29 Oct: work, birds, sunset

Tuesday, 29 October, 2013

I awoke to white frost on the back lawn, as predicted.  All the tender plants in pots were safely in the greenhouse.  The ones that I want to save, anyway:  scented geraniums, tender salvias…

frosty morning

Great, thought I, the annuals will perhaps be done in Long Beach.  I have wearied of their tired looking appearance; they have still been looking too colourful to pull as it might make shopkeepers and passersby said if I dispose of them them prematurely.

But NO!  They still look mostly wonderful.

painted sage, Agyr. ‘Butterfly’, nasturtium

still a tangle of colour by Home at the Beach

Even a few of the cosmos still look good.

Allan cut back the Panicum ‘Heavy Metal‘ ornamental grass back in the one street tree under which it grows.  I like the name of the grass and its metallic sheen.  However, I think that to most people it probably looks weedy.

Heavy Metal grass

This particular tree has no working water and has to be bucket watered from a nearby planter.

The park by Marsh’s Free Museum and one of our favourite little cafés, Captain Bob’s Chowder, still looks fine.

obelisk tiles by Renee O’Connor

The work in the frying pan park is coming along….By spring, that clam statue will spout every hour on the hour again.

Allan took a break from Long Beach city work and pulled Geranium ‘A.T. Johnson’ from the Summer House  garden while I checked the rest of the planters.  I swear I did not plant the darn hardy geranium at Summer House.  It probably had one little seedling inside another plant.

Below:  Allan stands where a rose trellis should go IF Erin (who owns this vacation rental) wants to keep the rampant climbing rose in there:

I asked him to look like a trellis, but he is sideways.

Then he dropped me off to tidy up the Veterans Field garden while he dumped debris.

Veterans Field garden

still very faintly red white and blue

We had an appointment at NW Financial and Insurance regarding the Affordable Care Act (which I believe will be very beneficial to us).  The main website was down again, even though it had been working all day.

My friend Bella greeted me at the insurance office!

The best thing I have read about this is:  “War is a crisis.  Poverty is a crisis.”  And then something about the computer problem being an inconvenience.  We will go back next week.  If anyone local (Southwest Washington or Northwest Oregon) needs help figuring out the Affordable Care Act paperwork, Shelly Pollock is a wonderful helper and her services are free.

We concluded our work day by pulling some Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’ foliage clumps and a doing a bit of weeding on the Bolstadt beach approach.

Bolstadt approach buoy

two birds

another two birds

This walk is so popular with townfolk and tourists alike.  One can walk up Sid Snyder Boulevard ten blocks south, then along the boardwalk with its view of the beach and back down this street….or vice versa.

rugosa rose autumn colour

with dwarf mugo pine

Something amazing happened when I pulled a weed from the easternmost Bolstadt planter….

full of chocolate mint planted back in volunteer days

The mint started to peel up just like taking up a carpet!   I was thrilled!!

before and after

Next year we can make this planter right by the arch look so much better.

While Allan tidied that up, I cut back a few lily stalks on the south side of city hall and observed with dismay that a purple ajuga had gone aggressively running through the whole bed.

Anyone want some purple ajuga??  will fix this later

Just west of city hall, reflections of sunlight fell on the sign for the upcoming new coffee shop.  I was excited to see that Pink Poppy Bakery’s logo had been added to the sign.  My ultimate loyalty still likes with Ilwaco’s Olde Towne coffee café but I will love being able to get Pink Poppy treats while working in Long Beach.

Akari Space

Although I could tell a great sunset was brewing, the dumping of debris had to take priority.

looking west from city hall

While at the city works yard, we could see the sunset developing.

over the water treatment plant

With work done, we went back to Bolstadt.

Another sunset watching group had gathered on the big picnic shelter.

The sunset started as a moody grey and pink one, and I thought it would continue that way.

Allan’s photos:

west of the boardwalk

my photos:

from the end of the Bolstadt approach

boardwalk

band of colour

Thinking it was fading, we turned to go back to town and saw the tail lights of the cars of other sunset watchers driving away….

Long Beach from the boardwalk

One glance back and we turned to the west again as the colour suddenly intensified.

And then it did fade.

At home, I took a quick walk along Spruce and Lake Streets to check out progress in the Ilwaco flatlands Halloween preparations.

the J’s house across the street from ours

on Spruce

Soon would come the yearly Halloween extravaganza.

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28 Oct: a delivery

Monday, 28 October, 2013

We started at Casa Pacifica, a few minutes east of the Peninsula.  My first subject for thought was that the non gardening punter may not “get” Helichrysum petiolare.  Here, the small leaved cultivar swamps a whiskey barrel by the lower garage:

Helichrysum (licorice plant)

As I mentioned once before, a long ago client called it “that grey junk.”  I think most clients might like this sort of thing better:

flowers (Sanvitalia, Calibrachoa, Agyranthemum ‘Butterfly’ still blooming.

Walking up the road, I was shocked to see so many branches down.  There had been piles of tree branches and a couple of fallen trees on the side of the road as we drove in.  At the top of the driveway, an alder had snapped off in the windstorm of a couple of weeks ago.

a wind-topped alder

from above

one of several piles of branches

My friend Dusty met me at the top of the driveway.

Spook was standoffish and skittish as usual.  I wonder if I could lure her if I remembered to bring some cheese.

