sprig to twig

A long time ago, the Portland Art Museum had a show of folk art. The pieces were all cobbled together from life’s detritus: everything from barn boards to cast off toilets. One hallway featured wall-sized mural/photos of the artists, mainly gap-toothed black men leaning against equally gap-toothed fences enclosing yards full of “junk”. The striking thing was the rapturous look on the faces of these makers of things. Some time later, R asked me…if I were to be reincarnated, what would I like to come back as? I didn’t need a second to think it over. “One of those old black guys.” Now here’s the thing. Most of the pieces in that show would seem tacky, even laughable, to most observers. Someone with a critical eye saw the heart in them, put them in a museum and called them “Art”. I was reminded of that show the other day as I walked around the neighborhood. People seem to share an impulse to make things. They might be embarassed to show them off indoors, but outside…anything goes.

I will start with the one piece that I think qualifies as “Art” (just my opinion) and got me looking around with this theme in mind. The bee sits unceremoniously in a yard that is not particularly well-tended. I hope to see the owner out and about one of these days so I can ask him about it.

Two of our neighbors spend their days building bird houses and feeders. I guess you would call this more of a cottage industry, but the impulse seems similar. Jim is out in his workshop at the break of each day with the coffee on and the latest neighborhood gossip to share if you care to stop by. He introduced Virgil, across the street, to woodworking, and now they seem to be engaged in a kind of friendly one-upsmanship with their designs.

Jim built this gate between his place and ours.

Every year, a family of swallows takes up residence. As evening falls, they can be seen swooping into that little hole at top speed. (we never lack for entertainment around here)

In the folk art department, everything benefits from a patina of age.

An old rusty saw blade becomes a sun face.

This piece of equipment actually gets used, but it sure looks like it has potential as art somewhere in its future.

Which brings me to my own little chicks pecking around the vegetable raised beds. These were a gift. R slapped his forehead and cried “What Were They Thinking?” I think they’re kinda charming…which just goes to show how “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” got to be such a cliche. When we first saw our present home, I was ready to run screaming from the room. Everything was dark pressed-plywood paneling and sculptured wall to wall carpeting, with an orange fireplace smack in the middle of the living room. It was only as I began to remove the ornate brass fixtures for the fully lined, nubbly plaid draperies that I realized with what care everything had been installed. It sure wasn’t our taste, but it was executed with a thoroughness and precision one had to admire. I got to thinking that the next caretaker of this place might take one look at our faux-painted walls and hardwood floors; our oddball taste in plant material and think to themselves…”What Were They Thinking? Well, with a lot of work, we can fix this.”

We are starting to be on a first name basis with the folks at Scappoose Sand and Gravel. Here’s a glimpse of a corner of the yard featuring decorative options from natural to baroque.

But that is not what we come for. Here is our collection of tubs and garbage containers…enough to contain exactly half a load of mulch.

Surprisingly little of this big scoopful falls outside the containers, to be easily captured in just a few minutes with a shovel. Previously, we had loads delivered and dumped in a big pile, to be distributed over time. This method saves one whole step of shoveling from the pile to a wheelbarrow. We just skootch these containers to the tailgate of the truck, tip them over and let the mulch fall into the wheelbarrow. This is just about the right amount of mulch one can comfortably spread in a day, we don’t have a big, unsightly pile, and the weight is such that there is still a little bit of spring left in the old truck. We consulted with the folks at Joy Creek, and they recommended the dark hemlock bark mulch, so that is what we use (can’t argue with success).

You will find just about anything (in the non-plant category) your little gardening heart desires. Here’s a display case for the small stuff.

An overview of material for larger projects.

How about these massive stone slabs to get one thinking on a grand scale?

Columns of all sizes have been drilled, ready to burble into a variety of ponds.

Or maybe your taste in burblers runs more toward a rough-hewn ball.

These cast concrete bowls are scaled for estate-sized plantings.

Should your estate sport a gigantic rabbit, here’s his Easter basket.

Have I piqued your interest? Drive out Hwy 30 through the little town of Scappoose and turn right at the last light. Now, If you will excuse me, I gotta go mulch.

We headed out one Saturday to see a matinee, and instead wound up at Portland Nursery (and it wasn’t even my idea). Guess the transformation to plant geek is complete. We went our separate ways, but somehow both ended up in front of this tree. The $75 price tag was way too rich for our blood, so we wandered on, only to find the same tree, not much bigger, with a tag of $499! Suddenly the first one seemed like a real bargain. I don’t know what was going on there: maybe marketing genius at work. Anyway, we had found the excuse we needed to justify bringing it home, and who cares if the genius was snickering up his sleeve at the saps who fell for his ruse?

Richard set about building up the berm to give it a nice perch, where it can spill over the edges.

Here is a close-up to show you how gracefully the branches cascade. On the more mature specimen there were juniper berries in abundance, in all their silvery splendor. Can you tell we’re in love? Once the berries show up, we can always go into business making bathtub gin to support our plant habit.

