Category Archives: Garden

January chores

17 Wednesday Jan 2018

Posted by in Gaiety Hollow, Garden, gardening, Pruning, trees, Uncategorized, weeds, winter

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Is it winter or is it spring? This weather has me totally confused. I thought I had at least a month to sit in my office and write, but the sunshine these past few days has me anxiously staring at the hellebores and daffodils in bud. Should I drop everything and garden?

My answer to that is Yes, but judiciously.

There are lots of simple tasks that can be done in the garden in January that will save you from insanity in March. Why not tackle them on sunny days? Here’s what we’ll be doing at Gaiety Hollow in the next month.

  • Removing the leaves from hellebores (so that flowers are visible)
    Cut leaves
    Before
    After
  • Trimming leaves from Epimedium (so that flowers will be visible)20180116_133200
  • Cutting back sword ferns
  • Weeding out invasives (like Arum italicum, Ficaria verna, and ivy) and the cool-season weeds like bittercress (Cardamine hirsuta)
    Arum italicum
    Ficaria verna
  • Cleaning up the herbaceous perennials left standing over the winter (like peonies or phlox)
  • Composting perennials no longer up to snuff
  • Transplanting self-sown hardy annuals (like forget-me-nots and violas)
    Forget-me-not
    Viola
  • Top dress with compost

Now is also a good time to look at the structure of your deciduous trees and shrubs. Look for dead branches, crossing branches, and branches that are growing towards the center of the plant. Call an arborist now and get on their work schedule. If you plan to do it yourself, make notes, take pictures, or tie tape on branches you plan to remove later in the season.

Don’t get too hasty on pruning! I am very tempted to start pruning our overgrown boxwood, but I have been warned that it is better to wait until February. Roses are another plant you might have an urge to cut. Don’t do it. Severe cold weather–like we had around this time last year–could damage or kill recently pruned plants. It’s not worth the risk.

To prevent soil compaction, limit the amount you walk in flower beds and grass. Put down sheets of plywood if you must walk on ground that is soggy. Is the ground too wet and you don’t have plywood? Sounds like the perfect excuse to go inside and have a cup of tea.

What about all of those rainy days coming up? Stay inside and dream big dreams for your garden! It’s time to order seeds and spring planted bulbs, like Dahlia, Canna, and Gladiolus. Don’t forget to purchase seed starting supplies and new tools while you are at it. You can use this calendar to help know when to start your seeds (Salem’s average last frost date is 5/22).

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Need some inspiration? There are so many wonderful books on gardening to get you started. I recently picked up Clyde Waschsberger’s gardening memoir and loved it. What’s your favorite garden related book? Or which gardening book are you reading now?

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January in the garden

10 Wednesday Jan 2018

Posted by in brick paths, Flower Garden, Gaiety Hollow, Garden, gardening, landscape architecture, Lord & Schryver, Restoration, Uncategorized, Vintage Photos, winter

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After a two week break and a trip back to the frozen tundra of Michigan, I am back at Gaiety Hollow and Deepwood.

Earlier this week, contractors finished building the pedestal at the center of the Parterre Garden at Gaiety Hollow. It is beautiful!

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We don’t know why the pedestal was removed or when it came down. Our last photo of it was taken in 1969. Photos from 1973 show that it had been replaced by a pot.

Elizabeth, June 1969

Edith, April 1973

And where, oh where, did the dear putto go? We have no clues as to where he ended up. We think he was cast in bronze and measured 18-24 inches tall. Our earliest images of him are from glass slides taken c. 1930.

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He may have come from the Lord family garden. We have lots of eyes looking for a suitable replacement, but as of yet none have turned up.

I am thrilled by the attention to detail that the mason, Julian, gave the pedestal. After showing him pictures, he made sure to line up the mortar joints as they were historically.

Many thanks to our grant partners, the Oregon Cultural Trust and the State Historic Preservation Office, and to our donors, for their support of the brick walks project.

What else is going at Gaiety Hollow and the Conservancy?

Our winter flowers are beginning to bloom. Visitors might notice the scents of Sarcococca and Viburnum x bodnantense near the kitchen porch. Those who venture into the West Allee will find an early-blooming Camellia japonica. Primroses are blooming in the Evergreen Garden, hellebores are in bud, and I can see spring bulbs beginning to push up their greenery in the Parterre Garden.

Meanwhile, we have a new class of docents being trained to lead guided tours of both Gaiety Hollow and Deepwood. Volunteer gardener enrichment programs will take place in late January and February. Plans are underway for a film screening at Salem Cinema in March (more details to come!). And the Treatment Plan for the restoration of the garden is being written.

