‘JUNES
Last year a film called
Northwest Style of Gardening
was shown on PBS which included
gardens from British Columbia,
Washington and Oregon and my
garden on the West Coast in
which I identified my style as
a Cannon Beach cottage garden.
Since that film has been shown
I have been asked what defines
the term cottage garden.
When I first started a
garden to surround my beach
home which by the dictionary's
definition is called a cottage
(a small simple country home),
I did not have a formal plan
and
thought
I didn't
need
plans. I did know in order to
grow any vegetables or flowers
I would have to add fences,
shrubs and trees to baffle the
strong salt-laden winds and to
add a drainage system to carry
off the water, as there are
many underground springs and
runoff from the hills above me.
The drainage system worked.
Because
I didn't
want
the
underground pipes to clog, I
covered the system that snaked
through my back yard with sand,
base rock and gravel, which
created paths.
I then added raised beds
filled with soil. Around the
perimeter I mounded soil to add
trees and shrubs and enclosed
the back yard with a picket­
like
style
fence.
These
improvements created the style
of my garden.
When the people came to
interview me and take pictures
of my garden for the video they
were making, the interviewer
asked, "Did you have any formal
schooling that helped you to
develop this particular style
called a cottage garden?"
My answer was no and I
added, "If my garden has a
defined
style,
I guess
it
really
should
be
termed
a
Cannon Beach cottage garden."
This is what came out in the
film.
Quoted from English Floater
Gardens by Clarke & Perry: "The
term cottage garden originated
in Great Britain, obviously the
gardens
made
by
cottagers.
English cottagers influenced
the history of gardening in
Great Britain. They gardened in
their own way for centuries,
immune to the tides of fashion
that had the gentry putting in
formal gardens based on French
or Italian models. Meanwhile
the cottagers in their own
small gardens generally were
enclosed with a low wall or
fence to keep wandering cattle
away from their gardens and
doorways. They planted with no
eye to design and little con­
sideration to what they were
supposed to plant. Profusion
was characteristic of their
gardens, not lawns. Often every
square inch of dirt was covered
with a wide range of vegeta­
tion: medicinal and culinary
herbs, vegetables, small fruits
and old-fashioned perennials
and biennials like hollyhocks,
foxglove,
dianthus,
Sweet
Williams, lupins, down through
a
long
catalog
of
plants.
These plants became established
as
cottage-garden
flowers
because they were able to fend
for themselves and required
little
attention
as
the
cottagers hadn't time or the
facility
to
coddle
tender
varieties.
"Many
of
these
plants
would have been familiar in
gardens 500 years ago and have
histories
as
delightful
as
their perfumes: for scent was a
quality cottagers valued in
their flowers, as well as the
practical uses to which the
plant could be put, since the
garden
had
to
provide
for
physical as well as spiritual
well-being
of
the
family.
Plants were included to feed
the bees who made the honey and
pollinated the orchard ....
"In 1568 Thomas Hyll wrote
in The Protfitable Arte of
Gardening: 'The garden is made
perfect,
delectable,
and
profitable ... and wee then
receive by it two speciall
commodities. The first profit,
which
riseth
through
the
increase of Hearbs and flowers:
the
other
pleasure,
verie
delectable, through walking in
the same ...' and went on to
remind us that 'the fresh air
of the garden, imbued with the
secret
smell
of
flowers,
bestowed
health
and
well­
being. '
"There was more written
about cottage gardening in the
1700's by William Shenstone,
and in 1883 William Robinson
wrote in his book, The English
Floater
Garden:
'Among
the
things made by man, nothing is
prettier
than
an
English
cottage garden, and they often
teach
lessons
that
great
gardeners should learn ...'"
To
read
further
about
early English cottage gardens,
this book by Clarke & Perry is
an
excellent
source
of
information.
I
feel
quite
honored
people have named my garden a
cottage garden. I realize after
reading about this style that I
have most of the plant life
that
grew
in
those
early
cottage gardens: the herbs and
a few vegetables mixed with the
same
types
of
flowers
malvas, dianthuses, foxgloves
and many more, including a row
of raspberries and a Graven-
stein apple and Elberta peach
tree that sprouted from my
compost pile.
My fence, how­
ever, saves these plants from
elk, not cattle. Last winter a
herd of 19 elk decided to visit
our area, which surprised me
and my neighbors. I've seen a
few hare throughout the last 20
years, but not as many as this
year.
Fortunately,
all they
chewed on was my Escal Ionia
hedge before they were scared
off by my dog Barker's loud
barking.
Speaking of foxglove, in
June the hills on Highway 26
just past the Cannon Beach
Junction were covered for miles
with millions of blossoming
foxglove,
turning the hills
pink. Mother Nature turned our
man-made
destruction
into
beauty.
O w n er* -J e ff St O ladya
W om ack
1235 S. H em lock
P.O. Box 9 8 5
C annon Beach, OR
97110
(5 0 3 ) 4 3 6 -2 0 0 0
Pax (503) 4 3 6 -0 7 4 6
Plants that have added
interest to my garden this year
are:
6' tall bronze fennel
FOR * *
> GARDENS DESGNED *
TO REDUCE OR
ELMNWE
FESnCCEUSE.
Still performing ALL
Our Usual Services
PLUS
SIGNS & BANNERS
ATTENTION BUSifSSES
WE CREWE I MAINTAIN
ROWER BOXES. RANTERS
1
HANGMG BASNETS
o f all k in d s
43M 738RES
&
SMALL BUSINESS
BOOKKEEPING
UCENSBb BOOED
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(503) 4 3 6 -1 0 1 6
-Inn ouatiue & good lo the taste"
Benedict’s Principle; Nature always sides with the hidden flaw.
& A A
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TRILLIUM
>
<¡4 NATURALISONS >
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7 N. H em lock Cannon Beach
503 4 3 6 2210
Iff I f
The
Birkenstock
I
Plus
A Birkenstock Specialty Store
1
1
$
o
BIRKENSTOCK.
Chrysanthemum Pacificum,
tiny cream-colored flowers and
silver-colored edge leaves
Seeds to save:
Columbine,
pansies,
lychnis,
godetia,
feverfew,
foxglove,
candy tuft, parsley, chives,
dill and some poppies.
Let
the
seeds'
mature on the plant
collecting them.
heads
before
M S2
1235 S. H e m lo c k , C a n n o n B e ach , OR
The original comfort shoe.
Lavender petunias with
blue veins called Blue Vein
Surfinia, Jackson & Perkins
(It branches and cascades from
all of my window boxes.)
•CURED
The Extended M u rp h y ’s Law; If a series of events can
go wrong, it will go wrong in the worst possible sequence.
1 3 9 N H e m lo c k
P .O . B o x 9 0 9
C a n n o n B each, O R 97110
Please
send
your
comments,
suggestions and questions to
June's Garden; P. O. Box 74,
Cannon Beach, OR 97110.
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Arcadia
aodscapin
G R A M IC C I P A N T S & S H O R T S
In s ta n t C o m fo rt For M en
& W om en
We also carry...
• TEVA & MERRELL
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(503) 430 2832
239 N Hemlock . P O Bo» 905
Cannon Beach, OR 97110