prequel: work 2004—Long Beach

Tulips and Barberry ‘Helmond’s Pillar’ in a park

Long Beach’s tulip show gets better every year, and back in 2004 the deer (for some reason, because it’s right out in the open!) had not discovered yet the tulips on the Beach Approach.  I had a great display of little species tulips all along the approach.

beach approach tulips

Species tulips are low and sturdy and can take the salty wind.

beach approach garden with tulips

beach approach tulips

beach approach tulips

beach approach tulips and perennials

In mid summer, I made a little garden bed for the kite museum (its former location north of Dennis Company), because I am fond of Kay, the director, and am truly fond of kites despite the annual “Walk of Shame” on my beach approach garden during the festival.

kite museum mini-garden

Speaking of the annual Walk of Shame, in 2004 I took a series of photos of the Bolstadt approach garden in the week right before Kite Festival, which always starts the third Monday in August.

the week before Kite Festival

the week before kite festival

beach approach garden right before the festival

I so miss what the garden looked like then, but it would be almost impossible to bring it back because the Rugosa roses which protect the garden from trampling would take a backhoe to get out!

before….

And then came the Kite Festival and my usual cranky photo essay called The Walk of Shame.

By the time just two days had passed, the garden was so trampled that people were even more likely to walk in it, but you can see from the before photos that it started out lush and full.

Below, you can see one of the small new rugosa roses that I eventually let take over this garden because they among the only plant that could defend themselves against the salt wind AND kite festival crowds.  But the roses are kind of boring in comparison to the beautiful display of annuals and perennials that used to be there.

during

By Saturday I could almost excuse people for being in the beds because it did not even look much like a garden anymore.  In earlier years of the walk of shame, I had asked a few people if they knew they were stepping on plants, and the response I got was usually that they did not even know it was a garden.  But if you look at the before photos….well, sometime in the first two days, it DID look like a garden, and then…stopped looking like a garden.

during the festival

my sad perspective on Kite Festival

what the garden looks like on the last day

We public gardeners are a grumpy lot, I fear.  I think it is time to repeat the sign that my friend Mary photographed for me at the Hulda Klager Lilac Garden in Woodland.  (I disagree only on the subject of pets.  Well behaved companion animals are welcome in all my gardens.)

READ THIS....Please.
<-- This is Eartha Riche, our head gardener. She is
very strong because she works so hard. She is also
grumpy for the same reason. The only time we see her
smile is when she catches someone breaking the rules.
We suspect she uses rule breakers to fertilize the garden,
but we're afraid to ask. She is always lurking in the
bushes hoping to catch rule breakers, so please read
and follow the rules. We just hate to lose our guests.

1. No running or climbing trees or shrubs. No playing in the flower beds.
This is not a playground.
2. Stay on the paths when you can. Eartha does not
take kindly to trampled plants.
3. No smoking or alchohol allowed. Eartha will not
tolerate either of these.
4. Do not pick leaves, flowers or branches. This
REALLY ticks Eartha off.
5. No pets, no matter how cute or well behaved. You
don't want to know what Eartha does to pets.
6. Be kind to our workers. Nearly all are unpaid volunteers.
Friends or members of the Hulda Klager Lilac Society.
7. The gardens are open daily from 10 A.M. to 4 P.M. during
Lilac Days. You had better leave then. You don't
want to meet Eartha after the gates close.

Eartha says:
DON'T MESS WITH
HULDA'S GARDEN