Music in the Gardens 2015: Mimosa Garden

Saturday, 18 July 2015

Music in the Gardens Tour, Long Beach Peninsula

a benefit for the Water Music Festival and music programs in local schools

ticket tour map

Garden 3: Mimosa Garden (Holtermann Garden

Waving tropical fish flags greet you as you begin your tour of an art-filled patio garden with colorful pots, choice and well-grown plants, and a wall pocket of textured succulents. Stroll through the full-sun gardens wrapping around the this dune-facing home, which well meets all the challenges of the wind, fog and salt air.  Enjoy the many spots to sit, a working potting bench, and a small kitchen garden.

This aerial photo taken by local photographer Bob Duke with the aid of his drone show how close the garden is to the dunes:

photo by Bob Duke, showing the triangular shaped lot

garden tour day

on a pre-tour visit June 1st (when we just looked at the garden from here, as we were making a spontaneous drive-by)

photo by Kathleen Shaw

photo by Bob Duke

south side of house

Mimosas and lemony ice water were on offer at the welcome table.

treats (Allan’s photo)

Allan’s photo

Gardener Pat’s t shirt (Allan’s photo)

west side, photo by Kathleen Shaw

cheerful entry garden

photo by Kathleen Shaw

The garden had looked just as perfect when Nancy and I visited on July 3rd to get some “sneak peek” photo for the tour’s Facebook page as it did on tour day.  I noticed how well-grown the plants are.  Just two days before the tour, Pat’s husband sent us this photo captioned “Working through the pain to get ready for the garden tour.”  Pat had hurt her leg and was continuing the preparation on crutches.  Because the garden already looked so fine, it was not the disaster it would have been for someone like me whose garden is not perfected till about one day before a tour.

photo by John Holtermann

pre-tour visit, July 3rd

tour day

front door

pre-tour visit, July 3rd, digiplexis

Digiplexis ‘Illumination Flame’

pre-tour visit, July 3rd: This little heart bench belonged to Pat’s mother.

tour day

photo by Kathleen Shaw

stepping stones to patio on west side of house

pre-tour visit, July 3rd, Scophularia vareigata (variegated figwort)

west side patio

lower windows tip out

Our Kathleen toured the garden in the late afternoon and found Barbara Bate playing piano on the west patio.

Barbara Bate

north wall of patio

On a pre-tour visit on June 1st

succulent pocket garden on pre-tour visit, July 3rd (lower right corner: Petunia ‘Pretty Much Picasso’

July 3rd

and on tour day

hydrangea by the entry to the next area of the garden

window reflection with more plants inside

looking back on the west side patio

to our left as we step through into the next area

photo by Kathleen Shaw

The little watering can is a clever reference to the flowing shape of Hakonechloa macra ‘Aureola’.

Or is it ‘All Gold’?

Allan’s photo

When we were there in the morning, Barbara Bate was playing in the north side garden.  For her second set, she moved into the sun where Kathleen found her later on.

Barbara Bate

Allan’s photo “They were talking Beethoven while Barbara Bate was playing him some samples by memory.”

Barbara Bate

Barbara Bate

As in all the gardens, I wished for more time to sit and enjoy the music.  I have a soft spot for Barbara, who played at my mother’s memorial at Golden Sands and who knew her favourite song, Because (you come to me with naught save love, and hold my hand, and lift mine eyes above…).

Gunnera in the triangle corner of the garden

Every now and then, I run across a garden blogger who lists all sorts of garden descriptive phrases we are not supposed to use anymore because they’ve become passé (“architectural foliage” is one, and “garden rooms” is another).  Well, too bad, because here is a great example of architectural foliage in a garden room.  Each section of this garden is enclosed by a fence, a dense planting, or the wall of the house or a shed and it is like a series of outdoor rooms.

Allan’s photo

Barbara and the reflected garden

garden room with chairs and a carpet

photo by Kathleen Shaw

photo by Kathleen Shaw

photo by Kathleen Shaw

Here’s that aerial photo again; you can pick out the white daisies and the gunnera in the corner.

photo by Bob Duke

photo by Kathleen Shaw

Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’

garden room with chairs and tub

photo by Kathleen Shaw

on the north fence

Allan’s photo

gate to the kitchen garden

kitchen garden

pre-tour visit, July 3

garden shed

hosta detail

diascias

looking back

east wall of house

another sit spot

Another aerial photo shows the garden shed and another enclosed nook near the front driveway.

drone photo by Bob Duke

photo by Kathleen Shaw in the afternoon

The weather was so scorching hot that some plants were wilting, so garden owner John began to water.

