Up and Up Farm

The Garden of Susan Miller and Tony Dambrava is aptly named as one travels up and up to get to their home and once there, the garden leads one up and up even more.  From the road, it appears as if this is the home.  The NPA sign is posted on the door so it's definitely the right place.   The landscaping is definitely typical of this area.  Big leaf maple, cedar, sword fern, moss on the roof.

One must travel Up the driveway to find the residence and garden. 

Susan's love of purple and gold is evident throughout the garden. 

"We live on the west side of Tolt Hill, so there's some uphill walking via stairs and gravel road to reach level garden beds.  Friendly horses' barn is at top of driveway."

"We retired to this 5-acre horse farm in 2004, surrounded by tall conifers and big-leaf maples, and very slowly began renovating old beds and building 15 new ones adding a couple tons of aged manure annually."

I fell in love with this solarium built on to the house.  Could you imagine grabbing a cup of coffee and the morning paper (that's a thing like a computer that you can still read if the power goes out.) and enjoying this space as the dawn breaks in the summer?

Sharing lunch with friends in mellow autumn light.

Cuddled up with a canine friend and a good book (like a kindle but heavy and with a lot of tedious turning of pages)  as winter rain drums rhythms on the roof.  What, nothing in the spring?  Of course not silly.  Gardeners can't sit still in the spring.

"We learned to landscape intentionally alongside the rock walls holding up the hillside, and paying attention to our NW-facing sunlight. My initial energies went into planting purple and golden foliaged specimen trees and shrubs.  I have now migrated to dwarf conifers, about 60 in three conifer beds, focusing on golds and blues, and shapes of weepers, balls, columnar, or ground covering procumbens."

"I was inspired, in part, by the South Seattle College's Arboretum's Coenosium Rock Garden, one of the finest dwarf conifer gardens in the U.S. I've shared these twin passions in Master Gardener presentations over the last decade."

Abies koreana 'Silberlocke' bears it's gorgeous cones even at an early age. 

Official garden greeter and tour guide.

"I have horse-leaning garden art and full and empty pots."  This garden art was very realistic looking to me, especially when Susan fed them.

At each level of the hillside there are platforms or balconies attached to outbuildings from which the lower levels of the garden can be viewed.  As Loree says, "There's always an agave."

Looking down, the grass path is on one level and to the left of the elevated bed is a gravel road leading up to the horse barn at the top.

In the arid area are yucca and cacti with tags from Cistus Nursery.  It's a sign.  Like a drinking game where you'd watch a television show with friends and have to take a shot of something whenever a certain name or phrase was uttered, when you see a plant tag with a cool nursery's name on it, you're obligated to visit.  It's much healthier and there are plants involved.

Opuntia fragilis (potato cactus)  is my current crush.  Fortunately I have one but it hasn't put on any new growth this year.

The idea of having the backdrop of huge trees is appealing to me as my views mostly include other houses.

"The house is painted terra cotta to serve as a lively background for my plant color preferences.  Rest your feet and have a snack in our solarium.  Mother Nature chooses the weather."

Looking up at the hakonechloa waterfall.

This garden is filled with great plants and interesting, well placed garden art but the best part is the welcoming and comfortable vibe of the place.

Thanks to Susan and Tony for opening their garden for us to enjoy.  It was a pleasure!

A July Peek Inside My Greenhouse

It's starting to get a little dim outside but the greenhouse is still bright and cozy.  Grab a glass of wine and sit a spell 

Until I hook these chandeliers up, strings of colored lights will illuminate them.  This is very much a working space and It's been only recently that the usual layer of potting soil and fallen leaves (floor mulch) has been swept away. 

Lots of plants were lugged outside for the summer and yet the greenhouse still looks full.  I wonder how this happens?

Well, let's see, tomato plants have replaced the brugmansias and lots of plants have lots more space now than they do during the winter.

The potting bench has a new surface. 

I found these free granite pieces in the discard pile of a local business.   I loaded my trunk with them but had no idea for an application.  Too good to pass up though!  Being too lazy to make space for several buckets of these, I used most of them here and stored the rest.  They're much nicer than the dirty brown-painted wood surface beneath!

The turquoise planter on the pink table is a Mezzo Mod Dish from Steel Life with a tillandsia from Little Prince of Oregon, a centerpiece that I was lucky enough to win at the Portland Garden Bloggers Fling a couple of years ago.

Three new agaves grown by Little Prince and found at West Seattle Nursery.  I'm tempted to try these in the ground but they're so cute and fun to enjoy inside.

I ordered and got three Jatropha multifida seedlings (they were actually fairly big) from a seller on etsy last spring.  One was a bit runty and didn't make it, the other two took off like nobody's business. Being zone 10 plants, a winter in the greenhouse might be a bit risky but what's a laboratory without a bit of experimentation?  Once it got cooler in there both specimens dropped their leaves and I feared the worst but didn't toss them.  This warm spring, the larger of the two put on new leaves while the other one decided to become compost.  It's such a beautiful thing that maybe I'll drag it into the house this winter.

Some denizens of the danger gardenette didn't go out this summer as they've all grown a bit and there wasn't room for them all this year.

An homage to my pal Alison's Halloween agave decor.   It's the last picture in her post if you follow the link.

 Exciting news - the usual grey foliage of this tillandsia has turned pinky red as purple flowers appear, a sweet surprise!

High summer and the garden is full of wonders!

Wednesday Vignette: Taking out the Trash.

Wednesday Vignette is hosted each week by Anna at Flutter and Hum.  Click here to join in the fun.

