{"id":110595,"date":"2026-08-02T16:31:19","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T20:31:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/?p=110595"},"modified":"2026-08-02T16:31:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T20:31:19","slug":"revisiting-the-courtney-garden-june-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/?p=110595","title":{"rendered":"revisiting the Courtney garden June 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I first visited Mary and Harlan Courtney’s garden in late July 2022 and wrote about it here<\/a>. It is a strikingly unique, materials-driven, artfully idiosyncratic approach to managing a slope, where the retaining infrastructure designed by Harlan is as prominent a feature as the plants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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new guest house addition on the left has been completed since my last visit, fresh paint to match on the main house<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I’d heard that the garden was to be included in a book, and The Spirited Garden was released this spring. After this June visit I ordered the book, which I highly recommend for the generous amount of photos and knowledgeable writing on 17 PNW gardens. Along with the Courtneys’ garden, PNW touchstones like Cistus are included. (If you’ve attended a PNW “Fling<\/a>” garden tour, the book covers in-depth some of these featured gardens e.g. the Kuzma garden, but also includes rare treats such as a tour of Ann Amato’s home and garden sanctuary.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This garden unabashedly wears its hardscape on its sleeve. Along with Harlan’s free-standing sculptures, there are painted culvert pipes, varying heights of undulating Corten retaining walls, experimental types of gabion. The engineered design solutions contain and counterpoint Mary’s adventurous planting, and any visit is an overwhelming eyeful. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Sulphur Cypress, Cupressus glabra ‘Sulphurea’<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Mary’s planting is wide-ranging and robust enough to balance the visually arresting hardscape. This June visit differed from the last one in July in that the cutting garden filled with cosmos and dahlias as well as mid-summer perennials were still gaining strength. This visit I was struck by all the stunning conifers that Mary had been planting that are large enough now to make a statement. You never know who’s going to be a conifer fan! A winter tour of the garden to see the conifers would present an entirely different mood, magical in its own way — especially if the surrounding meadow is dotted with the local herd of grazing elk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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sulphur cypress with Chamaecyparis lawsoniana ‘Blue Surprise’ Port Orford Cedar on the left<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Pinus contorta ‘Taylor’s Sunburst’<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Cupressus arizonica ‘Limelight’<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Abies concolor ‘Wintergold’ White Fir for its incredible color in winter<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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I’ve never seen the New Zealand Bur better grown — a solid mat of Acaena inermis ‘Purpurea’<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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future site of the geothermal-heated greenhouse — keep an eye out for the next tour date!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Closing with a photo of the workshop. Thanks again to the Courtneys for opening their stunningly imaginative garden. More soon, AGO<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I first visited Mary and Harlan Courtney’s garden in late July 2022 and wrote about it here. It is a strikingly unique, materials-driven, artfully idiosyncratic approach to managing a slope, where the retaining infrastructure designed by Harlan is as prominent … 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_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[112,5119],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-110595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-garden-visit","category-oregon-garden"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paNJ2E-sLN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=110595"}],"version-history":[{"count":60,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110595\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":110659,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110595\/revisions\/110659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=110595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=110595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=110595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}