{"id":104824,"date":"2024-09-03T16:55:11","date_gmt":"2024-09-03T20:55:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/?p=104824"},"modified":"2024-09-03T16:55:11","modified_gmt":"2024-09-03T20:55:11","slug":"hoffmans-center-for-the-arts-the-wonder-garden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/?p=104824","title":{"rendered":"Hoffman’s Center for the Arts: The Wonder Garden"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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some phone photos from August 31, 2024. View of the Wonder Garden from the parking area adjacent to the library. Sailcloth is erected in summer over the main seating area. The HCA offices, galleries, and clay studio are housed across the street.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Hoffman Center for the Arts in Manzanita, Oregon, celebrated its 20-year anniversary Saturday August 31. Out of their many programs — clay, writing, visual arts — I became acquainted with the HCA through their horticulture program. The Hoffman’s Wonder Garden for me was the design lab I needed to become acquainted with plants that grow well on the Oregon Coast. Indeed, this is the goal the WG’s volunteer director Ketzel Levine explicitly embraces as she showcases plants that endure both a very wet winter and very dry summer, USDA zone 9ish. A public garden with this kind of sophisticated planting is a rarity on the coast — actually, in my experience, it’s a rarity anywhere!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Library in the distance behind the life drawing pavilion which was set up on the parking lot for the celebration. Succulents were added to this berm for a summer display, which gives me a strong sense of SoCal deja vu! (Except for the hebes and scotch moss scattered throughout.) There have been offers of greenhouse space to protect the succulents in winter.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Evergreen ground cover in foreground is an excellent one for this coast — Baccharis magellanica ‘Inca Point’<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Built on a gravel parking lot, the WG’s soil is excessively free draining; great for the rain-soaked winter, tricky in summer. During summer the WG needs thoughtful watering, especially since new plants are constantly being trialed and supplemental irrigation to the manzanitas is to be strictly avoided. The growing conditions are very different from my Tillamook soil which is rich and deep. (Just as an example of divergent plant choices, I’ve watched Lobelia tupa struggle at the WG but flourish in my own garden. Arctostaphylos ‘Ghostly’ survives in the WG but succumbed after last winter in my own garden. Euphorbia griffithii leaves burned in a heat wave at the WG but not in my garden, etc.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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note the towering snow gum eucalyptus at the far end of this bed, another testament to Manzanita’s propitious microclimate. Leucadendron galpinii and Acacia pravissima also thrive in this berm.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The berms are continually built back as they lose height and are kept carefully mulched. Instead of the usual fine bark mulch, this year yards of compost were spread in spring as a soil boost — but not to the manzanitas, of course! And I’m always surprised at what a heat trap this little garden becomes in high summer. Whether it’s a Manzanita microclimate or the heat absorbed and held by the gravel substrate and paths, shade cloths for the main seating areas are a necessity for visitors. However, on this mostly summer-cool coast, the plants flourish from the good summer baking the WG provides.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Over the few years I’ve been volunteering here, something else besides a personal horticultural education has crept into my relationship with the WG. And that is, the awareness of the immeasurable value even a small public garden brings to a community. To someone who previously equated gardens with sanctuary and privacy, witnessing a community bond with this little pass-through garden has been revelatory. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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for Saturday’s celebration, a life drawing pavilion with easels was set up, with volunteers posing as models throughout the dayj. Just one of the many activities held on Saturday that also included opening and closing ceremonies, art stations, “plant bingo,” live music, and of course cake!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Unlike myself, many visitors are not always motivated to come to closely inspect plants and labels, but instead gather to meet up with friends for coffee or a picnic, knit under the shade awning, end a beach walk or shopping trip here, stop in after a library visit next-door, bring their dog to the always-full water bowl. Without fencing, and sited on a busy corner, it is a backdrop to daily rituals, an essential “third place” — somewhere to go outside of home and work. I overheard a woman exclaim about the WG on Saturday, “This is the best thing about living in Manzanita!” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Salvia reptans ‘West Texas Form,’ orange spire from Lobelia ‘Bruce Wakefield’ on left<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

So why doesn’t every town have a great third-space option like the Wonder Garden? A singularly fortuitous event set it all in motion. In 2004 an artist couple, the Hoffmans, gifted their home and land to found the HCA. So there’s that bit of foundational luck, followed by decades of strong community support. (If you think donating a small house and parcel of land to your town is not a worthwhile gesture, think again!) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Newly acquired from Ketzel’s buddies at Windcliff, no plant tag yet, possibly a leontodon?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Under the HCA umbrella, I think the Wonder Garden program at the Hoffman was started around 2014. Garden savvy journalist Ketzel Levine moved into town a few years later, volunteering decades of experience and contacts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“Manzanita Moongate” screen by Indio Metal Arts installed this year — to make way for the screen, Marty grappled with removing the Mugo pine that did not want to leave! Lots of new planting in evidence, Acanthus sennii extreme right.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

An enthusiastic base of volunteers is another incalculable asset to the HCA. As far as I can tell, the HCA has been run from inception by volunteers. It was just two years ago that the HCA acquired its first paid director<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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And at the Wonder Garden, not every volunteer needs to bring a lifetime of plant knowledge, because there are so many other skills required to keep the garden flourishing. Plant sales run by volunteers provide funds for more plants and commissioned art work, like the new screen of salvage metal made by Indio Metal Arts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Dahlia ‘Forncett’s Furnace’ with leptospermum, melianthus and lomatia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I have to emphasize that I am writing about the HCA as a non-resident newcomer, and I have to own any mistakes of omission as far as history and unfamiliarity with the many volunteers<\/a> who have made this little slice of heaven possible. In my short experience there, the Wonder Garden proves that public gardens don’t necessarily need large tracts of land and paid staff, just a community that recognizes and rallies around their little oasis at the east end of town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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(photo from HCA’s Facebook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is an upcoming plant sale<\/a> to be held on September 28, 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., including work for sale from Indio Metal Arts. Head’s up, sales are brisk, so try to be there as close to 10 a.m. as you can manage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Hoffman Center for the Arts in Manzanita, Oregon, celebrated its 20-year anniversary Saturday August 31. Out of their many programs — clay, writing, visual arts — I became acquainted with the HCA through their horticulture program. The Hoffman’s Wonder … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[850,112,5119,4495,27],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paNJ2E-rgI","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104824"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=104824"}],"version-history":[{"count":99,"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104824\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104924,"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104824\/revisions\/104924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=104824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=104824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=104824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}