Update: Brick walks

12 Tuesday Dec 2017

Posted by in brick paths, Flower Garden, Gaiety Hollow, Garden, gardening, landscape architecture, Lord & Schryver, Restoration, Uncategorized, winter

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It has been more than a month since I last posted about our brick walk restoration project. They are not finished, but we hope to have them completed by the end of this week. I should note that we have concentrated our efforts on the paths in and around the Parterre Garden (sometimes called the Flower Garden) because they were in an obvious state of disrepair.

Returning visitors to Gaiety Hollow will immediately notice how much better the walks look and feel under your feet. They are now straight and level. The bricks that edge the path are all new and give the paths a crisp, clean look.

We aren’t completely clear on the history of the brick paths. There is speculation that parts of the paths were originally part of Elizabeth Lord’s mother’s garden. The modes Lord house was located at the corner of High Street and Mission Street, but the property encompassed approximately 1/4 of the city block. Juliet Lord was well known for her extensive flower gardens and Elizabeth credited her mother for teaching her to love gardens. Undated hand-colored lantern slides show the Gaiety Hollow property, but we are uncertain if they are of Juliet Lord’s gardens or Edith and Elizabeth’s gardens.

Undated; the Parterre Garden, looking north

We can say, however, that the paths were constructed by the early 1930s. Edith and Elizabeth moved into the Gaiety Hollow house in 1932. Dated photographs and plans from the 1930s show the layout of the paths.

Early plan for Gaiety Hollow

In the intervening 85 yeas, the paths fell into disrepair. Between the untold number of enthusiastic gardeners who have trod these paths, and the countless wheelbarrows of compost rolling over them, and seasons of freezing and thawing, many bricks had sunken, shifted, and broken. We discovered that a few of the paths had been redone during the intervening years and set in concrete mortar. Those paths we left as-is. Other paths were set on sand and gravel and had severely degraded. A laser level indicated that they were 2 inches lower than the paths on mortar!

When we took on this project, we decided that we wanted to restore the paths to how Edith and Elizabeth knew them. Visitors will feel like they have stepped back in time to the years Edith and Elizabeth were living and working at Gaiety Hollow (1932-1969).

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There are changes that will be new to visitors, but they would not be new to Edith and Elizabeth. We have chosen to reconstruct the brick pedestal that stood at the intersection of the Parterre Garden until 1970. We removed the wide brick path leading to the Pergola and replaced the narrow path and grass strips that were there until around 1970. We also removed the degrading pavers in the north path and replaced them with grass that we can see in an early photograph and plan.

Undated historic photograph
Earlier this week

We did elect to make a few changes: We raised the grade of some of the paths slightly to improve drainage and all the bricks along the path edges were replaced. Visitors should not notice the grade change. The new bricks fit well with the old, but visitors will perceive that they are newer and it will create an opportunity for us to explain the garden’s story.

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When you visit the gardens next season, you might notice a few quirks in the paths and the patterns of the bricks. Someone repairing the paths years ago must have made a few changes. We replaced the bricks exactly as they were (to the consternation of mason Julian).

All in all, the Parterre Garden has been restored to its original beauty. Visitors will be able to clearly see Edith and Elizabeth’s vision for the garden and the geometry of the design.

A small group of dedicated volunteers planted our spring blooming bulbs last week (Thank you!) and I am making plans for the perennials that we will plant in the spring. I hope that you visit us in 2018 and enjoy the progress we are making.

 

Many thanks to our grant partners, the Oregon Cultural Trust and the State Historic Preservation Office, to our donors, and to our volunteers, for making this project possible.

HISTORIC PHOTOGRAPHS AND PLANS COURTESY OF THE LORD & SCHRYVER ARCHITECTURAL RECORDS, COLL 098, SPECIAL COLLECTIONS AND UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES, UNIVERSITY OF OREGON LIBRARIES, EUGENE, OREGON.

 

Hated weeds, take 3

27 Monday Nov 2017

Posted by in Gaiety Hollow, Garden, gardening, weeds

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Last week, I asked What might be called “the scourge of Gaiety Hollow”? It was less than 12 hours before someone guessed correctly:

Aegopodium podagraria

Hiding in Geranium
Aegopodium leaves

Also known as ground elder, bishop’s weed, gout weed, snow-on-the-mountain, English masterwort, and many indecent names that a gardener calls it in a fit of fury.

There are two varieties of Aegopodium. One has green leaves; the other has variegated white/green leaves. In my experience, they are equally aggressive. They both bloom in the summer a rather unremarkable umbel-shaped flower similar to Queen Anne’s lace. This late in the season, Aegopodium is still lush and green.

