Tuesday, 31 March 2015
Ilwaco
My rainy reading day did not materialize. The weather looked somewhat workable so after a slow start (because I had not made much of a plan), we went to the Port of Ilwaco boatyard to plant some oriental lily bulbs. This is an experiment. Lilies are surprisingly tolerant of salt wind and in some gardens the deer leave them alone.
While weeding at the boatyard, I figured out what to do with the rest of the day: mulch street trees in Long Beach. One of the things I think about is how to stagger the work so no client gets hit with too shocking of a bill. Therefore it would be better to do the rest of the boatyard garden weeding in April!
We went home so that I could quickly dig up some Knautia macedonica to put under some of the street trees. I took a moment to admire the front garden.
This is exactly the sort of jumbled mossy brick garden that would take my breath away when I used to walk down Seattle alleys and look at back yards. I wonder if passersby respond to it the way that I would or if they prefer something more formal. I a, sure there must be a few like me. Some will recognize that the garden has cool and unusual plants.
In the foreground, above, a sharp eye will see that the deer are coming into this garden bed and eating the roses. I should have moved them to the fenced back yard; I keep thinking that some winter we will manage to get a tall gate at the edge of the driveway, and then I will use bamboo poles and wire or some such thing to keep the deer out and maintain visibility and keep to front yard fence height restrictions. Meanwhile, I need to get out the Liquid Fence stinky spray.
I did not like the look of the sky to the west just before we drove away.
We drove the first few blocks debating whether or not to go back home and have a reading day. The Dark Sky app told me it was about to rain…and then said it was drizzling and would continue to do so for awhile.
I said “It’s not raining!” and then it was…but we were already halfway to Long Beach.
Long Beach
The sky was light around the edges, always my test about whether or not to abandon hope.
We decided to get enough buckets of mulch from our pile at city works to at least do some of the trees.
We began with the southernmost block of street trees and planters, mulching the trees, weeding the planters and adding some tigridia bulbs to the planters and some California poppy seeds to the tree gardens.
The deer seem to have stopped chowing down so much on the tulips by 7th Street South.
That’s the planter we dug the white yarrow out of last fall; now I am on the watch for any that tries to come back from bits of roots.
While mulching a tree across from Dennis Company and then grooming the planters on that block, Allan noticed someone loading lots gardening supplies onto a bicycle.
After mulching five trees (the south block and a tree in the northernmost block), we went to Coulter Park and cut down the dead tall stems on some hardy fuchsias and then checked on the city hall garden for narcissi deadheading before dumping our debris.
I rescued and replanted those trilliums from the once woodsy road by my old house, just before it was widened and they would have been bulldozed.
As I was deadheading, I saw a friend approach. MaryBeth was bringing me an old garden cart of hers, after reading my post of a couple of weeks ago about my back hurting from carrying a bucket and how I needed some kind of upright cart. I had been thinking of a wire grocery cart, but this will be so much better. Behind her is the sign for our neighbours’ Starvation Alley cranberry farm world headquarters.)
A bit of rain began and we thought we would go home after dumping our debris. By the time we were at the works yard a few blocks away, the sun was out again and we decided to mulch just four more trees. That will make the job one tree over halfway done.
It is weird that all these are in bloom before the end of March. I emphasize May flowering tulips in Long Beach so they will be in bloom for the parade on the first Sunday in May. This year, they will be long over by then. I suppose I am just as glad that they are blooming now during the very busy spring break weeks when town is quite full.
Home again at last, I had to do the monthly billing so I sternly applied myself to the task. A big rainstorm got my attention (and made me think of the reading day that I had expected). While I kept billing, Allan took some photos.
Maybe tomorrow we will get that reading day…or maybe we will be weeding the boatyard garden and mulching more trees.
Fantastic cloudscape.
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I vote for the reading day which is what I’ll be doing today 😄 with John Connollys latest mystery A song of Shadows. Love his writing.
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