We were treated to two gardens for the price of one on the 3rd day of the Portland Garden Bloggers Fling last month. Friends, gardeners, and art collectors Joanne Fuller and Linda Ernst live next door to each other in a charming older neighborhood, with a friendly gate separating their two gardens in back. Although we freely wandered between the two gardens during our tour, I’ll post about them separately, starting with the smaller Fuller garden, which I explored first.

The house sits well above the street, and you climb steps through a sloping shade garden to reach the house. The front garden is quite small, with a cozy patio (out of frame) and two crinkled, metallic columns standing in the corner — your first clue that an art lover lives here. This is the view from the side path, looking back toward the front garden and the street beyond. The fence that screens Joanne’s garden from her neighbor’s (not Linda’s)…

…is made of plexiglass panels and bamboo — a beautiful design that allows light to pass through and brighten this shady corner.

A narrow path leads alongside the house to a unique gate made of wine barrel hoops and old gardening tools.

Rather than lead to a wide-open patio, deck, or lawn, the path continues to run alongside the fence, with shrubs obscuring most of the garden, when up ahead the path widens…

…into a magical, intimate patio under a tree. Opaque plastic globes hang from the tree like paper lanterns, but they don’t actually light up. Joanne told me she thought they brought a quality of light to the space without electricity or candles. Not only that, but they give the space a party vibe.

Small glass balls in various colors cluster next to two chairs, continuing the globe theme. More is more, folks. More is more.

Sculptural art pieces hang on the vertical-slat fence, and a glass flower, like something out of Avatar, blooms next to the path. I love this space.

An elegant Little and Lewis fountain bubbles and drips amid jungly foliage.

As the path continues along the back of the garden, you move from shade to sun.

An abstract sculpture of a woman stands tall amid flowering perennials and grasses.

At each corner of the garden, a unique space beckons you in. In the back-right corner, it’s this pebble-mosaic, spiral patio. Wow, what a striking design.

Slightly left, you see a cluster of spiraling glass “horns” leaning out of the shrubbery. We saw a lot of glass art like this on the Seattle Fling a few years ago, and I expected to see plenty in the Portland gardens too, but only the Fuller and Ernst gardens had many glass pieces.

A painted fence, which separates Joanne’s garden from Linda’s next door, makes a neutral backdrop for a gorgeous metal trellis made of circles, echoing the shape of the pebble patio.

The path leads at last to the back of the house, where a large deck offers outdoor living and dining space. Gently curving around the deck, a contemporary metal arbor (or was it wood?) stands tall, offering visual separation, structure, and a feeling of enclosure.

A wider view of the deck

A bamboo fence screens the deck from the side path and provides privacy, if needed, from the house next door.

Joanne enjoys colorful accessories, like this blue head pot and red heuchera.

More blue pots filled with succulents grace a metal, leaf-shaped table in the corner.

From the deck you see a pair of blue Little and Lewis columns supporting a slanting, plexi roof over a tiny sitting area, romantically hung with sheer, blue curtains and a lantern.

Just to the left, a gate opens invitingly into Joanne’s neighbor’s garden, which I’ll show in my next post.

No detail is overlooked, and here Joanne creates a living mosaic with short lines of mondo grass, chartreuse sedge, and black mondo grass spaced amid paving stones.

A pretty, sunset-colored vignette echoes a rusty-orange wall.

Up next: The art-filled garden rooms of fused-glass artist Linda Ernst. For a look back at the meadowy Rhone Street Gardens, click here.

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