Some people think that buying plants is like throwing money away.  At Wells Medina Nursery, they've saved a step by simply throwing plants in the trash.

Not really the trash but rather well-planted galvanized metal garbage cans, a stylish way to section off this work area.  One would imagine that there are a lot of unused lids  around that would make fun planters for succulents.  If one had a large enough pond, wouldn't it be an interesting statement to see a group of these succulent gardens floating on the surface like desert lily pads?  Sorry for the digression.  Have you used these as planters?  I'm really groovin' on them, especially the second from the left with the pampas grass hair  and can see giant earrings hanging from the handles, one of those tree faces used on the front and maybe a bowling ball necklace around the bottom.  

Happy Wednesday!

Can You Feel the Love Tonight?

Wouldn't it be cool to rewire that big 70's chandelier hanging in the greenhouse?  Smart people entertain these midnight thoughts and act on them at a more sensible time.   So, I'm wandering the aisles of Walmart in the wee hours (It's summer) and my shopping cart, an extension of the plant mobile, finds the plant area.  (Of course.)  Poor grafted (Moon) cacti mutants line a shelf.  One is lying on its side, the cellophane tube and foil wrapper having been removed and the plant being too top heavy to stand on its own.  Noticing it's dark color and feeling sorry for it, I stood it back up and let it lean on some of it's neon neighbors.  In response, it seemed to say "I love you."

Can you feel the love tonight?

Because the top part of the graft, Gymnocalycium mihanovichii can't produce chlorophyll on it's own, to survive, it's grafted to (usually) a short-lived tropical Hylocereus spp.  Therefore, the whole thing usually doesn't live more than three years.  However, the top can be grafted to a different bottom if one knows how to do such things.  I learned that the first mutant seedlings were discovered in the 1940's and that now 98% of these come from Korea where they're produced by the millions.

If one gets the urge to try doing this, here's a helpful video to show you how.

 Can you believe it?  I'd never seen a heart pattern like this on a grafted cactus and it isn't painted on. the pattern is consistent all around the top grafted part.

Can you believe it?  I'd never seen a heart pattern like this on a grafted cactus and it isn't painted on. the pattern is consistent all around the top grafted part. Sensible people smile at these mutants and leave them at the store.  Here it is, potted up and playing with it's friends that were already living in the greenhouse. They all need a bit of gravel mulch.  I'll go do that right now.

Try not to judge me too harshly. It's nice to feel loved!  Now go hug a cactus.

In A Vase On Monday

Happy Independence Day to my U.S. friends!  To begin this day each year, it has become my tradition to read the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.  In light of the political gong show that is currently taking place and before the hubbub of freedom fairs, parades, picnics, air shows, and fireworks,  it's nice to enjoy a quiet moment in the morning before anyone else is awake, the dogs still softly snoring, to read and contemplate.

Today's In A Vase just happened as these things sometimes do while I was working in the garden and found a fallen begonia bloom, to lovely to let wither so quickly, and threw it on the water of a bird bath.  The birds don't seem to mind.   It's not red, white, and blue and it doesn't scream independence but like the reading of the documents, it's quiet and reflective.

How quickly the bloom  goes to seed, the plant itself withers and dies but the solid rock, the foundation remains from year to year. “One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever.”  If you are a U.S. citizen, I invite you to join me in my tradition of reading these charters of freedom, the foundation of our country,  each year.

 In A Vase on Monday is hosted by Cathy at Rambling in the Garden.  Click here to see her arrangement today and to find links to those of other participating bloggers.

The Garden of Marcus Phelps-Munson and Gary Epperley

Garden touring season is well underway and last weekend we headed out on a Northwest Perennial Alliance tour "Along the Foothills" [of Mt. Rainier.]  the purpose of these tours is to allow members to see what others are up to in their spaces.  First up is the Phelps-Munson, Epperley garden.

This is a new home in a development where the houses are pretty close together.  We parked up the street in front of the neighbor's place (on the left.)  You can't tell in this image but if the curtains/blinds are open on the window at the front and back of the living room/dining room area (right side of both houses)  one can see through the windows directly into the back yard.  Through the neighbor's house, I noticed a big toy for the kids in the back and wondered what we would find next door.

You can't see it in this image but through this window, one could see lush foliage with a beautifully blooming clematis in bloom climbing through the middle of it all. Pretty clever!

Approaching the front of the house, seeing all the pots of cool plants, it was clear that a like-minded plant collector lives here!

A sign directed us to enter through the side gate.

They've really made the most of this narrow space utilizing multiple layers of great foliage.

"Ten years ago the yard began as a simple grass rectangle for the enjoyment of our dog.  During that time the dog aged (gracefully,) and we took out successively larger areas of lawn as our love of gardening in this unique climate grew.

My favorite color of Impatiens glandulifera.  

"We have become compulsive 'plant collectors;' however, between my passion for perennials and my husband's of trees and rhododendrons, I believe we've struck a delicate balance."

"I'm not a thirteen-time winner of Ciscoe Morris's 'Viewer Pick of the Week' and president of the Pine Lake Garden Club."

"Our garden is serious fun throughout the year - combining color, fragrance, texture, edibles and dinosaurs in a layered, part -sun, part-shade garden that leaves nary a bare patch of soil."

 Dinosaurs and carnivorous plants work well together.  This reminds me of seeing dinosaurs at Floramagoria in Portland. Must copy this idea!

So many great plants like this Acer pseudoplatanus 'Esk Sunset.'

 What magic is afoot with these daisies?  

Happy weekend all!