In July, right after visiting the Northwest Perennial Alliance open gardens of Tia Scarce, Trang Tu, and Sondra Shira, Alison and I had the pleasure of visiting the garden of Karen and Larry Decker. The description in the tour book says that it's a half acre property but perhaps because of the clever planting schemes and division of the garden, it seemed much larger to me.
The front garden, full of gorgeous perennial blooms, screams welcome!
The garden is full of great looking seating areas like this one but looking at how well kept the garden is, I wonder if the Deckers actually get to do much sitting and enjoying. (Little side note here. It was at this point in my posting process that google plus, formerly picasa removed the edit feature from their site. No cropping, no fixing the glare, no doing fun processing on some pictures. I spent way too long trying to figure out how to reconfigure the tool bar and thinking that I'd done something to mess things up before I noticed that others were making comments about this change on a google plus user group site. If you're a google plus/ picasa user, have you noticed this?)
More in the front garden. The hydrangeas on the right are truly an amazing electric blue color. Sorry that the son got them. Alison seems to be enjoying the garden.
The urn stand looks like an upside down bird bath base. I think it's a perfect pairing and shows that you shouldn't be too hasty to throw things away!
Clever incorporation of maple foliage with some shady characters.
We've come around the side of the house and are walking toward the back of the property and now looking at the back of the house through great beds full of happy blooms and interesting textures.
The paths lead visitors through a floral wonderland.
I'll be quiet and let you enjoy the garden.
Sweet.
So many restful destinations and lovely views to contemplate. I could live in this garden!
Hooray! A greenhouse.
Double hooray - a greenhouse that's being used!
Is it strange that this was one of my favorite things (there were many) in the garden? Can we all relate?
We had a delightful time sitting on this beautiful deck chatting with the gardeners. Mr. Decker built all of the outbuildings, decks, trellises, bridges, etc. himself. Meeting other passionate gardeners is a wonderful part of these tours and I always enjoy getting to know the people whose versions of Eden we've just toured.
There's nothing like having big beautiful trees as a backdrop!
Happy labor day to those of you in the U.S.
My favorite type of garden is one like this that reveals the owner's personality and speaks of a gardener's care at every turn. As you say the seating must be for guests. Of course I'm sure they find caring for such a beautiful garden to be relaxing.
ReplyDeleteLove the bin of plant tags.
I hadn't noticed the edit was missing from picasa, I'll check that. I do most of my editing before uploading.
I always love touring gardens and especially meeting the gardeners. The Deckers seemed to enjoy talking about gardening and we sure had fun sitting with them and hearing about their experiences. They spend a lot of time working in the garden but they say that they also spend time sitting and enjoying their creation - a nice balance.
DeleteEdit is still enabled on Picasa but has been removed from Google Plus Albums. I've played with Picasa editing today and can do many of the same things but Google would simply replace the original photos with the edits whereas Picasa puts the edits in files on the desktop so there are two places from which to upload. I'll do more reading about Picasa and will get better with it but their cropping is not as flexible as Google plus's was. Don't know what Google Plus was thinking with this "new and improved" business.
I could live here, too! I ♥ destinations and wish I had more of them :)
ReplyDeleteAnd sorry about your picasa. I'd be lost w/o it!
Makes me kind of glad I never converted to google plus in spite of persistent invitations...
I've been toying with the idea of a greenhouse - of a make-shift type. Don't know if I'm serious enough about my gardening to actually USE it - and as you say, that IS the delight of Karen & Larry's...
Believe me, I will NOT pass up a discarded bird bath the next time I see one!!!! Kind of makes me want to go out and break ours!
I loved this garden and for some reason forgot to include a picture of their cute ducks that were waddling around the place. I'm learning how to use Picasa now. It's just enough different that it's still frustrating to use it but that'll get better.
DeleteYou'll find a broken birdbath on the side of the road next to some garbage cans one of these days!
