The Garden of Peggy and Bill Fox

Meanwhile, back on the Northwest Perennial Alliance Gig Harbor garden tour with Alison and Annette...

I'll let Peggy's words guide you through the garden. " We have lived here for 26 years, but didn't start creating the garden until 13 years ago.  Our long narrow piece of land slopes down to the water in a series of separate garden areas.  The upper area is mostly undeveloped but has a greenhouse,  a few fruit trees and a vegetable garden."

In the "mostly undeveloped" upper area, not far from the large greenhouse, we came across this pot ghetto.

Alison and I smiled at each other and I exclaimed, "She's one of us!"  

We all admired the red new growth on this filbert-looking small tree. 

There was a nice paved driveway but we chose to take this interesting path downward. 

And arrived at this lawn in front of the house. 

"You'll see a small lawn with Japanese forest grass and other shade lovers hugging its uphill side, and roses and other cottage-garden favorites filling the sunny bed opposite."

"On the right, a pond lends some movement and the sound of water.  

The way the stones were imbedded in the pavement and continued  down to line the pond was especially pleasing to my eye.

 "On the far side of the house, the garden continues its way down to the water with paths, decks and steps, terraces, and a rockery."  When Peggy and Bill's children were small, they asked what this ash door on the outside of the chimney was and they told them that it was a door for (the borrowers, tiny people, or garden fairies, I don't remember)  anyhow they made a small garden for the inhabitants and it remains even though the children are older now.

I admired these pebble mosaic pots!

Alison making another friend. 

So many paths to explore.

A grand staircase with berberis newel posts and hakonechloa cascading down one side.  

We wend our way closer to the water.  This was the lowest tide of the year but most of the time the water is much higher and has even done damage to the lower garden during winter storms.

"A seating area with a fire pit is tucked in just up from the bulkhead.  Planted with grasses and salt-tolerant rosa rugosa and cistus purpura, it makes a wonderful place to watch the waterfront activity and the sunsets."

"Be sure to walk out onto the dock pier to get a great overview of the rockery and terraces."

"Look for 'color vignettes' that have been tucked into different parts of the garden to punctuate or define certain areas.

 Treasures tucked between the cracks of the rocks as the steps lead onto the beach. 

Looking up another path.

Exquisite pot and plant combination!

Echoed here by more lavender.

"Our north-facing Puget Sound site, with its microclimates and slope, can be a challenge, but it's also a rewarding and very pleasant place to garden!"

I'll say!  The thought of moving those heavy pots, huge bags of compost, potting soil, etc. up and down the many steps had us all tired just thinking about it!  Peggy told us that at one point, one of the beds had been washed away and was rebuilt, requiring yards of soil to be brought in. Yikes!  The garden is breathtaking and certainly worth every sore muscle!   Thank you Peggy and Bill for opening your garden and being such nice hosts!

All too soon it was time to head on up that gorgeous staircase and be off to the next garden.  

Happy Independence Day!

Here are some floral fireworks from the Gig Harbor Farmers' Market grown by  independent family-owned local growers.

 Happy Fourth of July to my friends in the U.S.

 The Rose is from Raft Island Roses in Gig Harbor; all the other flowers are from Fresh Flower Farm in Kent.

Jamie Durie Tilting at Windmills?

Well, not quite.  Recently Mr. Durie made an appearance, sponsored in large part by Proven Winners, at Windmill Gardens in Sumner.

For those of you who don't know the name, Jamie is an Australian born, award-winning international horticulturist, landscape designer, and host of the HGTV show The Outdoor Room. Author of nine garden books, former host of the PBS series The Victory Garden, and as he spoke about himself at his Sumner appearance, a former member of the group Manpower Australia.  (Note: the link to Manpower Australia shows images of scantily clad men.  If you find that sort of thing distasteful, please do not follow the link.)

We arrived right at 1:00, the advertised start time and found a fairly long line waiting to get in.  

Speaking mostly about plant combinations using Proven Winners plants (lots of petunais)  and creating outdoor living spaces with a bit about his new books The Outdoor Room andm Jaie Durie's Edible Garden Design, his talk was lively and entertaining.  This was the last stop on his U.S. book tour and his voice sounded a little tired.  After an hour, he stopped and went inside to sign books.

These gals seemed very happy to see Jamie!  

One of the best things about the event which cost $20.00 is that the program came with a $20.00 gift certificate to the nursery!  Since Tom doesn't really care much about plants, I got his as well and we were off to shop!  Here's some of what we saw.

Tender Clerodendrum thomsoniae 'Variegata' was wearing his foliar and floral finery.

'Peter's Wonder' is one of my favorite coleus color wise but it never grows as vigorously as many others for me.

This hot colored vignette screamed sunny summer days!

Galvanized metal gutters make great display racks for hanging basket stuffers.  I can see these filled with succulents in Ms. Danger's garden.

I love the way nurseries display their plants in color groupings this time of year.  On a recent visit at Valley Nursery, Debbie Teashon explained that at this point in the season, many customers are looking for interesting combinations to create or refresh container gardens.  There are some great suggestions here!

This yellow and gray combination seems very peaceful. 

This clever lady dressed to match this combination!

A modern looking black pot would be perfect with planted with these..  Of course, I'd think of orange or red because I love bright colors.

Sedum 'Thunder Cloud' has great texture.

 These simple sempervivum combination bowls are fantastic.

Cistus 'Little Miss Sunshine' had neither a tag nor a price so it stayed at the nursery.  

What did come home with us was a two gallon Kalanchoe thrysiflora and a beautiful Brugmansia 'Snowbank' which I love as much  for the variegated foliage as the euphorically evening scented blooms.   All in all a fun way to spend an afternoon!

Wordless Wednesday - Kind of.

At Dragonfly Farms Nursery - Garden art with a message:  Time to do some pruning!

They Grow 'em Big!

My eldest sister lives in the Matanuska Valley in Alaska where the world's largest cabbages are grown. I recently received these images in my email.   It seems that this year, Dirce's peonies are rivaling the cabbages for size!  Because of their size and the recent rain there, the flowers were falling to the ground so they got rescued for the vase.  This one is posing on the seat of a chair.  That's got to be over a foot around. 

There's a reason that they call this peony flower type a bomb!  It took two large vases to accommodate these three blooms.

All of the peonies in my garden are but a memory.  It's nice to know gardeners in the north who are enjoying them still. 

Hope you enjoyed these giants from the north!