Larry and Robert’s garden: June through September

Just across Pearl Avenue from our dear friends Tom and Judy, local antique store owners Larry and Robert live in a beautiful historic pale green house.  There we made in a new garden between June and the end of November, 2012.

18 June

front walkway, June 18th

side of porch

11 AM

late afternoon

By late afternoon we had dug out beds, removing the sod this time instead of using the newspaper method.  We put down heavy duty landscape fabric along the porch and house and laid a strip pea gravel and river rock  for access for painting and maintenance and to keep plants from being right up against the wood.

rocked

sad rhodo

We moved a pitifully sad rhododendron to a shade border on the west side of the lot…a border which had once been edged with pavers but was now grown in with weeds.  The rhodo was totally bringing down the tone in the new flower bed we wanted to create on the east side of the house. I can give you a preview of the sad rhodo’s fate since I am writing this months later; it petered and dwindled, and we keep cutting it further back.  Perhaps a miracle will occur in winter of 2012-13 and it will revive.

19 June

On the 19th we brought in a yard of Soil Energy from Peninsula Landscape Supply and mulched all the areas we had dug out the previous day.

shade bed

north side

by front walkway

east side

We refrained from planting anything that day because the Soil Energy was quite hot.

20 June

In the shade border on the west side, the sad rhodo was still bringing down the tone.

shade border

Brunnera ‘Looking Glass’

The rest looked better after we planted Brunneras and Heucheras and revived a couple of hostas that were in there already.

northwest corner of porch

We weeded by the northwest corner of the porch and stuck some lady’s mantle in  a couple of days later.  I tend to keep it out of anywhere where it will compete with other plants but I think it will look nice at that curve and its chartreuse flowers will tone well with the house paint. Allan’s idea!

west side of porch

In front of the porch we tried to get both sides to sort of match with some blooming Asiatic lilies that Larry had had in pots and with a hardy Fuchsia ‘Golden Gate’ and some small ornamental grasses.

east side of porch entry

east side of house, planted

We got most of the plants from The Basket Case Greenhouse.  We stop there often all summer long especially when they get a shipment of very collectible perennials, including

Verbascum ‘Clementine’—GORGEOUS.

21 June

In the morning, I walked down to take some photos of the garden in a better light than that of the previous late afternoon.  Below, you can see how Robert and Larry’s house is just past the beautiful Hornbuckle garden.

looking across Tom and Judy’s garden to the new garden at Larry and Robert’s home.

morning

front

east side

In the foreground, a showy annual Coreopsis called ‘Jive’ from The Planter Box, our other local source of cool plants.

15 August

By midummer, the garden looked amazing.

east side with Cosmos and Painted Sage

lush summer beauty

by front porch

by front porch with some late annuals added

 

 

21 September

late September colour

front walkway

Autumn crocuses by the porch

Next, phase two of the garden creation in October.

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Halloween on Lake Street

Halloween is a very very big deal in Ilwaco, so we start decorating early.

the front garden with Halloween lights, 24 October

Halloween lights on the porch, 24 October

above the front deer fence gate

the sunporch

spiders

On October 30th, we made the scary avenue of dead plants that would lead children to our door.  I had been collecting tall clippings of spooky looking grasses and perennials from fall clean up in our own garden and at jobs, and Allan had made a frame of wooden posts crossed with long bamboo poles to tie the clippings onto.

Avenue of Dead Plants, 30 October

spooky walk

I haven’t quite got the knack of spreading out this cobweb stuff. I lose patience.

testing out the child’s height view of the walkway, 30 October

On Halloween day, I was worried because the weather was horrible, requiring some extra staking and tying of the dead plant avenue.  But the storm broke just at trick or treat time.  The good treats on Lake and Spruce Streets in Ilwaco are so well known that children come in droves from neighbouring towns.  We think the storm kept some from coming, so we “only” had about three hundred trick or treaters.

31 October, trick or treat time

Allan made ghosts with white cloth over crabapples.

The cat bench and some pulled up dead cosmos made a blockade to the back yard.

looking out from the sunporch

ghosts and spiders

Joey, I mean Del, was my favourite costume of the evening. (In real life, Del is a grown up punk rocker and also a Long Beach city councilman.)

Some children were hesitant to enter the Avenue of Dead Plants.

Others said we had the best house in town.

We decorated the porch and sat there to distribute candy rather than open the door hundreds of times.

Can you see Smokey coming up the walkway?

I like to decorate the porch with scary books.

and more books

and Buffy!

Meanwhile, across the street, the J’s house (a family where mother, father, son, daughter, and the dog Junior all have names that start with Jay) had a bright pumpkin theme.

J’s house

Right next door to the east, the cottage our friend Jeannine used to live in was now occupied by Madeline and Jacob of Pink Poppy Bakery (one of the biggest hits of 2012’s Ilwaco Saturday Market).  They set up a line of pumpkins to lead to the door of “The Haunted Cottage.”

path to The Haunted Cottage

Madeline and her new puppy, Doolish

She was Madame Butterfly.

Jacob was the mad scientist.

And if you knew the secret phrase, “I love Pink Poppy Bakery”, you would get a delicious baked treat.

Pink Poppy Bakery

and the special Halloween baked goods

Treats were given from the big house next door, too.

A couple of houses to the east, a large Scooby Doo inflatable amused the children.  Earlier in the day, it had been dramatically reflected in the storm’s puddles.

Four doors down on our side of the street, our friends Tom and Judy Hornbuckle had a pretty scary front porch.

Tom and Judy’s porch

Some trick or treaters were bold, and some were afraid.

Judy giving out treats.

Earlier in the day, I had seen a scary sight on a utility trailer while walking down toward Olde Towne Trading Post Café.

trailer of doom

And at Chris’s house just east of the post office, probably the best known house in town for decorating, this year’s Halloween contraption was barely being put together as the witching hour approached.

down to the wire at Chris’ house, with friends helping

In 2010, Chris and his friends had created a moveable shark.

the great shark of 2012

In 2011. trick or treaters had to reach into a dragon’s maw to get their candy.

the dragon of 2011

This year, jungle noises emanated from the porch and a giant hippo opened its jaws.

the Hippo of 2012

Finally, west of the Post Office, the place to be was the annual Halloween party at Olde Towne Trading Post Café.

Olde Towne Café

Those of us who hand out treats on Lake and Spruce Street can’t leave home for the party till around eight o clock, but if you want to see the fun, have a look at this album on the Olde Towne page.

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