Spook eyeing me from the front deck

At least she lets me look at her now; she used to hide under the deck the whole time we were there.

one of Leanne’s dragons in fallen maple leaves

We did a before and after on the lawn island, mostly pulling toppled orange montbretia and Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’.

before and after

Allan also weeded atop the back garden and clipped away some branches that were obscuring the well water pump.

fall colour in the back garden

While we worked at Casa Pacifica, I got a call from Chester of Olde Towne Trading Post Antiques saying that he could deliver Erin’s garden boat today.  Fortunately, we had time to finish job number one with a little extra time to spare in Long Beach.

I stopped at the Wooden Horse shop in Long Beach to talk to the manager about being on the cash mob.  They hadn’t requested to be mobbed…but I like the store a lot.  They will the mob site in January.

The shelving entrances me.

As does the Boston Terrier tin.

A bit before the appointed time, we went to Erin’s garden to meet Chester and Michael.

house and cotoneaster

entry lamp

While waiting, I thought about the future garden beds.  I want to leave a path along the fence at least as tall as the picket shadows.

looking southwest

Erin likes to set up a table for dining al fresco, so I don’t want to start the garden too close to the gazebo.

gazebo

There will be a long garden bed on each side, with the picket fence width path along the edge, and I want to keep the center wide open for children to play.

open center for tetherball and other games

Felix was there and happy to see us.

Felix on the front porch

From the porch, I thought further about the garden design.  Erin wants it to be like mine,  a big sweep of grasses and perennials and some shrubs, nothing that will block the ocean view.

The line of the sprinkler system could be the inner edge of the south garden bed.

Felix thought I might have the power to open the door for him.

We tested the lawn with the half moon edger to see how hard it would be to dig the trenches around the edges of what will be newspaper based beds.  The digging seemed pretty easy!  Then Chester arrived.  I had thought he would need a boat trailer, but he and his stepson Michael had loaded the quite heavy boat onto his truck.

in the driveway

Chester looked at the steps going up to the lawn, and at the rather distant point past the gazebo where I had stuck in a half moon edger to say “the boat stops here”, and then he looked at an opening in the fence on the northwest corner of the lawn and suggested he drive in that way.  I texted Erin with the question, “Can Chester drive his truck on the lawn” and she texted back “YES!” and then “I think so.”  So he drove up the outside access road by the picket fence and very carefully backed all the way in to the boat spot.

truck backed into the future garden

audience

Chester and the Olde Towne truck

preparing to offload…

Chester and Michael  (note Felix on his way to investigate)

Felix and the Olde Towne truck

After Chester and Michael departed, I realized the boat was sitting too straight ahead.  I wanted it at an angle that looked like it had washed up from the ocean.  As I grabbed the sides and pulled and yanked to no avail, I said to Allan “Can you help me shift the front over about a foot?”  He grabbed the rope and pulled to the side.  Easy peasy.

Very smart, Allan!

Here’s what she looks like.  The boat will be at the beginning of the south garden bed, leaving plenty of room for outdoor dining and parties.

boat in place

washed ashore

I have known of several garden boats placed so they could be imagined to have washed ashore.  At Linda’s garden, even though the boat was a half mile from the beach, sometimes her guests really believed it had washed in.   Now someone might think we are imagining the boat washed in from Japan, and that is not it at all; there is too much sadness associated with that.  Besides, it is clearly not a Japanese boat.  (That reminds me to recommend again a beautiful book recommended to me by my friend Kathleen Shaw:  Facing the Wave by Gretel Erlich.)

With the boat all set, we finished daylight at the Boreas Inn garden and in Long Beach.

Boreas garden in long shadow time

I remembered my plan to remake this raised bed along the north edge of the lawn with some good medium-tall grasses:

note to self; maybe Ilex ‘Sky Pencil’ also!

the glorious Lobelia tupa; would that all the ones I planted had done as well.

We cut down the tall fennel in Long Beach’s Coulter Park and got home in time for a Lake Street sunset.

from in front of our house…

I added most of the fennel stalks to our Corridor of Spooky Plants.  The last of the spooky tall stalks will be added on Halloween day, to make sure the structure is not too heavy if we get wind between now and then.

spooky plant walkway for trick or treaters

Allan made the little ghosts with small white rags over apple heads.

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27 Oct: 2 friends, 2 gardens

Sunday, 27 October, 2013

Ah, a day off at home…After breakfast I started the breakdown of a big debris pile.  It began as Mount Sod when we dug up the front  lawn upon moving in here in October of 2010.  Then it became a spud hill.  Potatoes are said to “clean the soil” and they certainly did seem to help the sod break down in jig time.  Because it is in a spot convenient for  debris disposal from my own garden, and only somewhat inconvenient for hauling in clean garden debris from jobs, it has been growing, and sinking with decomposition, and growing again over three years.  I am moving the un-decomposed material to a new pile on the other side of the yard.

the former Mount Sod (with full wheelbarrow in the foreground)

I have a selection of evergreens that I bought from Back Alley Gardens. I have had the best of intentions of trying Pam Fleming’s advice that columnar evergreens would look great in the big flower beds.  And yet, I resist.  I worry that the ones I chose, especially a couple of Eucryphia, will not be columnar enough.  And I want to block this truly unoffensive view:

crab pots under silver tarp behind the next door gear shed

There is absolutely nothing wrong with crab pots under a tarp.  They are, of course, much more picturesque when first stacked there in late winter after crabbing season.

colourful crab pots in spring

But they have to be covered to protect them through three seasons of weather.   I do think a nice evergreen backdrop along that edge of the garden will look better than the tarped pots.

near the debris pile, cosmos as high as the fence

Nearby, in my usual easy distracted way (“something shiny syndrome”!), I started to dig out a great big Helianthus ‘Lemon Queen’.  I do like Pam’s idea of replacing it with a columnar evergreen.  But…it was hard work.

