The HPSO/Garden Conservancy tour is this coming Saturday (check it out!)...

Each year the Hardy Plant Society of Oregon teams up with the Garden Conservancy to arrange a one-day tour of selected private gardens in the greater Portland area, proceeds from the tour are split between the two organizations (the HPSO puts the money toward their Grants Program).  Last year's tour was in NE Portland on small-ish urban lots. This year's tour is suburban, on much larger lots. The theme is "Extending Your Garden Season" and five gardens in the Beaverton area have been selected for the tour (more info here).

Last Saturday the organizers held a pre-tour for us garden bloggers and we visited three of the five gardens you'll be able to see this coming Saturday. Yes we do the scouting so you can be assured this is an event worth attending, it's hard work but we're up for it!

Our first stop was The Prewitt Garden, owners Nancy & Gordon Prewitt. They've been gardening on their 1/3 acre for over 35 years. The front garden is a great advertisement for loosing the lawn...

Cornus sanguinea 'Compressa', of impressive size...

Loropetalum chinense.

Mixed here and there throughout both the front and back gardens were a nice collection of non-hardy (for us) succulents.

I loved this wrap around planter by the front door and meant to ask where they found it - but darn I forgot!

Now we've curved around to the huge back garden.

There are lots of happy, well-grown, ornamentals and succulents...

But the real focus is on the food...

Beautiful...

Healthy...

Food.

Did I mention it was beautiful?

I noticed Scott lean down to take this shot so when he was done I did the same. Mine turned out nice, but I bet there will be a drool worth image over on Rhone Street Gardens this week (Scott organized our gathering, I guess the Portland GB Fling didn't ruin him for trying to heard kittens - I mean bloggers).

I took so many photos in all the gardens it's hard to not show you everything. I need to leave a little for you to discover on the tour, right?

Our second stop was the Mitchell Garden (owners Chris & James Mitchell). I'd had the pleasure of meeting Chris awhile back, when shopping one day at Xera Plants. It was a pleasure to tour the garden she and her husband James have created on their large corner lot.

She's got a talent for great foliage combinations...

And is a budding conifer collector (if I remember correctly this is an Abies concolor).

Cleome, one of those plants I always mean to plant but never do!

My Hosta flowers last only as long as they go unnoticed by my clippers, however if they looked (and smelled) like these they just might get a pass.

I've seen so many gorgeous short Tetrapanax lately! This one grows along the side of the house.

After admiring the Tetrapanax you step out into an expansive back garden with raised beds under tall fir trees...

*sigh*...I miss my Gunnera!

Grapes cover the top of arbor, while hops enclose the back.

I forget how many kinds of hops there are growing in the garden, maybe 7? They're all used in making home-brew.

Did you spot the Agaves in the garden? The Mitchell's came up from California and brought with them a love for Agaves. In fact there was an entire section of the garden devoted to these plants which I'll cover in more detail tomorrow over on the the plant lust blog. Be sure to check it out!

There's definitely a collector at work here, Schefflera delavayi...

The collector also has a great eye for design.

We've returned to the back garden entrance and are fixin to head on to the next garden, but before we do I had to capture that great lawn / patio edge...

And the Agave!

So many fabulous foliage combinations here...

On to our final stop of the pre-tour; the Winchester Place Garden of Zachary Baker & Leon Livengood. These guys like color...

I mean really like color...

This combination made me a little giddy. Anyone know what the purple and chartreuse leaved plant is - not the Coleus, the one with the small leaves - in the center of the photo?

Orange Zinnias are always a good thing.

Here's the long view of the back garden. I'm standing in their cozy seating area (which I negelected to get a photo of...

I think it's safe to say the fountain captured all of our imaginations.

That's a wrap on my sneak peek at this year's Garden Conservancy Tour, if you're thinking of attending you can buy tickets right at the gardens on Saturday (August 29th) info here. Oh..and thanks so much to the owners of the three gardens who opened for us last Saturday, it was wonderful to see your beautiful creations!

All material © 2009-2015 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.