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Although this could very well be a picture of me finding a new treasure at a favorite nursery, it's actually an illustration by David Catrow for a children's book called Plantzilla.

Thursday, September 5, 2013

The Garden of Tom and Linda Reeder

 

 
While blogging builds virtual communities that sometimes become actual face to face communities, the activity of blogging itself is a solitary pursuit, much like gardening.    We read the blogs of others leaving comments and replying to comments left on our blogs.  Conversations in solitude.    What does this have to do with the garden we're about to tour?  Read on and find out.

Sadly, my pictures of this garden do not do it justice.  Approaching the front entrance to the house, the first thing I noticed was the gorgeous and huge Pelargonum 'Indian Princess' on the left.  Yes you could see it better if I edited some of the sun out of this image but I did it three times and  lost where it was saved on my computer.  (Yes I'm still mad at Google Plus for removing the Creative Kit editing tools which I loved!)

Walking to the right side of the house we are enveloped in a beautiful grove of mature fir and cedar trees creating wonderful high shade and making us feel safe beneath their protection.  The shade garden is home to a restful seating area and a few of the many bonsai trees in the Reeder collection.  
 
A wisteria supporting pergola rounds out the deck very nicely!
 
 
You never know who'll you'll run into in the forest!


See what I mean?  Ever the optimist, Alison searches for fish in the dry creek bed. She'd still be out there looking now  if we hadn't told her that it was time to go.


There were some unexpected critters lurking around like several of these fused glass bugs.
 
 
Coming around the back of the house we emerge from the woods into the sunny gardens.  The Reeders are collectors of many interesting things and masters at displaying their collections.  Can you imagine the gallons of water that have passed through these sprinklers and nozzles?   It's a sweet  thing to think of the gardeners' hands that touched these devices, the dreams they dreamed, the gardens they grew. 

Gorgeous color and texture combination with no flowers necessary, although there are some.


Great Ant Phyllis made it out to greet us.
Lovebirds Tom and Linda Reeder have lived in this property for 35 years.  Both retired teachers and both avid gardeners.

These cool everlasting alliums caught my eye.  Linda told me that they are available at Gardeners' Supply Company.  I was thrilled as G.S. was a sponsor of the Garden Bloggers Fling that many of us were able to attend earlier this year.

So many fun touches in this garden.  The Reeders' grandchildren must love to play in this magical place.
Simply beautiful!
 
Drool worthy colors on this hydrangea made me happy to be there to experience it!


Glass flowers in the garden are quite a trend in our area and I have been making them for a while now using a diamond drill bit to cut holes in the glass pieces and using threaded metal  cylinders and nuts to hold the things together, a tedious process. 
Linda came up with this much easier, much more enjoyable method.  Simply use silicone to glue the parts together and use a long bud vase or bottle on the back side.  Bend rebar and slide the bud vase over it.  That takes away a lot of the tedium and mess of drilling!  Thanks for teaching me something new!

That was a delightful  surprise but not the big one.






O.K. since I have the mentality of an eight year old Because  I possess an endearing child-like exuberance I found it hilarious that Mrs. Reeder had been a reading specialist.  You're not laughing.  I assure that this would have been quite a hit with younger audiences.


Tom made this potting bench from free wood from pallets.

This Pregnant Onion (Albuca bracteata) was in full and glorious bloom.  Did the bad blogger get any pictures of this interesting plant's fabulous flowers?  Of course not. 



 
I can hear you asking yourself what the big surprise was.  Here goes.  Alison and I asked if it was o.k. to take pictures  and Linda responded affirmatively saying that she took pictures of gardens all the time and posted them on her blog!  WOW! An encounter with another Washington garden blogger and a chance to be introduced to a wonderful blog!  At  http://lindaletters.blogspot.com/ Linda writes not only about gardening but about her travels and adventures with her family.   Reading her blog each day fills me with warm feelings about my own family and makes me wish that we lived closer together.  I'm also in awe of all the interesting and fun things Linda and Tom do!   
During the open garden, the Reeders' daughter and grand daughter were there and the latter was running a little nursery business with plants from grandma's garden. Adorable! There you have it, a delightful garden, new learning, and a great new blog to read.  Who could ask for more from a garden visit?  You can check out Linda's blog post about her open garden here and Alison's post about our visit here.

Most often, bloggers meet after having read each others' blogs for a time.  In this case, an actual face to face meeting came first.   How fun is that? 

May your days be filled with delightful surprises!