John chats with Allan while watering in the nook off the driveway.

by the driveway

Waterlogue

The Mimosa Garden was a close contender for my favourite 2015 tour garden because of the garden rooms, the whimsical decorations, and the selection of interesting and well grown plants.  To be a contender, a garden must have art that tells me something about the owner, must have more garden than lawn, and must not be a barkscape; the plants must touch and intermingle.

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Music in the Gardens 2015: Lynda’s Garden

Saturday, 18 July 2015

Music in the Gardens Tour, Long Beach Peninsula

a benefit for the Water Music Festival and music programs in local schools

ticket tour map

Garden 2: Lynda’s Garden

In this one-year old garden, all of the decks, fences, gates, and a unique water feature were designed and built by the owner.  Beside the lawn, a stage holds inset planters with aromatherapy plants such as jasmine, gardenias, and pinks, and is shaded by sails that dance in the wind.  A view of Loomis Lake is framed across the street through well-placed fences and a multi-grafted espaliered apple tree.

from the street

Our friend (and pro mower) Ed Strange had recommended that this garden be on the tour, and the day before he came over and mowed and trimmed the grass, saying “I got you into this!”  It’s just around the corner from our friend J9’s house, and when Allan and I went to scout it out for the tour, I wondered why I had not noticed it when I walked from J9’s to the lakeshore park.  Then I realized that was because my walk to the lakeshore park was over a year ago, and Lynda has done all this gardening and carpentry since then.  When Garden Tour Nancy and I went back to see the garden together, Nancy was thrilled at Lynda’s can-do attitude.  “The tour is July 18th?  Great, I have a month to get everything done!”

from our June 18th visit: one of Lynda’s two adorable dogs. The other is a big one.

Allan’s photo

front garden from the deck

Lynda’s water feature and privacy screen

photo by Kathleen Shaw

July 3rd

on the deck: coffee and cookies

from a pre-tour visit on July 3rd

Lynda, Kathleen, and Allan

deck is on east side of house

Allan’s photo

Here’s the photo I was taking.

more refreshments

privacy screen, all planted and built in the past year

view of Loomis Lake over the privacy fence

espaliered tree

stone path

the fence from outside, photo by Kathleen Shaw

view of park, positioned diagonally across the street

peekaboo lake view

After getting a big pile of rip rap dumped on site, Lynda sat by the pile and threw the rocks into place one by one.

from the south side of house

south facing deck

the fire bowl garden on June 18th, with lumber for a project

Waterlogued

tour day

tour day: photo by Kathleen Shaw

the stage on June 18th

Waterlogued

stage on tour day

music in the garden

Inset planters hold fragrant plants.

Jennifer Goodenberger

Jennifer Goodenberger

Just remember this was all built in the past year.

the dog run door on June 18th

tour day

As we departed for the next garden, we took some last photos driving past the house.

front

south side

south side

south side of stage

Ed Strange told Lynda that her garden was a “Neverland garden”.  She thought, “How nice, he means it’s a garden for children or fairies to enjoy” and he said that what he meant was that she will always have a new project and therefore never be done.

I so admire Lynda’s carpentry and design skills and the stage in particular.  Her garden is one that would intrigue me to take a closer look if I glimpsed its intricacies as I walked by.

interlude

Lynda’s garden is on the east side of the Tides West neighborhood, and the next tour garden is on the west side.  We like when tour gardens are close to each other.  After crossing the highway, on the way to the next garden, we passed this garden which is one that I would like to explore:

looks interesting!

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Music in the Gardens 2015: Lily and Rose Garden

Saturday, 18 June 2015

Music in the Gardens Tour, Long Beach Peninsula

a benefit for the Water Music Festival and music programs in local schools

ticket tour map

Garden 1: Lily and Rose Garden

The lush green entry gives you but a small clue to what is beyond. Kristine’s secret garden slopes down from a deck filled with bountiful containers of flowers and a small kitchen garden. This gentle change in elevation provides a vista of the perennials and roses she grows for bouquets. This is a classic cutting garden and bird watchers’ paradise. Continuing through a second gate to the west, you’ll discover an artistic deer fence enclosing flowers and vegetables. Granddaughter Lily’s delightful playhouse, The Lily Pad, has been the site of many tea parties.

Garden Tour Nancy and I previewed this garden on July 3rd; those photos are included in this post.

On tour day, look for the pink and red balloons.

Kristine, an avid photographer, made all the beautiful signs for parking, guest book, and refreshments.

The day was already hot, so the greenery and shade of the front garden was restful to the eyes.

The garden is close to the dunes. (Allan’s photo)

front garden

up the front door (but we are not going that way); note the well trimmed sword fern

the gate to the secret garden, with our friend Gene emerging

(Gene’s garden was on the 2013 tour, and we have some new photos of his garden to show you in an upcoming post.)

through the gate (Allan’s photo)

tour guests entering

another of Kristine’s photo signs on the entry table

guest book and bouquet inside the front gate

The Mozart Chicks were playing under a tent in the front corner of the garden, to the right as we entered the gate.  Hot bright sun made photos difficult today.

