17 May: tears and accomplishments

Sunday, 17 May 2015

We did not treat ourselves to a day off. The push to get the annuals planted continued.

Ilwaco

On the way to add a couple more annuals to the planter at the Peninsula Sanitation office, we noticed some plant growth in the Sea Warrior, an old boat in the storage yard.

The Sea Warrior looks permanently landbound now. (Allan’s photo)

From Peninsula Sanitation: The name of this boat spoke to me of Annuals Planting Time.

We traded out some old, leggy Erysimum ‘Bowles Mauve’ for some new ones in the planters by Eagle and Main Streets.  This one had, unusually, formed a nice tight new set of growth at the base so we will give it a chance to come back:

a hopeful Erysimum

(As I write this a week later, I feel less kindly and as if we should move that plant to the boatyard garden and put in a new one with more chance of blooming soon.)

adding some trailies by the Portside Café

We made a detour back home to pick up a few more plants.

Helianthemum by our driveway (Wisley Primose, I think)

poppies!

Allium albopilosum and Dutch Iris

We then finally checked closely on the Ilwaco street tree that I had noticed, a couple of days ago, had a mysteriously flat garden.  I had simply not wanted to deal with this problem because I knew it would be upsetting.

Today: This was AFTER I pulled off most of the chopped and dropped foliage.

What happened??  It looks like it was hit with a strimmer, although there are no string trimmer cuts into the bark of the tree.  Or hedge shears? This was human work, not a deer browsing; deer do not mow a garden down neatly to all one level like this.  Catmint, Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’, golden oregano and schizostylus, all leveled to the ground.  I said to myself I was going to remain calm, which lasted until, at the end of picking up all the broken pieces and adding one little sea thrift plant, I burst into tears and a big rant of WHY??????.

WHY??????

Was someone string trimming this lot, and just…jumped the sidewalk?

This is what the tree garden would have looked like had this not happened (more or less as they don’t all have the same plants):

across the street to the south

across the street to the north in front of Azure Salon

The little red poppies were already struggling to grow back and I watered them with angry and sorrowful tears.  Times like this I think I am making a mistake by focusing almost entirely on public gardens.  Private gardens are so much safer.

I immediately posted about it, with photos, on Facebook (from my phone) and got some gratifying sympathy and outrage over the rest of the day.

The Depot Restaurant & The English Nursery

I had scheduled a job that would require some battering out of a lawn area, good for releasing some steam: expanding the end of the Depot Garden

before

about an hour later

Chef Michael emerged from the kitchen and asked us if we could plant tall grasses on the south side of the deck to add to the sense of enclosure that the ornamental grasses on the east side provide.  The rosemary plants are not doing the job; I had never realized that the original idea of the garden had been for grasses to enclose the whole deck.  I knew just where to get some: three blocks away at The English Nursery.

When we arrived there, owner Dirk was hard at work trying to control the horsetail in the streetside garden.  Way back when this garden was created by volunteers, as an entry corridor along the highway intersection, both Dirk and I had pleaded with them to find the funds from the Visitors Bureau to BUY and bring in clean soil.  But no, some diggings from who knows where were provided for “FREE” and of course the “soil” was full of horsetail and bindweed.  It had been a struggle ever since.  I was offered the job twice and both times turned it down.

Allan’s photo, Dirk vs. horsetail

a stunning iris in that garden

He was possibly happy to take a break and help us buy plants.

Allan’s photo

in the nursery

daylilies and lilies

His specialty is hostas.

a vast array of hostas

Allan’s photo

Dirk shows me some recently potted but not ready giant Miscanthus

We couldn’t get the tall Miscanthus, so we returned to the Depot with three Miscanthus ‘Karl Foerster’ that we hope will get five feet tall, and one each of two exceptionally tall perennials, Filipendula and Macleaya cordata (plume poppy).  Both perennials are aggressive runners; since this garden is going to become all tall things, that will be fine.  They can fight it out among themselves.  Later, Michael will figure out a different place to put some rosemary plants, perhaps in the next door yard that also belongs to the restaurant.

Allan planting

While he planted, I sheared the escallonia from hiding the railway history sign.  Talk about wrong plant for the place!  It’s been there since before I started this job, and Michael feels it helps prevent rain water from washing against the building corner.

This escallonia would love to get taller than me.

Boreas Inn

Next, we planted cosmos at the Boreas Inn.

This called for some wake up beans! (Chocolate covered coffee beans)

The Boreas garden, looking west to the beach trail

I got the sudden urge to put an edge on the garden beds.  Oh, how I longed to do so.  I almost got out the half moon edger.  Good thing I resisted, as some guests emerged to take photos of each other, and some other guests emerged to use the hot tub room.  We would have been in the midst of a big project had I started edging.  As it was, we were able to quickly pick up our empty plant containers and supplies and exit, leaving the guests in peace.

It sure does need edging. That has been on the work board for ages!

The Depot Restaurant & Seaview

With a little time left, we returned to finish the Depot garden instead of leaving it to the next day.

Depot garden with mulch, cosmos, and Agastache ‘Golden Jubilee’ added.

Why did I not make this garden larger two year ago? So much better.

Here’s the before from yesterday.

Since it was seven o clock, and since we were right there, we went into the Depot for a delicious dinner.

Asian salad from the new summer menu

Mediterranean prawns

clam chowder, Allan’s photo

Allan’s Steak Killian

On the way home, we paused to take some photos of the Seaview garden that used to belong to Maxine, Jo’s mother.  Maxine loved her rhododendrons.  Her garden was my first gardening job on the Long Beach Peninsula.

Maxine’s garden (Allan’s photo)

Maxine’s garden (Allan’s photo)

Maxine’s garden (Allan’s photo); I used to pick off each and every yellow leaf.

just around the corner, at a house whose lawn I used to mow back in the late 90s

home

arriving home: Allan’s photo—”cats on patrol” in Nora’s driveway

the work board…with the annuals list getting noticeably shorter