Wow, it's hard to believe that that's only a half acre, it seems to go on forever! I wonder if they do all the work themselves, it looks like it would be a full time job to keep such a large, intensively planted area so well groomed and under control.
ReplyDeleteThey do it themselves. She works at home so doesn't have to worry about a commute or dressing in clothes other than her garden togs and I believe he's newly retired. They spend hours out there but, like many of us, they enjoy it.
DeleteIt pays to read a post from A to Z: now, I know that those fuchsia berries are edible! The garden is beautiful! I love all the small details and the variety of plants. What is that zebra path in the 3rd picture from the buttom? Interesting!
ReplyDeleteThank you!
It has been so much fun visiting all of the fabulous gardens on the NPA tour this summer! I'm so glad I finally joined! The zebra path didn't really look quite so zebra like in real life. It's rectangular pavers with soil between.
DeleteLoved the shot of the plant tags!
ReplyDeleteI am clueless about how Google-plus and Picasa play together but I can say that I'm still using Picasa3 straight from my laptop not problems/no changes. Perhaps you just need to download another version? (she says not really having any idea what that means but thinking it sounds good)...
Seeing that so hit home with me and probably many others. What to do with all of those tags? I know that some people have cool notebooks full of them with carefully written notes about each plant, others use plastic sleeves. I'm fairly random although I have a 4x6 card file in which I've arranged them alphabetically. This works well until lots of new tags are sitting in a heap on top and don't get filed any more. I'm sure that some folks keep meticulous lists and records online.
DeletePicasa is fine and the editing tools are similar enough to Google Plus that it's not a huge deal. The problem now is how the storage and retrieval system works - totally different from Google Plus. Google Plus has taken down their Creative Kit, the editing tools that I loved and were really simple. So I'll learn but it will take a while longer to do things for a little bit.
How lovely! that is a LOT of garden in a limited amount of space. I love all the different areas. Love the shot with the plant tags. I have an empty pot on my bench that is filled just like that. great post Peter
ReplyDeleteThey clearly love plants and spending time in their garden! This garden was full of color, joy and whimsey!
DeleteThis is clearly a well-loved and tended garden. In addition to the plant tags shot (and of course all the plants!) I loved the picture of the well-used garden tools arrayed on the shed wall. They have seen a wonderful lot of gardening!
ReplyDeleteSo many beautiful views, plants, things in this garden! The only thing nicer was the Deckers themselves!
DeleteI DID enjoy this garden earlier this year, visiting with you and with the Deckers. I really enjoyed seeing it again here in your post, and seeing things I had forgotten about. I thought about you this weekend, we stayed in a bed and breakfast, and the owners garnished the morning pastry plates with fuchsia flowers.
ReplyDeleteWill you be posting about your B & B experience? Where did you go? Don't know why I like fuchsias so much. They're such easy care plants and the show is long-lasting. In mild years we still have them blooming in December!
DeleteI was so confused about why this garden looked so familiar . . . then I remembered that Alison toured this too. I love the tree face, the bucket of tags, and all the beautiful vignettes.
ReplyDeleteRight you are, another A & P adventure in a fun garden.
DeleteA pretty and well loved garden oozing with personality. We do love your garden visits, inspiring places and you always pick an idea or two from them :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for coming along on the garden visits! It's always more fun knowing that you can share the experience with other avid gardeners.
DeleteI'm heading right out to nibble on fuchsia berries, if I can fend off the hummers long enough.
ReplyDeleteCiscoe Morris recommends not eating them from commercially grown fuchsias until you've had them for at least a couple of years to allow any pesticides that may have been used to fully dissipate.
DeleteIt's fun to see how others "see" the same garden and photograph it. We all have different perspectives. My photo tour of this garden is here: http://lindaletters.blogspot.com/2013/07/another-open-garden.html
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link Linda. You're right, it's always interesting to tour gardens through a variety of lenses!
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