Sunday, 26 July 2015
Only for something like this would I get up at 6 AM!
Allan’s photo: Todd and I and  Melissa and Dave arrive for tour.  The North Beach Garden Gang!
Other members not shown: Steve and John and Garden Tour Nancy!
The four of us were early so we took ourselves on a tour around a block’s worth of Pam’s gardens.
I love the arbor benches.
lobelia laxiflora
lobelia laxiflora and variegated houttuynia
I wondered about the handsome but peskily invasive “hot tuna plant”; later, Pam said that she had inherited patches of it and that she worked with it; it looks excellent in the areas where it is allowed to appear.
Todd giving a garden a good look-over.
Now I want a few big rocks in my Long Beach tree gardens.
I’ve never thought of using a mass of variegated annual geranium at ground level. Looks handsome and striking.
a hebe skirting a hardy fuchsia
One thing I already noticed and deeply envied, and continued to envy throughout the tour:  Pam is allowed to have height.  All my Ilwaco curbside gardens have to be so darn short, which cuts down on their visual impact compared to these.  There is one big different: Broadway in Seaside doesn’t have numerous driveways coming out onto the street, and most of the traffic is one way.  The other thing I immediately envied was the lushness due to irrigation (which I have in the Long Beach parks but not in the tree gardens).  Todd said that my tree gardens are also smaller without as much root run space.  All true.  But enough about me and my envy…for now.
The river that runs through Seaside. We learned that businesses have added their own baskets, inspired by the ones Pam does for the city. These baskets are by the businesses on the river walkway.
the bridge over the river
helenium
luscious use of Stachys (lambs ears) for silver edges.
more lambs ears
irrigation = happy astilbe
ok…irrigation envy
low plants here where the sidewalk swoops out
looking south down the river
also tree envy….Pam gets to use a variety of interesting small trees, as you will see during the tour.
tree envy!!! Â Long Beach and Ilwaco both have the same tree, columnar pear, over and oever and over.
Todd, Melissa, and Dave
By now it was 8 AM and we entered the Beach Books store.
Right behind us, Nancy (behind the shelves), Phil, and Steve and John. (Allan’s photo)
The lecture was in the loft of the bookstore.
I agree with this poster on the wall.
It was not until we had our breakfasts on our plates (yummy eggs and potatoes) and the small audience began introducing ourselves that it was realized that there were nine of us from the Long Beach Peninsula and we were asked if we were a garden club.  Well, why not?
Pam ready for her lecture
my lecture notes
Pam said that she thinks of all her Seaside gardens as “managing a big estate”. Â There are over 100 garden beds and the 123Â baskets for which she chooses the flowers. Â She is renowned for choosing garden themes based on the adjacent businesses, which is complicated when businesses change, as there is an apothecary garden in front of the bookstore that used to be a pharmacy. Â For the apothecery garden, she used Phygelius (which is said to be used in voodoo) and Chaste Tree and Salix (willow) whose bark was used for headaches. Â She plants edible gardens in front of restaurants and has some other themes that we will learn about on the walking tour.
“I like to honor this town. Â I love my town,” she says, as she shows us slides of the history of the gardens and of the town. Â One especially striking photo shows townhouse lights reflected in the river at night.
She uses mass of color on the street side of the garden beds and more intricate detail on the sidewalk side, and she uses echoing colours because the beds are small. Â The gardens are not at all plagued by deer. Â (I envy that!)
One year, when the lighting was redone and all the gardens ripped out and replanted, she broke her foot and had to direct and point.
Regarding the baskets, she said that the baskets themselves are much larger than at home baskets, which is why the flower displays get so large. Â Smaller home baskets run out of soil for the roots sooner. Â She has a water truck with which she waters the baskets daily with a mild fertilizer solution. Â The baskets become hydroponic after the roots have completely filled them. Â Inspired by her baskets, more of the town stepped up to beautify with their own baskets like the walkway along the river. Â The baskets are taken down in mid September after the last big tourist event.
One of the audience members said “I’ve admired your gardens for years and years and thought it must be a fairy princess who planted them.”
Of course she gets a lot of the same questions we do, including “What’s that plant?’, and she knows according to the time of year which plant people will be asking about.
Now…come on Pam’s guided walk through town.
We were joined by Teresa (right, with Dave and Melissa), owner of the Planter Box garden center, making 10 of us from the Long Beach Peninsula.
Teresa’s exceptionally cute shoes.
Pam talked about each garden bed from Beach Books all the way to the turn around.
Drinking fountains incorporated into the bench gardens.
Pam has had an excellent performance out of this particular eucomis.
Later in the day, I bought myself one at Seaside 7 Dees.
Nancy admires the lavender. Pam said she finds clumps of lavender flowers missing where people picked bouquets, and of course she notices.
Lavender and heucheras
an attentive audience
a mass of red nicotiana
silver lining
She thinks about colour coordination with the buildings.
You can bet I was experiencing envy about her wide selection of interesting small trees.
Cotinus (smoke bush), as I feel envy about her being able to use tall plants!!
Cotinus and rudbeckia
rock shapes, plant shapes, echoes
Pam and her plants
Seaside architecture at the main intersection
annual geranium used for foliar effect.
I am sold on the variegated annual geranium leaves.
