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The Town Mouse Garden!

Last weekend I drove down to the peninsula for the Going Native Garden Tour, which of course meant a visit to Town Mouse’s lovely garden, one of the staple gardens of the tour. It wasn’t really photography weather and I probably didn’t photograph anything that Town Mouse hasn’t already shown many times on her legendary team blog, but it’s always nice to have my own photos of things. And I’m not complaining about the weather; it was a beautiful day, perfect for seeing and enjoying the gardens. While I was there I met her esteemed co-blogger Country Mouse and also Helen Popper, author of California Native Gardening: A Month-by-Month Guide, which Town Mouse reviewed when it came out, and I also bought some Lewisias from Gold Rush Nursery who was there selling plants. It’s a very pleasant garden to hang out in, and I stayed for a while.

Among other reasons to see the garden, I wanted to take a photo of this little patio I made a few years ago. The only photos I had were from the stoneyard where we mocked it up and from the end of the day with the wet DG still covering the joints. Town Mouse wrote a series of posts about it, parts 1, 2, and 3. It makes a sweet little sitting spot.

The garden also has a section of urbanite, more recent than the patio, that I wanted to check out. Anita and I are often trying to convince people that recycled concrete with saw-cut edges can look as good as many other kinds of paving, and this is a great example of that; we already sent this photo along to a friend who is demoing an area of concrete. The recycled glass for the joints is a nice touch.

The backyard has a sunny section and a shady area beneath a redwood tree. I liked how the California fescues were catching the sunlight. I’m down to only a couple of them in my own garden, but I started thinking I should get a few more.

The focus of the garden is of course the natives, but there are some nice non-native plants too. I’ve never planted hellebore and dicentra together, but it makes perfect sense, winter bloomer with winter-deciduous/spring bloomer.

And back to the natives in the front yard. There was lots more to see, but it was really sunny and bright. I went to two other gardens on the tour that I’m putting in a separate post. I was glad I drove down, and appreciative that Town Mouse and the others put their gardens on the tour.

4 Responses to “The Town Mouse Garden!”

  1. April 28th, 2013 at 6:40 pm

    Town Mouse says:

    Oh, I’m so happy you did this post. Feeling somewhat guilty that I’m not blogging as much, but training for the hike I’ll do later this summer takes a lot of my free time.

    It was such a pleasure to have you over – and wasn’t it a perfect day for the tour?

    BTW, friend of mine did the Bike Tour of landscape architecture in SF and had the best time – thanks for posting about it.

  2. April 28th, 2013 at 9:39 pm

    ryan says:

    I’m glad your friend enjoyed the tour. Anita had fun too. There were fewer people this year, but that might have made it easier to lead.

    It was a beautiful day, a great day to spend looking at gardens. And I don’t think you need to feel guilty about not blogging when you just hosted 200 people in your garden. Thanks for hosting.

  3. May 2nd, 2013 at 8:54 am

    Country Mouse says:

    Hi Ryan – yes it was a lovely day and so pleasant to take time out to chat and get to know a fellow blogger and stone lover! Your photos are great – mine suffered from the afternoon hard shadows. The lovely little stone patio area you made with Town Mouse is a magnet for photographs – and people!

  4. May 2nd, 2013 at 3:01 pm

    ryan says:

    Right , it was really fun to meet people and hangout. I realized afterwards it would have made a nice photo to see Town Mouse or someone seated comfortably in the chair.

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