25 April: boating to Baby Island

Monday, 25 April 2016

Allan’s day

Monday was sunny, windy, and had an incoming tide all afternoon. A good sailing day I opined. Skyler didn’t need anything that couldn’t wait, our friends at Sea Star Gardening were working hard pruning a hedge two doors down. I checked and they didn’t need to borrow a ladder or gas or oil, it’s a lazy 1 PM.  Off I went to:

only 15 minutes from Ilwaco

There is a trail and many things to see if you visit their FB page here

Daydreamily I unloaded the boat wrong, breaking off the rudder, but the manufacture anticipated this by including spare break-away pins. All I had to do was look friendly/busy while I repaired it in front of some tourists. We do these things to be the local color sometimes.

I piled everything in

Here is the 25 mph curve. There is one other rig with a boat trailer. It looks to be a quiet day on the bay.

fishermen at work

leaving their wake to splash through

The plan was to see how far I could go around the south end of Long Island, or maybe hug the coast and head south into the wind.

The power or paddle boat route to Baby Island is about two miles.

The crooked sailboat route adds about a mile.

The wind was brisk so I stayed along the coast highway. Baby Island kept getting closer so I went for it.

The water is more calm around the spit on the left.

Here is an 8 second  YouTube video of the sound of the beach

landing on a deserted island

 

On the beach were plenty of  little sea beans. We’ve had them sometimes at the Cove and the Depot. They’re salty and lightly crunchy.

calm water and a rope, just to be sure. It’s only 4:20 and there is time to hike the whole  island.

a little bit of beach clean up

I think that is an old bird nest

silverleaf growing on the beach

a fungi about a foot across

the island’s interior is steep and heavily grown over

According to the book: ‘Coast Country: A History of Southwest Washington’, “…Baby Island is formerly the scene of Indian canoe burials…”

a trillium

a stormy life has shaped this cedar

After a casual ten minute walkaround, a reassuring sight to see.

Baby Island up close, receding

This trip I noticed an inlet into Long Island. It’s across from the Willapa National Wildlife Refuge,  just north of the concrete ramp on the island.

looking back from the interior of the island

There are still pilings from the days when this island was logged. I didn’t spot the campsite (it’s on another inlet), and I still haven’t landed on Long Island. I did spot an elk after wondering what or who was crashing about in the trees.

Here’s the boat landing. In the words of Chuck Yeager: “If you can walk away from a landing, it’s a good landing. If you can use the airplane the next day, it’s an outstanding landing.”

Nobody let me use their airplane the next day.

That night we had fresh sea beans, Skyler’s favourite vegetable, with dinner

Almost eight miles an hour sometimes…pretty fun!

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25 April: virtuous weeding

Monday, 25 April 2016

Fortunately, a three day weekend enabled me to make up for yesterday’s all-reading day by some weeding on the west side of the back garden.  I did allow myself to be distracted by Dave and Mel working on the hedge just two doors down.

two doors down: Dave and Melissa (Sea Star Gardening) are going to tackle this hedge.

Dave pruning (Allan’s photo)

Melissa weeding (Allan’s photo)

progress (Allan’s photo); the hedge goes all the way round the back of this lot, which is as long as ours.

west side front garden

west side back garden, my target area

more of the target area

admiring Allan’s fence work from yesterday, from the inside of the garden.

and the nicely mown lawn

I managed to get completely distracted from my goal and weeded down the west side bed instead:

I could not get further distracted into weeding the south end of the garden because a brisk wind was making the alder grove emit ominous cracking sounds on occasion.

Melissa asked what the golden Cistus was in the side bed above.  Fortunately, I was able to unearth the tag.

Cistus ‘Mickie’ from Terra Nova

She also admired another young shrub of mine.  It took me two hours to remember the name, which finally popped into my head.

Fremontodendron

In the early evening, Dave and Mel knocked off the pruning and weeding job of theirs and we went down to Salt for a late lunch…without Allan, who had, at my urging, gone sailing on the rather windy day.

our view from Salt Pub

a mojito, tart and limey and minty, maybe a new favourite drink

We each had the tuna melt.

After some pleasant lingering, Mel and Dave left for their home at the north end of the peninsula and I simply forced myself to weed for another hour.  The chilly wind was more conducive to going indoors.

