sprig to twig

OK, all you townies who are ending the season less than satiated…here’s the deal. Joy Creek Nursery is open through the end of October, with all plants at least 20% off, and some as much as half off. I discovered this only because when our friends from Denver oohed and aahed over our garden, I decided to show them the real deal. We popped on over (it is only 5 miles from home) to stroll through the extensive display gardens. These friends are not real gardeners, so you can imagine my frustration when we whipped through the paths, and dashed for the car when the first raindrops hit. A puzzled employee wondered what was up, and that was when I learned of the deals to be had. I would have gone back anyway, just to enjoy the gardens at my leisure.

A long view of one of many paths.

A bamboo grove marks the entry

Within the grove, this seat invites contemplation. The last time I was here, several children were playing house in this imagination-inducing enclosure.

The puffball seedheads of the clematis are weaving their way through the grass on the left.

And another shot with the grass as the star.

I have one of these ‘Thunderhead’ pines…hope it will look like this one day.

The variegated pieris virtually sparkled in the late season sun.

Love the way the two heathers become one, for a bi-color spill over the boulders containing the raised bed.

Design ideas abound in these gardens.

Here is what came home with me. Panicum virgatum ‘Heavy Metal’, on the left. Ceanothus impressus ‘Vandenberg’ will go in the evergreen border developing along the driveway. Three little Cornus canadensis will be added to the woodland where the one planted last year is spreading nicely. Yucca ‘Bright Edge’ will go into the dry berm where the agave conked out. (Don’t worry, Loree…there will still be room for an agave in the spring. Fuchsia mag. v. m. ‘Tricolor’ was a knockout in the border, and guess what! The last one available was half price.

Sequoia sempervirens is a gift to Richard to add to his sequoia “collection”. It will sprawl massively and obliterate its share of the dreaded “lawn”.

We just got back from a few days at the beach, sharing a condo with lifelong friends that we rarely get to see. It was a gorgeous spot, as you can see. This shot was taken from the deck overlooking the ocean in Neskowin.

While others went golfing (not my thing), I took my camera on a walk around the town. There were giant phormiums everywhere.

While hydrangeas in town are doing the fading act, turning shades of russet, at the coast they are still in full swing.

The gunneras seem to thrive in a coastal climate.

I especially love the flights of fancy in coastal gardens. People here seem to take themselves less seriously and just let it all hang out.

Using materials at hand, this homeowner crafted a stone wall with a driftwood gate and large stone post caps.

This colorful cottage was only the beginning.

Its entry was a mosaic fashioned of colorful bottles. In a conversation with a neighbor we learned that each bottle was filled with sand, and yes, the whole area had been dug to a depth to accommodate the entire bottle, placed upside-down and then filled in with sand so that only the bottoms appear at the surface.

Here’s another view. Pretty neat, huh?

The bright red and blue paint job on this house looked right at home in this setting. Adirondak chairs on the porch were painted the same bright red.

A more restrained approach can exist cheek by jowl without looking out of place. Moral of story: at the beach, anything goes.

We had friends staying with us for a couple of nights, and we could not possibly have scheduled better entertainment than that provided by resident deer. The mom seemed to be trying to teach her young ‘uns to jump the fence. She would take a long, running approach, then float over it effortlessly. Standing on the other side, she would make encouraging gestures. The kids must have been the deer equivalent of teenagers, because they completely ignored her. They were gamboling (bouncing along as if on springs) between snacks.

Speaking of deer snacks, I adapted several formulas for discouraging their munching found on the internet. Here is what I came up with, and it seems to work:

Into a blender, crack an egg, throw in about 3 cloves of garlic and a handful of the hottest peppers you can find. Squirt in a little dishwashing soap and top off with water. Blend thoroughly. Strain through a fine mesh into a spray bottle and let stand for 24 hrs before spraying it onto the leaves of the plants to be protected. I keep the spray bottle in the refrigerator and replenish the spray each time it rains.

Apparently, the spray is most effective if used in the early spring. The new generation of deer will get the idea that these plants are distasteful and leave them alone. Every source seems to warn that new strategies will be needed over time, but this seems to be working for now. Two disclaimers: 1) once you have rendered the plants they have been feasting upon disgusting, they will move on to things they had never bothered before.  2) the stuff will leave you choking and gasping for air if you happen to breath it in.

The only final solution to the deer invasion is a very tall deer fence around an entire property…but then you would miss the show. An earlier post here describes an in-between measure to protect individual trees.

Whenever we go by Reed College, we admire the giant sequoias scattered around the campus. One of the nice things about having a good sized hunk of land is that we can indulge these fantasies with impunity. When we saw an ad in the paper (this was in ‘06) offering 100 giant sequoia seedlings for $60.00 it was irresistible. We drove out to the nursery and picked up a big bag of little twigs, of which we were advised at least half would fail. OK…fifty would more than do. We dug a couple of long trenches and heeled them in. A year later, probably about 70 of them had survived and were ready to be potted up in 1 gal pots. In ‘08 they moved into even roomier quarters and still our fail-rate was ahead of the curve.

In the spring of ‘09, Richard planted most of them in the ground. We gave a few away to friends and still have five or six in pots. They grow 2-3′ a year, so we will probably live to see them reach the size of the teenagers seen in the first photo…but not the mature height of 325′ with up to 30′ trunk diameter. In a couple more years they should begin to assume their fluffy blue-green coloration and perfectly conical shape.

R splurged on a Sequoiadendron giganteum ‘Pendulum’ this summer. You can see how parts of it are beginning to droop. It must be staked early on to maintain a generally erect habit. The quest for one of these began with a visit to the Oregon Garden, where the evergreen section features a circle of huge stones and weeping cedars. The overall effect is of a confab of druids. We’ll be looking for some of those cedars next.

The Dawn Redwood Metasequoia glyptostroboides is deciduous, and another fast grower. Yep, them’s blackberries in the background. After doing battle with them for several years, our latest scheme is to crowd them out.

A close-up gives you some idea about the silky, fresh look of the needles, which will soon bronze up and then fall.