29 Feb: several small accomplishments

Monday, 29 February 2016

Rain or shine, I was determined to plant lilies today, and (because the library is closed on Mondays) take some plants to the community building.  Happily, we got started in mild, non-windy, dry weather.

our garden

some “Pam Fleming” grass

Pretty sure we got the above grass, to the left of the photo, from Back Alley Gardens when Pam was the brilliant plant buyer there.  Or, at least, she admired it in my garden.  Whatever it is, it was spectacular the first year, then disappeared for a year, and then all these seedlings came up.  While it may not be very perennial,  it will serve my purpose at the community building.

nearby: gold hypericum underlaid with crocus

one of the peonies I got from MaryBeth

Allan digging out a couple of Fuchsia magellanica (the pale pink one)

Hellebore ‘Golden Sunrise’ from Xera Plants

 

Impatiens omeiana, the silver leafed one that I think I got from Xera, is spreading…

as is this Impatiens omeiana which has finally gotten well established.

Pulmonaria by the bogsy wood

double hellebore

My Smokey

Tulips closed tightly in grey weather

 

Pittosporum ‘Marjorie Channon’ from Debbie Teashon

Lamprocapnos spectabilis ‘Alba’

hellebore

hellebores black and white

one of several dwarf conifers that I cannot name

plants for the community building garden

A thought to remember: I must take a couple of different pulmonarias to the shade garden there!

Ilwaco post office garden still looking dull.

I wonder why my garden looks so much more vibrant, even with bulbs, than this garden?

a bit of colour in our post office garden

Ilwaco Community Building

with grasses and sedums and libertia added

Geranium macrorrhizum (a POLITE spreader) instead of kinnikinnick

Allan’s photos, before, with blackened kinnikinnick

and after

Geranium macrorrhizum around the trees

Most areas still are full of the dreaded quack grass roots.

Those white tough roots that go miles down into the clay soil are one reason I want clumping plants like the sedums, that can be lifted once a year and cleaned up, instead of a groundcover that gets just full of that grass like the kinnikinnick didd.

Allan planted the Fuchsia in a sheltered nook.

We contributed to the community building garden two colours of Geranium macrorrhizum,  some Ranunculus ‘Brazen Hussy’, three kinds of large flowering sedums, Libertia, the grasses, poppy seeds, golden oregano, and the fuchsia.

Diane’s garden

We planted violas and another pot of Stargazer lilies.

Allan’s photo

Narcissi

We had an audience.

Basket Case Greenhouse

Basket Case is not open for the season yet.  Fred will sell bagged soil amendments and early violas by appointment.  We were after ten bags of Gardner and Bloome Soil Building Compost.

Basket Case, Fred and Nancy’s front garden

Golden Sands Assisted Living

on the way, going west on Cranberry Road

At Golden Sands, we planted lilies and a couple of Fuchsia magellanica starts.  The garden still looks so dull.  The Costco lily bulbs are much bigger than the pitifully small Fred Meyer lily bulbs.

NW quadrant

NE quadrant; wish the garden would hurry up.

Also planted a couple of heleniums from bags.  Two that I wanted, Moorheim Beauty and…another one.  Usually I never buy perennial plants in bags from a general store’s garden department, and yet I wanted these.  They looked pretty small and unpromising.

Anchorage Cottages

The Anchorage owners’ meeting is this coming weekend.  We added violas to the containers and detailed the garden.

window box

narcissi

The Anchorage garden has stuff going on!

Maybe the reason the post office and Golden Sands are lacking is because I don’t spend money on the post office garden like I do my own…and Golden Sands has a low plant budget so I don’t add as many cool plants??  And yet I am sure I planted plenty of early tulips and narcissi at the post office.  Are they being picked? Are deer browsing early tulips?  I must look closer next time.  Maybe the difference is that my garden and the Anchorage have sheltered microclimates that encourage early flowering.

Anchorage north wall garden

Allan’s photo: a hardy fuchsia went in by the arbor, cut way back so it won’t look wilty for owners’ meeting

Depot Restaurant

Next we applied two bales of Gardner and Bloome at the Depot Restaurant garden.

 Gardner and Bloome for fluffing. (Used to be called Soil Building Compost.)

forgot to take an after photo because THIS started.

Mike’s garden

We were determined to mulch Mike’s garden, because otherwise the heavy bales would have to be stored at home and then reloaded.

Mike’s garden, front path

before

after

The sky grew dark as dusk and we finished in a downpour.

cold and unpleasant

big drops of rain

at home

two mulching jobs erased from the work board!

I am pretty sure we will have tomorrow off, as this came to me via email, Facebook, and my weather apps:

HIGH WIND WARNING:

SOUTH WASHINGTON COAST
Areas Affected:
South Washington Coast
Effective: Mon 1:05 pm Updated: Mon 5:52 pm Urgency: Expected
Expires: Tue 4:00 pm Severity: Severe Certainty: Likely

Details:

.A STRONG PACIFIC FRONT WILL PRODUCE STRONG WINDS ALONG THE SOUTH
WASHINGTON AND NORTH OREGON COASTS AND THE EXPOSED AREAS OF THE
ADJACENT COASTAL MOUNTAINS ON TUESDAY…WITH QUITE WINDY
CONDITIONS INLAND.
…HIGH WIND WATCH UPGRADED TO HIGH WIND WARNING…IN EFFECT FROM
6 AM TO 4 PM PST TUESDAY FOR THE SOUTH WASHINGTON AND NORTH AND
CENTRAL OREGON COASTS…
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN PORTLAND HAS ISSUED A HIGH WIND
WARNING…WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 6 AM TO 4 PM PST TUESDAY.
* WINDS: BEACHES AND HEADLANDS…SOUTH WIND 30 TO 40 MPH WITH
GUSTS 60 TO 70 MPH. COASTAL COMMUNITIES…SOUTH WIND 25 TO 35
MPH WITH GUSTS 50 TO 60 MPH.
* TIMING: WINDS WILL INCREASE FAIRLY EARLY TUESDAY MORNING AND
CONTINUE THROUGH A GOOD PART OF THE AFTERNOON.
* LOCATIONS INCLUDE: ASTORIA…TILLAMOOK…LINCOLN CITY…
NEWPORT…FLORENCE…RAYMOND…LONG BEACH…OCEAN PARK.
* IMPACTS: WINDS WILL LIKELY CAUSE TRAVEL DIFFICULTIES ON ROADS
SUCH AS HIGHWAY 101 ALONG THE COAST…AS WELL AS FOR HIGH
PROFILE VEHICLES SUCH AS TRUCKS AND VEHICLES PULLING TRAILERS.
THE WINDS MAY ALSO CAUSE TREE DAMAGE AND LOCAL POWER
DISRUPTIONS.

Information:

A HIGH WIND WARNING MEANS A HAZARDOUS HIGH WIND EVENT IS EXPECTED
OR OCCURRING. SUSTAINED WIND SPEEDS OF AT LEAST 40 MPH OR GUSTS
OF 58 MPH OR MORE CAN LEAD TO PROPERTY DAMAGE.

That’s a long storm to go all the way from Ocean Park (north of Long Beach) to Florence.

Newport is the location of the beloved Sylvia Beach Hotel which will surely be creaking in the wind.