The Mozart Chicks

the Mozart Chicks, tootling

Allan’s photo

Kristine her ownself

path curving around the house

south wall of house

from a pre-tour visit on July 3

rose on pre-tour visit, July 3

I want this pale pink fringed sidalcea or whatever it is; Kristine says I can have seeds.

Kristine doesn’t spray anything toxic for blackspot on roses; she told us she picks off any bad leaves.

Allan’s photo, looking through flowers to the deck

looking up at the back deck, pre-touring on July 3

July 3

July 3

tour day

pre-tour visit, July 3rd

bouquet, Kristine’s cards, and treats

 

Cool liquid refreshment was so refreshing on such a hot day.  It was a scorcher by beach standards, possibly up into the 90s.

containers on the deck

Brodiaea in deck container

view from the deck

from the deck, Allan (right) taking a photo

This is the photo Allan was taking.

view looking west from next to the deck

looking southwest from the deck (telephoto)

I never find time to just sit on these garden tours, especially the Peninsula tour which always has at least eight gardens.  I know that some folks here just skip and garden or two, but as the administrator of the Facebook page, I need our photos of each one, and also I just cannot bring myself to skip a garden.

southeast corner of the garden at the top of the grassy slope, next to the deck

photo by Kathleen Shaw

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Halfway down the garden from the deck, on the south side, is Kristine’s cutting garden.

cutting garden

pre-tour visit, July 3rd

Kristine said she wished there had been more lilies in bloom.

pre-tour visit, July 3rd

Allan’s photo, the Mozart Chicks viewed from the cutting garden

Allan told me he found out halfway through this garden that his camera was on a “night” setting so he did not get many photos here.

gladiola

cutting garden path

clematis in the cutting garden

pre-tour visit, July 3rd

pre-tour visit, July 3rd

pre-tour visit, July 3, 2015; a second garden area is on the other (west) side of this fence.

Beside the conical tree, one enters the second (west) garden area.

astilbe inside the gate

deer fenced garden in second area (pre tour visit, July 3rd)

rose climbing on deer fence, July 3rd

looking through the deer fence

with my camera lens poked through the fence

a picotee gladiola

that flower that I want

Outside the fence, lavender is unbothered by deer.

July 3rd

looking through the veg patch into the playhouse patio

and from the playhouse path looking north

veg patch, July 3rd

The Lily Pad

Kristine’s grand daughter, Lily, is three, and could not come visit from the east coast this summer because Lily’s mom is expecting a baby soon.  As you can imagine, this has been sad for grandma Kristine.  Thanks to Skype, grandma and granddaughter can communicate daily.  This tea party was set up to Skype to Lily for her birthday.

The Lily Pad

Allan’s photo

a message to Lily

Oh, how I do wish I had a granddaughter named Lily (or Rose, Iris, Violet, Jasmine, Poppy, Willow, Fern…)

The Lily Pad

view west from the Lily Pad

monkey puzzle tree to the west of the Lily Pad

a simple border along the north fence

looking along the north fence toward the house

Kristine’s was a contender for my favourite tour garden because of the driftwood gate on the deer fence and the assortment of colourful plants, especially the lilies.

Next: an inspirational one year old garden.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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17 & 18 July: two evenings to remember

Friday, 17 July 2015

I took the day off to do some weeding in my own garden—which is NOT on the garden tour (having been on in 2012) but which was going to be seen by some gardener friends for the first time.

My night blooming cereus bud looked about the same and I wondered if it would open tonight.

I weeded all day, wanting to get the garden looking passable by evening, and took absolutely no before or after photos.  Debbie, garden writer and photographer of Rainyside fame, came by in the afternoon, bearing some cool plants from her selection at Kingston Henery Hardware, some which I was buying and a couple as lovely presents.

Debbie bearing plants. (Allan’s photo)

a gift of a sophora, a plant I’ve never grown that is sure to be good. .

and a Black Cherry fuchsia for my fuchsia collection. Thanks, Debbie!

