bobm
Garden Master
Clark County (Wa.) Environmental Services sponsored a garden tour of selected ten gardens last Sunday as examples of natural gardening techniques employing native plants and edibles. 
My low maintenance , drought tolerant garden was #1 on the tour 
featuring No lawn with a dry creek bed with 15 tons of river rocks for drainage and 32 tons of boulders with smaller rocks on formed hills with dozens of trees ,blueberry bushes and wild strawberries found in the Cascade Mts.( WOW they are sweet ) 
, 17 tons of crushed rock for walkways,flowering perannual plants and ground covers to form a natural apearing landscape that one would find by driving out in natural areas. We are currently in a draught situation ... our last sprinkle was on June 3, so naturally this Sunday morning we had a sprinkle or two before the start to the tour starting at 10 AM to 4 PM. I had 2 Master Gardeners assigned to give tours and answer queastions to attendees. We didn't expect many people to show up due to the forcasted rain. But the floodgates of humanity opened up before the squeduled 10 AM as we had 61 carload groups ( way OVER 200 people 
) of viewers came non stop. The Master Gardeners and I gave mini tours to groups of up to 20 people per group at a time with NO break for water, lunch and not even a potty break. 
I don't know how many times that I was asked if I was a professional landscape designer and requests to create a garden design for them. 
We closed the tour way past 5 PM as the Master Gardeners had to tend to their family matters. Then , at 5: 55, the skies opened up with a downpour that lasted about 15 minutes causing the street gutters to overflowing and puddles forming everywhere. We now are returning to draught conditions with temps in mid to high 90's and 100* forcast for Thursday. Sorry about the delay, but Goodle Chrome was not cooperating as it was down and out for the count for quite a while. 
NO photos at this time ... if anyone wants to view the garden , just toddle on up here and see for yourself.
My low maintenance , drought tolerant garden was #1 on the tour featuring No lawn with a dry creek bed with 15 tons of river rocks for drainage and 32 tons of boulders with smaller rocks on formed hills with dozens of trees ,blueberry bushes and wild strawberries found in the Cascade Mts.( WOW they are sweet ) , 17 tons of crushed rock for walkways,flowering perannual plants and ground covers to form a natural apearing landscape that one would find by driving out in natural areas. We are currently in a draught situation ... our last sprinkle was on June 3, so naturally this Sunday morning we had a sprinkle or two before the start to the tour starting at 10 AM to 4 PM. I had 2 Master Gardeners assigned to give tours and answer queastions to attendees. We didn't expect many people to show up due to the forcasted rain. But the floodgates of humanity opened up before the squeduled 10 AM as we had 61 carload groups ( way OVER 200 people ) of viewers came non stop. The Master Gardeners and I gave mini tours to groups of up to 20 people per group at a time with NO break for water, lunch and not even a potty break. I don't know how many times that I was asked if I was a professional landscape designer and requests to create a garden design for them. We closed the tour way past 5 PM as the Master Gardeners had to tend to their family matters. Then , at 5: 55, the skies opened up with a downpour that lasted about 15 minutes causing the street gutters to overflowing and puddles forming everywhere. We now are returning to draught conditions with temps in mid to high 90's and 100* forcast for Thursday. Sorry about the delay, but Goodle Chrome was not cooperating as it was down and out for the count for quite a while. NO photos at this time ... if anyone wants to view the garden , just toddle on up here and see for yourself. 
to offer private tours of my garden then charge BAZILLION $$$s to tour it and savor home grown and baked to my wife's prize winning at county and State Fairs standards freshly baked blueberry crisps, pies and wild sourced strawberry pies grown in my garden and washed down by a sip of home made elderberry wine harvested from my garden ( If I can keep the Robins from devistating the crop) 
