing to me because I wished I could take some buckets of cow poo back to my garden.

2018 Spade and Wade Garden Tour

Sponsored by the Tillamook County Master Gardener Association

For our ten dollar ticket fee, we got a 24 page keepsake program with information about the local area, local attractions from Tillamook to Cape Meares, maps, and garden descriptions with color photos.

The Master Gardeners club did indeed have a hearty crew of parking assistants at each garden, which was much appreciated.  I also appreciated the welcoming encouragement to take photos and ask questions.  I also deeply appreciate that one of the missions of this tour and the one in Grays Harbor is to have gardens that are created entirely by their owners.  That makes them much more meaningful to me than gardens whose owners hire others to do the design (and work). It also tends to make the gardens less hardscaped, perhaps humbler, and more soulful and personal. (Side note about other tours: When gardeners are hired to design, plant, and weed, they should get credit for the work in garden tour programs.)

This tour takes place every other year.  Last time it conflicted with the Aberdeen tour, so I was especially pleased that it was on a different weekend this year.

Note: In garden descriptions, I touch out the last names for the owners’ privacy.

I theorize that the tour is called Spade and Wade because the Tillamook area tends to flood in the winter, but perhaps it is because of the “five rivers”.

Garden one: A Haven for Birds, Tillamook

from the program:

Each garden had one of these pavers.

It made me happy to see such a bright front garden.

a garden all abuzz with bees

bonsai

Barbara, garden owner, at work on a bonsai

Allan’s photo captures the joy of garden touring as they discuss what to trim.

An honest description of an area in progress as we tour the front garden:

an asclepias (milkweed), which I am trying to get going in my garden.

fuchsia and hydrangea

This hydrangea was popular with bees.

Shade garden by front porch:

Oh! I used to have this tiny flowered fuchsia!

Allan’s photo

passion flower by the entryway

Now we’ll go into the back garden.

a little greenhouse

Allan’s photo

roses

I would like a huge bin like that, maybe galvanized metal, maybe an old wooden hot tub, for an instant pond.

greenhouse window

herbs and edible flowers just past the greenhouse

strawberries in a bed by the greenhouse

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Farmland is the backdrop to the vegetable garden with its beds “raised to get their feet out of the water table“.

blueberries protected from birds

beyond the garden

asparagus

“dahlias—wedding flowers for our son’s wedding in 2008”

an old gate just like my grandma’s old gate

purple peas

borage

lilies

compost

more compost

I do not know what those bins are made out of, but it looks like a better siding than our wooden pallets, because of better air circulation and ability to see what is going on in there. Maybe Allan can figure it out.

Regular readers will know I like compost bins. These three show the progress.

bin one

bin two

bin three

Jamie Rehak’s wind chimes

yucca flowers against the house

We had now perambulated the entire back garden and arrived at these folks selling their handmade canning jar solar lights.

I bought the blue one, upper right.

The gentleman in orange, below, is John, the garden owner.  I complimented him on his enviable kitchen gardening skills.

One more look at the delightful front garden on our way out:

Allan’s photo

 

 

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8 June: Overseas*

Thursday, 8 June 2017

*Overseas is not as exotic as it sounds; it’s just what we say around here about crossing the Columbia River to northwest Oregon state.

We had a lovely rainy day so there was no guilt at all about not gardening.

The half an inch of predicted rain had materialized.

Before leaving Ilwaco, we finally found time to go to the botanical art exhibit at Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum, three blocks west.

“The Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum is honored to present an exhibition of 82 paintings by Frances Stilwell representing the native plants of Oregon’s eight Ecoregions.

After moving to Oregon in 1969, Stilwell began defining her new home by learning and drawing the native plants. Since then, Stillwell has published two books related to Oregon’s native plants including the exhibition’s companion book, ‘Oregon’s Botanical Landscape; An Opportunity to Imagine Oregon Before 1800’.”

Before going in, we simply had to pull chickweed out of the museum’s two planters.

beargrass and beargrass baskets

I liked the impressionistic paintings so much that I bought the accompanying book.

Now for our shopping trip overseas.

Astoria

We’d go to more events in Astoria if I enjoyed crossing the 4.2 mile bridge.