She went back to the nearby Salt Hotel, where the Visitor’s Bureau was putting her up for the tour, and then returned in the evening to share a campfire with us, and with Dave and Melissa (Sea Star Landscape Maintenance). The garden, while not exactly weed free, looked passable, and the lilies filled the air with scent.  We had hoped Our Kathleen could join us, as well; she had driven down to her cottage that day and. after mowing her lawn there, she stayed home to conserve energy for garden tour day.

the hips of Rosa moyesii

Debbie making a garden video (Allan’s photo)

Melissa and Dave at the campfire

Allan’s photo

We were treated to an excellent sunset. (Allan’s photo)

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Debbie and Allan

Well after dark, Melissa and Dave departed, as they live north of Oysterville, about forty minutes away.  Debbie was outside the front door of our house when she heard me yell, “Oh my GOD!” and she told me later she feared my house was on fire.  But no…I had seen this:

Allan’s photo

The night blooming cereus had opened.  I felt so bad that Melissa and Dave had left, that I had not remembered to check the flower (because I was having so much fun having campfire company).  Melissa told me later they might have come back if I had texted them.  My brain did not work that fast.

  

Above: The plant starts at the left, throws stems up to the ceiling and down, with the flower at the right. 

Debbie, Allan and I admired the flower from all angles and I told the story of how the plant had bloomed only once before for me, in 2003, shortly after Robert had moved out.  That night, I sent an email to a Seattle-based email list of about 200 imaginary friends, saying “My night blooming cereus is blooming, and no one is here to see it.”  One of the listmembers replied, “Yes there is; you are there to see it.”  That was a profound moment for me.

If I took better care of my houseplants, it might bloom more than once every 12 years.  It does like to be potbound, and to not be overwatered.  I think the trick to more flowers might be to give it a mild dose of fertilizer next spring.

Here is a time lapse video of a night blooming cereus flower.  I said to Allan if we had been indoors, we could have seen it.  He pointed out it COULD have happened when we were in Portland at the Hardy Plant weekend.

I stayed in the living room till 2 AM as the scent of the flower, a subtle but intoxicating fragrance, slowly filled the entire room.

Astute reader Sue says, in a comment: “Your cactus is an Epiphyllum, probably the species Epiphyllum oxypetalum. While night blooming, it’s not a cereus, which is a different genus. The flowers do look a lot alike, but cereus are columnar, and grow upright, while Epiphyllums are epiphytes, and grow hanging down from trees. Another common name for this is Queen of the Night.”

Tomorrow: garden tour day!  Have a look at a video that Debbie Teashon made of the last couple of years of tours, imbedded in her article about the anticipation of this year’s tour.

I’ll be making a no-doubt lengthy blog posts about each garden, but for now I’ll skip ahead to tomorrow evening’s après-tour dinner.

Saturday, 18 July 2015

Ilwaco, after the garden tour

After the garden tour, we had to do a quick watering job at the port because I felt one bed with some new plants needed a splash, and I was right.  Allan walked to the other side of the building to get a few photos of the last minutes of the day’s Saturday Market.

Oliver’s pickled garlic and more

vehicles appear on the usually pedestrian only Waterfront Way to pack up the market booths.

Allan said “These turtles are going home.”

watering duty: easy when the adjacent merchants lets us use their hose.  (Thanks, Bruce and Wendi Peterson!)

I collapsed at home for an hour in my easy chair.  I kept thinking I should get up and do some watering at home.  The heat had enervated me.  Seaside Pam came by to wait with us for dinnertime, and as we walked round the garden, I saw some plants wilting.  She reminded me that this is what plants do to protect themselves in heat, and indeed, the next morning they were upright again.

Pam and me waiting in the shade for dinnertime (Allan’s photo)

our garden tour dinner at The Depot Restaurant

Debbie, Todd, Our Kathleen, Dave and Melissa, and Pam Fleming of Seaside joined us for dinner. We wanted Ed Strange as well, but he was, strangely, tired from a day of garden touring in the heat and then taking my dog-nephew Jackson to the beach.  I invited Garden Tour Nancy to at least come take a bow, but she had another dinner engagement.

When we arrived at our table on the outdoor deck, we found that Todd had decorated it with two lavish bouquets of fragrant sweet peas.

Allan’s photo

sweet peas from Todd’s garden

Melissa and Dave, Sea Star Landscape Maintenance

Our Kathleen

Kathleen’s calamari

carne asada appetizer

Pam with the Depot’s renowned clam chowder (Allan’s photo)

my salmon special

Allan’s filet mignon with mashers

Melissa’s Kowloon Duck (Pan roasted Duck Breast simmered in Orange Supremes and Brandy Glaze Sliced and presented on Charred Pineapple Sticky Rice)

Everyone had a scrumptious dinner, even if I did not get photos of every dish….

digging in (Allan’s photo)

and peach cobbler for dessert!

and flourless chocolate torte (Todd’s dessert, Allan’s photo)

After dinner, Todd disappeared for a few minutes and returned with this stack of boxes.

