Thursday, 18 April 2024
Ilwaco Post Office garden
At our little volunteer garden, Allan dug out a clump of Solidago ‘Fireworks’ (goldenrod) that was infested with the rampant pink geranium.
I did general weeding and contemplating how unsatisfactory I find my efforts in this garden.
Allan moved a piece of driftwood for me…
I got rid of some bulb foliage and we both dug up some of the invasive Spanish bluebells that, like the pink geranium, we did not plant here. I guess it looks a little better.
I was feeling like I had lost my ability to create beauty. The usual compliments from passersby, although comforting to hear, failed to convince me that the garden was worthy of any praise.
Ilwaco Freedom Market
We weeded, didn’t take long. I was having doubts about how the garden looked.
To the east, the weeding by a hard working port employee has been progressing in the bed that had been completely overgrown. I think the santolinas might be goners, having been let go too long without being clipped. I hope they grow back because the fellow has been working so hard he deserves for it to look good.
The Red Barn
While weeding, we enjoyed the company of Bentley and Quinn.
Bentley was not best pleased because I had switched to a smaller dog biscuit, of which I offered him three, but he wanted a big biscuit and refused them.
There is a small garden bed, too.
Diane’s garden
Holly got her biscuit.
The only crambe maritima (sea kale) that I have ever successfully grown is in Diane’s roadside bed.
The septic vault garden and the front driveway garden are both at that awkward stage of bulb foliage dying off.
While weeding the septic vault garden, we had a nice view of the pasture between Diane’s place and the Red Barn.
Ilwaco Fire Station
We just did a drive by look and didn’t see anything that couldn’t wait till another day. I thought, oh dear, it is my usual messy garden.
All gardens with bulbs are at the awkward stage now of letting the bulb foliage die back.
J Crew Cottage
Across the street, I weeded in the front garden and felt pretty good about it, probably because most of the design isn’t by me but by the previous owner.
Norwood garden
Two doors down, I checked the tiny garden for weeds and admired some fading Dutch iris growing through a golden euonymus.
reading
Gardening has kept me so busy that it had taken me two nights to finish Anne Lamott’s less than 200 page new book. A few more takeaways …
About community: “Odd, anxious people like me come together and then stick around awhile. It is uncomfortable and metamorphic: nobody in isolation becomes who they were designed to be.“
Oh dear, if that is true, it does not bode well for me attaining enlightenment during my old age.
“Frederick Buechner wrote: ‘You can survive on your own. You can grow strong on your own. You can even prevail on your own. But you cannot become human on your own.’ This is unfortunate.”
It certainly would be unfortunate if this were true. Is it??
In a church group of people trying to form community: “Another woman said she loved to host people for dinner but a year earlier had hosted a couple and not remembered their dietary needs-one was vegan, one was gluten-free. She had been afraid and ashamed to have anyone over since then. Would someone be willing to come over to her house for dinner? All of the people raised their hands.” I found that very touching.
Anne tells us that she herself likes being alone: “I’d always loved being alone and still do. I used to feel there was something mythic in being insulated, fending off life’s dangers alone, the hero in a Jack London story, by myself in the woods with only a fire and courage, the eyes of wolves glinting upon me. The lone wolf watching it all from a distance is such a romantic image, but he is actually the most vulnerable in the pack.”
I found all of that rather disheartening. At least I am in a pack of two. At least she says later on “Solitude is one kind of classroom.”
I realized I had been feeling glum all day about the gardens we visited and that I have lost confidence because of the way our “old” gardens in Long Beach are being ripped out…makes me wonder if all our efforts are just…tired. Definitely am planning on retiring at the end of this year so I can focus on my own private garden; maybe someone would like to take over our volunteer gardens. I would like all my gardening failures to be private, although I won’t mind sharing them with a sympathetic audience on this blog. Having my failures be public is no fun.
You summed it up several times, gardens are in that awkward stage right now. Or at least gardens that were encouraged to dance with freespirited spring frivolity. Those gardens that were locked down, who had their spring joy fettered – for them there is no after party confetti to “mess” things up.
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You are so right. Remember Steve and John’s garden, which you visited with us? They told me they didn’t like spring bulbs because they didn’t like aftermath. 🙂
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They had a spectacular garden. I recall the s/o being almost moved to tears on the drive into their property, such was it’s presence. I hope the new owners are taking care of it, but perhaps it may not be best to know otherwise.
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They are not. It is for sale again, if you dare to look.Among other travesties, they paved the bucolic gravel road, painted the west side of the beautiful natural wood stark white, and, although the photos in this listing doesn’t show it, removed a multitude of plant treasures. A previous listing showed the garden and I about wept. This is the second third time it has been listed, I think by the same owners. https://lighthouseproperty.com/idx/mls-2223540-15550_sandridge_road_long_beach_wa_98631?v=1714075082790. “Meticulously updated” is the claim.
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You write so well, I wish you’d write a blog or a gardening memoir.
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Good thing you were never subjected to my teenage and young adult years of writing angsty poetry!
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Sorry I missed it. 😉
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And your gardens are not failures. You are transitioning in your life right now, and that transition is also a questioning process. It is easy and natural to transpose that questioning to everything, including the garden beds you have created.
I have found that what works for me, is to enact a bit of change to get past that “ Is this it? Is this all there is?” moment. And in a garden, for me, a very large piece of substance, like driftwood or tangled root works wonders in a bed I am disillusioned with. You can even paint it 😁. Or not. As it grounds that bed it can ground your disquiet.
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Thanks for understanding. That is surely why it helped to make that piece of driftwood more of a feature in the post office garden. I’m finding being almost retired works out better when I just enjoy my own garden.
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You have a wonderful garden and flowers 😍😍😍
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Well, that’s one book I will probably choose NOT to read!
Teri
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As I’m mourning the loss of my Portland garden, and I’m ripping out established Astoria plantings for our incipient sewer replacement, I can identify with that sense of discouragement in your gardens. Frankly, I’d like to have some dying bulb foliage with which to contend! But Stevestongarden offers good insight that this transitional phase is an awkward one, for both gardens and gardeners. As much as you love gardening, I feel sure your naturally positive perspective on it (and your gardens themselves) will rebound. You are a talented gardener!
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Thank you…I have been thinking of you and wondering how your move is going…and of course sad for ME but happy for you about your next move! I am already feeling better since I wrote this. I think because my garden is so much bigger than the post office, I have parts of it I always like, whereas the post office and fire station garden are so tiny that every flaw screams out.
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I hope that the strong sense of disenchantment that permeates this post will be dissipated by the arrival of exciting new colours and textures among the fading bulb foliage.
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Thanks, Mr T, I’m already feeling better.
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