If you come to stay with us for a weekend, you can expect to be entertained by trips to the wonderful nurseries that surround us. My dear friend Susan had given me a gift certificate for Joy Creek. Does she know me well, or what? R’s sister Kathryn had come to stay, so we started there. Their display gardens are beyond compare, so it’s a great place to start. Even non-gardening guests can appreciate a stroll through paradise. I have taken you there many times, so I will simply show you the plants that came home with me.

R spotted this Abies Koreana ‘Horstman’s Silberlake’. Maurice Horn, co-owner and plant expert, was on hand, so we were able to get the straight scoop on the plants that caught our eye. I had lost another Abies, so was a little leery of blowing a good part of my wad on this one. The goner had been a smaller specimen than this, and when I saw an adult sporting dark, upright cones I was the goner.

Sometimes a plant seen in another garden lurks in the back of one’s mind. I didn’t realize the need for Carpenteria Californica ‘Elizabeth’ until I came across this one. The scent is elusively intoxicating.

Ceanothus ‘Blue Jeans’ will replace the ‘Vandehberg’ lost in last winter’s harsh cold. It is supposed to be one of the hardiest.

Not many agaves at Joy Creek, but Maurice assured me that Agave neomexicana would survive here. I have it in a pot for the time being, just to be on the safe side.

Next stop, Cistus, down the road and across the bridge, to Sauvie Island.

You know you are in the presence of engagingly quirky minds when dead trees present this kind of opportunity.

You know those phormiums Portlanders have mostly given up on in the last 2 years? Here’s what happens when they live in a greenhouse setting…they bloom! My greenhouse envy was ratcheted up at least three levels.

I had promised myself an agave from Cistus, which is the only way to narrow the choices in this candy store. Agave furkiana ‘Blue Haze’ will live in a green pot to set off its wonderful pattern.

While the wavy cloak fern, Astrolepis sinuata. a fern that thrives on sun, will go straight to my dry berm.

My mission, besides doing something fun with Kathryn, was to find some showy plant material to fill big pots around our entry. Our first two stops brought us face to frond with the exotic, the sought-after…the costly. Now it was time for some big, bold, ordinary stuff. Means Nursery, here we come.

For about the price of one very special plant at the other places, I picked up some Phygelius ‘Devil’s Tears’ and a couple of Ajuga ‘Black Scallop’ to echo the black stems of the taller plant and spill over the edges of two of these large terra cotta pots.

This Pieris was one of several shrubs that will live in pots to liven up the entry for a season and then move to borders later on. I thought we might have overloaded Kathryn’s tolerance for nursery visits, but she went back to browse on her own the next day, and was full of plans for an overhaul of their grounds to go with a recent remodeling. Another gardening fanatic in the making?

Another Etsy find to pass along.

I’m still fairly new to Etsy, and it never occurred to me to look for plants there. Then this photo showed up in one of the Showcases and, well, one thing led to another. The spiral aloe shown here sold out immediately (small wonder) but Horticopia has lots of other interesting stuff. Worth a gander, if you don’t mind being tempted.

Every Sunday at one pm, the folks at Joy Creek put on an educational seminar. They always sound interesting, but tearing oneself away from gardening at home on a Sunday afternoon is a big order. Last Sunday, the subject was pruning. That got our attention. We have a running controversy around here. On one side is the liberal lopper, on the other, one dedicated to chaos theory (that would be me, as if you hadn’t guessed). I figured if I could drag Richard to this seminar, I would get some help in taming the rampaging beast. I figured wrong.

After a short introduction, during which it was impressed upon us the importance of caring for our tools (I was already behind the eight ball with that one, how about you?), we decamped to a Japanese maple. It looked quite beautiful to me…kind of an umbrella effect with a complete lacework canopy of branchlets. The picture above was taken about two thirds of the way through the process. It was brutal. It was, however, highly informative, as we were taken through the complete process, with our guide thinking out loud and conveying his strategy for each and every cut. First, he cut out all the dead wood. With that out of the way, it became easier to see the structure. Where branches rubbed against one another, decisions had to be made: which one would go? Sometimes the choice was surprising, until we learned of how it fit into the overall vision for the tree. In the end, the volume was taken back by about half. I began to see it less as butchery and more as a slow and careful artistic endeavor: the sculptor revealing the essence of the artwork. This particular tree is valued at around $3000.00 (insert Antiques Roadshow-ish gasp of disbelief here)

We had spent nearly an hour on the maple, so the rest of the session consisted of a walk around the grounds with questions and answers. A memorable stop along the route was this juniper, left to its own devices.

And its once identical twin after a haircut. The tonsured twin is less likely to lose limbs in extreme weather, and clean cuts have replaced any damaged areas where disease would be likely to gain a foothold. This guy has a windswept, coastal persona that is appealing, but I am still partial to his shaggier sibling (just a matter of taste: Jeff Bridges over Alec Baldwin any time).

I guess there will still be the push-pull of different perspectives in our garden. I may have lost all credibility in my quest for the “natural” look, but I can hardly complain. Most of our property is untouched deep woods. Tomorrow I will take you on another walk on the wild side.

Etsy is proving to be a dangerous place to hang out. I just came across this cocktail ring at BigHelmetHead. Is it not just the niftiest?