Allan’s photo

He said that it was a tradition to have door prizes.  Allan and I started laughing, knowing that this was a reference to the infamous door prize distribution at the Hardy Plant weekend last month, where Allan and Todd each won a special and cool plant and I won… ten zinc plant labels.  There were five prizes tonight, three in boxes and the other two being the sweet pea bouquets.  Each couple only got to choose and share one prize.

Melissa and Dave picked first and got…plant tags!  She said she needed plant tags, and since then has asked me where she could get more just like them.

Debbie and Melissa

tags!

Dave and Melissa knew the door prize story.  Pam didn’t, so she was mystified when she chose the package that Todd said was from his brother’s art gallery and got paint brush handles suitable for … plant tags!

She didn’t know Eric is a nationally famous water colorist so the prize was extra mystifying till I managed to explain it fully in an email a couple of days later.  (She described showing the handles to her husband and going “???”.)

Allan’s photo

I picked next.  While there’s no way the prizes could have been rigged, I was the lucky one this time who got a very cool plant.

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo: Fuchsia procumbens!

Debbie and Kathleen each got to take away a glass vase of the sweet peas that had filled the deck with fragrance to the point that our server said how much she had enjoyed being reminded of her grandma’s garden.

Allan said later that this was one of the special evenings that a person will remember for their whole lives.  We didn’t want the evening to end but we departed when we had been the last ones on the deck for awhile.  Then we found there were still two tables in the dining room, so we could have stayed longer.

Continuing our conversation out on the street (Allan’s photo)

In the last few months, we have been gifted with wonderful new gardening friends, Todd, Melissa and Dave, all of whom relocated or returned to the Peninsula. In the last year, we’ve had the pleasure of Our Kathleen’s twice a month visits now that she has a beach cabin, and the annual garden tour now brings us visits from Debbie and from Pam.  While Pam no longer is a partner in Back Alley Gardens nursery, that place enabled us to get to know her personally.  That has been such a treat for me as I had always deeply admired her work in the Seaside, Oregon public gardens.

I don’t know why we have gotten so lucky in friends all of a sudden.  It’s something to rejoice in and I’m feeling all sentimental about it as I write this.

Next up:  Nine posts about the Music in the Gardens Tour, followed by a day of spontaneous garden touring in Astoria, closely followed (after a bit of work) by Pam’s Seaside garden tour and (after a bit more work) by the Peninsula Edible Garden Tour.

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16 July: from watering rounds to watering hole

Thursday, 16 July 2015

Finally pulled the poppy from the front of post office garden. If the person who wanted to collect seeds hasn’t…sorry. I was tired of looking at it.

Post Office garden

The Depot Restaurant

We want the Depot to look extra good because we are having an apres-tour dinner there on Saturday.  (Turns out I don’t think anyone looked past all the parked cars to the garden that evening!)

the usual watering and weeding and deadheading

new lily this year

Dierama

Dierama

Long Beach

Of course, Long Beach has to look extra nice when people on the way from one garden to another are driving past.

welcome sign

deadheading the Long Beach welcome sign

I used godetia only one the end because it does not last all summer.

Bolstadt beach approach

Garden Tour weekend is also the Sandsations contest on the beach and, below, by the boardwalk.

These sculptures will be up for several days; the others are between tides on the beach.

another planter with armeria (sea thrift) torn out and left to die. This is human, not deer, damage.

The beach approach planters are sooooo dry since we said we are not going to haul bucket water to them anymore.  They get water sometimes by the city water truck, but not enough.  I’ll think about this more…next year.  I certainly intend to plant more santolinas which seem to thrive despite the drought.

a santolina still looking mighty fine

downtown

We watered and groomed all the planters.

One of the dumbest things I did was plant Erysimums in the mid-front of the big Lewis and Clark Square planter.  I think they are blocking a sprinkler head from shooting water to the back of the planter.

The Erysimum have gone old and tired and I intend to replace them with something shorter soon.

There is also a big blank space where someone pulled out a nice Eryngium and left it to dry up and die.

I am loving the pilotus and wish I could acquire more every year…what a cute annual it is.

one of the Basket Case baskets by the police station

Salvia viridis

planter watering

Allan’s photo

my favourite planter this year

agastache and cosmos

Fifth Street Park

Here Sanguisorba ‘Dali Marble’ has good foliage because of plenty of water.

Allan’s photo: planter by Fifth Street Park (east side) with Agyranthemum ‘Butterfly’

Allan’s photo: All day long, folk take pictures of each other in front of the “World’s Largest Frying Pan” in Fifth Street Park.

Allan’s photo by Fifth Street Park

Ilwaco

Ilwaco gardens had to look good because our friend, garden writer Debbie Teashon, would be staying at Salt Hotel during the tour!