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Covering the base of a Hydrangea

Portland includes it on its Nuisance Plant List. Although it is considered less aggressive than many other plants in native ecosystems, it is extremely aggressive in a garden setting and (almost) impossible to get rid of. Volunteers have spent countless hours pulling it out of the plant beds at Gaiety Hollow and yet it keeps coming back. Its roots are well entwined with the boxwood hedges making complete eradication unlikely, but we can at very least keep it from getting out of control again.

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Mother plant on the left. A new plant growing from the rhizomes to the right.

If you have Aegopodium in you garden, I would advise you to remove it as quickly as possible. Most likely you will not get all of it out. A fragment of its white rhizomes left underground will regrow. Even if you think that you like it, begin removing it now to keep it under control.

Like the other weeds I have mentioned, digging seems the best way to go in a garden setting. I dig with a shovel or trowel and follow the roots through the garden bed, gently pulling the plants and roots as I go. I try not to break the plants and feel very satisfied if I can pull up roots more than a foot long at a time. If it is growing into the roots of a perennial, I face the choice of bare-rooting the perennial or pitching it altogether.

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Another example of how the plant spreads by underground “runners” (rhizomes)

However, if you have a large patch of Aegopodium with no other desirable broadleaf plants mixed in, applications of an herbicide might take down the population. Always read the label on herbicides to make sure that you are applying the right product, at the right amount, in the most opportune conditions.

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Aegopodium in Dahlias

Can you see the white Aegopodium root extending to the left? It is growing straight through this clump of Dahlia tubers. I planted the Dahlia earlier this year as a single tuber, so the Aegopodium has grown over 2 feet in one season. I will have to divide this group of tubers to remove the Aegopodium. I don’t want to risk accidentally re-planting the Aegopodium come spring. Constant vigilance is key! Again, a fragment of root left alive will regrow and quickly begin taking over.

I have many other hated weeds, but these are our biggest challenges at both Gaiety Hollow and the historic gardens at Deepwood. What is your least favorite weed?

We are very grateful for the many hours of labor our dedicated volunteers have put into removing these weeds. The gardens would be a jungle without their help. 

 

Our Top Most Hated Weeds

15 Wednesday Nov 2017

Posted by in Gaiety Hollow, Garden, gardening, Uncategorized, weeds

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Right now is the perfect time to tackle some of our most noxious garden weeds. At Gaiety Hollow, our problem weeds have underground energy storage systems that require them to be dug out.

Fall is a great time to remove these weeds for three reasons:

  • After the annuals have been removed and perennial plants have died back, it’s easier to see weeds.
  • The moisture in the late fall soil makes it easier to dig and do a thorough job of removal.
  • Some weeds are dormant in the summer and re-emerge at this time.

Which weeds plague us the most? I’ll cover our top three nemeses in the next two weeks. First up:

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Arum italicum

Arum italicum shows up at this time of year. Its glossy green, arrow-shaped leaves pop up through the garden soil after months of dormancy. In late spring, it flowers, a white-green spadix and spathe reminiscent of a calla lily or peace lily. In late summer, the fruit is red-orange and ornamental. Once you see the pretty green leaves in late autumn and the bright fruit, you understand why someone would grow it as an ornamental. On the other hand, once you see it taking over your shade garden, you will understand why I loath it.

Arum italicum

In a garden setting, it seems the only way to remove it is by digging. The leaf has a waxy coating that makes it almost impenetrable by herbicides. Pulling the leaves does not remove the the root structure below the ground–a corm–which stores energy so that if the leaf dies, it can regrow.

Digging seems to be the only way to take down the numbers, BUT you must do it right or you will end up with more plants.

When you dig Arum you have to be very careful. Go deep. As you lift a clump out of the ground, you will notice that there is a corm at the bottom of the leaf. Looking more closely, you may notice many, many more tiny brown daughter corms attached to the large corm (they look almost like a nut). If any one of these falls off, it becomes a new plant. This is the reason why some people say that digging Arum only produces more plants.

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My recommendation? Dig out Arum in clumps, put the corms and attached dirt directly into a garbage bag, tie the bag, and dispose of it in the garbage. You do not want to put the corms in compost (it will not get hot enough to kill the corms). Don’t try removing the dirt from the clump; you will unwittingly spread the minuscule daughter tubers. All of it should go in the trash.

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Corms disguised by dirt. Can you see the brown “daughter” corm in the center?

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arum corms

Unfortunately, you are not going to get out all the corms your first year tackling Arum. This is a multi-year eradication project. I’m on year two at Gaiety Hollow.

