pre-touring and work

Our day began with a brief stop at the Basket Case to buy three plants to fill spaces in Long Beach planters.  Of course, we bought a flat of plants once I had walked through a couple of times, including another Eryngium ‘Jade Frost’, so now there are but three left!

Of other plants that I feel are treasures of which only a few are left, you can see (below) on the left, an Azara microphylla, beautiful little tree (one left!) with vanilla or chocolate scented flowers in late winter, and on the right, Thalictrum ‘Black Stockings’ (only a couple left) and a wonderfully crisp looking white Phygelius.

choice selections

We then met Nancy, garden tour organizer, at one of the 2013 gardens to get some teaser photos for the Music in the Gardens tour Facebook page, and I was deeply impressed.  I don’t want to give too much away but:

sneaking a peak!

It is one of my favourite kinds of gardens, with room after room, each with a different feel.  It is the sort of garden I especially admire (ironic because of my business!), where all the work is done by the owners.

We tore ourselves away reluctantly.  Allan went to work at Andersen’s RV Park while Nancy and I went south to see two other gardens that would be on the tour.  She was impressed with both.  While at the first garden (Jo’s), I got some birds for Mr. Tootlepedal.

a baby?  It could fly.

a hummingbird. I need to learn how to change the shutter speed on my simple digicam.

Nancy and I then went to the nearby Boreas Inn so I could show her our deer resistant west side garden beds there, and I took the opportunity to show off the inside of the inn, as well.  It is an honour to be associated with such a gorgeous place.  This gave me some different views of the garden.

looking at entry garden from upstairs (through impressionist screen)

the best west window view, all the way to the ocean

That’s the tree featured in our post about having to clean up after other garden services!  I would drop a couple of feet off the top of it so one is not always fighting it for the view.  Or I would, shockingly, cut it down and plant another Eucalyptus off to the side.  They grow fast and I do love them.

After this pleasant hour or more of goofing off, I rejoined Allan at Andersen’s and we both worked on weeding the big west side garden.

west garden, 2:28 PM

I had three brainstorms while there.  The first was to widen a path to make it more inviting to walk past the blowsy poppies to the bench, moving rocks and replanting some small poppy seedlings further in to the bed.

in progress

The second was that the area around the big piece of driftwood should turn back into lawn.  The plants there are infested with couch grass, and it is the last place we get around to weeding.

2:28 PM, a big “before” mess

The very energetic Al is a staffer there who is always looking for a project.  All I had to do was mention my idea to him, and he was off to get the big weedeater.

2:33 PM, “No Sooner Said Than Done” Al.

3:12 PM

3:23 PM (Payson Hall is in the background)

I also made a straight rather than curved line at another edge of the west garden, to eliminate a dull and weedy area that would better off as mown grass.

more sensible

I hope I am getting older and wiser and not just older and lazier, but it makes sense to remove a few difficult spots in order to put more attention on the beautiful parts of the garden.

west bed, 3:37 PM

Payson Hall planters

picket fence garden

We made a quick trip to the Planter Box to get one plant (a red Geum) that I needed to balance a Long Beach planter, and while we were there, we picked up some annuals for an area that the inimitable Al had weeded for us earlier that day.  That was so wonderful because the weeding had been on my list of projects and I did not have to do it!

two hardworking Allans

Al hung some floats on the fence that used to be on the driftwood around which he had weedeated, while Allan planted the annuals and I weeded a sweet pea area.  Those two are the two hardest working people I have ever known.

My original plan had been to do Klipsan Beach Cottages and Wiegardt Gallery as well as Andersen’s, but at almost five o clock I decided we should save them for tomorrow and head back south to do the Anchorage Cottages garden….

Anchorage courtyard

…and plant the rest of the Long Beach plants so I can call that planting project done for 2013!  What an accomplishment.  Every space in every planter is now filled, or so I believe.  I had time to check the block and half of tree and planter gardens that I skipped yesterday so we could go nursery shopping.

under a street tree: This looks like a conifer, but it is Hebe ‘Boughton’s Dome’

There are a few street trees under which I would like to add more perennials, perhaps hardy fuchsias.   The tree gardens are a pain to water, so I may have missed the time frame when the plants would easily establish and not need coddling.

7:18 PM, a planter glows with golden marjoram

Finally, we weeded the streetside garden at Time Enough Books, long overdue for the removal of tiny grasses.   The difficult to work in light of late evening brought the day to a close….

Time Enough garden, 8:11 PM

evening light over the boat storage yard

Home at last, Allan mowed some lawn while I dealt with tomorrow’s plants (for Gene’s garden) and picked up some of the empty flowerpots strewn around the garden.  If we can get Gene’s planting, weeding at KBC and Wiegardt Gallery, and a brief stop at Golden Sands done tomorrow, we can have the next day off!