Monday, 24 March 2014
After yesterday’s perfect day….Well, it would be rare to get two perfect days in a row. As we were getting ready to go to work, with a peaceful little plan of spending all day in Ilwaco (first at Ann’s garden and then at the Port if we had extra time), Ed Strange drove by. He paused and commented about several days of rain being due. What?? I had neglected to check the weather and had been counting on tomorrow being good for planting sweet peas at Klipsan Beach Cottages. The previous evening, we had been just 30 blocks away at the end of the day, at J9’s new digs. If only I could have pulled out one half hour more of energy, we could have gone to KBC and got the sweet peas done. A glance, after Ed drove off, at the forecast of rain and 30 mph winds for days made me realize that I had to totally change the plan and go way up north just to get those sweet peas in.
First, we’d dug up some plants to share, so we stopped at Larry and Robert’s (where Ed was mowing) and planted a Pulmonaria (white) and a …plant with brown feathery foliage. I wonder if whacking my head hard on a tree at the end of the day is why I can’t remember the name? (A few minutes later, with a surge of relief: Anthriscus sylvestris ‘Ravenswing’!!)
If our plans had not changed, we could have spent half an hour here weeding (and getting in the way of Ed and his employee as they mowed).
Some dead narcissi flowers in the Ilwaco street planters had been bothering me. We stopped to pluck them and admired the new display in a downtown window.
And then, the long drive north.
We worked for a short time at Golden Sands Assisted Living to make the drive more worthwhile, weeding and then planting some assorted colours of California poppies (‘Copper Pot’, ‘Tequila Sunrise’ ‘Dusky Rose’, ‘Buttercream’).
The Golden Sands courtyard garden is filled with promise and as I weeded and planted, my thoughts ran like this: Might it be be garden tour worthy this year after all?
If only I can keep other workers from doing any more pruning like this:
With the sprinkler system working and the dairy manure mulch, the garden could be fabulous this year. By the end of April, I’ll know if it would be worthy. It would be fun for the assisted living residents to have the garden on tour, I think. It would have to be described as a grandma-style cottage flower garden full of passalong plants. But wait…We have two out of town garden events to attend in the month before the garden tour and I don’t know if we’ll have time to get a garden ready…
On we went to Klipsan Beach Cottages to plant sweet peas. When we pulled into our parking space we saw a glorious sight: Denny had removed a hideous old Phormium and replaced it with a new length of fence.
Last time we worked there I had given the Phormium the evil eye but hadn’t expressed my derision to anyone but Allan. Now it’s on the debris pile, as if Denny had read my mind. He had a heck of a time getting it out with a pick and shovel.
Considering that he is ten years older than us, it’s a bit embarrassing that lately I’ve been advising people to hire a backhoe to get rid of big old Phormiums.
Allan did some weeding; I had hoped he would put magnesium sulfate on the roses while I planted sweet peas. However, it was one of THOSE days and that bucket had been left at home. And the temperature was 66 degrees and we both found it considerably too hot; even Denny complained about it.
We headed the eleven miles back to Ilwaco with two Long Beach stops on the way. On the trip north, I’d noticed some dead narcissi flowers in the planter in front of the Cottage Bakery. This could not stand!
We also planted sweet peas around the second of two planter tuteurs, this one by the Paws by the Sea pet supply shop.
The storefront used to be the Liquor Store, which was apparently very important for folks to find, so it got its own special planter tower to help them find it. Paws by the Sea was lucky to inherit it.
As we passed through Seaview, I made a sudden decision to check the Depot garden for deadheading and indeed, some narcissi needed it. I would hate for a diner to have to look at dead flowers on the way in.
If the Escallonia at the corner of the building were mine, it would be cut to the ground by now. The winter hit it hard.
I did not have time to deal with at all as we wanted to get to Ann’s garden. Later this week, we are taking a friend to the Depot for a celebration and I can then find out if we can cut the escallonia all the way and let it re-sprout.
Finally at last we got to Ann’s garden. She and Butch had done some good gardening work already this spring; we went over all the beds on the front, west side, and back garden and got more weeds. I planted starts of Anthriscus and Pulmonaria and some California poppy seeds (‘Dusky Rose’ and ‘Copper Pot’) and two plants from the Basket Case Greenhouse: Eryngium ‘Jade Frost’ and Gaura ‘Whirling Butterflies’. I hope all are of no interest to the deer who frequent this garden.
The weather had turned cold and windy (and we complained a bit about that). I stood up and slammed my head hard when weeding under the front garden tree. I always hurt myself on that tree even though I always tell myself I will know better this time.
Being a hypochondriac, I fretted for awhile that I might have a concussion or, far worse, a hematoma. (The latter recently, shockingly, happened to a friend.) So far, I’ve survived.
The garden is full of frustrating scilla (bluebells)….and lily of the valley and wild garlic (or some kind of allium) and is very up and down, on a steepish slope, so is quite a challenge.
It has made a wonderful difference having most of the beds mulched with dairy manure. Even the big creeping buttercups sometimes pull out easily as if they were in butter; the base soil is heavy clay.
The cottagey charm of the garden had inspired my admiration for years and keeps drawing me back to work there even th0ugh it is far from the easiest garden t0 tackle.
Even though we got a late start, we got enough done so that we can relax and enjoy the rainy days that are said to be just about upon us. I hope for a few breaks in wind and rain so that I can get my own sweet peas planted. Other than that, I’ve just purchased a new book and am hoping for a day to sit and read it from cover to cover.
Well done for going all that way to plant the sweet peas, I admire you.
LikeLike
The map is a very good idea. It gives a sense of place.
LikeLike
Mr. T, I got the idea of maps from your blog and am very grateful because I think it adds a lot.
LikeLike
I agree.
LikeLike