Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Visiting the garden of Bob Hyland and Andrew Beckman


One sunny hot Sunday in August my plant lust partner Patricia and I spent the afternoon touring open gardens. This one, the garden of Bob Hyland and Andrew Beckman was the second we visited that day. The first, and the last, belonged to Paul and Greg the co-owners of Xera Plants (I posted about Paul's garden here and will post about Greg's next week).

If you haven't had the pleasure of meeting Bob or Andrew just know they are a very creative, and garden/plant centric duo. Bob has a past in public garden work (Longwood Gardens, Strybing Arboretum, Brooklyn Botanic Garden) and since moving to Portland has opened Contained Exuberance (which shares space with Xera) and Hyland Garden Design. Andrew was previously the Garden Editor for Martha Stewart Living and is now the Editorial Director at Timber Press.

Their garden is located in the hills northwest of downtown Portland. For those of you who've been out to Cistus Nursery on Sauvie island you've drive right by (under) their garden. I believe they've been gardening here for 3 years now (correction - Bob says 2 years)...

The above and below (4) photos are of the plantings along their driveway.

I was relieved to spot this agave right away, otherwise I would have been holding my breath wondering, if (when) I would see one.

This is the uppermost terrace of the garden, a smart person would have taken a photo of the view those chairs are positioned to appreciate. Not me, I was concentrating on the plants.

Pretty wonderful right?

The next level down is all about raised veggie plantings.

View back up taken from the veggie level.

When I took the photo above I was sitting in one of those chairs.

Now I'm about to descend to the final (house) level.

Turning back to look at the side of the garage (behind the raised veggie beds) I see this fabulous old stock tank. The photo turned out rather flat but it is quite a beautiful container.

At the bottom of the steps looking back up...

Greenovia aurea ‘Gran Canaria Form’ perhaps?

And now at the nothern most edge of their property looking back to where I started.

The home has a large wrap-around deck.

With plenty of space to relax.

And display your exuberant contained plant collection...

I spy a Hover Dish! Bob's shop is the only place in town (that I know of) where you can purchase them.

This is looking from the edge of the deck back out the driveway where we entered.

Off the deck is a stone patio/path that leads back around the house (and you can see the driveway again here) past a greenhouse (empty and very hot on the day of our visit) and back to the base of the stone stairs by the garage.

Thank you for opening your beautiful garden Bob and Andrew!

All material © 2009-2014 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

19 comments:

  1. What a fab garden! I need to plant more Dierama.

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  2. I love seeing your birds-eye view of gardens--especially this one--since I was there. I don't think I took any pictures. Is that possible?

    Thanks to Bob & Andrew for opening their great garden, and to you, Ms. Danger, for this lovely post. That was quite a day!

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    1. Quite a day indeed. I still wonder how our fellow in distress is doing.

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  3. Another fabulous Portland garden :) what also comes across to me is how relaxed, calm, and easy going the garden seems to be, and yet looks so cared for, coordinated, and tidy.

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  4. Sometimes I wish I had more space so I could grow a large swath of grasses or Euphorbia but maybe it would be more than I could care for. I don't know. But it's sure fun to see how well others have accomplished it. Great post, Loree.

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    1. Thanks Grace! I know that personally I wouldn't be able to do something like that on account of the plant addiction (must have them all!)...

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  5. A great garden and great pictures, Loree. I love all the succulent containers, particularly the one full of semperviviums (4th from the bottom).

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    1. There's another one similar to that at the shop (except the container is rectangle), it's simple perfection!

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  6. Thanks for posting this garden because I missed going to the opening. Is that a Euphorbia in pictures 5 and 6 (the red tipped leaves, not the E. myrsinites)?

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  7. As he showed us slides on Sunday, I was hungry for more...and here they are. Thank you. Now can you please convince him to open the garden to HPSO members next year? Too greedy to be satisfied even with this account of this splendid garden.

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    1. I think he's pretty good about opening to the HPSO every year, in fact on the day of this open he was (oddly) the only open garden that weekend.

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  8. Aww - my butt is in one of your pictures! I'm famous now!

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    1. Yep, when the modeling agencies start calling just remember who helped you get those big contracts.

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  9. Wow, quite the home and garden! It's huge. Do you know what that reddish/purple tree is at the part where you descended to the house level? It seems familiar but then I could be totally off.

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    1. It's Albizia julibrissin 'Summer Chocolate'
      http://plantlust.com/plants/albizia-julibrissin-summer-chocolate/

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  10. I love gardens with a casual-yet-tidy appearance like this one. Did they start from a blank slate or were there some existing plants/features in place when they started? Either way I'm green with envy at what they've accomplished in only two years. Hmmm, maybe if I had watered more and actually fertilized once in a while... I'm sure I can get my parents on that straight away. Hehe.

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