My second recommendation? Buy a new house with no Arum in the yard.

I’m only half kidding!

Whatever you do, do not introduce this plant to your garden. If you have Arum in your yard, assume that any plant you dig up could be contaminated and do not give it away to unsuspecting friends.

More information from the City of Portland and the National Park Service.

Next week, this little terror.

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Update: Brick walks

30 Monday Oct 2017

Posted by in brick paths, Flower Garden, Gaiety Hollow, Garden, landscape architecture, Lord & Schryver, Restoration, Uncategorized

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The brick walk project is well underway! We are so thrilled to see the paths coming back together. The Autumn Leaf crew has been onsite for the past week and will continue work this week.

Day 1: Kevin and crew
Day 1
Day 1

Before work commenced, I took over ninety photographs of the paths. Julian, foreman for this project, has them all printed out so that he can re-create the paths exactly as they were. He has found a few quirks that I had not noticed, like a course of cut bricks near the middle of a path. We have no records other than photographs to help us understand how the paths evolved over time. There are many days I wish Elizabeth had written something in her journal about bricks! Perhaps the paths were Edith’s forte.

Wednesday morning
Wednesday afternoon
Wednesday afternoon

We are making a few subtle improvements to the paths as we go forward. Pooling water was frequently a problem, so we have elected to gently raise the grade of some of the paths to increase drainage. We are re-using the old bricks as the walking surface throughout the Parterre Garden (Flower Garden). The brick borders will be completely replaced with new bricks. This will provide visual consistency and be easy for docents to  interpret. New bricks will also make up the path that leads to the Pergola.

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Julian at work this morning

As soon as the bricks are finished, we will start planting spring blooming bulbs. We’re already looking forward to our first Open Garden in March 2018!

Progress on the brick paths

04 Wednesday Oct 2017

Posted by in brick paths, Flower Garden, Gaiety Hollow, Garden, Lord & Schryver, Restoration, Uncategorized

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If you haven’t been to Gaiety Hollow in the past week, you might not recognize the Flower Garden!

Last Wednesday evening, Dave Hiser brought his youth group from the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in South Salem to Gaiety Hollow. Racing against the setting sun, 25 energetic youth and 5 adult supervisors pulled up the brick paths, scraped off sand and mud, and stacked the bricks on pallets. The north path made of crumbling pavers and concrete was demolished with a sledgehammer and is heading to the landfill.

They finished the evening with zucchini bread, long drinks of cold water, and a group photo on the lawn.

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Thanks to these wonderful volunteers, the brick walks in the Flower Garden are almost ready for a make-over.

On Friday, our garden volunteers joined the efforts. Undeterred by rain, they cleaned up rubble, knocked out edging bricks, discovered more bricks hidden under an old path, and smoothed paths for walking. Pruning the boxwood away from the bricks elicited excitement from some, groans from others, and lots of jokes.

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There are still a few preparations to be done before our contractors come in–removing the short path going to the shed, taking out the edges of the paths–but we should be ready by early next week. The historic bricks are being saved so that masons can reuse them in the paths and retain the feeling of charm so integral to the gardens.

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When this construction is complete, the Flower Garden should look as Edith and Elizabeth intended it. Smooth paths. Clean edges in straight lines. No more pooling water. The pedestal and putto as the central focal point. Grass in the north path. Grass and a brick path to the Pergola. The geometry and bones that Edith and Elizabeth so purposefully laid out will be restored.

Words of caution: If you are visiting the garden as a volunteer or for a meeting during October, please approach Gaiety Hollow from Mission Street to avoid walking through the construction zone in the back gardens and to avoid interrupting our contractors when they are onsite. We want all of our visitors to be safe while at Gaiety Hollow. Thank you!

Changes are afoot at Gaiety Hollow

21 Thursday Sep 2017

Posted by in annual flowers, Flower Garden, Gaiety Hollow, Garden, Lord & Schryver, Summer, Tours, Uncategorized, Vintage Photos

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This weekend are the last tours of the 2017 season. We have a garden tour at Deepwood Museum & Gardens at 9am. It is followed by a tour of the gardens at Gaiety Hollow at 10:30am. This is your last opportunity to see the Flower Garden at Gaiety Hollow before big changes take place!

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Come Monday morning, I will be in the garden digging (almost) everything up. The annuals will go to the great compost pile in the sky and the perennials and roses will find new homes with our volunteers. By Wednesday, the Flower Garden will look like a blank slate.

