3 Nov: fall clean up

Tuesday, 3 November 2015

Wanting to get a head start on some fall clean up before the bulbs arrive toward the end of this week, I proposed cutting back some more from Fifth Street Park, since we had to dump yesterday’s third load of Long Beach debris.  On the way, I threw in a few cosmos and other plant stalks from the Ilwaco post office.

post office planter and garden

We cut down the Helianthus ‘Lemon Queen’ and weeded the back corner.

Long Beach: Fifth Street Park

I had only intended to pull a couple of cosmos and clip a couple of rose canes.  Then I got inspired to clip a whole lot of Dorothy Perkins rose on the fence in front of Captain Bob’s Chowder, and meanwhile asked Allan to clip back an unattractive ornamental grass on the southeast corner of the park.

Allan’s photos: before

after

before

after

 There is no before photo of the rose project as I decided to do it after I had waded into the garden to pull the cosmos.

Here it is from July 9th of this year.

with the rose trimmed back…

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo, before

after, with one less mildewy rose bush to poke canes out into the driveway

Dorothy Perkins is a mildewy unimpressive rose.  On the other side of the park, we have ‘Super Dorothy’ which is disease resistant and blooms much more profusely.  In fact, it is blooming again after Allan gave it a hard pruning in late summer.

Rose ‘Super Dorothy’ today

Two out of the four blooming narcissi in the park. That is peculiar.

Allan with a big load of thorny debris at City Works.

Dragging it out with a steel rake is an effective way to deal with rose canes.

On the way to Jo’s, we got some espresso at The Great Escape drive through and admired their miniature hay bale (from Joanne’s Fabrics in Astoria).

cute, eh?

Jo’s garden

I had hoped to get Jo’s garden all cleaned up today.  She likes everything cut back hard for the winter.  I had a memory that one day would not be enough, and after spending an extra amount of time in Long Beach, I was even more doubtful that we could get it all done today.  Indeed, we did not.  Allan made a dump run with a full load at 3:30 while I kept weeding and trimming and when he returned we both worked till sunset.

entry 1:17 PM

When I pulled the plants from the window boxes, I disturbed the home of snails.

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

5:04 PM

entry garden, 1:17 PM

5:04 PM (not quite done)

We didn’t get the Japanese anemones cut back.

1:17 PM

5:04 PM

center courtyard 1:17 PM

5:04 PM (planted some Chelone, pink turtlehead, in one corner!);  needs more weeding

NW garden, 1:17 PM

5:04 PM: needs a tiny bit more trimming

west garden 1:17 PM

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo: It is really tricky to not cut the skinny sprinkler tubes.

Allan’s photo, after

5:04 PM: needs just a bit more whacking along the porch side

Allan’s photo: 240 pounds offloaded at the dump

So while the day was productive, we will need to go back to Jo’s for an hour or two tomorrow.

at home

I love the long dark evenings after daylight savings time begins.

in the evening….