Smokey kept me company.

back garden

These tulips have been blooming for weeks.

west bed

I had done fairly well in my target area.

less weedy for sure

evening glow

very late blooming tulips…Might be T. ‘Fantasy’

front garden thickening up

front garden

Tulip ‘Flaming Spring Green’

Tulips ‘Green Wave’, ‘Green Star’, ‘Formosa’

Next post:  Allan’s boating day.

preview from Allan’s boating day

Tomorrow, we begin four days of work begin to get the towns ready for next weekend’s annual parades.

1995 (age 71):

April 25:  Another wasted day except:  Moved planted pots of Forest Farm plants out of greenhouse to make room for begonias.  I’ll have to cover them with something as it’s supposed to get close to freezing tonight.

1997 (age 73):

April 25: 1:00-4:30  Planted the rest of the new strawberries.  Then I dug the plants between the 2 Tristar rows and trimmed them so now I have 4 trays of Tristars to plant.  I’m going to plant the small ones in one of my square trays.

1998 (age 74):

April 25:  I slept till 11:00.  I worked out about 2 1/2 hours.  I tried to put new bulbs in shop light but it fell out twice so I gave up.  I finished transplanting the tomato seedlings (at least I thought I did).  After I put everything away I saw another tray under the light near the freezer.  Some of the plants I potted were small but I have so many I potted them, too.  The next job is the begonias!

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24 April: at home

Sunday, 24 April 2016

I was thrilled to wake to the sound of the predicted rain, meaning a day of reading book two of the Cazelet Chronicle.  I set aside Love All because I simply could not wait to read Marking Time, both by Elizabeth Jane Howard.

It was hard to put down Love All as one of the characters is a garden designer of about my age.  From Love All:

“[Gardeners] don’t come cheap, but if they’re good, they’ll make all the difference.”  !!

I had been so absorbed recently in the first of the Cazelet Chronicle that I simply had to start the second book.

But wait….shortly after I settled in with Marking Time the sun came out.  NOOO.

Brightness outside, interfering with reading bliss.

Although plagued with gardening guilt, I did stay in to read the entire book, after thinking about which I would rather have done, weeding or reading, if it were my last day on earth.

The three cats agreed and also stayed in.  Calvin is on the back of the chair and Frosty is by the cat door.

Just one sight from the kitchen window drew me briefly outside:

a welcome mat of fallen rhododendron flowers by Allan’s shed

Fatsia japonica ‘Spider’s Web’

mermaid birdbath

Acanthus ‘Hollard’s Gold’ and hellebores almost over

in Allan’s thoroughly weeded garden

Within less than five minutes, I had returned to my book.

From Marking Time

Marking Time is set in the time of the London Blitz.  If I believed in reincarnation (my favourite afterlife possibility), I would be convinced that I had lived during the Blitz because everything about that time resonates with me when I read a novel or see a film set during that era.  I read up on it a bit more online whilst reading the novel and learned something new to me:  German planes drifted off course while intending to bomb a Royal Air Force site and accidentally bombed civilian London.  The next day, Churchill sent bombers to Berlin in retaliation.  Germany then focused its bombing runs on English cities.  In a perverse way, this actually helped the British war effort because it gave the Air Force time that it desperately needed to repair its severely damaged air fields and it took the brunt of Germany’s bombs away from what was left of English war planes.

“Beginning on September 7, 1940, and for a total of 57 consecutive nights, London was bombed. The decision to wage a massive bombing campaign against London and other English cities would prove to be one of the most fateful of the war. Up to that point, the Luftwaffe had targeted Royal Air Force airfields and support installations and had nearly destroyed the entire British air defense system. Switching to an all-out attack on British cities gave RAF Fighter Command a desperately needed break and the opportunity to rebuild damaged airfields, train new pilots and repair aircraft. “It was,” Churchill later wrote, “therefore with a sense of relief that Fighter Command felt the German attack turn on to London…””  (from The History Place)

For whatever reason, it particularly moves me to read about it.  I recommend the series The 1940s House to get a feeling of what it was like to live in England during those years.

While I had me nose in a book, Allan was absent from the house and I could hear the lawnmower chugging along.  Later, he showed me photos of the other big project he had accomplished:

progress from last week (viewed from Nora’s back yard)

today!

before

after

He made cheese toasties to keep my strength up (fortified with some bacon jam given us yesterday by Our Kathleen).

We unpacked yesterday’s door prize of dog treats to give to Dave and Melissa, and gave our cats the two toys.

Frosty looks less than thrilled.

