Tag Archives: garden

Evening in the Garden

19 Wednesday Jul 2017

Posted by in Deepwood, Gaiety Hollow, Garden, House, landscape architecture, Lord & Schryver, Open Garden, Summer, Tours

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We took a twilight tour of the gardens at Gaiety Hollow this evening and as usual found the garden beautiful and restorative.

If you want to ease into the Salem Art Fair this weekend let me suggest the Lord and Schryver tours which are Saturday the 22nd at 9:00 at Deepwood Museum & Gardens and at Gaiety Hollow beginning at 10:30.  The cost is $5 for those 16 and up.

So why do this?  Why go visit gardens planted in the 1930’s by people long gone?  Well in Garden Curator Lindsey Kerr’s absence I’ll suggest a few reasons.

These women, Elizabeth Lord and Edith Schryver, lived here in Salem.  They designed cutting-edge gardens of great beauty for Salemites and for others across the Northwest.  They were rigorous, talented and interesting, and if you live in Salem they are a part of your history!  Come see the garden and learn their story, your back-story.

Walk through these garden gates and step back in time.  For the most part people don’t design or maintain gardens like this anymore. We are now into efficient, low water, low maintenance gardens. Here is a chance to see a house and garden designed and now maintained from another world altogether…and it is a captivating garden and a captivating world.

Come and see plant varieties and combinations that are “old fashioned” and yet totally up to date. Giant white hydrangeas, Nicotiana alata spilling out of beds, delphinium, grapes…ideas abound in this historic garden for modern gardeners.

Escape.  And this garden has been providing a breathing space for me and many others for years…always delightful, ALWAYS ALIVE, always a balm.

See you Saturday!

 

 

Volunteer Appreciation!

24 Monday Apr 2017

Posted by in Gaiety Hollow, Garden, House, landscape architecture, Lord & Schryver, Spring, Uncategorized

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I came in the back gate today for the event, and a quick walk through this garden makes you appreciate anew the power of commitment, focus and pure love of place.

This garden has been maintained and renovated and cared for thoroughly for years by volunteers.  Just this year we have been joined by garden curator Lindsey Kerr, the first salaried position.  Lindsey quickly saw the volunteers were key and she has intuitively networked with everybody…gardeners, carpenters, artists and photographers, archivists…the large team of people whose interest in the work of Elizabeth Lord and Edith Schryver has made this project go forward for two decades.  Lindsey wasn’t with us today, but I snuck up to her office (stopping on the landing for a quick look in to Lord and Schryver’s office)

for a couple of the views she sees everyday…

From up here I saw the clematis on the newly-completed pergola renovation just bursting into bloom (as planned by L&S)…here’s Lindsey’s photo of last week and then how it looked today…

We were offered refreshments,

and a look at some of the drawings of Lord and Schryver on the walls in the public rooms…(I liked this one which was Edith Schryver’s senior thesis project at the Lowthrope School)

and then to stroll the garden, returning to the house to tell what was our favorite spot in the garden…

Today all these volunteers were appreciated in the best way…each of us was handed a thank you note or two and asked to tell what we do for the garden and the conservancy, and in the story-telling there was a grace and a humor and a sense of commitment that seems rare in these days.

The Board master-minded a surprise gift for Board Chair Bobbie Dolp who really has worked full time doing everything from grant-writing to weeding…her favorite vintage photo of the house…(with a drawing by me of a cherry original to the garden)…she liked it…

…and before I forget I rounded the corner of the garage today to see the crab apple planted last fall in full bloom…

Volunteers we appreciate you!!!  Thank you for this work.

 

Spring ??

23 Monday Jan 2017

Posted by in Driveway, Drying Garden, Gaiety Hollow, Garden, Lord & Schryver

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Probably not, but today, in this part of the world, it was sunny and 46 degrees and it felt so spring-like I thought that Gaiety Hollow might be the place to go.  I wanted to see how the sod had survived in the new garden “room” and what progress had been made on the driveway…I’ll let the pictures tell the tale…

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and there were a few little signs, even though we know very well there’s more winter ahead!

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Bonnie Hull, Garden Correspondent

Happy New Year!

28 Wednesday Dec 2016

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

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I was back in the garden today, finally.

view-south

Winter in the garden means work of the chilliest sort.  Curator/garden manager Lindsey Kerr is working on the beds, and the workers from Autumn Leaf Landscaping are digging out the “Drying Garden”…

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As I was having a chat with Lindsey Kerr and she mentioned to me a couple of photos from the 1980’s of how that section of the garden used to look… and sent them along…

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We cordially invite you to join in the efforts of the Lord and Schryver Conservancy to not only retrieve this beautiful 20th century garden, but to help it survive on into the 21st century with new audiences and new activities…none of which can go forward without the help of our generous donors.  Thanking you in advance!

Note original grass, espaliered Camellia sasanqua.

Stormy Weekend

15 Saturday Oct 2016

Posted by in Gaiety Hollow, Garden, Lord & Schryver

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We’re in the middle of stormy weekend here…we left the fireside for a coffee and I did a quick tour of the garden.

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Interestingly, aside from the grape leaves on the arbor, the fall color visible is mostly from trees in the neighboring yards…Gaiety Hollow is still green, but fading.

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Arbor progress is being made…in spite of less than ideal conditions…

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and a few tiny bits of color have floated into the pool…

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Stay dry out there!!

Meet Lindsey Kerr!

30 Friday Sep 2016

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

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Today was our new garden advocate/curator’s first meeting with the volunteers at Gaiety Hollow.  Lindsey Kerr is newly arrived from Connecticut where she has been managing a private estate garden since finishing her graduate work.  I went along to meet Lindsey so I could introduce her to you, but first had to wander the garden.  On Friday the story is a little different than my usual solitary adventures.  The people who do the work to keep this garden beautiful are actually in the garden every Friday…

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Serious dead-heading was going on…

deadheading

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work on the bench and the arbor progresses…guess who?