Allan watered the street trees and planters while I did some weeding, mostly the pulling of horsetail, at the boatyard garden.

by the boatyard, Allan’s photos while he filled the water tank

the water trailer for watering street trees and planters. It’s too slow of a process to also water the port with this equipment.

Me chatting with some boat guys while watering.

I love this one long new hose because it enables me to water part of the garden from OUTSIDE the fence instead of behind it.

Allan found the deer are eating nasturtiums in the planter by the Portside Café.

volunteer dog daisies, Lake Street and First. Deer don’t bother them.

a skateboarder “legally on the phone” says Allan. (In this state you cannot drive and talk on your mobile.)

Julez heading down to Salt Hotel

Planter by Queen La De Da’s; Jenna gives it extra water, and deer don’t stroll this street as much so the nasturtiums are monstrous.

near Dr Bell’s clinic, on Spruce. Allan says this planter was a bit nibbled.

nasturtiums uneaten by the new Buoy 10 Café at First and Spruce

I see that the deer are, for the first time, having an impact on the planters in Ilwaco and I am going to have to rethink my planting scheme and leave out most of the nasturtiums next year.

As I finished my weeding: boatyard garden, looking north

And then at last it was time for our dinner with friends Melissa and Dave at

The Cove Restaurant

Sondra’s garden

elephant garlic

at The Cove

Good company: plantspeople (Allan’s photo)

strawberry salad

Allan’s lomo saltado (which he had already ketchuped)

veg stir fry with chicken

noodle bowl

noodle bowl and Dave’s shirt

my delicious ahi tuna

after dinner: Allan’s photo

What a lovely evening.

At home:  I had just finished a memoir by my latest favourite author:

I can particularly relate to this passage:

Bonus photo, sent to me by Jo Fitzsimmons of her garden:

She says she’s loving the snapdragons. Foreground: Salvia viridis in pink and white. Right: Nicotiana langsdorfii

 

 

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15 July: south to north and back again

Wednesday, 15 July 2015

Before leaving home, I noticed two things in particular:

My night blooming cereus had a bud! The first one since 2003!

And something I’ve noticed before: No matter how much I water it, my Davidia involucrata ‘Sonoma’ always looks kind of…thirsty…and not very attractive.

At our post office garden.  (We watered)

Post Office garden

Post Office overview

Red Barn Arena

some weeding and watering

Diane’s Garden

grooming along the roadside garden

 

Penstemon ‘Sour Grapes’

Penstemon

Stipa gigantea

Stipa seedlings! I could put one on the other side of the driveway!

Other side of driveway will get a stipa seedling this fall.

Stipa will go right here! (empty spot)

Diane and Larry’s driveway garden

detail: Allium albopilosum and Perovskia (Russian sage)

Allium albopilosum and schubertii

Lavatera ‘Barnsley’ and blueberries

Blueberries packed with delicious fruit. Yes, I had a few.

Vaccinium ‘Pink Lemonade’ (pink blueberries!)

Golden Sands Assisted Living

Golden Sands

In the courtyard: a new patio set for sitting and enjoying the garden

Allan said “They need an assembler.”  He used to assemble furniture and exercise equipment and bikes for Fred Meyer stores and he can put things together right quick. But we were there to garden, not assemble.

SE quadrant

my favourite kind of dahlia

I like the precise style of pom pom dahlias.  Our former client Laurie said they were so uptight that she just wanted to smack them; she liked the blowsier kinds.

Northeast quadrant

dahlias

I sure wish my mom was alive to see these.

dahlias

astilbe

Almost all the plants in this garden were donated by us, or given to us by friends for the garden, except for a few special plants that I bought on the limited budget and some that my mom bought during the year she lived there.

I bet all the glads were bought by my mom; she loved them.

I did use the budget this year for cosmos and agastaches.

NW quadrant

SW quadrant

If you lived at Golden Sands, what would you put on the small shelf outside your room?

Marilyn’s Garden

all the way up in lower Surfside

Surfside is west of Oysterville

looking south on the path

same lily as at post office

looking north on path

tall miscanthus now completely hiding the garage to the west

Marilyn;s daughter Nancy tells me they are loving the poppies this year.

That remind me!  Here are some photos that Nancy herself took in the garden in June of this year.

This is definitely a deer friendly garden.

Alliums

I spent my time mostly weeding the gravel path. It was HOT work.

A sweet friend appeared to keep me company.

He likes the catmint. (Nepeta, not catNIP but cats still love it.)

 

hydrangea in the cool shade on north side

poppies by the driveway

poppy

and more poppies

Bay Avenue Art Gallery

Bay Avenue Gallery is right across the street from Adelaide’s Books.

