Friday, April 20, 2018

The Marsh Garden, a stop on the 2016 Salem Study Weekend

Think European. In Salem, Oregon. We're flashing back to June of 2016...

From our Study Weekend brochure: "Our Mediterranean-style home and 2-acre garden began as an abandoned hilltop pasture 17 years ago. Our garden reflects the influence of our visits to gardens in western Europe. Italian influences dominate our interior garden, including a Tuscan fountain, dining pergola and loggia, as well as extensive hedging. Think Italian with color. A French inspired allee connects the upper garden to the lower tropical garden. Other features include a white garden, an English cottage garden, a Mediterranean garden, and a new prairie garden. The gardens outside the wall are informal, reflecting a northwest style."

Honestly I remember being a little hesitant to devote much time to this garden, fearing it would be something like Trump's idea of a European garden.

My concern was misplaced, it was wonderful...

Rosa glauca

Wish I had room.

Kinda magical, right?

Daphne × burkwoodii ‘Briggs Moonlight’, I swoon.

These were a little unexpected.

I can imagine walking out those doors on a summer morning, coffee in hand, ready to admire my estate. Yes I can.
My view would be a little different, but still, this is downright lovely.

That's quite the shade pavilion.
Euphorbia stygiana, I think.

Sweet vignette! (Santolina and Kniphofia)

Impatiens mash-up.
I've never seen a Gunnera used at the back of a planting bed like this. It works, and they must have some amazing irrigation to get it the water it needs to grow that tall.

Pots on plinths
Pots and pots.

We're about to make our leave of this charming garden.
And in case you're wondering, yes, really. I am still posting photos from a garden tour I took part in back in June of 2016. What can I say? I've made it a personal goal to get through my last six Salem gardens before the second anniversary of the tour! I can do this! (fingers crossed...)

Weather Diary, April 19: Hi 68, Low 39/ Precip 0

All material © 2009-2018 by Loree Bohl for danger garden (dg). Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

16 comments:

  1. Like you, I'd be less than eager to visit a garden with so many different styles. But it was beautifully executed. I hope you manage to write about all the Salem 2016 gardens before the 2nd anniversary. I'm still working on gardens from 2012! Slowly, slowly.

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    1. Thank you for making me feel better about back-log!

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  2. What can one say but Wow!! You have to have a lot of space and walls and hedges to do gardens in different styles like that. Quite an accomplishment and in only 17 years, which I consider pretty fast.

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    1. So many gardens on tour have photos of the process, or the early days. I should have looked for something like that here.

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  3. Its quite beautiful, especially the white and green garden, but the plants are not stressed, sunblasted and dried out enough to be authentically Mediterranean, she whined.

    (;^)

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    1. Yes late June in Western Oregon can still be pretty wet. I wonder what it looks like in August?

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  4. It's a little formal for my taste in some areas but impressive nonetheless. It's been meticulously maintained and I couldn't help but wonder whether there's a full-time gardener (or 2) on staff.

    I think it's great that you have a stockpile of blog material on hand to draw from. I'm unable to fall back on any kind of archive when I hit a dry patch in terms of post material.

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    1. I think we were told the homeowners/gardeners to the lions share of the work.

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  5. Fantastic. Well worth the wait to see it.

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  6. I like it and it's not at all what I expected after reading the description. A nice mash up of styles that works as a whole. Daphne × burkwoodii ‘Briggs Moonlight’ grown this beautifully always makes me envious as I've killed it three times in my own garden but it's such a gorgeous plant it might get one more chance if one ever crosses my path again.

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    1. My ‘Briggs Moonlight’ lives on, but looks NOTHING like this one.

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  7. A beautiful space, one this large rarely seen this side of the pond. I wonder how many staff this garden takes to maintain?

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    1. If I recall correctly the homeowners/gardeners do most of the work themselves.

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  8. This is a beautiful garden with something for everyone. I usually avoid white flowers in the summer as I'm afraid they would seem washed out in the bright sun, so I was surprised how much I liked the white garden section; it's done so well. The shade pavilion I liked the most was just to the left of the structure: that sweet bench under the tree canopy.

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  9. Glad you still posted about this lovely garden!

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