Tag Archives: Historic Gardens

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!

 

 

The Garden is READY!

20 Tuesday Jun 2017

Posted by in Gaiety Hollow, Garden, Open Garden, Summer, Tours

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Garden manager and curator Lindsey Kerr is away this week so I’m jumping back in for a quick post.  The garden will be open this Saturday at 10:30 for touring ($5.00 per adult) and if you haven’t been in a while it is worth the trip.  Lindsey Kerr has worked miracles in the garden along with the team of volunteers who trim and weed and tidy…not to mention to the volunteers who are replacing the hard-scape in the garden…i.e. the rotting wooden fences, benches and gates. But first…the garden.   I stepped in the gate this morning and was just delighted…

Fresh, organized and the smells…yum.   Lindsey has been working with the many garden plans and lists that Lord and Schryver made for  their own garden over the years, and has replanted many of the old-fashioned favorites they often used.  Noticable this summer are the Canterbury Bells…the bells are back!

and this morning I sat briefly in my favorite shady benches for views of the garden…

And the pergola and bench under the grape arbor are COMPLETE!  (I spent a whole week here a few years ago drawing!)

Mark your calendar…Saturday June 24th!

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.

 

A Wet Spring…

18 Saturday Mar 2017

Posted by in Bill Noble, Drying Garden, Gaiety Hollow, Garden, House, Lord & Schryver, Spring, spring annuals

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I was in the garden today…dodging raindrops on the way into a meeting…and I reflected on how beautiful this garden is…even on the very dreariest of wet spring days…

I noted some boxwood trimming had begun…

the pergola construction was well underway…

making us glad that this structure will be there providing shade next summer…like it did last summer…and for many summers to come…

the rain has helped the new lawn in the drying garden flourish…

and once inside…the fire was going and Bobbie was welcoming Bill Noble to the meeting.

Bill is here in Oregon lecturing on the Cornish Colony in New Hampshire.  His lecture in Salem is this coming Sunday (March 19th) at 2:00 in the Dye House at the Willamette Heritage Center.    I KNOW you won’t want to miss this one.   Bill formerly was with the Garden Conservancy and now works as a consultant to many famous gardens, including our own.  He is a knowledgeable and lively person, pictured like this for publicity purposes…

and here are my meeting notes…

but today we had a little fun…

See you Sunday!

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.

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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…

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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…

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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!

 

Summer Arbor Project

26 Tuesday Jul 2016

Posted by in Gaiety Hollow, Garden, Lord & Schryver

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Stepping into the garden this morning was the usual pleasure…in this case the pleasure of high summer in a gorgeous garden…a cool summer morning, a riot of blooms…

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but pretty much immediately I knew something was afoot…

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the skilled volunteers have the slow and tricky problem of replacing all the wooden members of the gorgeous grape arbor (without disturbing the vines)…board by board.

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during the Strands’ years in the garden their son Dale had carefully tried to preserve the arbor and it’s original fabric…

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but these “fixes” have now rotted as well…another solution involving concrete bases so wooden members are not in contact with the soil…as well as pressure treated wood for the bases…

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It’s slow and painstaking work but they are making headway…and then there’s the matter of paint…

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Stay tuned for a progress report.  One more glance…

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