We stopped in at Bay Avenue Gallery to have a gander at the plein air art that was painted by local artists for the upcoming garden tour (which happened on July 18th and will soon be featured in this blog.)

outside the front door

garden art, including the rooster of one of the gardens (more on this on garden tour day)

Henry the rooster

garden art

garden art by Eric Wiegardt

I just had a funny thought.  Now that Eric’s brother Todd has moved here, and taken over the Wiegardt Gallery garden, and gone to the Hardy Plant weekend with us, we think of Eric as Todd’s brother instead of thinking of Todd as Eric’s brother. 😉

more garden art by Bette Lu Krause

some cool non-garden art by our friend Joe Chasse (Allan’s photo)

our good friend Joe

Klipsan Beach Cottages

our good friend Bella

Bella is lying in front of a patch of pulmonaria, common name spotted dog, so it would be more amusing if she were a dalmation.

It was so hot that Mary and I had to take a rest in the shade (Allan’s photo)

hosta by the pond garden

fuchsia

outside the deer fence

the lawn bed

dierama in the fenced garden

garage wall

looking southwest in the fenced garden

sweet peas

agapanthus

Hydrangea ‘Izu No Hana’ (flower of Izu) from eastern coast of Japan’s Izu Peninsula

Anchorage Cottages

Anchorage Cottages: It’s a short walk through beach pines and dunes to the beach.

Melianthus major in the center courtyard

center courtyard

Rose ‘Zepherine Drouhin’

sweet peas in the office courtyard

best sweet peas at any job this year (except for maybe Andersen’s RV Park…)

sweet pea detail

Allan’s photo

Calibrachoa ‘Coralberry Punch’, I like the odd colour

I made the number 6 show up again (Allan’s photo)

I trimmed back viburnum and flowering quince foliage that was hiding these benches (taken with the camera known as ‘Spot’)

And that was that for work.  Wednesday has turned into our furthest-reaching work day so you can see why we couldn’t do a two day post this time.  (We are trying to catch up to garden tour time!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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13-14 July: hard work and radio

doubling up on some entries so we can get back to garden tours!

Monday, 13 July 2015

Every day but Sunday: a stop at the post office because we don’t get home mail delivery.

our volunteer garden and its monster leaning lily

Basket Case Greenhouse

The Basket Case closed for the season on Sunday.  We stopped by to get some sale perennials, mainly to help out by leaving them fewer plants to water.

Allan’s photo: Shadow, as usual, was in love with our van (which used to be “his”).

Allan’s photo

Long Beach 

Watering the Long Beach street trees and planters was the first order of the day.

Wooden Horse gift shop: that star was $125. We might be in the wrong business.

The Hungry Harbor with Basket Case hanging basket

white nigella (love in a mist) in Fifth Street Park

my audience while doing a bit of weeding in Fifth Street Park

Eryngium ‘Jade Frost’ in Fifth Street Park (with sanguisorba and Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ and Nicotiana langsdorfii)

While watering the planter outside the Herb ‘N Legend Smoke Shop, I saw my good friend Bill Clearman working on the entryway.

Our Bill, mixing some goop.

in a planter: Geranium ‘Rozanne’ with bee

Coreopsis ‘Star Cluster’

The city crew was out working hard, too.

I’m pleased with this planter, that was all white yarrow last year.  (The yarrow had been planted by a volunteer and was hard to get rid of.)

white tigridia

white catananche (Cupid’s dart) under a street tree

I like this catananche a lot.

Lilies on the east side of Fifth Street Park

Gunnera in Fifth Street Park (SE quadrant)

yellow tigridia (Mexican shell flower)

Veterans Field…I must find time to deadhead that Salvia ‘May Night’ soon

Veterans Field with Gaura ‘So White’

Catananche caerulea in Veterans Field

Eryngium ‘Sapphire Blue’ in Veterans Field

Ilwaco 

With Long Beach done, Allan watered the Ilwaco planters and street trees while I watered and weeded at the boatyard garden.  While we were at our house getting the battery for the water trailer, Ed Strange pulled up behind us with my nephew, Jackson.

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

I long to pull all the poppies…but am letting them go to seed.

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo: A bee snoozing under a daisy petal

Allan’s photo: The darn deer are nibbling the nasturtiums in some of the Ilwaco planters.

Allan’s photos: Don and Jenna were painting at Queen La De Da’s

Allan’s photo: the planter by the fire station

While I chose the plants, Allan is taking care of the Ilwaco planters pretty much all by himself this year and is doing an excellent job of watering and grooming them.

Tuesday, 14 July 2015

I had to get up at 8 AM to go across the river with Garden Tour Nancy for the Diggin’ In the Dirt radio show to promote the upcoming Music in the Gardens Tour.  Morning people will laugh, but that is awfully hard for me.  Allan went back to sleep and woke up at 9:30 to listen to the show.