Helianthus ‘Lemon Queen’

I imagined Allan might come help dig it, even though he was busy constructing the framework for our annual Halloween Avenue of Spooky Plants.  At least I got it all loosened up.  It had gotten, in just two years, much too big for the space, crowding a nearby Enkianthus.  In fact, it may be that when Lemon Queen comes out, I should just leave that space blank….

I took a break and checked on Allan’s project along the front walkway.

constructing Spooky Plant Avenue

While in the front garden, I noticed my largest Melianthus major is blooming.  That is odd as when it does bloom, it is usually in very early spring.

the odd flowers of Melianthus major (and the leaves smell like peanut butter)

In early afternoon, Debbie Teashon of Rainyside.com came to photograph the autumn dishevelled garden.  We agree there is beauty to be found in late season dishabille.

Debbie at work…She has been a pro photographer for many years.

Allan had finished the Avenue of Spooky Plants framework so I began to add the plants while Debbie wandered without me dogging her every step to see what she was finding good enough to photograph.  When she was done, we walked four doors down to Tom and Judy’s garden.

The Hornbuckle “kids”, Towbeh, Stymie, and Beep wanted to join us in the front garden

Judy’s excellent patch of moss

two trees

The one in the background is right on the property line between two lots…

a hummingbird on Judy’s porch

I love Tom and Judy’s porch sign.  Their garden is pure evidence of their industriousness.  In the typical way of small town talk, someone new to town who must have observed through the window that Tom and Judy sometimes watch telly put about that they were lazy people….and within less than a day the story had gotten right back to Judy!  One of the first lessons learned, often the hard way, upon moving here from a city is that remarks like that zoom quickly through the small town grapevine.

After a garden tour and visit with Judy, Debbie and I walked back to her vehicle for her drive back north to her home near Heronswood Nursery.  On the windshield, next to a little pot of Ajuga ‘Pink Silver‘ that I had given her a start of, we found the oddest note.

Only the fact that it was on an index card, like we use for our daily time cards, tipped me off that it was from Allan.  I tracked him down weedeating in the back yard to tell him that we did not understand.  He said “It means if you don’t understand it, you don’t get any pie.”  Huh???   He had to give me a couple more hints before I got it…Pie on Porch!!  He had packaged some of his home made pumpkin pie in bite sized pieces for Debbie to snack on while driving.

(Judy’s review of Allan’s pumpkin pie:  “Allan’s pie is the best pumpkin pie I’ve had since my mom’s last which was probably 23 years ago. Excellent and more !”)

After Debbie’s departure, I moved a couple more wheelbarrows full of debris;  I had had no intention of finishing that project today.  It might get done on the next reasonably nice day off at home…or not until winter staycation time.

decreased pile

Now I can see the lower layer of good soil beginning to appear.

While collecting tall plants for the spooky avenue, I took some photos of the garden.

front garden rose

back garden, east bed

birdbath draped with fuchsia

another hardy Fuchsia

the spooky avenue, coming along nicely

Before dusk, I took a four block walk to photograph some Halloween decorations on Lake, Spruce, and Willow Streets.

punkins

skulls

at the scariest house…I bet this thing will be in motion on Halloween night

Willows Street

I love this old house on Advent Avenue:

What stories it must have…

Hocus Pocus

At dusk, I gathered the remaining Cox’s Orange Pippin apples from my little tree of that name.  The three orangey coloured ones were the ripest ones I had tried yet and oh MY!   I have never had an apple so good.  Allan agreed.  They have a citrusy overtone and put any other apple I have ever eaten to shame.

Cox’s Orange Pippin

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26 Oct: art and friends

Saturday, 26 October, 2013

I had been photo-promoting the first Peninsula Cash Mob of the season for a couple of weeks on Facebook, teasing with photos of the wide range of local art at Bay Avenue Gallery in Ocean Park. We had to get up “early” on Saturday to get there….by 11:05. The starting time was 11:00. I was in suspense over whether or not the event would be successful.

window of Bay Avenue Gallery

Reflected in the gallery window is the old Taylor Hotel, now home of Adelaide’s coffee and the café that we had promoted as a possibility for cash mobbers to have lunch.

I should explain that “A cash mob is a group of people who assemble at a local business to make purchases and have a fun and positive impact on our local economy.” The Idea is to spend between $5 and $20 dollars. Usually a café is also mentioned for those who want to dine with friends and chat about the day (and life, the universe, and everything).

the main room of the gallery

gallery staff waiting….

At the desk, above, is Lisa who organizes the Peninsula Edible Garden Tour.

The first group of shoppers and browsers arrived a little after 11:15 and the pace kept steady and most satisfying all day long.

