Over the next few months, visitors will be able to observe the phases of establishing a new garden—from design, to construction, to installation of drip irrigation and planting of new perennials, flowering shrubs and flowering ornamental tees. However, there is still plenty to see in the mature garden surrounding the home.
Part of the pasture contains the vegetable garden with 10 3 x 10 x 3 raised beds and 36 4 x 4 grow trays, surrounded by 8’ high fencing to protect plants from the family of deer that visit the neighborhood on a regular basis. Last year we grew 275 pounds of produce: tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, peas, carrots, potatoes, strawberries and raspberries. We will see what this year brings.
Raspberry patch going strong in May this year.
A new cut flower bed has been planted where two old, diseased pines were removed. It contains peonies, lilies, roses, allium and later in the season, giant zinnias, delphinium, sweet peas and other colorful flowers.
Here are the peonies in bloom this May. Last year (at left) they were just green plants.
We redid the front entry by the flowering cherries and added Gatsby Moon hydrangeas, Spring Bouquet.compact Viburnum, and Solidarity Rhododendrons do compliment the dogwood shrubs, roses and iris.
We expanded the flower bed that wraps from the front gate to the blueberry cage, adding dwarf pugster buddleias, spirea, salvia, sedum and allium.
Here’s the pink Rhododendron in fiull bloom in May 2024.
When we first arrived in 2022, we purchase 8 small blueberry bushes because we enjoyed growing them in pots back in Oakland. Then we discovered we had four mature blueberry shrubs. We devised a pvc cage and covered it with netting to keep the birds away.
We had transplanted the more than 1000 white and purple iris that the original owners had planted more than 20 years ago. Most of them went in the area under the Ginko and Aspen trees behind the shop, as well as in the area by the Japanese maple near our utility room on the north side of the house.
We added soil to the transition from that area to the pasture and planted hundreds of allium to make “Allium Alley”. We moved many of the hydrangeas we had purchased in 2022 and transplanted iris to the area under those trees so that they would get more shade.
Last summer we added 12 large cast concrete steps in three different locations to make walking from the lawn to the pasture safer.
Out in the pasture, we created three new beds: The first two contain hydrangeas and other shrubs from “Bloomin’ Easy” as well as a Magnolia.
In the spring of 2024, we created a new L-shaped bed between the vegetable garden and the camellia that will house the trial garden of perennials from Terra Nova Nurseries in nearby Canby.
For the past two years, the ever expanding deer family were feasting on our roses and other plants. So this winter, we added 7-foot tall deer fencing to block their path. So far, no deer and we have been able to remove the wire cages!
And we added two new gates: this one is next to the garage between the house and the shop
We added 1200 iris from the Doyle Satterfield collection in April 2024.