One of the highlights of the Fling was to visit the Rhone Street Gardens, home of Fling organiser Scott, his partner Norm, assorted cats, neighbourhood chickens and a really cute house! We had quite a long journey getting to Scotts garden, as we stopped at a railroad crossing for what must have been the longest train in North America. It felt like one of those cartoon moments where the train was on a loop, seemingly never ending, but get there we did and the garden was well worth the wait.
Scott's garden was one of the smaller ones we visited but it was so full of interest, with great planting combinations and maximum use of ever last square inch we could have spent a lot longer there. I realised afterwards that refreshments had been laid on for us but I was so lost in enjoying the visit I forgot to grab a drink.
The house is elevated slightly from the street and the garden uses the slope cleverly building up layers of planting that overlap the pavement. Combined with the "hell strip" planting it pulls the garden right out to the road.
A place to sit and relax, in a hidden corner a nice place to sit, relax and enjoy a meal or a quite drink.
We hadn't been in the garden long when one inhabitants wanted to remind us who was the real star of the show, not the plants or people but another cute kitty! Portland seems to have more than its fair share of cute pets.
I loved the seemingly casual approach to planting, i'm sure the reality is considered as with a small space everything must earn its keep.
Those forgotten drinks and snacks!
One aspect of the Fling that I particularly enjoyed was watching the other Flingers, one could have filmed a documentary just about the people and the way we were uite happy to march into the road for that perfect shot. What do you call a group of bloggers? A gaggle?, a murder? a flock of flingers?
Given how much time was spent on organising the fling, it was great to see how good the fling committees gardens looked.
Caption please... perhaps "you wouldn't believe the size of the one that got away"
I told you there were chucks!
The Gardeners photo, and above the flock of flingers trying to get the perfect shot!
But just as we were getting ready to go one final puss put in an appearance and the garden was again ignored!, plants pah! theres a cute kitty instead :)Gaz