29 comments:

  1. That was a fun day and such a great garden! And then of course meeting Linda and finding out about her blog was the cap to a great experience. I love all the great stuff she does and writes about on her blog too, it makes me jealous! I wish my family lived closer too. Looking forward to the day when Nigel retires. Thanks for the link to my post about her garden.

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    1. It was a great day of garden tours and this one was particularly special because of the blogging thing.

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  2. I loved this garden on Alison's post and now I get to visit again on your post. So many creative ideas, collections, and beautiful plants in a wonderful garden.

    Even more fun to discover another blog to read.

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    1. Glad you liked this garden. There were little surprises around every corner! The blog discovery made the visit all the more special!

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  3. Great garden with so many whimsical surprises. I have several of the "everlasting allium" in a front bed and motorists going by will often stop and ask "what are those flowers?" Love it!

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    1. Questions like that sure test the mettle of even the kindest sorts. One must steel herself for such inquiries.

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  4. You and Alison are loading up on lots of great memories to last you through the gray months.

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    1. Ah yes but the gray months seem to last much longer thant the bright warmth of summer.

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  5. People's names and their professions - lots of fun! You reminded me that I had a university psych prof who collected whimsical surname/occupation combos. Each semester he asked the new classes to add to his list. I donated a former high school classmate's father, Mr. Fawcett, a plumber by trade. Turns out there's a rather large number of people who "follow their name" in life.

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    1. Isn't that interesting! Who'd have known? Thanks for the fun story!

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  6. Great tour, thanks! I guess my biggest frustration is visiting a garden on a bright beautiful day and knowing that my photos have to be taken in the light of a bright day -- absolutely awful to convey the beauty of the place, not overcast, or at twilight or at dawn -- well you get the picture. One of the settings I wish my camera would have is "awful weather, but great photos". Oh well, you've done great at getting us all envious of your trip and the up close and personals. Thanks again!

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    1. It was a beautiful day and not great for garden photos. Even worse, I'm not learning very quickly about where to find my edited pictures since Google plus took away the editing feature so these are just the way they were taken.

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    1. When Alison and I go garden touring together, we try not to do the same gardens at the same time. Thanks again for opening your garden and for letting us know about your blog. Your many activities are really interesting to follow!

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  8. What a surprise to find our garden posted here today! I remembered Allison's post, but I guess I didn't realize that you were "saving" ours for later.
    I love seeing our creation through the eyes and lens of others. Thanks for reminding me of that lovely day in July when we met so many wonderful people, including you and Allison, and I added two wonderful bloggers to my list of virtual friends.

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  9. Sorry for posting so many times. The word verification was giving me reject messages.

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    1. Sorry! I hate that word verification thing and didn't have it turned on for a long time but then I got so much spam, especially on older posts that it became quite time consuming to check back and delete spam messages.

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  10. So nice to see some plants that are not sun burnt. The bonsai are beautiful. They look like students attending class, placed as they are.

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    1. Sun burnt plants? What's that? we've had rain a few times this August which is very unusual here. Most things are still looking pretty green.

      Desks in rows as God intended.

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  11. I am so fortunate to have Linda and Tom as fellow garden group members. They have generously shared their beautiful garden & endless knowledge with us, and I'm glad to see their lovely garden featured here.

    Trang

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    1. They are pretty special people! I haven't met any gardeners who haven't been nice folks!

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  12. Quite a unique experience to meet the gardener first and visit their fab garden before you get to know they have a blog too! We've only met a few bloggers face to face despite only doing a blog for quite some time now. We're hoping to meet more next year :)

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    1. When you come to the fling in Portland, you'll meet quite a few! Looking forward to it!

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  13. What a beautiful yard/garden. I really enjoy all the yard art - and your witty descriptions. The nozzle collection is impressive...

    I SO enjoyed my "visit".

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    1. Thanks for coming along for the ride Rebecca! Fun garden indeed!

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    2. Great garden, so organized and full of beautiful flowers. The whimsy items are great too, I have an old rake like that but hadn't thought of using it for a tool rack. I'm feeling inspired to go look for some nice art glass and make a glass flower. The little kiddies must like having a teacher with an actual sense of humor. I don't remember many of those. It reminds me of the Asian lawyer named Sue Yoo.

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    3. Linda's flowers are made from thrift store finds so they're relatively inexpensive, easy to make and beautiful!

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  14. Thank you for the morning guffaw at Alison looking for fish in the dry rock bed. You always make me laugh. :) What a great garden!

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Thanks so much for taking the time to comment! I love to hear your thoughts.