After I left
the open garden at Dulcy Mahar's former home I decided to take a walk around the neighborhood. I love the opportunity to size up the local gardening vibe with a little sidewalk peeping...
Such grand old growth roots with nice moss and fern coverage (yes, I'm ignoring the sidewalk damage and the fact the poor tree needs more room).
Most of this garden was hidden by a tall hedge, but from the side I glimpsed a few palms and Fatsia japonica.
As I mentioned yesterday this is a fairly "exclusive" neighborhood and as such I thought the homes would be similar in character and size, I was very wrong in that assumption.
Oh, a rusty metal mariachi band, that's unexpected!
If you'd have asked me if I'd ever been to this neighborhood before I'd have said no, but once I saw this house I had a flashback to a small plant people group gathering I attended when Kelly and Sue of
Far Reaches Farm came to town and gave a talk.
It was here! That was in, maybe, 2011 or 2012? 2013? Wow...how has so much time passed?
Happy blooming Hamamelis (witch hazel).
And another.
More varied home and garden styles...
Their snow drops match the house!
I accidentally cropped the house when I took this photo, I was so in love with the mushroom lights in combination with the ferns and moss—I paid zero attention to the house.
I so need to go back and see these at night!
Love the simple midcentury modern style, but that's a lot of lawn.
Lots of plant maintenance—pruning—happening here.
Nice orbs! I wish I would have got a better shot of the slots in the driveway. It's an interesting treatment.
This is the last house I stopped to photograph that day, and as I was doing so a car coming down the side alleyway slowed and a window came down. I'd been pretty sure multiple alarms were going off as walked around the neighborhood snapping photos (what is she doing!?!), but now I was going to have to actually explain to someone why I was photographing their home and garden. Then the person driving the car yelled my name! Then she told me hers,
Sheryl Williams, a fellow blogger, from Austin, now back in Oregon. She'd been to the same open garden and was heading home when she saw me. Cue "
it's a small world after all"... (hi Sheryl!)
Back to the home though, it was perhaps the largest I'd seen, footprint-wise. With a huge front yard.
I wonder what's under the straw, in the brick planter? Bananas? A gunnera?
The "lawn" surrounding the front pavers was faux.
In case you need proof...
But look! They also had the first agaves I'd seen all day...
I mentioned Far Reaches Farm in this post, so it seems like a good time to point out the extensive Far Reaches Botanical Conservancy Video Presentation Archives available on their website,
here. You can watch presentations on Polygonatum, Trillium, Aplines from Australia and Tasmania, and so much more—dig in!
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Portland really has some incredible neighborhoods. That last house, ooooh-weee I like it. So many possibilities for that front garden. Those mushroom lights are perfect, I haven't seen anything like them! Love your walk about the neighborhood posts.
ReplyDeleteThat last house had a pretty sweet view as well, out over a wide open greenspace. Here's a little peek:
Deletehttps://www.redfin.com/OR/Portland/645-SE-Saint-Andrews-Dr-97202/home/26009234
Thank you, I do enjoy looking at real estate. And I'm snoopy. What a house! They've made some changes since they bought it.
DeleteVery cool! Love touring neighborhoods to see what people are planting! Interesting how that last house had fake grass around the path, right next to a large patch of regular or ornamental grass?
ReplyDeleteIndeed, mixed messages there. Perhaps the upkeep of real lawn around the pavers was just too much?
DeleteYour tour reminds me of homes in Brentwood (a suburb of Los Angeles), which I used to walk through periodically when I lived in Santa Monica. The houses were big (albeit positioned fairly close to one another) and highly differentiated. They also had well-maintained gardens, which is something I can't generally say of homes in my own neighborhood. I laughed at your story about the driver that stopped as you were taking photos - that's something I've been wary of doing in my current area. I've never been confronted BUT I've seen posts on the Neighborhood Watch sites warning of people "casing" homes. That's why I do so few neighborhood walks outside my own ;)
ReplyDeleteOh yes, that's constantly on my mind. Am I going to be stopped and questioned? Is someone going to get in my face and demand my phone/camera? Only once in all my 17 years of doing this has someone verbally threatened me, and since she was inside her house (screaming out the window), I just got in my car and drove away. As long as I stay on the public sidewalk it's perfectly legal for me to take photos, so there's that.
DeleteI love the house with the tall pointy entry, very similar to the house style Allan grew up in, and the one with the curbed roof edges, gorgeous.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link to videos at Far Reaches Farm.
Hope you enjoy the recordings!
DeleteLove that first photo--it almost makes me feel like I'm on the walk with you. And the base of the tree with all the life forms--wowza! What a beautiful neighborhood full of lovely homes and gardens!
ReplyDeleteIt is a lovely neighborhood, glad you enjoyed the walk.
DeleteI wonder whether the rusted rectangle with circles and spirals is backlit at night, perhaps in different colors? If not, I think it should be!
ReplyDeleteI wondered the same. There was a second rusty form to the right.
DeleteOh, so many architectural styles, it would be difficult to pick a favorite. Although none have an extensive front garden like yours anyway (or mine), there are elements of each that catches one's eye. Such as the licorice fern in the old root, the beautiful half circle masonry around the conifers (photo 22), the mushroom lights!!! I need a few of those.
ReplyDeleteThe blooming Hamamelis is a reminder to drop by the Bellevue Botanical garden.... they have a row of them in the parking lot!
Chavli
I don't think fancy neighborhoods would appreciate a front garden as densely planted as mine (or yours?), so I was happy to see even hints of plant madness!
DeleteHuh. Either I am becoming inured to today's house prices or Portland prices have been falling. I half expected them to be closer to a bazillion dollars rather than $1.4 million. That almost seems reasonable? I love the variety in that neighborhood. I'm drawn to the house with the curled over roof and, of course, the mushroom lights amongst the moss and ferns.
ReplyDeleteYou and I have different ideas of reasonable! Although I remember when we first moved here I was thrown by common "starter" homes going for over $250K... now that seems laughable.
DeleteI was shocked when I moved to the PNW at the house prices, and that was back in 2008 before the crash and then the dramatic upswing. It's crazy how much the values have shot up. I remember thinking if only I could save $100,000 for 100 acres and a old family farmhouse back in WI. That's laughable now too.
DeleteWith all the Ring or Nest cameras people now have, I'm hesitabt to take many photos, let alone with my regular Nikon DSLR. But that's cool it was someone you know rolling down their car window!
ReplyDeleteAll the dark colored houses there, but actually a nice break from every variation on beige stucco here...