We drove into downtown to buy a t shirt at Old Town Framing for Astoria Pride 2017.

flowers in a downtown window

large street planters

Allan’s photo

and individual shop planters

In Warrenton, just southwest of Astoria, we checked out the plant stock at Fred Meyer and Home Depot because I have often found cool plants at Fred’s…not so much this time…and because I need a couple of small hydrangeas like Cityline Rio.  I was disgruntled because both stores had hydrangeas which were not marked with cultivar names. Just “hydrangea” is not enough of a label for me.

feeling disgruntled at a big box store

We bought some feeder fish for our water boxes at the local Petco.  (I’d rather shop at smaller places but sometimes, here away from the city, the choices are limited.)

We turned right onto Broadway in Seaside, Oregon, to make the loop of

Pam Fleming’s Seaside Gardens

Because the frustrating hydrangea shopping had consumed a lot of time, the photos are taken from the van on a drive by.  Sometime I’d like to have a leisurely enough trip to text city gardener Pam and meet for lunch.  You can see the gardens at their summer peak in this post from July 2015.

 

Taken backwards after driving past because I admired the pool of still water underneath the clipped ceanothus.

I envy Pam’s big, irrigated planting beds.

impressionistic

a store named after me

the turn-around

We drove on south from Seaside to shop at Seaside 7 Dees. I found some fairly common plants that I wanted for my garden.

Allan’s photo

 

a couple more Euonymus ‘Green Spire’

A nice Salvia patens was a good find.  My best find was a flat of Asclepias syriaca, which had been on my must have list since I saw it last summer in the Deerly Missed garden

Well, syriaca and speciosa are not the same one…but close in appearance.  I hope.

Allan liked the fountain. (We’ve seen a version with crows, too.)

Their beaks clack as water runs through.

He found himself a new “parsley fern”.

My cart; I wish I could have found two cartloads of cool plants to buy.

I am aware of the contradiction in my recent rejoicing that planting time was over.

Note the gold leafed Tradescantia ‘Blue and Gold’.  I have tried this plant repeatedly and the snails always get it.  My memory of seeing it in Lucy Hardiman’s Portland garden years ago always inspires me to try again.

Lucy’s garden, 2001, gold tradescantia in pots on the deck

Unfortunately, the hydrangea selection at 7 Dees did not include any that I wanted for the J’s garden although I did get myself one called ‘Shooting Star’, which might be one I have seen in The Oysterville Garden.

Perhaps, thought I, I had not tried hard enough while looking at the hydrangeas at Home Depot.  We went back to try again; I hoped that scanning the tags might reveal the names of the different cultivars.  Nope.  The scan just said “Hydrangea”.  I tried to explain that there are a lot of folks with the surname Smith, but individual Smiths are names Mary, Bob, or Lucy.  I got crickets and blank looks.

We had not had time to eat yet so we decided to have a meal at the cute Uptown Café in the adjacent mall.  (I wished I had decided that earlier; we could have waited to get our feeder fish and saved them the ride to Seaside and back.)

Tradescantia ‘Blue and Gold’ outside the café, planted with lots of sidewalk around it so probably not vulnerable to snails.

The back of the menu explains much about the charming decor of the café.  Its ambience is more important to me than the food.

wood partition from an old church

south wall

Old doors from Astoria houses.

veggie burger

fish tacos

home again

…after accomplishing the tedium of grocery shopping.

This snail had ridden all the way down and back with us on the back of the van. (Allan’s photo)

chickadee poised to take food to the nest

new batch of ladies in waiting

The new fish had one casualty, a plain silver one.  The store clerk had put in extras for that eventuality.  They got floated around in their bag for an hour in the water boxes before being divided into their new home.

the new fish

There are lots of places to hide from predators.

We had had this much rain.

Tomorrow: One work day, followed by a two day weekend with a couple of events that might preclude getting the new plants planted.

 

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1 March: Gearhart, Seaside, Astoria

Saturday, 1 March 2014

Allan had gone to breakfast with J9 at the Long Beach Grange.

breakfast with J9 at the Grange

home

I slept longer and then took a stroll out to the bogsy wood.

It had definitely begun to dry out…

I wanted to see some frogs in the bog but they were all hiding.

Many the crab pot was stacked next door.

