the pond and creek at Dairy Creek Meadows

Dairy Creek Meadows was one of two gardens I visited last weekend under the HPSO Open Gardens program. Both were familiar to me, one because I had visited it a few years back (the Courtneys’ garden), the other because I had visited the owners’ previous city garden in 2014 before they moved to 30 acres. Some elements of that incredible city garden, Floramagoria, can be seen at Dairy Creek Meadows, but overall it’s a newly imagined style of gardening that plays out over acres, more Oudolfian than tropical town garden. I’ll be posting on both in the upcoming weeks but want to highlight DCM’s pond and creek. They were certainly a highlight for me.

You would think with five rivers emptying into Tillamook Bay, that there are endless river trails and opportunities to engage up close with moving water. There are not. I’ve been on a mission to find an easy river walk and have so far met with failure. Obstinate factors include geology, with river banks that are usually steep and rocky, land rights. Locals probably have knowledge of wide banks and easy access if you know where to go, but they’re not talking. For all those reasons, this little scene bowled me over, a small slab of level rock with a couple of adirondacks, a shade umbrella, and a dancing stream. The essentials. All you need.

Have a great week. More soon, AGO.