I visited this garden in 2014 with a group of garden bloggers and didn't really absorb much of the back story of its creation. Visiting again this May, my knees aching after lengthy explorations along its sloping paths, I researched a bit after the visit to learn more about what I had seen. It's a lot to digest in one visit. I know from long experience that gardens don't just "happen," but the origin story of Old Germantown Gardens surprised even me. Jerry Grossnickle and Bruce Wakefield literally created it from scratch in 1988, following old deer trails for the paths, clearing out 2 acres of scrub forest with chainsaws from the 5-acre parcel, sorting out marshy areas with drains, heavy laborious work that took two years. The house itself wasn't built until 1990.
all the work of Jerry and Bruce
I think we can all agree that, while you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone vehemently anti-garden, there is a pervasive uneasiness about the work involved with making gardens. It's not everyone's idea of a good time. I recently came across the phrase of willingly being "in service to the garden" when Andrew Salter discussed the making of his garden on Garden Masterclass (here). He started the garden before his future home, a converted barn, had a kitchen or a bed. Andrew used that phrase over and over, of being in rapturous service to the garden. It's a simple, very effective description of the relationship between the gardener and the garden.
the garden slopes down from the house and includes a narrow stretch of lawn that also runs down the hillside
Bruce and Jerry have been in service to Old Germantown Gardens (named after the street) since 1988, when they left their Portland homes to find 5 acres upon which to let loose their combined bottomless energies and plant lust. The deer-fenced garden constitutes two acres; the remaining acreage is managed forest, also with trails maintained by the couple. Coincidentally, a few other Portland city gardens visited in 2014 have also been exchanged by their owners for more acres outside the city.
164 tons of gravel was brought in for paths that followed old deer trails. In the early days, water was lowered by rope in trash cans to irrigate new plantings
views reveal the careful managing and clarifying of shapes and sight lines, something most of us work with at ground level
Old Germantown Gardens is garden making at a physically heroic level, showing that a labor-intensive garden can indisputably be the personal definition of what constitutes a good time, and in fact can be at the very center of your ideal of a good life. Hand-built paths, rock walls, troubleshooting drainage solutions, hand-dug ponds, it's always been a chainsaw-driven DIY venture from the get-go. Categories of responsibility may be a little too neat, but from what I've read Jerry is consumed with engineering solutions and Bruce with the planting.
the cordylines in pots, steps, and ironwork gazebo were present in 2014
the large blue pot was also present in 2014
To enter the garden, you park on Old Germantown Gardens Road and descend down a long steep driveway to the deer-proof gates. Bruce was waiting at a sign-in table to greet visitors and answer questions, and I admit I trekked back to his table a few times for plant identifications. At one point I let him know that his namesake Lobelia tupa 'Bruce Wakefield,' a rare orange variant, grows at the Wonder Garden in Manzanita, and he told the story of its discovery in his garden by the guys at Xera then humbly shrugged off the honor with: "And I don't even like orange." That little story provides a clue into the synergy of plant nurseries with private gardens that is an important aspect of the ongoing dynamism of PNW garden culture.
marshy boggy areas were a natural choice for a large pond. I’m thinking the large leaves are Darmera peltata
variegated ligularia?
candelabra primulas leading down a “primrose path”
iris and thalictrum
Collections of certain genera like iris, primula, hellbebore fill the understory. Bruce talked of the difficulty now of bringing home seed from his extensive travels -- they had just returned from traveling through Southeast Asia and South America. The garden is famous for the Giant Himalayan Lilies, Cardiocrinum giganteum, that Bruce started from seed. I'll always associate these lilies with reading of Gertrude Jekyll directing workers with donkey carts full of manure to dump them into the massive holes she instructed be prepared for these lilies. Growing these lilies is a long game; they take seven years to bloom from seed and years more to achieve established colonies. But I do think donkey carts are a great idea for hillside paths!
mass plantings of hellebores with I’m guessing the bloomed-out skeletons of spring forget-me-nots
bearded iris and cardoon leaves
dry garden planting leading to the house and large terrace with views into the garden. Bruce mentions this when you sign in; don’t forget to check out the views from the terrace
Agave ovatifolia and Yucca rostrata planted dry, high and hot against the stone retaining wall
the view is the raison d’être of hillside planting
the terrace off the house has rills and water features that I spent little time exploring!
instead turning my attention to that view from the terrace
from the terrace looking down on Echium pininana
the cycad Encephalartos horridus in the small greenhouse off the terrace with russelia. There was also a potted Doryanthes palmeri, reminding me of the African Spear Lily growing temporarily unappreciated in my Los Angeles garden
Bismarckia nobilis in foreground — I wonder when it will be moved outside
potted plants off the greenhouse including Phylica pubescens in the blue pot
this mystery large-leaved plant was everywhere — cardiocrinum leaves?
sunny areas as well as shade — an access path through mass planting of Sweet Williams
bridging spring and summer with dianthus, campanula
Old Germantown Gardens is emblematic of the thriving garden culture of the PNW, supported by plant societies that enable touring private gardens, the specialist nurseries, all in response to the amazing climate and physical beauty of the region.
growing up in Los Angeles, I’ve developed a blindness to palms, which are coveted exotics in the PNW — glad I managed to inadvertently get a photo of a couple. Guessing from the height it’s the relatively hardy Trachycarpus fortunei
Here's more info on the garden from the Hardy Plant Society of Oregon, of which Bruce was once president. And FYI, Forest Park is one of the largest urban forests in the U.S.: "Tucked away on a wooded parcel near Forest Park, Bruce Wakefield & Jerry Grossnickle's Old Germantown Gardens is a nearly 2-acre hillside garden that is a wealth of garden diversity, including ponds, bog gardens, perennial beds and borders, woodland plantings, rock garden, dry hillside garden, and a greenhouse full of unusual tropical plants. Each garden habitat is stuffed full of plants – rare, unusual and common ones too. Parts of the garden are now almost 36 years old; the process of renovation and serious editing has begun (while still procuring new plants like there is no tomorrow)! Adjacent to the house is a French/Italian-style patio-terrace with small decorative pools, a fountain, rill, and waterfall, all contained within hand-chiseled stone walls. They have recently restored woodland trails in the back 3 acres of their forest area. Take a stroll through the native woods. You might even spot the local herd of elk! After exploring the extensive hillside trails (both in and outside the garden), visitors are welcome to refreshments on the terrace or upstairs deck while taking in a birds-eye view of Old Germantown Gardens. Best to park on the road and walk down the driveway."