I realized early on that a wonderful piece of art that I had, in the past, voted for people’s choice award (it won!) at the Peninsula Art Show was by our new friend Joe Chasse. It had been a creative sculpture somewhat like these:

by Joe Chasse

I loved this description of Joe’s art:

Joe Chasse

(We met Joe through artist Heather Ramsay of my favourite shop ever, NIVA green.)

The gallery continued to be well filled with people and I felt a great relief that the event was a success. One of the shoppers was our friend Debbie Teashon, writer and photographer of Rainyside Gardeners!

Debbie deciding what her cash mob purchase will be.

Carol Thompson began a plein air painting in the courtyard while her husband tended a barrel in which pots were baking:

painting and pots

barrel firing and painting

fire

I couldn’t help but notice the space between the Bay Avenue studio building (where classes are given and where artists can come work on projects). The narrow, damp area called out to be for a fabulous swale garden with stepping stones, and I was told a friend of the owners has exactly that in mind.

Just some of the offerings at the gallery, all by local artists:

These three golfers might amuse Mr. Tootlepedal and his golfing friends as well as P.G. Wodehouse fans.

golfers three

cranberry plate by Karen Brownlee

steampunk jewelry

You can see more art in the background as I appreciated the presence of various well liked local folk.

Charlene and Debbie, regular blog readers! (Charlene left me a Daphne plant the other day!)

Charlene in the foreground, Allan to the left

local writer Birdie Etchison of the Olde Towne writers group

Jan Richardson with Allan and local artist Martha Lee

Jan’s garden, Windy Meadows, was on the Peninsula garden tour in 2012, Her little cottages at Windy Meadows Pottery fill me with joy.

I like the originals even better.

For lunch, Debbie and Allan and I met Michelle, cash mob co organizer. across the street at Adelaide’s.

Adelaide’s Coffee

at Adelaide’s

Debbie, me, Michelle

Allan’s artistic latte

absolutely scrumptious turkey special with some kind of cranberry chutney-like sauce

Adelaide’s also houses a small bookstore.

With lots of talk about cash mob itself, and Debbie and Michelle proving to be sympatico, lunch took well over an hour. Allan and I then returned to the gallery to take more photos.

Michelle arrives at the Gallery

The barrel firing had burned up a considerable amount of wood.

the pots were just beginning to show…

Debbie had gone to her hotel (at the Breakers in Long Beach) by then. Just before four o clock, Allan and I walked three blocks east to the new shop Beach Home Old and New which will be “cash mobbed” in May. It is the first time we had been there. I found it completely charming.

Beach Home Old and New on Bay Avenue in Ocean Park

utterly delightful!

We happened upon two artists there who assemble sturdily constructed garden decor with plates, and carefully picked our way around the plates laid on the floor.

My favourite: Desert Rose

We stayed long enough to see the display set up.

This is my kind of place. I love the alder used as decoration over the door between two rooms.

alder branch

The owner, Bonnie, had described this new item as “insect balls” and then thought…oops!

Orbs would be a better word.

In the same way that I realized I had voted for a piece of art by Joe Chasse once upon a time, when I saw shopkeeper Bonnie Lou Cozby’s photographs for sale, I recognized her style and knew that one of my favourite art pieces in my home is a photo by her, of sunflowers in the village of Nahcotta.

I’m so very taken with this shop that I have to share a string of photos. The funny thing is, I don’t shop much for home decor things, having so many items already from my grandmother. But I love everything here:

love the angry kitten at lower right!

I have a strong urge to go back and buy that angry kitten picture….but we probably will not be up there on the days (end of the week) when the shop is open…

When we walked back to Bay Avenue Gallery, we found that the pots in the barrel firing were enticingly peeking out of the ashes.

The next day, the gallery posted this photo of one of the resulting pots.

beautiful barrel fired pot, photo courtesy Bay Avenue Gallery

Allan and I had some time at home before our planned dinner out. We took that hour and a half to process and upload 161 photos to the Peninsula Cash Mob Facebook page for today’s event.

We then met Debbie at Pelicano Restaurant at the Port of Ilwaco and dined from 7 until 9:46 PM. Pelicano co owner Shelly (spouse of the amazing chef) once told me that when you book a table at Pelicano, “you own that table” till closing time. The pace is elegantly relaxed and of course Allan and Debbie and I had much to talk about. When we looked up, another restaurant had become empty and was being tidied by the staff. Shelly told us that we did not have to hurry to leave.

Pelicano host Shelly tells us not to worry about the late hour

flowers by the door at Pelicano

I’ll close with part of the menu for those who are interested in such things. It changes monthly and the food is delectable.

Pelicano October menu

For those who are REALLY interested, Allan had the pasta, I had the scallops, and Debbie had the Vietnamese chicken. We each had our own serving of the chocolate pot de creme. It is too good to share.

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25 Oct: not much working

Friday, 25 October, 2013

Last July when Sheila and Debbie were here to have a pizza dinner during Peninsula garden tour weekend, I filled a cardboard box with papers from the dining room table in case the cold north wind inspired us to dine inside.  I did go through the papers as I boxed them to make sure I was not losing any urgent bills.  Three months later, ththat box still sits, unsorted, on the floor.  I might get the papers sorted when staycation finally arrives in mid-December.  Meanwhile, the cats enjoy assorted piles, to sleep on.

Mary and Smokey having a late October snooze

The workday started as usual with a little admiration of plants in the front garden at home.

