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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (July 11, 2019)
16 // COASTWEEKEND.COM Secrets of the gardens Tour seven gardens on the Long Beach Peninsula July 13 BY SYDNEY STEVENS FOR COAST WEEKEND A ‘G’-rated Love Shack? Eleven outdoor ‘rooms’ on three-and-a-half acres? Rhu- barb and lavender grown for local distilleries? Who would have believed that gardens on the Long Beach Peninsula harbored such interesting secrets? On Saturday, July 13, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., seven garden gates on the Peninsula will open for the 13th Annual Music in the Gardens Tour, a fundraiser for the Peninsula’s Water Music Society. From pock- et-sized with panoramic views, to ten acres focused on edibles, the gardens are as varied as their locations. Tickets are $20 and are still available online at bit. ly/2RY0Fmc, at the English Nursery in Seaview, the Basketcase Greenhouse in Long Beach and the Bay Avenue Gallery in Ocean Park. Additionally, visitors can purchase $5 raffle tick- ets for intriguing objects, often garden-related, which will be on sale at the various venues. Music and artists in the gardens Musicians this year include guitarist George Coleman; jazz pianist Tom Grant; two music duos, Tanz and Sea Strings; gui- tarist Brian O’Connor; gui- tarist Terry Rob; Jean-Pierre (Garau) and Al Perez; gui- tarist Dave Drury and pia- nist Tom Trudell. A highlight will be the If You Go What: 13th Annual Music in the Gardens tour When: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, July 13 Where: Various locations along the Long Beach Peninsula Details: Tickets are $20 and are available online at bit.ly/2RY0Fmc, at the English Nursery in Seaview, the Basketcase Greenhouse in Long Beach and the Bay Avenue Gallery in Ocean Park. music of saxophone player Tristan Trudell, a senior at Ilwaco High School. Trudell is the first student to perform in the Music in the Garden’s 13-year history. Proceeds from the tour go toward the Ocean Beach School Dis- trict music program. Artists at work in each garden include Susan Spence (basketry); Stan Rei- desel (watercolors), Renee O’Connor (tile work), Nan- sen Malin (welding for topi- ary); Jacob Moore (sculp- ture) and Somsri Hoffman (eclectic paintings on unusual objects). Selected works will be for sale. Willapa Bay, Ocean Park gardens At the Peninsula’s north end, a five-acre garden nes- tled next to Willapa Bay both enhances and cele- brates the natural environ- ment. Nearest the house is a colorful area where purple poppies, Rozanne gerani- ums and tree peonies gradu- ally progress into discreetly managed wilderness. Every bit of this garden is deliber- ately open for wildlife and pollinators, so no chemicals are used. Overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Ocean Park, home- owners have designed their garden to embrace the con- stant westerly winds. Doz- ens of ornamental grasses bow and curtsey to the breeze, all complemented by carefully chosen flowering plants in the free-form ter- races above. Long Beach, southern Peninsula gardens By contrast, magic and whimsy seem to be themes in two Long Beach gar- dens. One, described by the homeowners as “a perfectly imperfect woodland para- dise” includes a fairy gar- den with tiny castles nes- tled among the tree trunks and playful touches like an old dresser with open draw- ers overflowing with bright impatiens. Not far away, in another garden full of happy sur- prises, are plantings in jam- packed proximity with garden sculptures, bright blue beads, colored floats, ceramic starfish – all glori- ously united by color and clever placement. Among the flowers, almost hidden, are lovely glass blossoms – bearded iris, morning glo- ries – as well as birds and abstract shapes. Also in Long Beach are two unusual side-by-side gardens overlooking the bay. Though visitors can eas- ily walk from one property to the other, there is no mis- taking which is which. Each is perfectly adapted to the acreage, yet each is in direct contrast to the other. Busy, ambitious, passionate, sus- tainable, eco-centric best Photo courtesy Bob Duke On this ten-acre property, the raised beds in the foreground (just beyond the bayshore) contain the melon garden, while those to the west of the house contain heritage tomatoes and rhubarb. Photo courtesy Nancy Allen Photo courtesy Nancy Allen Garden steps lead through beautifully tended shrubbery to a panoramic view across the Columbia River and beyond. Forty varieties of heather are nestled in this large garden bed, each specifically chosen to provide year-round color. describe the most northerly of the two, while serene, contemplative, magnifi- cent and thoughtful might come to mind while stroll- ing the paths of its southern neighbor. Just a taste of the north garden: a fruit orchard of peaches, plums, apples, pears and cherries are sup- ported by six mason bee houses and several lady- bug houses for pollination and pest control; a melon patch of 24 raised beds; and overlooking the water is a “s’mores garden” with no plants at all, just a patio and firepit for roasting marsh- mallows. To the south: quiet pathways through acres of rhododendrons. Once a part of the renowned Clarke Rhododendron Nursery, today’s garden preserves and honors the Clarke leg- acy while enhancing it with new plantings. And, although rhododendrons are the stars here, they are lov- ingly illuminated by other plants such as an 80-foot coastal redwood from the 1940s. At the very southern end of the Peninsula is a small, perfectly groomed garden perched high above Bak- ers Bay and the Columbia River. Each planting beau- tifully frames breathtaking views from the river’s north shore to Saddle Mountain in the distance.