Welcome to the Gardens of The Prints & The Paper

 

 

Master gardener around here is Gary. Here he is hosting the garden for the Eugene (OR) Symphony Society Garden tour, summer of 2006.

 

Used to be he'd say, "I'm in charge of dead things. You're in charge of live things." By dead things he meant the rocks and hardscapes he loves to place and create. But somewhere along the way he got somewhat territorial about the "live things" as well, so these days it's pretty much his baby. I try to grow vegetables in pots on the deck! (We have so many wild critters, including deer, raccoons, wild turkeys, etc. that it's impossible to grow edibles unless you have a lot of fencing...and sunlight. We're kind of short on sunlight, too, since we're nestled among maples, oaks, pines, and firs.)

 

We had a flock of a dozen or so wild turkey running around this year:

 

We tentatively call the garden "Circles in Thyme." The main theme is circles - with a labyrinth, a Star Gate, a round patio, a Yin-Yang entry to the labyrinth, and a Stone Circle. We're working on the thyme.

 

The stone circle is oriented to mark the equinoxes and solstices:

 

Gary has built a "Peruvian Wall" (out of concrete)

 

And guests enjoy the labyrinth

 

The Star Gate is a recent hit, although we haven't yet figured out how to leave this planet:

 

 

and the marble sphere in the labyrinth carries on the circular theme.

 

All of this is watched over by the Inuksuk (and we haven't had a caribou in the yard since he arrived!)

 

 

But the front yard is nice, too:, with the rocks that Gary built (Old Man on the left, Old Woman on the right).

 

And then there is Frodo Falls (Frodo is a concrete toad that we carried on a trip through B.C and home:

 

Gary is attempting to incorporate many native plants, such as this Lewisia (name for explorer Merriwether Lewis):

 

And I'm fond of good oldfashioned flowers such as these iris:

 

But the yard can be beautiful in autumn as well as spring and summer:


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    leekirk:Actually we saw Frodo in a local department store just as we were leaving on our trip. Gary needed a new shirt and we stopped to buy him one. Of course we looked around - it was a nice locally-owned store with interesting stuff, since gone out of business with the advent of big box and discount stores in the area. He walked over to me with this thing in his arms and I honestly thought he was joking. He usually hates yard ornaments (well, little gnomies as he calls them) so I said, "No, you can't have it." He pulled his best pout, so I apologized profusely and we carried Frodo to the checkout counter. Then, along the way on our trip, wherever we stopped to sight-see we set Frodo in an interesting spot and snapped his picture. Frodo in front of a waterfall. Frodo in front of a totem pole. Much more fun than snapping each other! In a wonderful BC garden we spotted an obviously professional photographer, set up with tripod and reflectors and trying to get just the right shot. I sneaked over while he was peering through his viewfinder and set Frodo down in front of him - he looked up just as we were about to snap the shot, spotted Frodo, and grinned like heck. I'll see if I can dig out those photos. It was sure fun and funny. Frodo received his name from his peripatetic adventures, of course, and when Gary built the waterfall in the front yard, Frodo commanded a position of honor. Booksellers sure have fun. (Found some wonderful books on that trip also - one of which I sold to the host of our B&B at a decent profit, and to his great delight at finding a book he had "heard of for many years but never seen." (He was formerly a professor of English History at a large university, and the book was on English Heraldry, with lovely chromolithograph plates. I bought it to save it from the plate breakers.)
    Barb:I think Frodo is adorable. I can see why you lugged him so far home.
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