Dichroa febrifuga

white sanguisorba

Just down the street, Allan had already started loading debris that our client Larry had cut yesterday on the edge of his property.

Allan’s photo of the rather large pile

It was a big pile; Allan got it into one load.

Meanwhile, I tidied up Larry and Robert’s garden by pulling some worn out Cosmos.

Their beauty berry still far outshines mine.

I think it is crazy that a hellebore is blooming now!

Larry and Robert’s, looking south

pineapple sage

I heard Judy’s voice talking to her dogs in her own courtyard and had to pop over to say hello and to photograph her gorgeous maples while they still had leaves.

over the courtyard fence

courtyard corner

This birdbath looks perfect, much more than a round one would.

Two weeks earlier, Judy had taken a photo of one of the courtyard maples in its full autumn colour:

13 October, photo by Judy Hornbuckle

back to 25 October: by the driveway

front garden

I walked the half block home as Allan finished loading, to get an empty bucket to make the compost bucket switch at Olde Towne.  While there the UPS man came with the first of the bulbs…fortunately, just the small box that comes from Colorblends.

and so it begins

I have resolved to start out by calling the sorting and planting of the bulbs “Bulb Time” instead of “Bulb Hell.”  We’ll see how long that lasts when the rest of the bulbs get here.

While Allan switched the buckets, I went into Larry’s shop, Antique Gallery, Too! and we made quick work of getting a couple of problems solved in setting up his new Facebook business page.

in Antique Gallery Too!, the sister store to the Antique Gallery

If you need a lamp…

During Allan’s bucket switching errand, he encountered a friend who urgently needed some assistance and so I waited for him at Olde Towne with a coffee while he helped with the crisis elsewhere.  (It all turned out well in the end.)  Who should I find at the window table but our visiting friend Debbie T, working on her novel.  Since she was taking a break, our visit passed the time till Allan returned.  Fortunately, it was a day with only two jobs definitely planned, both of which could be shortened if need be.

Since our next stop was to head north to dump debris, we made a detour to check out a boat for Erin’s garden.  Oh yes, this will be perfect!

measuring a garden boat!

I will be able to fit a lot of bulbs in that, and am working on an arrangement to get it delivered to Erin’s garden before the end of November.

Then the actual workday resumed.  Upon arriving at Peninsula Landscape Supply to dump our debris, my heart warmed to see a good friend of mine.

the neighbour dog, Bob

Bob has a wonderful personality.

In Peninsula Landscape Supply’s u-pick dahlia garden

Finally, at 3:30 PM we started the workday I had originally planned for today, before Larry emailed about the pile of debris, and before our friend had a need for help.  I am so bored with deadheading Agyranthemum ‘Butterfly’ that I did not at all mind having to do a rather slipshod job of it!

a cute rig at Andersen’s RV Park

(Note the blue sky; it is quite sad that a certain blog reader I know came to the beach for just one day earlier in the week, hoping for the sunshine we were having here, and the day she was here was the one cold grey day this week.)

Then I helped Allan finish up his weeding project…a really tough one with lots of horrible white rooted couch grass.

before and after….

It is such a ghastly area that we reset the rock to make the garden area smaller, so some of the grass can just be hit with the strimmer when it pops back up.

We got to The Anchorage Cottages shortly before five; that did not give us much time.  Fortunately, there was not a lot that urgently needed doing.

shrubs at The Anchorage

While it is normal to see the Arbutus (lower right, above) blooming now, I find it surprising that the three ceanothus are all in bloom.  In October.  That seems unusual.

One of the Anchorage guest’s cars had a bumper sticker with a message that I much appreciated.

next to “One People One Planet”

faded bumper sticker

As someone who strongly dislikes nationalist slogans like “God Bless America”,  I appreciate the sentiment “God bless the whole world; no exceptions”.   I would probably like that guest a lot; I first met my friend Patt through appreciation of her marriage equality bumper stickers.

At 6:20 we stopped off at Crank’s Roost to leave a housewarming present for Lisa and Buzz.  I had to take a photo of Allan’s wrapping paper job; he used some blue bubble wrap to represent the blue tile roof of their new home on the bay.

the box

Inside was a book of which Allan is fond:  The Caliph’s House by Tahir Shah.  The true story would make the move into almost any house look easy in comparison.

I took a photo of Crank’s Roost in the dusk:

my photo

Allan took a better one:

Allan’s much better photo

At 6:30, we met Debbie Teashon of Rainyside Gardeners for dinner at the Depot Restaurant.  Here is a good example of the power of internet forums.  We had “met” on her Rainyside forum as early as the year 2000, then occasionally met in person at Joy Creek/Cistus Nursery “Rainyside get togethers”.  In 2005, Allan and I gathered with her, Sheila and others in Portland for a Rainyside weekend.  This past July, she came here for the Music in the Gardens tour, and this weekend she stayed at the cosy Arcadia Court Hotel,  belonging to someone she had “met” on another forum.  Meanwhile, my cash mob co-organizer, Michelle, just “met” Debbie on Facebook through me and comped her two nights in a suite at the Breakers resort, enabling her to stay through the entire weekend.  I have warned Deb of the danger of falling in love with the Long Beach Peninsula…and five days here of perfect weather and great food and good accommodations could be very seductive.