I finished Marking Time and have made an interlibrary loan request for the third book, Confusion. Our day closed with two more episodes of Love in a Cold Climate, keeping with the historical English theme as it is set in the 1930s.

1995 (age 71):

April 24:  Planted the 4 bags of red and yellow onion sets 4 rows east of path and the rest in rows in asparagus patch.  In the fall till the asparagus bed and next year plant veggies in that area.  Started planting the new begonia tubers in “window” boxes and pots.  [The quotations are because they were window boxes not actually installed under windows.]

1997 (age 73):

April 24:  From about 12:30-5:00.  Planted strawberries.  I thought I was done but just before I quit I found another tray so I guess I’ll plant them tomorrow.   I also planted the pots of Gordon’s perennials from last fall into trays.  Most of the dianthus were ok but some of the others didn’t make it though the winter.  I am exhausted.

1998 (age 74):

April 24:  cool—rain—hail  I was going to put tomatoes but it was too cold so I started planting seeds in the kitchen.  I mostly planted low annuals for my color bowls.  I planted from noon to 8:30 with time out to eat.  Tomorrow I should take the new trays to the greenhouse—there’s not room in shop until I pot up the begonias.

 

 

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23 April: Community

Saturday, 23 April 2016

The perfect way to start this day of community events would have been to participate, as we used always to do, in the spring beach clean up with the Grass Roots Garbage Gang.  Unfortunately, I never have warning of when my collapsing right knee would put me in a state of collapse and I would not risk it happening out on the beach, necessitating a vehicular rescue and inconvenience.  Walking on uneven surfaces is tricky for me these days.

I hope that a new knee will enable me to start doing the clean up events again.

Instead, I spent the morning reading Love All by Elizabeth Jane Howard and waiting for some migraine medicine to take effect.

On the way to our first event of the afternoon, we stopped at the library because to my great happiness, the second book of the Cazalet Chronicle had arrived through interlibrary loan.

Tulips at the Ilwaco Community Building, which houses the Ilwaco Timberland Library and the senior lunch program.

Community Building garden

Bayside Singers

the rose garden at Peninsula Church Center in Seaview.

Todd is a member of the Bayside Singers chorale group, inspiring us to attend their concerts.

That’s our Todd to the far right.

Allan’s photo

He had told me that I would particular like one song from their spring programme, and indeed I found the poem set to music to have perfect words:

 Afternoon on a Hill by Edna St Vincent Millay

I will be the gladdest thing

Under the sun!

I will touch a hundred flowers

And not pick one.

I will look at cliffs and clouds

With quiet eyes,

Watch the wind bow down the grass,

And the grass rise.

And when lights begin to show

Up from the town, I will mark which must be mine,

And then start down!

****************************************

That was perfection indeed, and I do wish that all flower admirers would touch and not pick (without permission).  It is the Anti Finger Blight Anthem.

The singers applaud a duet.

intermission treats and Tulip ‘Greenland’ from Todd’s garden (Allan’s photo)

Tulip “Greenland’ (Allan’s photo)

I briefly met Carole of the darling pink house in Ocean Park but due to migraine issues did not really have time to chat.

We had to leave the Bayside Singers during their last song in order to get to the next event, for which we had already purchased tickets.

South Pacific County Humane Society Dinner

in the parking lot

beachy

The event took place at the old Chinook School.

We arrived late, but fortunately Our Kathleen was there, knew we were coming and had saved us two seats.

The dinner, pasta with four different sauces and a good green salad, was provided by the Cove Restaurant, one of our favourites.

one of two cakes

center: our friend Wendy in a doggie outfit, and Monica “Cosmic Bombshell” Morley to the right, with another cute doggie to the left.

My photo taking was minimal because I was still experience a muffled migraine (muffled by medication that had ALMOST worked, wonderful migraine meds that I wish I had had during the suffering migraine-y thirties and forties).  So I pretty much just kept to my seat and missed recording the tables of silent auction items that had been donated.

Monica had this darling frock especially made for the event.

It was well attended.

As you can see, our shelter is beloved and well supported.

 

Catherine and Ed of the Oceanside Animal Clinic were the honored guests because of their years of veterinarian work for the shelter animals.