Wednesday evening, we are welcoming a crew of youth from the LDS church in south Salem. They will pull up the bricks from the paths in the Flower Garden, clean them, and stack them. I am so grateful to have their offer of help!

The following week, our contractor will come in with his crew and work will commence on the rehabilitation of the brick pathways. If you have been to Gaiety Hollow this season, you know that the paths are uneven, water pools in various sections, and the edging brick is spawling in places or leaning right and left.

September in the Flower Garden

When you come back to the gardens next spring, this will no longer be the case! We cannot wait to have the paths fixed so that they look as they did when Edith and Elizabeth gardened at Gaiety Hollow. The bricks will be clean, the path lines sharp and crisp, the pedestal at the center of the garden reconstructed, and grass will be reintroduced in two sections (including the path to the Pergola).

Cat and pedestal
Edith, 1968

It is a very exciting time for the Lord & Schryver Conservancy. Many thanks to our grant partners, the Oregon Cultural Trust and the State Historic Preservation Office, to our donors, and to our volunteers, for making this project possible.

One Last Open House

08 Friday Sep 2017

Posted by in annual flowers, Flower Garden, Gaiety Hollow, Garden, House, Lord & Schryver, Open Garden, Summer

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I had a meeting at the house this morning so I snuck in the back gate a little early to see the garden…gorgeous even on an overcast and smoky morning…the last open house of the season is coming up this Sunday the 10th, $5 each for adults…545 Mission Street starting at 10:00 a.m….you won’t be sorry.  The zinnias are beautiful and so is everything else!  Come walk through for a summer memory.

Historic roses at Gaiety Hollow

03 Sunday Sep 2017

Posted by in Flower Garden, Gaiety Hollow, Garden, Lord & Schryver, Restoration, Roses, Vintage Photos

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Earlier this week, I had an epiphany as I looked at historic plans in our organization archives. Years ago, volunteers had Edith and Elizabeth’s hand-drawn plans for the gardens at Gaiety Hollow digitized. I have copies on my computer and refer to them often while doing research and planning. There is a sketch that I have often skipped over because I did not see it as particularly relevant.
ND plan with shrubs coll96_lordschpapers_0020

I had overlooked this drawing because it features a Vitex and Lonicera hedges that were never planted.

However, this week, I had a realization that the information written in the four inner flower beds might be very useful. We know from photographs that Edith and Elizabeth planted these beds with roses–roses that have long since disappeared.

Yellow roses and purple pansies. 1960

So why could this sketch not tell me which roses Edith and Elizabeth preferred?

With the power of the internet, it didn’t take me long to generate a complete list of the roses on this plan, their type, their colors, and their year of introduction. And they match with our historic photographs.

  • ‘Butterfly’ (aka ‘Golden Butterfly’). Apricot yellow. 1920
  • ‘Sunburst’. Yellow-orange. 1911
  • ‘Constance.’ Golden yellow. 1915
  • ‘Los Angeles.’ Salmon. 1916
  • ‘Augusta Victoria’ (aka ‘Kaiserin Auguste Viktoria’). White, yellow center. 1911
  • ‘Mrs. Aaron Ward.’ Yellow blend. 1907
  • ‘Imperial Potentate.’ Carmine pink. 1921
  • ‘Lady Ashtown.’ Pink. 1904
  • ‘Duchess of Wellington.’ Yellow. 1909
  • ‘Mme. Edouard Herriot.’ Coral-red. 1912
  • ‘Golden Ophelia.’ Medium yellow. 1918
  • Mabel Morse. Golden yellow. 1922

It seems like an easy step forward for us to replant exactly what Edith and Elizabeth specified on this drawing. But historic preservation is never easy! We have no records that indicate these exact roses were ever installed. At the same time, we know that Edith and Elizabeth were critical of their gardens and flowers, frequently tossing out plants that did not meet their high standards. Perhaps these roses were planted in 1932 and then went into the compost heap within the next few years. We may never know. In addition, sourcing old roses can be difficult, as roses frequently drop out of trade as new cultivars are introduced. We might not be able to find these roses for purchase in the USA.

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Roses in the Flower Garden. Date unknown.

Nevertheless, I am excited about my discovery! The colors match our collection of historic photographs. I will use this list of roses to inform the type and color palette of the roses that I choose to plant in the coming year.

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‘Gruss an Coburg’ purchased by L&S for Deepwood

Many, many thanks to our volunteers who spent countless hours in the University of Oregon archives finding these scraps of information and paving the way for the restoration of the gardens.

Photographs and plans courtesy of the Lord & Schryver architectural records, Coll 098, Special Collections and University Archives, University of Oregon Libraries, Eugene, Oregon.