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Clark County Mini-Tour

It is a rare rainy day here in August (or more accurately, a wet, drizzly day). That means a break from watering and a good chance to catch up on blogging and other computer-related tasks. Before I continue with my England tour highlights, I wanted to share photos from this past Sunday's mini-tour of four gardens here in Clark County (an event sponsored by HPSO - Hardy Plant Society of Oregon). I saw three of the gardens on Sunday. I had already visited the fourth one, Lynne Heidsiek's native habitat garden, when she was part of the Study Weekend tour that we were on.  Our first stop was the marvelous shade garden of Margaret Stapenhorst. A bluestone patio is surrounded by towering mature trees that shade a woodland garden. There was a fern table and a moss garden, as well as garden art by Steve Farris. Loved, loved the waterfall. This is what I'd like to do in our front garden, but I don't know if we have the room. Just a few streets over is the garden of Eloise and Bo...

Deck and pergola update


Two full days of work and we are about 99% finished with staining the new deck/pergola. We took the supposedly "rain free" opportunity to get the job done and of course we got sprinkles yesterday afternoon and evening (the weather people here are the WORST!). No worries, however, as it did not seem to spoil anything.

When we had it built in January, Michael said that it would be nice if we could have stained the wood beforehand, especially the 2 x 2 slats that go across the top. Of course he was right as usual. It was a nightmarish job trying to get all the slats stained and I realized that in order to get the top of the slats covered, I would have to climb up on it and do the job sitting on top. Not much fun and very hard to move around. We can hardly move tonight.

I am smiling but I would rather be planting the plants I got at Hortlandia.

This is Michael on day #1. He used a car wash brush with an extension handle to apply the stain to the floor. This made the job go fast at first but of course those pesky slats on top would slow us down to a snail's pace.


Exhaustion and running out of stain ended the day with only a small portion of the slats remaining. Michael is planning on finishing the job tomorrow.


Text and photos by Phillip Oliver, Dirt Therapy

Comments

  1. It looks like it will withstand any weather and any plants climbing upon it. I can't wait to see all the plantings around it. All of those slats make it a beast to stain no doubt. Won't it be fun to sit out there and watch the garden grow!

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  2. You'll be finished just in time for the nice weather this weekend ...we hope ? It looks just right in that position , can't wait to see it all furnished .

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  3. wow this is stunning!! 2 Pergolas ?? Love it


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