27 Friday Mar 2015
Posted in Gaiety Hollow, Garden, Lord & Schryver
It was a blue sky day here in Salem today…
so I thought I’d dash through the garden so you could see the fresh spring look. I don’t really have news today, just a few images…
Garden on!
15 Sunday Mar 2015
Posted in Gaiety Hollow, Garden, Lord & Schryver
I wasn’t in the garden this week, but the core group of loyal volunteers were, and here are Woody Dukes’ photos of the hard work that they were able to do. Woody was in the garden doing some fence repair…
Leaves had been raked against the fence from the other side causing a big build-up of leaves as well as some needed repair work to the fence panel…
But MEANWHILE…a crew of the most hard working and dedicated volunteers got really AGGRESSIVE about cleaning out the beds, digging out every leaf and stick they could find…in preparation for another crew to come in with mulch to cover the new irrigation lines as well as burying emerging weeds…and eventually providing moisture retention in what looks like will be the hot summer months ahead. Leaves, twigs, fallen camellias…all had to go…hats off to this crew (and if this inspires you, they are working again next Friday…Come on down!)
Joyce Zook…
Bobbie Dolp…
Molly O’Dea
Jay Raney…
Better than going to the gym! (Thanks for the photos Woody…)
07 Saturday Mar 2015
Posted in Gaiety Hollow, Garden, House, Lord & Schryver, Uncategorized
Tags
brick pathways, Etahn Allen, Gaiety Hollow, Garden in winter, Lord & Schryver, Lord & Schryver Conservancy, NW Rugs, Spencer's Antiques, spring garden
While the rest of the country has been suffering a severe winter, here in the Pacific Northwest we have been happily in the “spring-time” mood for a month or so, brought on by sunshine and warm temperatures. Gaiety Hollow is coming back to life and beautifully so…I was in the garden very early Tuesday morning, all alone, and it was lovely…even though a tiny bit frosty…
Friday, though, I was back to check-in with the cadre of volunteers that keep this place looking good. I wonder if even our most committed readers realize that this beautiful garden would not have been saved, and would not be thriving, without the continued and total commitment of people who love the place and believe in the mission. Of course they don’t want to be mentioned…but sometimes I can sneak a photo or two…
This week they added forget-me-not and pansies to the tulips…”place holders” in the perennial beds for the time being…
And inside the house things are looking good. Many many thanks to neighbor Marian Milligan who recently donated these two little art pieces that she purchased back in the 1980’s from the estate sale at the house…they are the only things we have that are original to the house…(anybody else out there have something they bought from that sale???? Donations happily accepted…)
The intention of the conservancy is NOT to run the house as a house museum, but to have it be a working place, a place for meetings, seminars, etc. But it is nice to have a few civilizing touches and many thanks this week to Ethan Allen, NW rugs and Spencer’s Antigues for keeping our recent purchases well within budget. An alabaster lamp, a new rug, and the little graceful game table that now warm the entry of the house are nice touches…
The garden sparkles outside the windows…calling us back out…
Once outside we notice the terrific laminated garden plan that gardeners can use and mark on with erasable markers…
a final look around…
and we’re off…stay tuned for the coming story of recreating the front gate…Happy Gardening!!
14 Saturday Feb 2015
Posted in Gaiety Hollow, Garden, Lord & Schryver
Taking advantage of the good weather, the crew arrived early to spread compost and “attack the invasives”. By the time I got there at 10 they were nearly done…
and though yesterday it looked like this…
by 10:30…Shirley and the rest had it looking pretty tidy…
…with a little time for a chat about aegopodium podagraria…!