Allan’s photo

The beloved Dr. Ed made a moving and informative speech about the origins of the shelter.  He said that in the beginning, a group of women formed to create the no-kill shelter.  Very important people from other important shelters told them that a no kill shelter was a lovely idea, but that sadly the world does not work that way and it would be impossible to achieve.  They refused to sacrifice their principles. They did achieve it, and have saved and re-homed so many animals over the years that Dr. Ed, became choked up just telling the story, as did probably every member of the audience.  He said “They used to go to people’s doors and take away abused animals.  They were scary!”  A huge round of applause followed.

We won a nice big basket of doggie treats during the raffle, which will go to Dave and Mel’s dogs, Anna and Coulee.

Darling Sondra had some food left over and sent some pasta home with Kathleen for her Sunday dinner, some salad and bread sticks home with us for a snack later.

Just a few good bread sticks were left! Photo by Robbie Richeson, before the dinner

Yesterday, Ray Millner of The Planter Box had given us some Yacon tubers to try.  We had that and some apple added to our salad at ten PM (while watching Love in a Cold Climate, which goes well with the Elizabeth Jane Howard historical fiction I’ve been reading this past week.)

Yacon tubers, look like they would taste like sweet potatoes. (Allan’s photos)

Instead, they taste like a delectable and sweet combination of apples, celery, and jicama.

I am hoping to grow the plant; the flowers are like sunflowers so it will even be ornamental.

1997 (age 73):

April 23:  Planted some flower seeds in APS.  Brought wood in.

April 23:  Rain, cold   I got my #2 tooth filled but they said it isn’t strong and if it breaks again I may need to have a crown put on.

 

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22 April: Long Beach

Friday, 22 April 2016

The day began so rainy that I thought it might allow us to only get some essential Long Beach deadheading done.  The weather-induced late start meant that we did not get to Klipsan Beach Cottages and Golden Sands gardens as intended.  I told myself that they would surely be fine for five more days or so.

The Planter Box

We took the time to go to The Planter Box and use the rainy mid morning to clip back our cosmos being grown in the back green house.  It is so wonderful to have few enough jobs that I actually have time, for the first time in several years, to check on the cosmos now and “pinch” it.

Allan’s photo

at The Planter Box

trimming the cosmos to make it bushier and not leggy; will start planting it around Mother’s Day.  This can be done by “pinching” with fingers or with clippers.

Long Beach

The weather, while windy, cleared up enough to make it possible to finish deadheading the Long Beach planters (started on Wednesday) and Veterans Field.

Tulip ‘Formosa’ (and an old ‘Bleu Aimable’

rhododendrons and the Long Beach gazebo

Cerinthe major purpurascens across from the police station

planter with golden oregano about to get too rampant

Dutch iris (Allan’s photo)

Narcissus ‘Baby Moon’, N. ‘New Baby’, Tulip ‘Strong Gold’

I’m excited about the new to me me ‘New Baby’ narcissus, late blooming to go with ‘Baby Moon’

 

Sadly, no time for lunch at the delicious Kabob Cottage

Allan got two buckets of weeds out of the Vet Field beds.  (Allan’s photo)

Vet Field garden (Allan’s photo)

Having gotten enough deadheading and weeding done to move on, we addressed the drifts of spent tulips in the Long Beach welcome sign planter.

before

We made a trip to city works with the debris (lots of horsetail) and got enough soil to fluff up the front of the sign, and planted some geraniums ‘Rozanne’ alternating with ‘Orion’ (which is supposed to be even better than Rozanne).  I consider it too early to plant the annuals which will fill it out.

I had realized partway through that it was high time to dig out the thickly multiplied narcissi along the front.  It had gotten too thick and tall.  I moved some to the back and put some in buckets. Next fall, we will have the tulips in front.  Now, I have three buckets of extra narcissi to plant on the berms (something I don’t in the least feel like doing but I shall).  It was hard work and I know I missed some bulbs so will be removing more in the fall.

after

before, with lots of horsetail

after; have used up my mulch pile and need more.

We weeded the west side of Fifth Street Park and I finished up the east side while Allan went back to the difficult center berm weeding job.

Fifth Street Park, NE side

I disturbed this little one’s evening.

The nice guy from the Title Company and I were discussing how the BadAster keeps coming back.

