Friday, 18 April 2014
at home:
Ilwaco
We started our day by deadheading the Ilwaco planters for what I plan to be the second to last time (see yesterday for why we have chosen to not make a proposal to the city to keep the job) and then did a tiny bit of planting and weeding at the boatyard.
It will feel a bit odd at first to not take care of the planters just north of the boatyard, but I will adjust.
Next, we planted two Wilma Goldcrest cypress at Time Enough Books to replace two horrid, monstrously huge phormiums that were recently removed by backhoe.
We wanted to get the curbside gardens looking great because tomorrow, the port is having a limited edition early opening of the Ilwaco Saturday Market in conjunction with Long Beach’s Razor Clam Festival. After weeding Time Enough’s curbside garden and the one next to the old Harbor Lights Motel (still empty) to the west, we made a quick stop at Olde Towne Café to switch compost buckets and then headed north toward Long Beach.
Seaview
Allan remembered to stop at the Depot in order to deadhead tulips and narcissi, and I just now remembered to remark upon the amazing fact that the weather today was perfect: clear, sunny, little wind, not too hot.
Long Beach
I remembered that we needed to deadhead the welcome sign, where a few tulips are hanging on. I fear there is going to be a gap of three weeks between the end of the tulips and time to plant annuals.
And finally, downtown Long Beach. Allan planted some more violas and a Black Lace elderberry and did some touch up in the Fifth Street Parks while I walked four blocks worth of street trees and planters, weeding and deadheading.
Now walk with me while I care for the trees and planters…
The only finger blight that I saw downtown other than some random tulip picking was at the planter in front of the smoke shop; someone had pulled up five tulip ‘Rococo’, bulb and all, in full bloom, and then left them lying there. Perhaps it was an interrupted theft.
I do love Dutch Iris even though ends of its foliage brown off before the flower even blooms, and the flowering is brief.
I’m pleased that there will still be colour from tulips right next to the clam dedication tomorrow.
We then checked the big planter in Lewis and Clark Square and did one last check on the Veterans Field garden.
Allan and I went together to deadhead and weed the two northernmost blocks of planters. In front of NIVA green is one of a very few quite expensive narcissi ‘Sinopel’. In the catalog, it looks like this:
The catalog description explains why it’s not that colour in real life: “Fragrant, it has a perfect 3″ ivory-white perianth and a bowl-shaped, greenish white cup edged in yellow. Circa 1974 and a bit like a mood ring, its dainty cup is more yellow in cool temperatures and more green when basking in warm temperatures (cherish its greenness indoors in a bud vase).”
I think next year I might try to grow some on my sun porch, or in the greenhouse.
The sun was low in the sky as we attended to the planters on both of the beach approach roads. I was appalled to find some finger blight that completely shattered my resolve to be calm and philosophical. When I saw this big hole (left of lamp post) where someone stole a big clump of lilies out of the Lisa Bonney memorial planter, my language was saltier than the sea air.
The lilies were planted not by me but by a friend or relative of Lisa’s. As most locals know, Lisa was killed by an estranged boyfriend just a few feet away from this planter. The thief, who was skilled in plant removal, bulbs and all, and who removed a large clump of soil with the lilies, could surely read this sign:
So is someone’s mother or other loved one getting a nice pot of lilies for Easter?
Further down the approach, I saw two adult women having three small children stand right on the plants in another planter to have their photo taken. Each planter has a nice bench to sit or stand on. “Really?” said I fairly quietly to the women. “I’m the one who takes care of these, and really?!! I find this very upsetting!” They mumbled and walked on. One of these days I fear I will read online that a tourist just hated Long Beach because of being chastised by a mean and heartless gardener.
A bit later, while deadheading narcissi at City Hall, I was cheered by the pretty sight of fallen rhododendron flowers.
By the time we got to the end of the Sid Snyder Drive beach approach road, the pleasant warm evening had me back in a good mood.
Port of Ilwaco
With the sun still poised above the hills of Cape Disappointment, we returned to the Port of Ilwaco to check on the Port Office garden. A very few tents had been erected for Saturday’s small market day. The Clam Festival has a scavenger hunt that included a stop at the Saturday Market, and my theory is that the organizers did not realize the market would not be there in April…so the port came through by setting up a small market with some of the local vendors. That’s my story.
Saturday we will have off and yet it will be a very busy day as it starts with the second Grass Roots Garbage Gang beach clean up of the year.
I am thrilled it starts at ten thirty rather than the usual nine thirty. As a night owl, having to be anywhere by 9:30 AM just about kills me. (“Oh, there are two nine o’ clocks in the day?” said Tallulah Bankhead.) Yesterday the weather forecast called for 44 degrees, rain, and thirty mile an hour winds. I had decided if that were the case, we would skip it and go out to beach clean some other day. We have simply reached the breaking point on working (or picking up trash) in horrid weather. Now the forecast has improved and I have hope that the Razor Clam Festival and Saturday Market might get some passable weather.
Loved all those different varieties of tulip.
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Have you got any boats in your area which are not filled with flowers?
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Not any i can get my hands on. Allan feared for his nice little sailboat.
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Beautiful viridiflora tulip, now I need to get the voles to enjoy the flower and not the bulb.
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Voles are terrible. There are jobs where I had to give up planting tulips except for in containers just because of voles.
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