We’d left extra time for stopping for work being done on the Astoria Megler bridge.

workers way up on the tippy top!!!

KMUN community radio in Astoria

the view over buildings to the Columbia River

My job was to describe the tour gardens, and Nancy’s was to talk about the music and other tour particulars.  I think it went well. Pam Fleming, our friend and the city gardener for Seaside, Oregon, joined us to promote her tour of the Seaside city gardens, which will take place on July 26th.

After the show, we went to breakfast at the Blue Scorcher.  Getting to have breakfast with Pam, whom we do not see often enough, was one of my big motivations for getting up so early.

on the way: poppies

a courtyard

Pam and Nancy outside the Blue Scorcher

Blue Scorcher planter

at the door of the Blue Scorcher

I bypassed delicious treats…

…in favour of a breakfast burrito, and Pam got the quiche.

Blue Scorcher dining

at our table

breakfast burrito

delicious quiche, made sweet by cabbage (we traded bites)

From this delightful (although sleepy) morning, I went home and then to the horror of weeding…

The Long Beach beach approach garden

before…our goal was to get two sections done (out of 13)

before

Allan’s photo

It is such a tough job in this drought.  The weeds are stuck in so firmly.  The best parts of the afternoon:  When a passerby reminisced about her grandma making rose hip jelly, and how it smelled of roses.  And when the dial a ride bus stopped next to us and the doors opened and I said “Have you come to take us away?” and the driver said “The best thing Long Beach ever did for its gardens in town and out here was to hire you two!”  And when a woman asked “Are they edible?” when she was already nibbling on a rose hip.  (Good thing they are).  And when our neighbour Jared walked by with my good dog friend, Rudder.

Allan’s photo: Rudder! (the big black dog, the other one is Yarrow)

This is about as good as we are getting it done.

Allan’s photo: what we are up against

Allan’s photo

after

after

Allan’s photo: I resorted to desperate measures.

the parts where I just got fed up and used the strimmer.

Ilwaco

On the way home, we drove by the port to see if any plants needed watering.  What did I spy but a fingerblighter, a woman in person, caught in the act, picking herself a bouquet of Eryngium ‘Sapphire Blue’!

Allan’s photo: caught in the act

She was caught red handed as we pulled our van up next to her, and she had the grace to look mortified when I told her to stop.  She said she was sorry.  She said that the Eryngium was “just so unusual.”  Allan said it was an expensive plant.  I said it only blooms once, and that we work hard on the gardens and she was lessening them.  She asked if there was some way we could replant the flower.  (!!!)  I said no there was not. She said “I blame my grandmother because she always picked flowers and I got it from her.”  I could not think fast enough to say that MY grandmother taught me to NOT pick flowers from anyone’s garden, public or private.  As she bicycled away, I felt sorry for her and called “It was your bad luck that we happened to be driving by.”

or, rather, to protect the guilty (Allan’s photo)

a soul-soothing view

watering at Time Enough Books

 

 

 

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10-12 July: 3 days off

a three day post so we can get back to garden touring!

Friday, 10 July 2015

We certainly are becoming slackers with having so many fewer jobs.  I’d been waiting all week to plant my ladies in waiting.

These are Allan’s ladies in waiting.

and mine

and more of mine

Speaking of new plants, check out how tall my Eccremocarpus scaber, birthday present from Garden Tour Nancy via Annie’s Annuals, has gotten.

Eccremocarpus scaber and honeysuckle

I meant to do the planting in the back garden, but instead picked up a few plants for the front garden and went there instead to the west end which had been full of self seeded poppies.

front garden: room for more

and more room

sweet peas on old crab pot

Planted a eucalyptus as I begin my plan to make the front garden more drought tolerant.

Here’s the plant Allan won at the Hardy Plant Study Weekend as a door prize. I stole it from him.

Baptisia ‘Solar Flame’

Baptisia ‘Solar Flame’ from Blooming Junction

I then had a visitor who proved to be a big distraction.

a dog of mystery

This little guy seemed lost, worried, and had no collar.  He’d wander away and then come back.

He seemed happy when he was close by me.

My neighbour Paula drove up and he ran after her truck.  She’s quite a dog person, so since he seemed not traffic savvy, she took him with her on an errand to Salt Hotel and then to her local shop (a crafty design shop she is opening downtown; she’s a carpenter and interior designer and refurbisher of cool vintage stuff, and has worked on the Salt Hotel).  I was then able to get back to planting.

(It turned out later that the dog belonged to a neighbour just three doors down.  I’d only met him once, and though I thought he might be hers, I was not sure.  She was grateful to us for rescuing him, and plans to work on reinforcing her fence where the little rascal dug out.)