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Name tags were in order today…

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tools and snacks at the ready…

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…special delivery from Amazon…

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Gretchen and Lindsey talk boxwood…

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a maverick.

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I take a turn through the garden…

statuary

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our vintage view for today…

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before getting down to work.  I wanted to get a picture of Lindsey and the volunteers “in the garden”…so here they are.

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And here’s Lindsey Kerr.  As she settles in, she will be in the garden everyday.  She’ll be learning about Oregon plants and climate, as well as trying to absorb the history of Elizabeth Lord and Edith Schryver as plants-women and architects.  She feels this is especially important so that she understands the right plant choices and care of the garden going forward.  She is interested in meeting you and looks forward to jumping into the Gaiety Hollow community with both feet.  Soon she will be writing blog posts about her daily activities in the garden as well as her thoughts for the future.  You will enjoy meeting her, I know.

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In the meantime…watch for those spider webs…this one especially beautiful this morning, filled with dew.

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Fall is Here!

26 Monday Sep 2016

Posted by in Gaiety Hollow, Garden, Lord & Schryver, Uncategorized, Vintage Photos

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After a too-long absence I stepped into the garden today and as usual was delighted by the fresh beauty awaiting me on this bright and sunny and warm fall Sunday.

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At the back gate I noted the wonderful copper covering of the curved wooden element on the gate frame…to keep the water out of the wood I presume, and before long it will be as green as the gate but TODAY the copper shone in the sun…

9-25-1The flowers I watched the volunteers plant in the spring are in their last real blaze…

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and I then headed to the grape arbor to see the progress the builders have made.  They are, bit by bit, replacing all the wooden elements without disturbing this key central bit of hardscape.  It has been fascinating to watch…

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They are even removing the comfy bench and lattice under the arbor (where I have spent a LOT of time looking and drawing)…here it is in spring

L&S winter 2013 arbor and boy

and today dismantled for repair and replacement…

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and here’s a vintage shot of the arbor…

Knight Library Home Garden Pergola looking east Lantern Slide

This week I hope to meet up with the builders and bring you more inside info…until then, watch out for those September spider webs!

 

In Memoriam

11 Saturday Jun 2016

Posted by in Gaiety Hollow, Garden, Lord & Schryver

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Gardens have so many functions when you stop to consider it.  They provide us with places to work, to think, to create, to celebrate and to mourn.  They offer us the positive joy and renewal of spring and growth, and they offer the silent solace we often need in times of sadness.

under the arbor

the allee

Gaiety Hollow sits in an historic residential neighborhood, born in 1987 and parented by Dwight Smith.  Dwight and his wife Pat lived in a nearby 1932 Clarence Smith designed house which also had a Lord & Schryver garden (1938),

Dwight's House

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and they became interested in the Lord & Schryver narrative, of which they had become a part .  Dwight worked for the Oregon Department of Transportation and researched and wrote extensively about bridges and highways in the state of Oregon, co-authoring “Historic Highway Bridges of Oregon” with James Norman,

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as well as preparing the nomination document for the Gaiety Hill/Bush’s Pasture Park Residential Historic District.

Sunday, at Gaiety Hollow, friends and family gathered to remember Dwight…and how he would have appreciated such a gathering in this garden.  Words were spoken, acquaintances were renewed, toasts were made to Dwight and his friendship, his ironic humor, his love of preservation, and all things Oregon.  And a silent toast from at least one person to the garden itself.   Salute!

beginning to gather

Before

chocolate things

Open Garden!

08 Friday Apr 2016

Posted by in Gaiety Hollow, Garden, Lord & Schryver, Uncategorized

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A sunny 75 degree day today gets us all in the garden mood…for working AND for visiting.  Gaiety Hollow will begin the open garden season this year on Sunday the 10th of April, open from 1-4, 545 Mission Street SE.  If you make your way there this Sunday you’ll see that the garden is very lovely indeed, which I noted when I visited the other day…come visit!!!  Here’s a preview…

looking south

looking west

looking north (1)

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kitchen garden

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clematis

fountain

tree peony

azaleas

See you Sunday!

boxwood put

 

Wet and Blooming!

12 Saturday Mar 2016

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

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I headed to the garden this morning, even though it was cold and raining, and it was so beautiful…as it always is, though every visit is a little bit different…for one thing, the fountain is all done!!

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The Cherries are in bloom…

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the volunteers are back to their Friday work sessions…

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east toward arbor

Today they planted pansies…

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the allee is shaggy and wildly in bloom…

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the crab apples across the street in Bush’s Pasture Park (many planted by Lord and Schryver as a sort informal test garden) are in bloom, over 25 varieties in that little corner of the park…

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blossoms and fallen blossoms are everywhere…

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but today I came bearing gifts.  Staunch garden supporter David Specht found these two books in a Newport thrift store…

the books

the first was Elizabeth Lord’s Chaucer text book when she was a high school student at St. Helen’s Hall (now called the Oregon Episcopal School), class of 1904…

Insciption Chaucer

St. Helen's Hall

The second book a guide to Holland given to Lord by Amy Ballard in June of 1927,

Insciption..Holland

just before she set off on the three month tour of European gardens.  It was on this trip that Elizabeth Lord and Edith Schryver met and began imagining a landscape architecture practice in Salem, Oregon.  David’s sharp eye has provided the Conservancy with a couple of treasures.  (Note: the Lords had a beach house in nearby Seal Rock, just a stone’s throw from Newport.)  Thank you David!