9 Sept: half a day’s work

Tuesday, 9 September, part one

There will be a part two consisting of a garden tour.

Here’s a slightly sun-struck photo to show that Allan’s section of ladies in waiting ferns are no longer in waiting. Not a black plastic pot to be seen; all are in the ground.

Allan’s garden looking north

in Allan’s garden

In the back garden: Echinops gone to seed, Solidago ‘Fireworks’, Helianthus ‘Lemon Queen’, Miscathus variegatus

I had tried last year to dig out the Helianthus and was sure I had succeeded.  It did not seem like that much of a thug to have totally come back this year, but it did.  Now I am glad; it does look so wonderful for several weeks.

It is swamping one of my Physocarpus, though.  And it is so tiresome to have unattractive lily stalks dying down in the foreground; they must be allowed to die before cutting them.

Ironically, the weather was beautiful and the fire that we had had to let burn itself out in the rain last night would have been perfect to have this evening.

After we cooked our sausages last night, we let it burn without us.

Our late summer fires have put a big dent in our woodpile.  Winter storms will gift us with more fallen alder branches.

In the greenhouse, the tomato plants look terrible and yet they keep producing bounties of cherry tomatoes.

pitiful looking plants

Only the cherry tomatoes are successful; the big ones keep splitting.

On our way out of town to work: one of our planters at Ilwaco City Hall, draped like a ball gown with a train on it.

Long Beach

Rod Run was over at last.  Almost.  The town still had more hot rods than usual.

Allan’s photo of a rod leaving town.

Note how clean the streets are; the city crew had been working very hard.

Allan’s photo and caption: When ever it is really hot, I feel fortunate I don’t have to work on a roof.  (Cedars Inn near City Hall)

After the throngs of the Rod Run weekend we usually find lots of planter damage.  This time, it was not too bad.

Some were smashed along the edges.

between Funland and the Bakery, clearly sat upon, but NOT stood upon as in days of yore.

Some look perfectly fine.

At least 25% of the planters had beer bottles tucked in among the plants. I bet it was way more before the city crew’s clean up.  (Allan’s photo)

A big fat cigar not so enhancing the planter by the Elks Lodge. (Allan’s photo/caption)

Allan’s photo/caption: Outside Rocket Diner (south end of the LB Pharmacy) an eryngium took a hit.

(Allan’s photo) ..As did another eryngium by Dodge City arcade.

Many planters had damage that was easy to trim up, like woody stems broken off of hardy fuchsias or lavenders.  Others looked just as good as last week, to our great surprise.

by the Hungry Harbor Grille

I was most pleased at the overall lack of damage.  While I finally cut back some of the tatty California poppies in the police station planter, a tourist came up and showed me on her phone three plants for which she wanted identification:  Erysimum ‘Bowles Mauve’, Salvia viridis (painted sage, of course), and I cannot for the life of me remember the third although I was sure I would.  We had a lovely gardening chat, one of the perks of the Long Beach job.

One odd thing: a bench was completely missing down by Streetside Tacos.  Later, a café owner told me that there had been a big trailer parked right about there with a campfire (grille??) on top.  I wonder if that’s where the wooden bench went?

It’s a mystery.

Even though the nasturtiums looked quite beat up by Home at the Beach, I left them.

Allan’s photo and caption: Outside new mini mart, someone sowed tobacco for next year.

I had had a brainstorm while doing the planters.  There was not much else pressing to do, and we had been putting off a grocery trip to Costco till tourist season and traffic had dwindled.  What it we went over today?  Allan was amenable, and we decided to make the late afternoon and evening into a fun one and go to our favourite Astoria garden, as well.  (That will get its own post.)  We still had some work to finish, however, including weeding and deadheading in Fifth Street Park.

Fifth Street Park

Then, on to one more job.

The Anchorage Cottages

We need to prune down those viburnums…on a cooler day and one where we don’t want to go have fun instead.

The arbutus is gorgeous in full bloom.

But one of two ceanothus in the center courtyard is having a lot of dieback…yet if I cut it too much, it will expose the window of one of the cottages.

After cutting some of the dead branches out of the ceanothus, we abandoned any more ideas of work and headed “overseas” to Astoria.