Sunday, 13 July 2014
Garden Bloggers Fling, Portland
Sunday’s well-worn itinerary
leaving the hotel….There’s my favourite bus driver Andy, but ooooooh, drat, he was driving the other bus!
Here we go! (Allan’s photo)
Our bus, with a perfectly nice driver (but not Andy!) took us into a lovely treed Portland neighbourhood.
just one of the handsome houses we passed
The streets were enclosed by a green tunnel of trees. Our driver told us that the bus drivers carry a stepladder and loppers to clear the way of low hanging branches if need be, if the city has not limbed them up.
street trees of Portland
He said one bus company in particular has a strict policy that drivers must not allow the tops of the buses to be scratched by low hanging branches.
I asked him if he was joking but he swore he was telling the absolute truth!
Ernst/Fuller Gardens
Bloggers gather below Linda’s house.
Ernst house
to my left, pots on top of the garage
Allan’s photo
further to the right, the front of the Fuller house
I remain covetous of these transparent privacy panels.
in front of the Fuller house
partway up the Ernst driveway, looking across the front of the two houses
the brightest of red daylilies in Linda’s garden
I remember this huge Azara microphylla on the corner of the Ernst house.
Ernst garden foliage
Allan’s photo
Linda’s garden is an extra half lot wide and this area is to the right of the driveway.
one of many sit spots
Both gardeners are skilled at placing focal points.
a frilly little poppy
still in the Ernst garden side yard
in the corner of a small lawn
Allan’s photo
looking back toward the street
and away from the street from the lawn to a little courtyard (still all next to the driveway and garage!)
just outside the courtyard of colourfulness
bright zinnias and marigolds
gold hosta and coleus
ladies in waiting on a storage shed roof to the garage side of the courtyard
I learned the new term “ladies in waiting” for unpotted plants from (I think) one of the Austin bloggers.
table in the little courtyard
in front of the garage
container to the right of previous photo
I sat here for a spell.
Linda’s spouse said the garage has not been used for a car in years; because the area is all planted with containers, it could be changed back to a car garage if need be.
Awww…in the back door of the house.
where the car lives?
Allan’s photo
Allan thinks the car must live in a garage because it is so impeccably clean and shiny.
beside the driveway
vine support
Now we’ll enter the patio and garden behind the Ernst house.
in Linda’s back garden
the neighbourly door
next to the garage
beds of colour
and a water feature
perfectly level to create a sheet of water
subtle colours in the corner
on the patio table
Between the two gardens, a privacy wall and a friendly door.
I like the combination of privacy and friendship here.
Allan’s photo with Mark from England
mossy lion by the neighbour door
Allan’s photo
Through the door into Joanne Fuller’s garden:
Allan’s photo
a Jeffrey Bale mosaic; garden owner Joanne in dress, with Loree of Danger Garden and Neil Jones from England.
just to the left of the mosaic, sculptures from Glass Gardens of Mukilteo
further to the left, a nook by the back door, Little and Lewis columns
love the colours
Allan’s photo
a bubble of water
Allan’s photo
ahead, a step up onto a patio
the curtained nook from the deck
deck seating
and a hospitality center
Allan’s photo
at ground level, a fire circle (the deck is behind it)
Allan’s photo
Allan’s photo
Allan’s photo
Allan’s photo
Allan’s photo
The neighbour’s yard on the other side is all bindweed…trying to creep through.
sea of bindweed next door
This reminds me of how bindweed is creeping into my garden from Nora’s side!
other side of bamboo deck screen
more glass enhancing a corner
gate to the side walkway
Allan’s photo
Allan’s photo
I wish this meter hiding thingie was in focus
Yay for Allan! He got it!
Allan’s photo, looking back
around the corner into the front garden
that translucent privacy solution
gentle curve along the front of the Fuller house
hostas and ferns
on top of the garage
and on the porch
more bamboo screening (between the two porches?)
across the front of the Linda Ernst house
The driveway up which we entered is in sight again.
the Ernst front porch
Allan’s photo
and back to the driveway
I made the whole circuit around the gardens twice, so let’s hit the high spots again.
the huge Azara microphylla at the corner of the house!
the side garden
the lilies!
Patio of Colours!
driveway garden!
that smooth sheet of water that you just have to touch.
Linda’s back door sit spot
bloggers still chatting
privacy walls
Joanne’s glass swirls and curtained nook
Joanne’s exuberant foliar jungle
Back down on the sidewalk:
the two houses
Quite tired, I have a seat on Joanne’s stairs.
my view to the left
and to the right
and up into a street tree
I don’t sit for long before I realize there is discussion going on at the next door parking strip. I had admired it earlier and had assumed it belonged to the neighbours there, even though it did not seem to fit with the rest of their yard.
next door parking strip
Joanne, whose garden is mostly shady, is using it to grow sunny plants!
parking strip lilies
Allan’s photo
Allan’s photo
Here’s the fling preview about these two gardens.
I’ve been to these gardens twice before, and as far back as 2007 (when I saw it during a Hardy Plant Study Weekend) I mentioned briefly the enviability of having a gardening neighbour right next door.
In 2011, I revisited it during the next Portland study weekend and again rhapsodized about gardening neighbours.
It was something I had wished for since I began gardening in earnest in my thirties; I am still holding onto the dream that a gardening neighbour might move in right next door if the house to the west of us (now empty after the passing of our elderly and beloved Nora) ever goes up for sale. However, I am almost 60, so it had better happen soon if it ever does.
I thought I had a close gardening friend nearby; even visiting back and forth from a few doors away was a lot of fun before things went wrong (and made my heart sore). The idyllic dream of an adjoining garden and a gardener right next door with a friendly neighbour gate between still lives on in my heart, inspired by the book Gardening from the Heart: Why Gardeners Garden. In my fantasy, she or he or they share the same plant nuttiness that I do, we could enjoy views of each other’s gardens, and maybe even share a kitchen garden outside my back garage door.
You can bet that if the house ever does go on the market, I will be urgently sharing the listing in the gardening community online. I’m accustomed to close friendships lasting for 10-40 years (depending on how long ago we met!), so it would not be a risky proposition. I do think it helps if friends are of the same economic class, though, so I am glad it’s not a mansion next door! (GBLT friendly please and no tea partiers except for actual garden tea parties!)
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