Spam of the day:
“I was wondering if you ever thought of changing the page layout of
your website? Its very well written; I love what youve got to say.
But maybe you could a little more in the way of content so people could
connect with it better. Youve got an awful lot
of text for only having one or 2 images. Maybe you could space it out better?”
Hahaha!
Saturday, 16 August 2014
I immediately defeated my goal of two days off without leaving the property by deciding to go to Olde Towne Café for breakfast at ten AM. I did not feel like bugging Allan to do the Saturday Market photos instead of me, so I would have to leave the house anyway. And I had another small mission: to get a photo of John and Cheri’s lovely garden over by Spruce Street.
I set out, with my cane although I did not feel especially gimpy today.
At Olde Towne, I had a latte and oatmeal and was lucky to arrive at a quiet time so that Luanne was able to sit and visit for awhile.
(I forgot to take her a bouquet of flowers for the weekend; later in the day, Allan took one over for me.)
Next, a walk down First Avenue to the Market. A stop at Robert’s Antique Gallery gleaned some more photos for the Facebook page with which I help Larry and Robert by providing photos.
On I walked, past the boatyard garden where I averted my eyes from the occasional horsetail and dandelion.
On my walk to the market, Kathleen Shaw had pulled her car to the side for a confab; she was on her way home to her cottage after going to the market herself. She told me about a husky puppy named Aragon at Nate’s ice cream shop so I made sure to walk by there.
The market was bustling and my knee had started to hurt a bit so I only covered about two blocks.
To get home, I cut through the gear shed property (shhhh) to the east back gate and was met with a terrible shock. I knew some bindweed lurked back there and my weekend project was to pull it out of the southeast corner of the bogsy woods. I did not expect to see this horror from the outside of the fence!
I went inside and sat for awhile to gather strength. Then:
I also tackled the back corner of the bogsy wood and made some progress. Hauling the debris out will be the most tiresome part.
I think I’ll load it all into the trailer to go to the dump on Monday, since we can’t have a three day weekend because Long Beach planters will need watering.
A strong wind had made it a little anxious to work under the trees in the bogsy woods. The gusts were at least 20 mph. As the sun began to descend, I was glad to go inside.
Meanwhile, Allan had begun installing our new Pink Poppy Farm inspired sprinkler set up.
He then went sailing on Black Lake to reward himself:
“Almost a 30 degree tilt and good speed but rowed back after not making much headway north past the dock. Was getting stuck as the vegetation made the lake only about half the width it appears. Fog came in, last two pics from Sandridge Road”
Earlier in the day, Allan had photographed a spider outside the back door. I didn’t post it at the beginning as did not want to scare off any arachnophobes.
Sunday, 17 August 2014
For some reason, I woke up with the notion that today would be a good day to cut down salmonberry at the front side of the bogsy wood. What came over me, I do not know; I was filled with happy energy.
I thought above removing the clump to the right, then realized it would just reveal too much of the green metal wall of the next door gear shed. Now there is a sense of mystery…you can glimpse the blue hydrangea and might want to walk back for a closer look.
The second part of the project was to move the pile of campfire wood to make a new planting area along the front.
I had an absolute stroke of genius and used two old chairs (not safe for sitting, given to use by our client Jo) to stack the firewood on.
Allan seemed unimpressed with this, but I still hold that it is genius, as it will keep the wood up off of the always damp ground back here.
The stubby stumps of salmonberry are still in the area I cleared. Later, Allan will go in with his little chainsaw and cut them flush with the ground; then we will just clip or even use the weedeater to keep any sprouts down.
That’s what we did with another area that was pure salmonberry:
The entire bogsy wood was a rough mess when we began the garden.
If we don’t keep up with clipping any sprouts, the salmonberry will creep back in, like it did in the area below:
I’ll never get all the salmonberry out of the bogsy wood, so I just like to make paths and tunnels in it. It is the first flower for the hummingbirds (so I have read) and, later, berries for all the berry eating birds. That’s my excuse, and it’s a good one.
Between today’s and yesterday’s clearing, I have a view now of the blue hydrangea back in the woods.
I can even see the blue of the hydrangea all the way from my bedroom window.
Looking south over the river of Geranium ‘Rozanne’, the edge of the bogsy woods looks more clearly defined.
Now i need a yard of Soil Energy to build up the former wood pile area so that I can plant some of my other new fuchsias there.
Speaking of unplanted plants, here’s the sad story of one of my ladies in waiting. I had two ‘Orange Pillar’ barberries when garden touring on Whidbey Island in June. I have decided they will go in the front garden after I have moved two big thirsty sanguisorbas to the back garden. That can’t be done till fall, so the barberries wait in pots. One was hidden at the back of the ladies in waiting benches and got missed:
At the end of the day, I especially admired a few things (and judged one thing):
The judgement: I think I may have way too much Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’, and this daylily has got to go:
Allan took a photo of how the “dead” camellia trunks in the back garden, painted purple two years ago, are sprouting new leaves!
Life would be just perfect if we had a three day weekend; unfortunately, the Long Beach planters simply must be watered tomorrow. Allan had to water the Ilwaco planters today, so he did not even get a two day weekend.
I have only been reading your blog since the Fling so I’m not familiar with the “bogsy wood”, but I hope you mention it in every post because its name makes me smile and think of Pooh and Piglet. 🙂
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My friend Sheila came up with the excellent name.
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Hello, I got curious about your spammer and put the words “I was wondering if you ever thought of changing the page layout of your website? ” into the Google search box and came up with at least 10 pages with about 10 entries each using the same words. It appears to be a WordPress problem. It is not a personal problem directed at you. I hope that makes you feel better.
Since finding your blog recently, I look forward to reading it every day and am still insanely jealous of all your beautiful planters and borders. Do you have a formula for planting them? Where I live, something like that would need to be watered two or three times a day, but the winters are very nice here. Love the food pics, too. Ahi, yum!
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Thanks! Yes, I did not take the spam personally, just thought it was such classic spam that it suggested more photos in such a photo heavy blog
We have to water the Long Beach planters every fourth day and Ilwaco every third day although those would love every day! We plant with a mix of Doctor Earth all purpose fertilizer and Zeba Quench. (The latter product is getting hard to find.)
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A busy two days of rest!
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Ah….the beautifully defined bogsy woods shot.(looking south over the river of Geranium ‘Rozanne’,). How I love that photo! And your judgement about the sedum Autumn Joy makes me tremble. I’m SURE we have too many. What to do? What to do? And ours are HUGE! Every spring, I forget how big they are and put off dividing them!
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Mine look good now IF I chopped them by half in late May (and then they went through an awkward phase). The unchopped ones have all fallen open and take up huge space without looking lovely.
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At least I can fob some off on jobs. Although I have a client (Jo) who wants us to remove all of hers this fall.
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I would love to go fossicking around the back of your bogsy wood near the blue hydrangea. Such a wonderful place 🙂
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Thanks, Cathy. I love the word fossicking!
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Me too! 😀
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