27 August: the weekly circuit

Wednesday, 27 August 2014

picking up the mail on the way to work

Today we did our weekly north end round, minus Marilyn because this week we have to do a couple of different private gardens, like Mike’s and Larry and Robert’s (yesterday) and Diane’s (today).

area covered today, up Sandridge Road to Ocean Park and back down Pacific Highway

The Red Barn

All we had to do here was deadhead some Agryranthemum ‘Butterfly’ in four barrels, weed a bit in the narrow garden strip, and water it as the garden seemed quite thirsty.

Allan opens the gate for some horses being led to pasture.

on the fence at the Red Barn

The horses that we see being ridden through Long Beach often come from here via a trail that starts just west of the barn and goes to Long Beach town.

Diane’s garden

Walking into the back yard at Diane’s, next door to the Red Barn, I suddenly and for the first time realized that the roof of the double wide home is metal.  Could it be that the pitch is as low as our roof and that we could maybe have a green metal roof?  I would love that.

From the front driveway, I dream of a green metal roof.

the driveway entry garden

The trees along the street are, we hear, going to be cut down this fall.  They stopped providing any privacy when the county cut the limbs a couple of years ago.  Then the long strip of the roadside garden will go away, but not, I hope, the entry corner.

This part will be gone, and the trees replaced with a fence.

(The plants along the edge were lost to a round-up mishap earlier this summer.)

The roadside garden was originally inspired by Diane’s love for these particular heathers from The Planter Box:

pink, pretty, in bloom now.

I think they would look just silly up against the house, so I wonder if a garden bed could be made for them along the driveway, perhaps a raised bed bordered with these chunky rocks:

potential narrow heather bed?

I’m not going to worry about it until I find out the project is really happening.

Wiegardt Gallery

We continued on up Sandridge Road to the Wiegardt Gallery.

My first thought was that the verbascums would no longer look appealing to anyone but a CPN (Certified Plant Nut), so I cut them down.

before

after

There was great excitement when I found that a Eucomis, planted there last winter by Eric’s brother Todd, had suddenly decided to sprout at last!

Eureka!!

I brought gallery manager Christl out to see it and then protected it with a bamboo stake tripod and some sluggo.  Fingers crossed it survives and thrives.

Here are my prize patches of cosmos…again.

In the north garden bed, the Helianthus ‘Lemon Queen’ stems are short due to thirst and yet still look good, adding sunflower charm to the garden.

beautifully backed up with variegated Miscanthus

Oman Builders Supply Garden

Overall, the OBS garden continues to be a successful low maintenance bed (except for thoroughly deadheading the Erysimum every three weeks or so).

irksome evidence of last weeks standing-on-the-plants window washing crew

Last week’s window washing crew’s standing on the Gaura ‘Whirling Butterflies’ had pushed the plant way forward and there was nothing to be done about it now.  I can’t rant too much about the developmentally disabled window washing crew without being a real ogre.

Klipsan Beach Cottages

By now, I had high hopes that we would get through the long list of jobs I had scheduled for the day without having to roll any over to Friday.  Klipsan Beach required some deadheading and light weeding and some tall uppies pruned off of the honeysuckle and rose arbour (by Allan on a ladder).

before and after, just a few upright rose canes gone

the weekly view in the east gate, under the honeysuckle

a different view in, through the south gate

south gate with Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ and boxwood

looking in through the other east gate

All the rebar gates here were made by my former co-gardener, Robert.  I wish he had been able to continue his artistry in metal.

KBC sweet pea

Digiplexis

black currants and Tetrapanax ‘Steroidal Giant’

agapanthus

cosmos

and dahlias

Golden Sands Assisted Living

Instead of the usual photos of the four quadrants and my frustration that the gardens don’t look more vivacious, here are some good parts:

Cosmos and dahlias

peachy dahlias

mom’s velvety red rose

Mom’s Joseph’s Coat rose

and just one quadrant

I have the solution to all this gardens problems:  Adding Helenium and more white phlox, of which I can get divisions for free.  Another great addition would be Agapanthus, but they are pricey and I am on a budget.  Oh, and more dahlias, tall ones in bright colours that elderly eyes can see well; I should be able to get some economical bags of dahlias from Costco next spring.

Andersen’s RV Park

We each deadheaded dozens, nay hundreds, of Agyranthemum ‘Butterfly’ daisies, and Allan weeded on the west side whilst I deadheaded in the other areas.

west garden; This is not the first time I have momentarily thought the Stipa tenuissima is the wagging tail of a big blonde dog in the garden.

The poppy field is now the field of bad aster, which at this time of year redeems itself.

west garden: blue clouds of the large quantities of not so bad aster (now!) that I did not manage to pull out.

This may be the very last Tigridia (Mexican Shell Flower) in the Payson Hall planters.

picket fence garden with lots of white phlox; I can get some for Golden Sands from here.

the raised bed on east wall of house; nasturtiums and mint gone wild…

I have not let the nasturtiums totally swamp the begonia, coleus, and Euphorbia ‘Diamond Frost’

the garden shed garden

with a truly good aster (‘Harrington’s Pink’, I think) (later figured out it is too dark to be H Pink)

and cosmos

Anchorage Cottages

Hallelujah; we even got to the Anchorage today, which means that Friday can be almost all just gardening in Long Beach town.

The parking lot was full, so we parked down by the street by the grove of Chamaecyparis.

Lots of guests were around as we were working in the evening.  Fortunately for us, they were mostly parents and kids playing on the lawn instead of people sipping drinks in the courtyard chairs.

Center courtyard containers.

a late lily in the center courtyard garden (with Melianthus major)

north courtyard

I noticed both sets of window boxes have become mismatched.  Summer is almost over, and it is not fixable now so I won’t fret about it.

One side still has calibrachoa and on the other side, it has died back. It’s a mystery.

on the lawn after the children went into the cottages, a classic swingset with holes worn by many feet

Port of Ilwaco

Tomorrow is art night in Ilwaco.  We took a drive past the port gardens on the way home to see what would need weeding.  They look good except that two were full of trash blown in by the wind (which we decided to pick up as Ilwaco will not be our first job tomorrow).  We were home by seven thirty, and our long day will make the rest of the week that much easier.

We had another meal featuring the scumptious salmon caught by our neighbour Jeff.

by Chef Allan, salmon with a mustard honey glaze that he got from an old Betty Crocker cookbook, probably given him by his mother.  Cucumber, tomatoes, and Yukon Gold mashers from the garden.