We talked for so long and with such enthusiasm that the restaurant had closed, all the other diners had left, the chef and his wife were having their own dinner,  and the staff was cleaning up around us when we finally stood to leave at 8:30.

Depot after closing

Next: a social art and garden weekend…

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Another slight delay

After a busy day with the Peninsula Cash Mob and a delicious dinner at Pelicano with Debbie of Rainyside.com, where again we stayed past closing time, I am putting off blogging for another day.

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Slight delay

Dinner at the Depot Restaurant w Debbie from Rainyside.com. As often happens, we talked so long that the restaurant was closed and empty of other diners before we left our table. Back to blogging tomorrow.

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24 Oct: four jobs (and two branches)

Thursday, 24 October, 2013

We lopped two more lower branches off of the Ilwaco street tree that seems to be so un-columnar that it is hiding the Portside Café.  I forgot to take an after photo, and I think we might lop a couple more branches  tomorrow as we have a load of debris to dispose of.

before and no after

At the Depot Restaurant, we deadheaded the cosmos…especially important since we are dining there with our gardening friend Debbie (Rainy Side Gardeners) later this week!

some cosmos still blooming at the Depot

The hops on the lattice look pretty tatty by now.  I like to leave them till after Halloween, probably because Halloween is such a big deal in Ilwaco and they look a little spooky.  There is really no reason to be leaving them at the Depot in Seaview, other than that it is a rather big clean up job on the deck side of the lattice when the hops come down…

I checked the rosemary to see if it looks any greener since last week’s application of IronSafe.  I think it does….or am I deluding myself?  With no before photo, I cannot tell for sure…

rosemary bed

So now I do have a photo for comparison.

the worst and saddest ones, today

Our real mission was to get to the north end jobs.  Driving through Long Beach, we had a comfort stop at the Fifth Street restroom and I was lured by the sight of the horrible bad aster in the frying pan park.   I thought, let’s just pull three clumps and dispose of them at the city works dump.

before

The city crew had been working on this park but got called off for a water emergency down in Seaview.

half an hour later!

During the job, a lovely and interesting person came up to talk to us and it turns out she reads this blog and figured out it must be us working!  We had a good plant conversation while I pulled asters.

After the park is done (the goal being to get the clam sculpture plumbed to squirt water on the hour) we will add some good soil to this bed and make it better for next year:  No more asters, and a nice new rosemary and some bulbs.

Finally, we got on our way to Klipsan Beach Cottages.  Some mossy branches near where we park begged to be photographed.

moss

My plan had been to pull a lot of wild violets out from Mary’s lawn border.

all muddled up with violets

We made her this border as a birthday present some years ago, and since then the violets must have crept in from the groundcover of the pond island which is just separated by a strip of lawn.

pond island groundcover

I don’t know why I am on such a mission to remove rampant ground covers.  I think I must be influenced by Judy and Tom’s beautiful and tidy garden where the beds are not mucked about with violets and ajuga and so on.

One peek into the deer fenced garden distracted me from the violet job and it did not get done at all.  It is a good thing that I usually decide for myself what needs doing at most jobs, or our clients would be greatly disappointed..

looking into the fenced garden

On the right, I cut down a sanguisorba that I would have let stand till spring in my own garden.  I don’t think resort guests would see the same beauty in it that I do.

a Sanguisorba that I once got from Heronswood Nursery (back in the Hinkley days)

It was a lecture by Piet Oudolf at the Northwest Flower and Garden show…pre-2005…that inspired my interest in collecting Sanguisorbas.

In the southwest area of the garden, a running clump of tall asters proved irresistible to pull.  They are taller than the ones I call the BadAster, but just as poorly behaved.  Their roots are the usual aster pinky-purple, which should make them easy to eradicate from the soil.  I always seem to miss a few and back it comes next year.

aster roots

1:59 PM and 3:53 PM

While working on that area, I looked up and briefly pondered the climbing Cecile Brunner rose scrambling all over the bay tree…  That is project for another day.

maybe next time

In the garden, a very good lavender aster has been blooming for three weeks, still looks beautiful, and has stayed in the same well behaved clump for several years.

aster, blueberry, Agapanthus seedheads, Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’

hardy fuchsia

Eupatorium ‘Chocolate’

Persicaria ‘Golden Arrow’

Halloween lights and Helichrysum ‘Limelight’

Rose ‘New Dawn’ (blackspot and all)

witch hazel buds promising early spring fragrance (like apricots!)

While I had been working inside the fenced garden, Allan had tackled what we call the swale, a woodsy area near the clam cleaning shed and patio.

considerable cutting back was done

Then we were on to Wiegardt Gallery.  There, a cute little tree frog complemented the leaves of Eryngium ‘Jade Frost’.

a little frog

We did some thinning and pulling of aster (as usual) and Geranium ‘A.T. Johnson’ (also as usual).

after

I suppose the problem is still that we have too many clients and so can rarely achieve perfection anywhere…or get rid of the bad aster once and for all (or that annoying hardy geranium).  Good news:  Discovery Heights finally found someone to take over all the landscape care so Allan will no longer have to try to keep those gardens up just a bit.

At dusk, we drove the almost half hour trip back down to Ilwaco with a stop at the Ilwaco Timberland Library.