I made another attempt at the crocus photo in the front garden.

the crocus run

also: narcissi

crocus and hellebores

more hellebores

and more

tulips and narcissi

Allan’s garden

After my garden walk, I called Allan to suggest that we go overseas (to Oregon) rather than work, as the grey day’s weather was changing to drizzle. The work board still had some first time clean ups on the list (and I had forgotten to add the Red Barn).

skiving off from the work board

Back Alley Gardens in Gearhart

After his breakfast, which of course had taken place at about 11 AM, Allan and I headed over the bridge toward Gearhart and our favourite north Oregon coast nursery, Back Alley Gardens.

Back Alley and The Natural Nook, formerly Fitzgeralds

March 1st at Back Alley

on the deck

a charming primula

double primula

inside the adjoining Natural Nook gift shop

The Natural Nook

We were so busy visiting with Pam and Prissy that we almost forgot our mission to buy a spare Birds Be Safe collar. Fortunately, Allan saw them after we had rung up our assortment of exciting hellebores and wee conifers.

see birdsbesafe.com

Now look! There, to the left, is the new Ducly Mahar book and I did not even notice it till now.

Pam’s Gardens in Seaside

After visiting with Pamela Fleming of Back Alley, also the gardener for Seaside, Oregon, we made our usual detour down Broadway to check out her curbside gardens. The photos are strangely composed and blurred because we were on the move. We always used to tour these gardens by car even before we met Pam in person. They never fail to impress.

nicely mulched, with amber Heucheras

 

an impressionistic blur by the river bridge

driving west on Broadway with gardens ahead

ever westward

one of a few big, welcoming sit spots

thick clumps of narcissi

Seaside’s famous Candy Man (handing out samples from the Candy Man store)

the western end

hydrangeas on the shady side, with nary a weed

Seaside 7 Dees

While I had gotten some extra choice small hellebores from Back Alley that will bloom next year, I still was on a quest for larger ones in bloom now. When we arrived at 7 Dees (part of a Portland-based chain), blooming hellebores awaited us along with something very exciting, indeed, breathtaking: Edgeworthias!

Hellebores and Edgeworthias

more Edgeworthias inside!

I think I got the only one of this colour: Edgeworthia chrysantha Rubra

(The tag says Edgeworthia c. Rubra, which I assume is chrysantha, which is I believe supposed to have larger flowers, but Google tells me it’s Edgeworthia papyrifera Rubra.)

and I got myself this Edgeworthia papyrifera

I was so very chuffed to find these. I used to have a precious Edgeworthia chrysantha; it had been brought to me on the train from Seattle to a Seaside spring garden seminar by none other than my gardening idol Ann Lovejoy. I adored it in my old garden and of course had to try to move it to my new one, and killed it. All I have left is one little branch; I had used its carcass, painted purple, as garden decor till it disintegrated. While these won’t have the emotional attachment for me, at least I have the excellent winter blooming shrub again.

mine! waiting to be rung up

and a pretty and fragrant wallflower came along, too…

Last year I would not have been able to buy such shrubs as we then shopped in the small two door Saturn. Look at us now!

While shopping at 7 Dees, I’d gotten a text from our friend Jenna (Queen La De Da)informing me she was on her way to Olde Towne Café in Ilwaco. When I told her we were at 7 Dees she asked if they had any of “those swirly trees”…and so we were even able to fit THIS into the van for her new shop, along with all our plants, with room to spare.

would not have fit in the Saturn!

Astoria

One of the glories of the day was not having to buy frozen food at Costco; Allan had shopped on his own earlier in the week. Thus we were able to have an early dinner in Astoria. We chose Blue Ocean Thai.

Blue Ocean Thai at the west end of Commercial

The ambience of the restaurant is perhaps a little lacking.

a big sparse room

Allan pointed out that the chandelier’s shape reminded him of an Allium.

Allium shaped chandelier

The food was exquisite. I wish the Thai restaurant that is closer to us was this good. I almost wept with joy; it had been years since I had Thai food of this quality.

so delicious

Top left: cucumber salad… The Larb Gai (bottom) was served at a cool temperature, as it should be. The Pad Prik King (green bean dish, top right) and Allan’s dish with peanut sauce filled me with joy, and there were leftovers for later.

After dinner we had a quick look, in the uncomfortably chilly dusk, at the Garden of Surging Waves. The ropes that kept us from going in last time have been removed from the new Chinese Heritage garden and many more plants added.

now open to the public

my favourite part: the wall of words

More words: metal tables (or benches?) inserted into the wall inscribed with quotations:

The last time we had looked at this garden, a big 7 Dees truck delivery truck had been parked nearby. And here, in the garden today, we saw several Edgeworthias (Chinese paper bush, so perfect for this garden’s theme). Maybe that is why they had been available for me to buy at the Seaside garden store.