I joined Allan at the berm where he was struggling with slow progress in hard packed thick weeds.

before (Allan’s photo)

Allan’s photo

I found that even the heavy pick swung full force simply bounced off the weeds and so I got out the string trimmer in a state of high dudgeon.

strimmed…good enough?

after (Allan’s photo)

While dumping weeds at city works (again), I pondered further about how I felt that string trimming was just not good enough to allow the erasure of the third berm from the work board, even though I so want to, and then had a flash of hope: Perhaps next week, I can get that weedy “lawn” out with the half moon edger!  I’d even bought some poppy seeds to plant if only we could get the ground clear.  HUMANS WILL WIN!  (I hope.)

We had carried some plants for the planters around all day and had not got them planted, nor had I gotten more than just a few narcissi replanted in the south berm, nor had I remembered to take a photo of the rather good looking south berm, nor had we made it to KBC or Golden Sands at all.  Even so, I declared a three day weekend because life is short.

at home (Allan’s photo)

Allan captured the intense sunset. 

For those who like the Grandma Scrapbooks blog, I’ve published a new post there.

Ginger’s Garden Diaries

from my mother’s garden diaries of two decades ago

1995 (age 71):

April 22: Finished planting 9in pots) the rest of the Foster Farms.  Planted the pansy plants in baskets.  Planted the fuchsia plants in baskets.

1997 (age 73):

April 22:  gray and damp.  Went out to plant strawberries but ended up working on one row moving new daughter plants from middle of row and trimming and/or replanting other plants within the row.  After about 2 hours I was rained in.

1998 (age 74):

April 22 noon-5:00   I worked all this time transplanting tomato seedlings into pots using compost with mushroom compost.  When I thought it was 3:00 and I came in to take a break and was surprised to see it was 5:00 so I closed up shop and came in.  Rec’d the fall Dutch Gardens catalog!

 

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21 April: bayside garden picnic

Thursday, 21 April 2016

Tulip ‘Leo’ at home.  A Christmas gift from Todd that we have been admiring daily.

Garden Tour Nancy and I had our first “swanning about” day of the year as she drove us by five of the excellent gardens she has picked out for this year’s Music in the Gardens Tour.  (She could use a couple more large gardens for the tour, so if you know of any, let me know.  The garden tour rule is that a garden cannot be repeated till four years have passed since last time it was on the tour.)

We picked up delicious chicken salad sandwiches at Roots Juice, Salad, and Java Bar in Ilwaco.

Roots, a drive through for espresso, juice drinks and lunches

inside Roots

I did not take any preview photos of the gardens as we were viewing them just from the road.  Soonish, we will have a proper walk through for the purpose of description writing.

the bayside garden

We took a lovely break for a picnic at one of my two favourite private gardens on the Peninsula: Steve and John had invited us to include their bayside garden, now at its rhododendron peak, in our day of swanning about.  (It was on the garden tour just two years ago and also on last year’s Rhodie tour).

along the driveway, rhododendrons going back to when this was Clarke Nursery

redtwig dogwoods coppiced along the right side of the drive (for brighter red stems)

an old rhododendron to the right of the long drive

Advance garden touring is hungry work, so our picnic came first.

a perfect seat for a picnic

Nancy had brought me a bag of birthday gifts, delightfully stretching my birthday celebration out for an extra month.

Clever wrapping for a St Patrick’s Day birthday book: Chicken Soup for the Gardener’s Soul

and a bunny to go in a flower pot, and a pot holder much too pretty to hold pots with.  It will go on the wall.

And a customized card by our good friend Artist Don Nisbett with a perfect quotation inside:

Roots picnic lunch: chicken salad sandwich on flatbread

the view from our picnic spot

picnic view

Satisfied with our yummy sandwiches, Nancy and I took a walk all around the garden.  Formerly part of a rhododendron nursery, it is a skillfully planted combination of young plants intermixed with mature shrubs and trees.

Nancy inhaling the fragrance of Rhododendron loderi ‘Venus’

Rhododendron loderi ‘Venus’

The garden abounds in young rhododendrons.

hostas and perfectly trimmed sword ferns

(Last week when driving north on the road past this garden, I had noticed that even the ferns along the highway are perfectly trimmed.)

Ulmus x hollandica ‘Wredei’ by the pumphouse

The succulents on the pump house roof have sailed through the mild winter:

the Willapa Bay side of the garden; in winter, the highest tide comes up to (and maybe over) the plantings.

clipped naturescape of evergreen huckleberries and sword ferns

north side path

the north upper garden

old rhododendrons

woodland glade with rhodos and evergreen huckleberries

along the south side of the driveway

This tidal stream marks the south edge of the acreage.

