Wednesday was the kind of day I like, where we accomplished much and also had some fun. I’m dividing the post into sections because of three quite different subjects. Nicer for search engines. Should have done that with Ciscoe so people did not have to wade through my quiet day at home to get to the exciting Ciscoe visit.
We first went to the Peninsula Sanitation office at the Port to discuss with Diane where three new Ilwaco street planters should go, mainly for ease of bucket watering. (That is, fairly close to some other ones would be good: less walking.) Then we stopped by her garden by The red Barn because she felt, correctly, that a couple of new blueberry bushes would benefit from fertilizer. Here is a record of how the new roadside garden is coming along…slowly. I think I will add some small inexpensive Dianthus along the sides next time we go.
A sort of strawberry plant (which I thought was a cross with potentilla) that takes over, and that I keep pulling out, turned out to have very sweet little strawberries that Diane and Larry love, so they are “in” now and will no longer be pulled except when they go into the center of the garden.
Next: The Basket Case to get some sedums because of a tiny Long Beach crisis: The night before, when watering the Fish Alley whiskey barrels, I realized I had added NO annuals around the center Erysimum ‘Bowles Mauve’. Oops. While last summer, sunbinis looked awesome there, I want something more drought tolerant, so sedums and some attractive variegated thyme or golden marjoram would do nicely. I was questioning whether or not grey and gold looked good together when Fred showed me Nancy’s recent sedum planting.
I took a photo of their ‘Black Lace’ elderberry. Fred wants you to know they are out of it this year but will have more next year.
From there, we checked on Golden Sands and planted a few plant donations. The gardens are looking bright and cheerful almost by default, because the lovely rains have kept them wet enough. A close look would reveal much creeping sorrel, only some of which we had time to pull. The gardens look excellent if you squint a bit while looking at them.
There’s a bit too much blue scabiosa, but that is often the effect when planting a garden with free plants.
Next, onward to Klipsan Beach Cottages. We had been there just five days before, as I am trying to get their weekly visit shifted to Wednesdays or Thursdays rather than at the panicked running out of time end of the week. I was not sure what we would find to do, but three big projects appeared.
The Thalictrum ‘Elin’ had flopped open in the rain and this year’s unseasonable strong June winds. It has never done that to us before. String, and a line running over to the fence to help support it, made it look better. I hope it works.
As soon as that was done, I saw the path to Denny’s little water feature had almost disappeared. I started and Allan finished making it a clear view again.
While Allan was working on that path, I started clipping out of control honeysuckle and climbing Cecile Brunner rose at the main fenced garden entrance.
Allan got on a ladder and clipped the crazy uppity canes on the top while I checked the rest of the gardens for any other problems (found none!) and the entrance now looks much better.
That’s brought us to halfway though our day. Next, we go to the Wiegardt Gallery and this time I’ll take you inside, as soon as I have time to write up the entry!
Waiting for the Gallery interior 🙂
I liked the water feature and path thereto….
My morning is off to a good start now that I’ve visited Tangly Cottage.
Hope your day is productive and pleasant.
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Thanks so much. Gallery tonight! Am running about three days behind on the blog story now that the days are long. 😉
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I am so inspired by the sharing of your life with plants, and all the amazing ideas I have now to help me with my own journey of creating a garden. I can’t even think about starting my day without getting some ideas from you. Thank you soooo much for your pictures and words of wisdom.
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Thank you, Ann! Take before and after pictures! Why don’t you make a blog about creating a garden? It is so helpful to be able to look back on the process. Or Facebook albums are good for that, too. (WordPress.com blogging is easy and intuitive even for non-tech people like me.)
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[…] to Marilyn’s garden in Surfside. There we found, just as we did at Klipsan Beach Cottages earlier in the day, a big wind flop: a giant Miscanthus laid out over the top of Helianthus ‘Lemon […]
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