Edgeworthia

home

My lovely plant haul, photographed the next day:

I had just seen Ciscoe rave about the Brazleberry on telly.

Hellebores small (very collectible) and large

I am still taking Pam’s advice and adding more columnar conifers.

Back Alley had two tables of fabulous Xera plants.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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July 27: après garden tour fun: Seaside

After the Gearhart garden tour….and a visit to Back Alley Gardens…and a stop at the adorable Java Reef coffee drive through….we did our traditional Seaside drive on Broadway out to the turnaround and back to admire Pam Fleming’s public gardens.  You can read all about how she themes gardens to match the businesses nearby in this article, and even more in this article by the excellent garden writer Kym Pykorny.  (The Oregonian recently and very foolishly laid Kym off and I am mad about that!)

The traffic on July 27th on the turnaround drag in Seaside was so thick that all the photos are taken from our car, sometimes while it was in (slow) motion….no place to park, not much room to walk around.

out my window as we drive west

another of Pam’s gardens, north side of street, driving west

Helenium by the river bridge

Outside a tavern is an especially difficult spot to have a garden!

outside the Bridge Tender Tavern

another, still driving west

lovely gardens on both sides of the street

The truck we were following had some rather rude bumper stickers, and one that said “Parents shouldn’t be on Facebook.”  Presumptuous young whippersnapper!

south side, heading west

south side, heading west

Allan’s photo of one of the gardens

I remember when these gardens were almost all beach pines (as mentioned in Kym Pykorny’s article).  They are so much better now!  I wish I had gardens this size to work with under the street trees in Long Beach, but I do need to pay more attention to planting cool things in our street tree gardens.  (They are a pain to water; these have irrigation.  That’s my feeble excuse.  Also I made the mistake of planting the damnable Geranium ‘A.T. Johnson’.)

beautiful

more beauty

window and mirror view, north side

Wait, could that variegated plant be the one for which Teresa from Planter Box was seeking an ID??  Looks like a variegated elderberry, maybe.

hmmm

longer view…and traffic

north side…I think I see a Sanguisorba!

Suddenly the traffic moved! blurry but beautiful

and then we come to the turnaround, looking north

There is a garden in the center of the turnaround but it is low (due to wind) as I recall, with sea thrift and maybe artemesia, and so I failed to get a photo of it.

turnaround, looking south

huge buildings at west end of Broadway.  (Looking south)

You can get a sense of the size of the huge buildings that went up in the last few years and made the north side gardens more of a challenge.

As always, we were impressed with Pam’s gardens.

Next, we went to 7 Dees garden center a little ways south of Seaside.  There, we saw a price on a gallon of mondo grass that made us think of how a former client of ours has pots and pots of them extra from her garden re-do!

for Rita

Eryngium ‘Jade Frost’ for sale backed with Echinops ‘Arctic Glow’

Agapanthus

For years, Agapanthus (lily of the Nile) was a plant name I had a terrible time remembering, till I associated it like this….It’s a mystery…Agatha Christie…Agapanthus!    Same with Strobilanthes atropurpureus, whose name always slipped my mind till I thought “Blue and white…like a strobe light…”

cute little planter

Why can’t I make cute little planters like these?  $44.99: I could be rich.

I never can get annual sweet potato vine to look good.

hanging baskets

A shout out to Nancy Aust of the Basket Case Greenhouse:  I think her baskets are better.  (Still impressed by the potato vines, thought.)

7 Dees quotation board

After 7 Dees and the usual Costco grocery shopping, I checked on the plant section at Fred Meyer in Warrenton.  How surprising it is to see plants I used to find only at places like Joy Creek Nursery.

Leycesteria ‘Jealousy’

I bought a few more “edibles” because of the upcoming edible tour and snapped up one of each of a reasonably priced and astonishing find: some plants from the collectible Terra Nova nursery!  The plant buyer at Fred Meyer sometimes gets some wonderful stuff.

Terra Nova treasures

Finally, across the bridge to Washington state…

bridge view upriver

…after a day filled with fun and garden treasures.

Next: a blog blast through two weeks  to catch up to the edible garden tour day!

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