The old irrigation pond

Due to my knee playing up today, we did not walk across the lawn to explore the pondside bed.

east of the pond

As always, this garden refreshes and inspires me (and makes me go to the internet to try to find a source for buying a reasonably large Rhododendron loderi ‘Venus’).

Meanwhile….Allan’s day at work

Allan took the opportunity to work on his own particular garden job at

The Ilwaco Community Building

Rhododendrons and Tulip ‘Flaming Spring Green’

Tulip ‘Flaming Spring Green’

Tulip batalinii ‘Bright Gem’

Rhododendron by the bus stop

the curse of horsetail before weeding

in the tiered garden bed

before pulling the accursed bindweed in the tiered bed

Long Beach

Allan went on to continue the weeding of the center berm by the Long Beach parking lot.

before

It is a hard packed and miserable challenge.

some progress made

after

after

There are still several feet to go.

Ilwaco

Allan and I briefly intersected before I had an evening of quiet reading whilst he went to dinner at the Salt Pub with his former spouse, Arlene, who was having a Long Beach interlude on her way to a beach vacation on the Oregon coast.

Arlene, who had recently acquired a darling mini Cooper.

reading

I have been reading the first of the Cazalet Chronicles by Elizabeth Jane Howard.  The library only has the first so I’ll have to acquire the rest of the series through interlibrary loan.  I am completely smitten with The Light Years.  EJH had been a favourite author of mine years ago.

How well she captures the joy of a child making a miniature landscape:

and the English landscape itself:

Tomorrow:  If we can get enough work done, we can have another three day weekend.

Ginger’s Garden Diaries

from my mother’s garden diaries of two decades ago

1995 (age 71):

April 21:  Wasted whole day waiting to go to the store.  Bought 12 pansy plants from Gordon’s [Nursery].

1997 (age 73):

April 21:  about 2:30-6:00   It was warm enough to work outside.  I planted the 2 astrantia replacements from VB in the patio bed next to RR ties.  Planted the 10 raspberry plants that have been potted since Feb.  Then cleaned weeds out of RB row and the path between RB and SB rows [raspberries and strawberries].  When I quit and came in it was 6 and Tabby was starved.

1998 (age 74):

April 21:  Dentist appt 1:00 for a filling.  The dentist office asked me to change appt to Thurs due to emergency in other office so this day is shot.  I called in $150 Bluestone order—mostly mums.  I cut the tulip flowers in tam area.  There are lots of weeds again.

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20 April: project day

 

Wednesday, 20 April 2016

My Tulip ‘Leo’ at home.

It took me awhile at work to realize I had a big spot on my camera lens.

Red Barn Arena

Allan did a project with some edging blocks provided by Amy.

before

Using a curved beam for a straight edge

Allan’s photo as he gathered tools to fill in a depression

I borrowed this wheelbarrow from the barn to wheel some soil from one area to another and fell in love with the handles.  There is none of that letting go and moving of one’s hands to a different position when dumping; one’s hands just slide around the loop.

These work great!! Must find!

almost done (Allan’s photo)

Diane’s garden

While Allan worked, and when I ran out of weeds and deadheading and deadleafing of bulbs, I went next door to work on Diane and Larry’s garden.

My good friend Misty (camera shy)

Misty under the back porch

Tulip ‘Green Star’

lovely small cupped narcissi

Stipa gigantea

I do believe the stipa is blooming extra early this year.

Red Barn

all done

Basket Case Greenhouse

Up Sandridge Road at the Basket Case, we got some plants for the next project.

Me and Basket Case Nancy

our good friend Shadow

Anchorage Cottages

Next project of the day: to plant up the new summer window boxes that Beth had built.  The window boxes with the early spring display of bulbs will be stashed behind the office for the summer and then put back out in winter.

Much to my delight, Beth has made two new sets of boxes, so that we don’t have to use the little plastic liners anymore.  They were too small.

bulbs are going away

The brackets will be replaced tomorrow.

The project was unexpectedly complicated by two things:  The brackets are going to be redone (as they are pretty awful), so we could not set the new boxes in place, and the other set of two window boxes still had tulips blooming, so we left for the weekend guests to enjoy.

new boxes (Allan’s photo)

We also redid two old terracotta planters into new green lightweight ones.  Our good friend Mitzu supervised.

the variegated vinca had gone down through the planter hole and INTO the pavers.