The handsome benches are not for a bus stop, just for a good sit spot.
a sweet windowbox at a restaurant
astilbes, made happy by irrigation
by the river bridge
one of the tinier gardens
looking east from the bridge
variegation echo
The Bridge Tender Tavern
Once someone repeatedly threw a bicycle onto the garden by the Bridge Tender, and then picked the bike up and threw it in the river.
She likes to plant nicotiana, smoke bush, and thyme as plant puns by the tavern, along with an African daisy with a dizzying whirligig pattern (which she was unable to acquire this year).
Pam and one of the gardens by the Bridge Tender
In one of the beds, there is a barberry for plant self-defense.
Steve admiring the leaves of Ballota dictamnus
bench envy!!
We are all fascinated with each and every garden bed.
edible plants in the restaurant garden include herbs, edible flowers
fennel and oregano
Nancy taking photos
This girl, daughter of an adjacent business owner, has been swinging on this tree since she was little.
It’s her climbing tree.
Monarda, one that doesn’t get mildew, under a limbed up rhododendron (pretty sure)
another good rock
The Pig and Pancake garden must be partly edible.
borage and herbs
narrow one way street going toward the turn around
Pam embraces her gardens.
cute fire hydrant
Verbena bonariensis towering over a garden bed (good see through plant)
Hydrangea and rudbeckia
Acer griseum
Paperbark maple gives me deep deep tree envy.
sigh…
Allan’s photo
In Seaside, the business owners don’t seem to squawk about tall plants.
Pam and a golden Leycesteria
Sambucus (elderberry) as a small tree. Â I love the variety.
appreciating trees
I never realized before how delightfully TALL Pam’s gardens are allowed to be, because usually we only have time to look at them in early spring before they are fully leafed out and grown.
clipped box next to a business that evoked a formal feeling (can’t recall why)
hot colours by a hot coloured  store
closer
sanguisorba looking happy from enough moisture
echoing the blue building
columnar barberry to defend this garden
chocolate colours for a candy store
with chocolate cosmos
chocolate garden with a lovely small tree
view east to the hills
We took a detour down a wide pedestrian side street.
a pedestrian walkway with gardens
Hebe and lobelia laxiflora
lace cap hydrangea
Allan’s photo
garden plaza
Pam told us that there was a dance hall here and back in the day, people would dance outside here.
Pam, Steve, and some gooseneck loosestrife
Hmm, I used to have gooseneck loosestrife and this reminds me of how charming it is. Â I happen to know that Steve and John have some, so when their patch of it sizes up, as it will, I will hope for a small division for my garden.
Lysimachia clethroides in a contained pocket
Asclepias incarnata: I want!
Nancy’s spouse, Phil, admires a hardy fuchsia.
If Nancy wants some of these fuchsias for her garden, I have some to share.
Pam with a golden lonicera (boxleaf honeysuckle)
Joe Pye weed
We return to the gardens on Broadway.
Hydrangea Cityline Mars…Wow!
Pam says it will likely be blue next year. Â (I believe I espy an Agastache behind it.)
Also Monarda, and an Ibiris named ‘Masterpiece’ which is a great doer in Pam’s gardens.
another gorgeous combination
Pam describes using fun colours…
for Funland.
that zingy geranium again
Basket Case Fred will be thrilled and amazed when I all of a sudden buy a bunch of those geraniums next year!
Osteospermum (African Daisy); this annual’s only flaw is that it needs a lot of deadheading.
hostas
As we walk west, Broadway widens into a two way street.
Hydrangea ‘Pistachio’
Allan’s photo
fuchsias
Pam desribes how she uses bagged Gardner and Bloome Soil Building Compost nowadays, as it is quick and easy to apply and more nurturing than bulk mulch.
also known as Gardner and Bloome Soil Building Conditioner
getting closer to the beach: more wind, water runoff, and erosion
tough grasses where nothing else worked
high wall of the Worldmark Resort as we are almost to the turnaround
Out here the hydrangeas get so beat up they have to be pruned so low they might not bloom.
the turnaround
The toughest of plants go out here.
view to the south
in full beach weather
The silver heather is ‘Velvet Fascination’
oh my gosh…what the beach approach garden could be with irrigation
Armeria, Artemisia
looking east
gathering for a photo
For good luck, people rub the nose of Seamam, Lewis and Clark’s Newfoundland dog.
His nose is shiny.
Allan’s photo
I am envious that this garden does not get thoroughly trampled like my beach approach garden was before I turned it over to Rugosa roses. Â I wonder why? Â Maybe it is because of all the eyes of the building upon it…or that is is lusher because of the irrigation. Â When a tour bus drove into it, someone from one of the adjacent buildings photographed it and got the license number!
We walk east along Broadway, admiring the gardens some more along the way, as I am sure you will want to, as well.
garden with a lovely irrigation spout
the clipped boxwood garden
crossing the river bridge
Pam by a store with a Chinese lucky cat in the window
an an Asian style garden next to it.
mosaics and window boxes
Allan’s photo
another look at the Eucomis
I am completely gobsmacked by how good all these gardens look in summer, and despite waves of irrigation envy and tree envy, I enjoyed the tour thoroughly.
Next: an apres-tour lunch, some plant shopping, and a visit to Pam’s own garden.
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