Garden Projects at Edgefield

   I began working at Edgefield (McMenamins)in Troutdale, in December of last year. I was hired on as the assistant manager in the Gardens Department. Believe it or not, but McMenamins employs a staff of 6 to manage and maintain the grounds, which includes a 1/4 acre vegetable garden. The gardens are densely planted with a designer's eye, and a collector's sensibility; overflowing borders with rare and unique plant selection. It really is a garden lover's paradise. Though most patrons wouldn't even know it.

   I wanted to update this blog regarding a few projects that are either in progress or already completed.

   The first project I was able to complete were two brick pathways behind Blackberry Hall, which is the larger of the indoor entertainment venues on property. A couple of soggy gravel pathways lead to an outdoor meadow where a lot of the weddings in the summer take place. These pathways desperately needed to be hardscaped. We used some of the materials we had on site, some left over pavers from a previous project, and some brick from salvaged from an old building in Portland. The paths turned out great.

Most recently I finished out a small stone and pebble area in spa garden. A towel/robe rack was installed last year but the floor was left dirt, and with heavy use throughout the winter it turned to mud pretty quickly. We wanted to use the same flagstone that was used around the soaking pool but we only had 4 or 5 small pieces left and a flat piece of old mortar that looked like flagstone. Mexican Beach Pebbles were used to fill out the rest of the area.

Lastly our most ambitious project comes in the form of a fence. Not just an ordinary fence; a fence around the pond garden at one the most hallowed areas at Edgefield:  The Little Red Shed.

The fence we envisioned was not going to be a traditional fence, but something more naturalistic, a bit whimsical, and artistic, and yet perfectly functional and lasting. Knowing we had numerous willow and red twig dogwoods on property that are pruned every year we decided to stockpile these prunings as materials we could use to weave a fence. We used round posts, same as the ones in the vineyard, placed 6 to 8 ft apart that gently curve around the back side of the pond linking up with The Little Red Shed. Here are some photos of the project in progress.

Later in the spring we will be doing some new planting around the pond edges and along the fence, so I'll be updating the progress of this project as it continues.