I have totally gone off planting variegated vinca anywhere due its rampant behavior!

after

after

I salvaged the excellent Agastache ‘Acapulco Salmon and Pink’ for the center, and used the violas and orange diascia which had been intended for the second set of windowboxes…and was very glad it worked out that way or I’d have been short of plants.  We left two newly planted window boxes in tones of blue flowers (to go with the blue sign) sitting on the patio to be installed when the new brackets are up.  I got to take home the old terracotta pots (with the tops falling apart, but still a good three fourths of the pot useable) to live out their last years in my garden.

Long Beach

Long Beach city hall and some planter deadheading and deadleafing finished out our work day.

city hall, west side (Allan’s photo), Erysimum ‘Bowles Mauve’ and Tulip ‘Greenland’

The planters are in that awkward stage when there is lots of ugly dying bulb foliage and yet it is too early to plant most annuals.

Tulip ‘Green Wave’ in a planter

Our friend Wendy walked by and told us she had found a little fairy door on one of the Bolstad approach planters.  We went to check it out.

Allan’s photo

someone’s brilliant gift to a planter! (Allan’s photo)

Allan realized later that the “flower pot” is a piece of broken beer bottle and pronounced it genius.

beach lupine (Allan’s photo)

an allium (?) emerging (Allan’s photo)

The Depot Restaurant

Because Allan had a social engagement on Thursday, we had our weekly dinner with Dave and Melissa tonight at burger night at the Depot Restaurant.  The day of projects had taken its toll on our energy, and the conversation kept us entertained and so distracted that neither Allan or I thought to take a photo of the tasty occasion.

from the Depot website

Ginger’s Garden Diaries

from my mother’s garden diaries of two decades ago

1998 (age 74):

April 20:  11:30-5:00!  warm  I finished planting all the berries.  After I put stuff away I found another flat of plants.  I added them to the last row.  I have worked 17 hours planting 11 wide rows of plants.  I replanted the onion plants that I dug out so that Ron could till that area.  After all the above I washed more than 30 trays.

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19 April: all Ilwaco

Tuesday, 19 April 2016

Much as I wanted another day off to keep weeding at home, we needed to work or we’d fall behind…especially since I had garden touring plans for Thursday.

Mike’s garden

We began our work day pulling little weeds and deadheading narcissi and tulips at Mayor Mike’s garden.

Mike’s ornamental cherry in bloom

me and Mike admiring

Pieris and flowering cherry (Allan’s photo)

Tulips ‘Green Star’, ‘Greenland’, and ‘Virichic’

Tulip ‘Green Wave’

Tulip ‘Green Wave’ is my favourite tulip of all.

Tulip ‘White Parrot’

Just as I pruned back the hardy fuchsia so that the parrot tulips and the Scrophularia variegata would show, my lower back went SPROING.  Usually I can count on my back being strong.  The spasming out of alignment led to some unpleasant moments over the next two days.  However, work must go on and it’s not as bad as the slipped discs and other back ills that some friends have had.

Tulip ‘White Parrot’

I suppose we should prune the boxwoods.  I wish they would grow enough to blend together.

Ilwaco

our volunteer garden at the post office

We did some post office weeding and I heard that there is a new postmaster.  I hope he like an exuberant flower garden and does not prefer lawn or one rhododendron.  I experienced some anxiety as I weeded, bending over very carefully because of the back wonkiness.

Next, Allan completely re-did an overgrown Ilwaco planter, for which no one thought to take a before photo.  It had lots of narcissi, and two valerian and three geums (I have no idea who planted them as was certainly not me).

during (Allan’s photo)

after (Allan’s photo)

Allan’s photo: Erysimum ‘Bowles Mauve’ ringed with golden oregano, golden thyme, variegated oregano, Diascia ‘Blackthorn Apricot’, and a little dusky sedum,

We planted a few more plants in the Ilwaco planters and checked to make sure the new plants from last week were damp enough.

adding some diascias (Allan’s photo)

a stray viola got a little drink of water (Allan’s photo)

This one had ALREADY had a brand new lemon thyme stolen out of it.

If someone steals today’s ‘Blackthorn Apricot’ diascias, I am going to be very very very sad.  Maybe these thieves think I have an endless supply of replacement plants.  In fact, I don’t even have access to more choice lemon thymes OR Blackthorn Apricots and I CANNOT REPLACE THEM.  This is not a big city with an endless supply of good nursery plants.

The fire station garden continues to cry out to me for help.