14 Wednesday Jan 2015
Posted in Gaiety Hollow, Garden, House, Lord & Schryver
Tags
camellias, daphne, ecto-parasite, Gaiety Hollow, Historic House and Garden, Lord & Schryver, Oregon Winter Garden
Yesterday was a bright sunny January day in the garden…
Sharon Rose and I arrived for an Archive Committee meeting…
and since she’s a plant biologist she explained the ectoparasite mistletoe in the white oak while we waited for the meeting to begin…(not harmful, for the most part…)
and then we walked around the garden a bit. An Oregon garden on a January sunny day is full of spring…
15 Saturday Nov 2014
Posted in Gaiety Hollow, Garden, Lord & Schryver
Tags
brick pathways, camellias, Gaiety Hollow, garden, Historic Gardens, Lord & Schryver, Sprinkler system installation
The sprinklers are in, the porta-potty is gone, and now as late fall closes in, the garden will have a welcome dormant time to “regroup” and heal. First the nice long views…
…the new drip system looks like it will make a big difference, come spring…
and the trenches are nicely filled in (a bit muddy, but not too bad…)
but the most amazing part of this November visit was the big camellia near the kitchen door…in full bloom! Ahh gardens…roll on winter!
01 Tuesday Jul 2014
Posted in Gaiety Hollow, Garden, Lord & Schryver, Uncategorized
Well tomorrow Woody has to move on to other projects…the bench is reconstructed and looking good. Here’s how it finished up…it turned out the top, like the seat and the rest of the bench, was rotten and had to also be rebuilt.
the back is in place, as are the brackets…
It looks pretty good!
So Woody had to try it out…what a LOT of work.
Caulking and painting will be the final touches…
and then maybe garden neighbors Jon and Irene will come back for a photo op, like they did last summer?
The caulk and paint crew are on their way…
29 Sunday Jun 2014
Posted in Gaiety Hollow, Garden, Lord & Schryver, Uncategorized
I seem to decide I won’t post any more construction photos until the reveal, and then Woody sends me some more that are interesting. I thought you might like to see how he is constructing this lattice…remember these?
Yesterday they began to make the grid…
and all of the painted strips will be condensed to make JUST the back of the bench…a section just about 5 feet by 5 feet.
which will go here…
27 Friday Jun 2014
Posted in Gaiety Hollow, Garden, Lord & Schryver
Tags
bench rebuilding, Gaiety Hollow, garden, garden benches, Historic Gardens, lattice, Lord & Schryver
In spite of rain!!! There are always ways around things…
I think I forgot to mention that the work Woody is doing in the garden on the fences, gates and bench has been funded by a “Toolbox Grant” from the City of Salem, administered through the Historic Landmarks Advisory Commission. The grant deadline for completion of the work is July 31st, so Woody is working against the clock…
Yesterday Woody and Christopher worked on rebuilding the bench seat…
and Don Roberts completed all the painting of the strips that will be used to rebuild the back of the bench…the “privacy lattice” so-called for the close arrangement of strips and the small square spaces between.
Woody mentioned that all the strips you see in the photo will be used in just the back of the bench. Stay tuned for “the REVEAL”… And thank you, City of Salem!
26 Thursday Jun 2014
Posted in Gaiety Hollow, Garden, Lord & Schryver, Uncategorized
Tags
fences, Gaiety Hollow, garden, garden benches, Historic Gardens, Lord & Schryver, restoring wooden fences
READERS…many apologies! I was trying to cut and paste Woody Dukes’ excellent emails about the recent repairs of gates and fences and arbors at the garden. Unfortunately all the visuals failed, so here, in my own words is what happened. As Woody began to examine the arbor and several gates, he found the rotten members were in worse shape than he originally imagined. He had to remove the arbor completely to rebuild it, he had to rebuild the gate to the service area, he had to reset posts and cut decorative motifs…i.e. A LOT OF WORK! With the excellent assistance of Christopher Hackett, David Lichter and Don Roberts, the work is coming along nicely. Woody chose not to use pressure-treated posts as they have a modern look, instead to set them in gravel to wick the water away from the posts. He was also able to reuse historic segments froom earlier repairs. In the interest of time (mine AND yours!) I’m just going to include here a long series of process photos without captions, but I think you can readily see what happened! (Sorry for the snafu!!)
The arbor was found to have so much rot that repair would be difficult…
and has he worked along Woody soon discovered that the wood was filled with ants…
the arbor was going to have to be totally rebuilt.
and now it starts to rain for a few days…see you next week!
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