Tuesday, 29 March 2016
I had the strongest urge to get another beach approach section done. However, the boatyard garden was the plan for the day and I decided to stick to that. Both are jobs that are hellish in rain or wind. We planted some seeds at the Community Building garden first, after Allan cut back an ailing shrub hard.
boatyard garden
We overheard some boat guys talking, while two sat and watched one work. “How old is Steve?” “Oh, he’s 60 or 61.” “Still young then!”
As we were finishing the long section north of the gate, I saw a woman bent over at the far end. I had been just about to sit in the van, eat my sandwich and rest my knee. Allan went to see what she was doing and I followed as fast as I could hobble. This middle aged woman, also hobbling, was digging up poppy plants and bulbs out of the boat yard garden and she also had flowering bulbs she had dug up out of the Howerton Avenue gardens around the corner! By the time I limped up, Allan had told her to replant the poppies. I pointed to the flowers in her bag and she said “Those are mine.” That was a complete crock because I knew they were the flowers of Muscari ‘Ocean Magic’, which is growing around the corner, mail ordered and planted by us. When she lied to my face I was simply speechless and let her walk away.
I so understand plant lust. I also remember years of poverty in my 20s, and again one year of paying off medical bills in my late 40s, when my plant budget for the entire year was $20.00. Yes, $20.00. And did I go swiping plants out of public gardens? I did NOT. The worse things I ever did was take a cutting off of a rosemary plant growing in someone’s parking strip, when I was 25! Sometimes I get the argument “But it’s a public garden!” And how does that translate into stealing plants for one’s own PRIVATE garden? I have a feeling this person is local and may be a continuing problem this year, as other individuals who have moved on have been plant thief problems in past years.
I volunteered a lot of time to create the boatyard garden years ago, before it became a paid job, and nowadays we volunteer our time and expenses at the post office garden. Public gardens are not there as a supply source for people’s owns gardens, as most of us know.
Ironically, she had been filching plants in the area right by this sign.
I found more muscari bulbs dug up and ready to snitch in the area where her depredations had been interrupted, and that entire stretch of garden was pretty much denuded of small seedlings, so this may not have been her first foray into improving her garden. I fear she will dig up not just poppies but something precious of which I may only have one. I also wonder every year why, when I plant dozens of narcissi bulbs along here, I get so few flowers. Hmmm. Sometimes I feel sorry for people when they get busted by us, but not when they lie.
We continued weeding till we reached the south end.
Our weeding job was pretty good but not perfect. The big horsetail are sprouting up so it will need another go-over soon. Last year, I planted a few sweet peas just as a lark when I had leftover seeds. To my surprise, some did well, so I planted more this year, mostly Streamers mix.
While Allan dumped debris, I sat at home for ten minutes. My mission was to make some fertilizer mix for planting. My knee had plagued me so much at the end of the boatyard stint that I had to use my scarf to drag it into the van, like an old dead thing, so Allan had to make the fertilizer mix when he returned.
Next, we replaced some of the old tatty Erysimum ‘Bowles Mauve’ in five of the planters, and counted how many more Erysimums we needed.
We had time to drive north to plant sweet peas at the Anchorage, passing the Long Beach welcome sign on the way.
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Flowers made me forget the Finger Blight incident until Allan brought it up later.
The Anchorage Cottages
On the way back to Ilwaco, we paused at a planter so Allan could take a couple of photos for me.
The four planters I did as a volunteer almost 20 years ago caught the attention of then-city manager Nabiel Shawa (“Magnificent!” he said), who suggested we be hired as city gardeners.
Allan and I decided to have dinner out, again…and along Howerton Ave, I photographed my special Muscari that had been getting filched from earlier today.
We soothed our nerves at
Salt Hotel Pub.
One fun thing about the Salt sandwiches is that you get three “halves”.
The work board is getting back to focusing on the beach approach.
One of these days we have to get to the back corner of Coulter Park.
There are no entries from my mom’s old garden diaries to correspond with today.
The thought that tonight is the premiere of the new Deadliest Catch season kept me going through some painful moments today, and now it is time to watch!
What a naughty lady stealing your flowers! Beautiful tulips. Hope your knee recovered from all hard work
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Thanks, the next day went better knee-wise
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Nice view in the evening. I would have taken a picture of the lady in an obvious way to try to dissuade her from coming back. Look after that knee.
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Very good idea, Mr T. Next time. Yes!
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