We stopped off at home for a few more plants.

Tulips ‘Flaming Spring Green’and ‘Spring Green’ at home

Tulip ‘Leo’

Ribes speciosum has been blooming for weeks.

Davidia ‘Sonoma’ flowers

Davidia ‘Sonoma’

Ilwaco Boatyard garden

While Allan pulled grass and horsetail from the boatyard garden, I replanted lots of narcissi that we had removed from the overcrowded Ilwaco planters, along with the valerian and geums from today’s planter project, and then helped finish the weeding.  It was not a perfect weeding job; that will wait till just before the annual children’s parade (April 30th this year).  I try to balance perfection with not overdoing our clients’ landscape maintenance budgets, so today’s job was to just keep the garden from looking like the horsetail was winning.

Allan’s photo, before, north end boatyard garden (looking south)

the horsetail, huge and fierce (Allan’s photo)

horsetail (Allan’s photo); the curse of this garden

after (Allan’s photo)

Allan hung some new signs

chatting with Port Office Nancy

meanwhile, in the boatyard (Allan’s photo)

south end of boatyard garden

poppies

Allan’s photo

sparaxis (Allan’s photo)

Stipa gigantea flowers

We finished by deadheading narcissi along Howerton Avenue.

by the Ilwaco Pavilion

love Helianthemum, wish they bloomed longer.

Allan’s photo: California poppies

transplanting an old, tired Erysimum ‘Bowles Mauve’ in hopes of a bit more bloom from it.

I got to pet this nice dog named ‘Fahrv’ as in “Farvenugen: It’s what makes a car a Volkswagen.” Allan thinks it named itself.

Blissfully for me, the hot weather was about to end with a cooling fog hanging over the Columbia River.

east of the marina

welcome grayness

(For those who enjoy the excerpts from my mother’s old garden diaries: There was no entry corresponding with today’s date.)

 

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17 April: Sea Star garden

Sunday, 17 April 2016

Not only had we been looking forward to having dinner with Todd at Dave and Melissa’s place in Oysterville, but I had been eagerly anticipating meeting their chicken flock, petting their dogs, and seeing what progress they’ve made on their garden.  It can be so tough to find time for one’s own garden when one does gardening for a living, as they do with their Sea Star Gardening business.  They had made good progress since our last visit.

the Sea Star abode

A hummingbird frequents the waterfall. The water makes a glorious noise.

on the porch (Allan’s photo)

new shade bed in progress (Allan’s photo)

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

the girls! (Allan’s photo)

Acer griseum (paperbark maple)

The only drawback to this wonderful landscape by woods and wetlands is that the mosquitos are fierce.

Allan’s photo, skeeters on the back of my shirt on the first walk around

When Todd arrived, Allan walked all around again.  I stayed in for that part of the tour and admired the window views.

from the window

from the back porch

Todd admiring the garden in progress (Allan’s photo)

The tour returns: Dave and Melissa

Melissa and Todd and Allan

Dave and Todd (Allan’s photo)

After garden touring, we repaired indoors for a delicious dinner by Chef Dave.

Allan’s photo: salads and steelhead

and brownies (Allan’s photo)

A friend had given Melissa, this vintage book, which brings back memories of reading ALL of Marguerite Henry as a horse crazy city girl.

After dinner, the dogs, both Hovawarts,  joined us.

me and Anna

me, Coulee, Dave

Coulee took a liking to Todd (Allan’s photo)

Coulee (Allan’s photo)

Coulee

The best thing in the past year has been becoming friends with these three gardeners, Melissa and Dave and Todd.

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17 April: Oysterville garden

We had been invited to dinner at Dave and Melissa’s home in Oysterville.  On the way, we took ourselves on a tour of that most wonderful Oysterville garden.

looking in

backlit rhododendron

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo: Elsa (?) from across the street accompanied us in.

This bit is so perfect it always makes me weepy.

Elsa the dog was up there checking it out.

Allan’s photo

the hornbeam allée

at the end of the allée

Allan’s photo

tree fern and narcissi

Allan’s photo

Sarcococca (Allan’s photo)

Allan’s photo

Dave and Mel (Sea Star Gardening) and Todd (Willapa Gardening) have been weeding this garden.

I love a nice crisp edge like this.

perfection

Tulip ‘Chinatown’

front border

tulips and tetrapanax (Allan’s photo)

across the road: meadows and Willapa Bay

 

 

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