The Strauss Garden, a stop on the 2016 Salem Study Weekend

While the rest of the garden-blogosphere is all a-buzz with posts about the gardens we saw during the 2018 Garden Bloggers Fling in Austin, I'm holding off on that and instead returning to Salem, Oregon...and June 2016.

I pledged to finish my posts from the Study Weekend tours before its 2nd anniversary rolled around, and I need time to process the nearly 2,400 photos I took in Austin (so many Agaves!), so I'm falling back on photos I've already edited and uploaded. Not that this garden (or the others I have yet to share from the tour) should be seen as a "consolation prize"...
The garden description, from the Study Weekend brochure: "We have 2 and 1/2 acres of woodlands. When we first started building our house in 1977, our thoughts were to keep everything in our yard natural — other than fruit trees and a vegetable garden. The deer, we found, made us think differently. We now have a lovely, almost deer-resistant garden around our home. Interspersed among the plants are various pieces of garden art. Donna, a former art teacher, with the help of Jack, created many of them out of found objects. Over the years, visitors have commented, "What a lovely peaceful garden in such a serene setting." We hope you, too, enjoy the tranquility."

Oddly brochure description made no reference to the incredible Sedum and Sempervivum plantings, which are what made the garden a standout in my mind.
The gardener wasn't around the day of the tour, so I didn't get to ask her about the use of terracotta pots.

Since all these plants would be perfectly happy in the ground, it must be a texture thing?

Love the black balls...

The garden wasn't all Sedum and Sempervivum however...

But a lot of it was.

Not that I'm complaining...

A couple of wide-shots...

And now I'm back out in the front garden working my way back to the street, and my car.

What an unusual, and wonderful, garden.

Weather Diary, May 9: Hi 70, Low 54/ Precip .08"

All material © 2009-2018 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.