prequel: work 2003

In the midst of the personal chaos of 2003, work continued.

In winter ’02-03, Robert built a driftwood fence to enclose Suzanne’s garden and protect it from deer.  He said it would be the only driftwood fence he would ever build because it was so hard to collect enough wood of the right consistency to screw or nail together.  Some of it was incredibly hard to work with.

fence and gate

beautiful driftwood fence

At Seanest, Robert had built a big planter and a driftwood trellis by the parking spot; in spring 2003 in bloomed with spring flowers.

new planter at Seanest

Seanest driftwood trellis

Sea Nest in spring…with moles.

I planted a container for the office at Peninsula Sanitation;  this eventually, I believe, led to doing all the Ilwaco planters that were later placed along First Avenue.

Peninsula Sanitation planter

As you can see, I was still in my Phormium phase!  I would soon learn how big and poky even the so called dwarf ones get.

And then….I was working without Robert.  A friend helped me on and off through the summer; she was somewhat unreliable, but any help was appreciated and I just plodded through.   Around the time that I began to live (blissfully) alone, I still had many doubts about my ability to be a solo gardener.  Life seemed daunting, but at that same time Ann Lovejoy had written a column about getting through difficult times.  The best advice I got was hers:  Just do the next necessary thing.  I put that as a note above my computer monitor and by focusing only on what needed to be done next, I got through the summer.

At Andersen’s RV Park, Halmiocistus wintonensis

I did very few new gardening projects, although I did plant up these windowboxes at the former location of the Kite Museum.

Kite Museum…when it was just north of Dennis Company

I did monthly maintenance at Carol’s garden on the bay.

Carol’s garden on the bay

Robert and I had laid the stone path a couple of years before. That was the sort of project where his skills at making things level would be sorely missed.

Below, Laurie’s garden on the bay in its second full summer under my care.

Laurie’s in late summer

The garden had thrived with lots of weeding, cool new plants, and the addition of the finest manure from her pampered Peruvian Paso horses.

 I was still encouraging all our clients to continue to hire Robert, as well. He had, the previous year, created a route of spraying gardens with soil soup and was rather excited about it. He was building some stone and cement steps up at Suzanne’s garden and branching out into more odd jobs. He and his friend Mychael painted the trim on Laurie’s house, all fresh and bright in the photo above. Carol and William of the “Elves Did It” gardening business offered him their garage to live in if he would fix it up, but he told me humourously that he did not want to live there because she would want his help around her house and garden all the time. By the end of the summer, he had moved in with….my mother!!! Well, she had always said she would rather have a son….And actually, I was grateful because it meant I did not have to worry about how he would get through the winter.  The arrangement lasted for a couple of months until he finally moved in to a friend’s back yard trailer in Long Beach.

Caring for the parks in Long Beach provided a steady routine that kept me going. I still was irked by the yearly kite festival trampling of the beach approach garden!

walk of shame 2003

walk of shame 2003!

In the above photo, just this side of the rock, you can just see a hint of a rugosa rose getting big enough to hold its own against the feet…amidst the trampled flat areas that had been wildflowers (poppies, mostly) the week before.

Cotoneaster berries across the street from a Seaview job

In December the work season ended, and I was heading into my first winter alone (with the dog, Bertie, and the cats) in the tiny Ilwaco house in its dark, woodsy corner…a fate that I had been afraid of because it seemed so isolated and…well…dark…But instead, I was embracing solitude and silence and finding that due to extremely frugal living, I could just afford to take some of the winter off. I remember cold days sitting in front of a parabolic heater (because the propane heat stove’s wonky pilot light terrified me) reading all the books of both Ann Lamott and SARK…empowering books for a woman alone.

Update, January 2016:  I still look back upon this winter as one of the best of my life.