Ilwaco Timberland Library entrance

Our local library is central to our lives.

public computers

bookshelves

When I moved here in December of 1992, I arrived with boxes of used paperback books on which I had stocked up because I figured a small town library would be inadequate.  Instead, I learned that our library is part of the Timberland Regional Library system throughout the state and that one can find and order almost any book.  If they don’t have a book, they can order it through an interlibrary loan.  I have gotten ILL books from many different libraries across the country.  The library also carries a wide selection of DVDs, mainstream and obscure movies and documentaries and telly series.  With winter coming, it is time to plan out my reading and make sure that a large pile of books will arrive around the beginning of December.

Just as darkness came, we drove by Larry and Robert’s house to assess a pile of debris that Larry created by pruning some trees today.  It looks like we can manage it in one trailer load, so that will be project number one tomorrow.

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23 Oct: short day

Wednesday, 22 October, 2013

Pretty soon all the days will be this short or shorter.  (I am looking forward to that although by March I will be craving the longer days again.)  Today we had a dinner engagement “overseas” so we worked on the south end of the ‘Ninsula in order to be ready.

First, the usual compost bucket switch at Olde Towne.

Luanne’s pumpkin decor

I poked the bigger Ilwaco city planter outside and found it disconcertingly dry.  I revised my plan of doing Long Beach and then Andersen’s RV Park.  The planters needed water today!   To get a head start, we borrowed Chester’s watering can and watered five of the planters nearest to Olde Towne.  Then,  on to Long Beach….parking would be easier in Ilwaco later in the day.

At my request, Allan tackled the montbretia removal in Fifth Street Park where it had snuck in around a daylily.   Just a clean piece of the daylily (a good maroon one) went back in.

Allan’s first project, before and after

The pineapple sage is finally blooming!

On the south side of the park, the ornamental grasses have redeemed themselves from the day after the windstorm of a couple of weeks ago.  They looked so bent over then, I almost chopped them.

Almost cut these grasses, happened just the other day.  They were getting kinda long, could have said they were in my way.  But I didn’t…and I am so glad!

I walked around and checked each planter, fretting over how dry some of them are.  Mysteriously, some are damp and some quite dry.  The water has been turned off so there is nothing I can do but wish for a rainy day.

Asphodel about to bloom…wish I had more of these.

 I remind myself once again to remember to cut back, in mid spring, ALL of the Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’.  The few that I missed look terrible now.

the bad and the good

the usual self reminder to plant more dahlias next year

still a vibrant and rather messy mix by Home at the Beach shop!

Several of the planters have chrysanthemums, all several years old and all but one still vigorous.

across from Dennis Company

by the Elks building

The one one that is peaked and disappointing is by NIVA green.

not up to much!

I wish my favourite shop had a better chrysanthemum show!

When I got back to Fifth Street, Allan had been working on and removed four wheelbarrow loads of weeds and cut back lady’s mantle from this difficult garden bed.

a tough little bed, rooty and damp

It had looked pretty good early this month with a show of Schizostylis.

We needed more projects in order to time our watering of Ilwaco correctly.  I had the brainstorm to cut back the so-called dwarf mugo pine at the edge of the park.  It had grown into the walk space on both directions.  Mike Kitzman, parks manager, had been amenable to cutting it down, but that had not happened and I did not want to be that bold.  I forgot to take a before photo.

during and after…all the sideways, sidewalk blocking branches gone…and it’s lower

On our last look at the park, I noticed the Jerusalem sage is having a second yellow flowering.  I find that unusual.

Phlomis fruticosa

Also unusual: an Eryngium ‘Jade Frost’ NOT reverting to green

We still needed one more thing to do to make the time come out right, so we cut back an Escallonia up by Scoopers market; I thought it was blocking the traffic sightline.  We did not plant it; it dates back to volunter planter days.

In the late winter, I am cutting these all the way down.

After dumping in the Long Beach works yard, we went to the Ilwaco boatyard to fill up buckets for watering….a job we thought was over after that big rain that now seems long ago.  No rain is forecast till a week from now…

in the boatyard

I picked up some trash from the boatyard garden and admired the ongoing cosmos show.

south end of boatyard garden

second flowering on blue globe thistle

Cosmos, north end

Cosmos picotee

looking south from Eagle Street

Allan bucket watering

I had gotten into a pruning mood, and one of the street trees particularly bothered me.  These are all columnar pears, and they sure are not very columnar in nature.  The one by the Col Pacific Motel keeps wanting to grow toward the sign.  Last year, its lopsidedness had gotten so big it blocked the view of the sign.

Better? Hmmm.  Now I want to take just one branch off the other side…

Allan found some nasty sluggy things in some of the leaves, and I think they were pear slugs!  Yuck.

They are so…sideways for columnar trees.    I did not have time to tackle more of them (maybe just as well) but we did take off a couple of lower branches on the one across the street.  A six foot tall person would have had to move over on the sidewalk to pass this tree:

after a slight lifting of the under-branches

If it were more columnar, the Portside Café sign would show better.  I see just where to cut….

However, it was time to meet Tom and Judy for our ride across the river.  I madly chopped up tree branches into our garbage wheelie bin for the last twenty minutes of the work day, so that the pear slugs…or whatever…go away in  the trash pick up tomorrow.

After an exciting ride across the Astoria bridge in Tom’s sporty red VW Golf R, we met Larry and Robert for a happy, hilarious, and delightful dinner gathering of six at La Cabana de Raya.  The only bad thing about today’s nice cool grey weather was that we did not get much of a river view, and no sunset.

two out of three amazing appetizers: Fresh guacamole and Ceviche

The sixth of us didn’t solve all the world’s problems over dinner…..Just Ilwaco’s, and had much laughter in the process.

