Karen Eastin’s #5 Olin Street garden (at the rear of #5 Pitman) Karen’s photo.

On Sunday, June 20,  we will have the People’s Garden Tour from 10 am-1 pm.  We expect fine weather, so a  stroll around town with garden stops (16) sounds like a swell idea.   (I learned to say “swell” from Mickey Rooney whose main joy in life was to stage shows with Judy Garland.) To see the list of gardens on the tour, click on the tab at the top of this page.

One of our Gardeners is Karen Eastin whose address is 6 Pitman where there is a front yard, but who has a glorious second garden at the rear of her property on Olin.  She sent us an email  (below) which made me believe that people who dig in the dirt are also capable of writing a fascinating essay:   Thanks, Karen:

6/18/21  Ocean Grove:

The house is 6 Pitman Ave. The front yard has a Limelight Hydrangea in the middle of the garden. There are New Guinea Impatiens across the front with a few Blue Lobelia . The roses are a Drift Rose variety in a soft salmon color. Around the left side of the porch as you look at the house from the street there is another smaller Limelight Hydrangea,  two Drift Roses abd a large Hasta. The Holly is a Nellie Stevens variety about 35 years old .

Pitman address  merges into the Olin Street  backyard:  The two lots were merged into one lot with the 6 Pitman address 120 years ago!

In the back yard there is a large Cypress.  Also along the sidewalk as you go towards the steps to the porch there is an 80 year old Peony  that belonged to my grandmother. I have moved it three times over the past 50 years! It travels with me.

The print bushes along the fence are about 70 years old. My sister gave them to me from her home in Upper Nyack, NY many years ago. There is a Bonica Rose Bush on the fence along the sidewalk as well as a Yudacki honeysuckle. There is a Chaste Tree in the garden as you walk to the steps. I am growing Cone Flowers that bloom every year. The Red Cone Flowers are “Omega Red” The other flowers are a floribunda red rose and annuals. The large Hydrangea that is about ready to bloom was a small plant given to my mother as a gift ten years ago. It just loves its location I think!

There is a white Rhododendron in the garden close to the house.  Across from it is a Hosta garden with very old Hostas.

Karen Eastin.

THE NIGHTHAWKS     “Cheek to Cheek”