Post Office>Larry>Nancy>Jo

We are coming to the end of annuals planting hell.  The dregs of it will drag  into next week with the planting of a few six packs of cosmos here and there but today we finished a couple of jobs that can be crossed off the annuals list now.

First: two six packs of Cosmos, one of painted sage, and a Gaura ‘So White’ went into our volunteer garden at the Ilwaco post office.

cosmos installed

Two partial buckets of weeds came out.  Reminder:  do not plant the charming Euphorbia ‘Fen’s Ruby’.  The bits that came in with plants from my mom’s garden, even though I had tried to eliminate every root, had marched halfway back into the post office garden.

beware; nurseries still sell this bad guy

Next we planted Cosmos, painted sage, a Thalictrum ‘Black Stockings’, Phygelius ‘Snow White’ and a new Echinacea (coneflower) called ‘Green Jewel’ in Larry and Robert’s garden.  Green Jewel is supposed to keep its colour without fading the way Green Envy does.

We took the Heucheras and primroses out of the garden boat and planted them under the triangle of trees and put Cosmos ‘Cutesy’ and ‘Happy Ring’ into the boat for summer, along with one Salvia patens.

the boat garden

all cosmosed up

front porch

The tulip viridis is STILL in bloom.   I love the green tulips more than any others and yet this is the first year I have realized that they are also the latest to bloom.

Tulip Chinatown and Green Wave

watering aprés planting

I’m liking the new gold tree (Robinia pseudoacacia ‘Frisia’).

Here’s how Larry and Robert’s garden relates  to that of our good friends Tom and Judy:

Lake Street sidewalk

looking east: Hornbuckle garden is across Pearl Avenue.

The Hornbuckles were home and showed me the new improved water feature in their courtyard.  I snuck back to get a photo.  With a wider basin and more rocks around it, bathing birds won’t splash all the water out.

a better bubbler

Tom and Judy also redid their “back forty” to replace some junipers (I think? nice ones, not hideous “tams”) that passing dogs had sprinkled on.  Lavenders have taken their place.

the back forty

Next, we replanted the Ilwaco planter that we had emptied of soil due to bad drainage.  I had emailed city hall to remind them to have a hole drilled in the base.  Turns out the hole HAD been drilled.  It was just so small we did not see it.  I forgot to photograph it from inside before Allan put the soil in, so I stuck my camera under the edge of the planter.  The hole is on the side and so small that Allan could not put his little finger in it.  Hmmm.

I couldn’t see where I was aiming the camera under there.

newly planted and hoping for adequate drainage

It now has an Erysimum ‘Bowles Mauve’center, three painted sage, three Diascia, a Calibrachoa, two Sanvitalia and a trailing rosemary.

Next we went to Nancy’s home in Long Beach to deliver some Cosmos and painted sage to the new flower border we helped install last October.  She organizes the Music in the Gardens tour and we think next year her garden will be ready to be on it.

I am very impressed with her vegetable garden:

Nancy’s potager

lilac in bloom

looking from the veg garden to the new flower border

Viridiflora tulips still hanging on

Design hint I learned from Ann Lovejoy:  always figure out the flow of your garden.  It was clear a path would be needed to the neighbour’s garden so we left two passages unplanted, one for garden access and one for neighbourliness.

flower garden coming on

Eryngium ‘Sapphire Blue’

I had been so smitten with Nancy’s veg patch that I forgot to take a long photo of the whole flower border.

Next we went through downtown heading for Jo’s.  As I do every time we drive through town, I eyeballed the planters all the way looking for any problems.   I would be wealthy if paid for the amount of time I spend thinking about work!  The weather did this:

passing through Long Beach

But not for long.  It was fairly pleasant working at Jo’s.  I did the planting while Allan weeded.  In went 18 godetias, 6 or more six packs of snapdragons, a few perennials.  It is a beautiful environment in which to work.

the best use of annual geraniums ever

While planting in the newly revamped colourful entry area, I had a sudden brainstorm.  I was so excited I forgot to take a before photo, so dredged up this one from earlier this year:

before

I suddenly realized that one of the two red flowering azaleas had to go.  We had thought of this earlier but had decided to wait.  Now I was convinced.  Jo and Bob returned from an outing just then and agreed, and by then I already had my loppers and saw and just cut it to the ground.  A big fern came out as well.  It made a wonderful improvement as the focus is now on the new perennials and annuals.  The root mass can come out later or perhaps be kept as a very low shrub.  (I would definitely get rid of the oxalis too; it is very invasive.)

enormously better (The blue pot is where the azalea was.)

When we were done…Well, not quite done, as we have more weeding to do that must wait till next week….I walked through and took some photos.

entryway, container by Basket Case Greenhouse

guest house windowbox

middle courtyard

to west garden

wiggly Coco

and some birds for you know who:

With that, we decided to quit work early (seven!) and have dinner at the Depot Restaurant.  On the way we did stop to bung seven plants into a couple of Long Beach planters, and after our delicious dinner (slightly work-related when we realized we must go back tomorrow to deadhead the last of the Depot tulips!!), we loaded the car at home with all the assorted plants we will need to finish the Long Beach planters tomorrow.

Annuals jobs finished today:  Jo, Ilwaco planters, Larry and Robert garden, Ilwaco post office!