Like the ending of My Dinner with André, we talked and talked until we looked around and saw that the restaurant was empty and the staff was cleaning up.

we closed it down….at our table in the back

When I got home and turned on my computer to blog, I received a message from Mary, two doors down, to come get some of the salmon her husband had caught, and in the process I got to hold their little two-and-a-bit pound Yorkie!   It is a fortunate life to be blessed with such good neighbours…two doors down, four doors down (Tom and Judy) and five doors down (Larry and Robert).  (Three doors down is empty and being worked on.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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22 Oct: easy day….

Tuesday, 22 October, 2013

At last a truly easy workday.  We began with a stop at our excellent accountant, Jennifer Hopkins, to discuss some figures pertaining to the Affordable Care Act.  I always appreciate how she has attractive plant containers outside her office.  In the early spring, while our Ilwaco planters are choked with bulb foliage that must be allowed to die back, her containers totally show us up!  Today we missed her dog Helen, who was taking the day off.

Hopkins office

Then, on to The Red Barn.

The fence sported autumnal figures.

We weeded the narrow fence garden and the barrels.  I thought of cutting down the Helianthus ‘Lemon Queen’, above, but decided it has some autumnal feeling and should stay till after Halloween.

Next door at Diane’s, the roadside garden looks tidy but I wish it had filled in more.  I think that my plan to mulch it with cow fiber will give it more vigor next year.

along the road

The pale pink heathers, which were Diane’s inspiration for wanting this garden, bloomed rather briefly.  The lavenders never really took off, but the rosemary (in background, below) did well.

a short bloom period

In my constant thoughts re privacy if I were to get a noisy neighbour next door, I pondered the Leyland cypress hedge (if that is what it is) between Diane and Larry’s and the Red Barn field.    There is much debate about whether this would be a good idea or a disaster, but surely it would block noise AND light.

just a thought

The pots by the back porch are still looking good.

Diane likes pastels, as you can see.

One of my good friends was at home there and we had a happy visit.

Misty!

We had a brief, shall we say comfort break at the Fifth Street Park restrooms.  Next to the doors, Rose ‘Super Dorothy’ is still blooming wonderfully, while plain old Dorothy Perkins, on the other side of the park, is pitiful, flowerless, sickly and mildewed, as always.

Super Super Dorothy!

The schizostylis (either ‘Viscountess Byng’ or ‘Mrs. Haggerty’) glowed in the pale sunlight on the east side of the restroom building.  We won’t cut back the Helianthus till it looks just terrible, because it hides the weedy mess behind the restrooms….a jungle of horrible unkempt pampas grass which I have made pretty clear is Not My Problem.  This garden area is exceedingly damp, and it has been hard to get anything to grow large here.

pale pink Schizostylis

Yes, a pale, misty, cool sunlight made me very very happy today.  When we got to our next job, I was able to put on a flannel overshirt.  Joy and comfort indeed!

At last, we got back to Erin’s house.  We’d promised this visit back in late September, and then had company, and rain, and then catching up after the rain, and then the hydrangea job!  We worked on the garden by the cottage, not by the very big house.

house with widow’s walk; the shutters are down being painted

Erin’s cat appeared for a visit….

Felix

The cottage garden job was a straightforward fall cleanup.

before and after, outside the fence

inside the fence, before and after

before and after

The camera angle makes that arbour look more tilted than it was at the beginning, but it really is not.  In fact, I lightened up the honeysuckle (which really has to be removed so the arbour can be fixed, but that reality makes Erin sad, so we will leave that to the carpenter).  Note that the shiny sunshine went away over the course of our time there, and the afternoon became deliciously and gloriously cool and grey.

In the cottage garden we find two problems:  shade cast by large trees, and way too many groundcovers.  I am sure each was planted, probably by previous tenant Paul, from nice little pots looking ever so pretty, but now sweet woodruff and oxalis and Japanese anemone have become problems, all up in everyone else’s business.

Oxalis pestering the nice Epimidium

Now that Erin has the huge sunny lot of the  big house for a garden, we won’t have to keep trying to grow sun loving plants in the cottage garden.  But we will have to have another deer-friendly garden, like Marilyn’s, on the big lot…

Deer who visit daily.

My idea is to have two big flower beds, one running east to west where the deer are, with a wide path to walk next to the fence, and another echoing it on the other side of the enormous lot.   There will be plenty of open space in the center.   I have been wondering lately if it would be unwise to use the newspaper garden construction method if irrigation pipes for the sprinkler system ran underneath.  You can see one sprinkler head to the right, above, and I am happy to say that Erin believes there is no piping between that line of sprinklers (east to west) and the fence.  So bring on the newspapers…when we can find the time!

This project will require so much newspaper, I had better start asking my local friends to save paper for us.

On the way home, we poked at the Ilwaco planters (four of them out of…quite a few) to see if they need watering.  Oh how we do not want to have to do that job!  But we think it must be done on Thursday.  They are only faintly damp, and there is no rain in the five day forecast…

In closing, here is an evening photo from yesterday, taken by Allan outside our house.  I did not have it in time for yesterday’s blog.

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