Friday, 20 May 2016
I awoke after five hours of sleep, thought briefly about the lost Golden Sands garden, and went back to sleep for two more hours. The cycle of sleepless stress is finally broken.
Before work, Allan helped me place my mother’s birdbath in the front garden. It will make a fine view from my writing desk.
On the front gate, we found a treasure:
Later, an email revealed it was from Patti of the Seaview garden. She’d also given us some cool rusty stuff earlier in the week after Melissa’s birthday party.
At the library, I had a book to pick up: an interlibrary loan of book 4 of the Cazalet Chronicle. We did some weeding along the sidewalk while we were there and I cast a stern eye on the clump of salal that wants to run to the right and interfere with the rhododendron.
I placed the Geranium ‘Rozanne’ (rescued from mowing in the Golden Sands lawn) atop the wall and Allan planted it. The ones that had not been mowed flat, he cut back hard to avoid them looking wilty to passersby.
Long Beach
Next on the Long Beach town list: weeding the big pop out.
We checked on all the planters on the Bolstad approach. A Mental Health Walk was planned along there for Saturday, sponsored by NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness).
This darling little dog was ignoring his guardian. He came to us and Allan nabbed him and carried him back to her.
I found some of the usual theft (which is one reason why the beach approach planters are especially challenging, the others being sand, salt, drought and wind).
Someone treats these planters as their own personal nursery of free plants. I put golden thyme back on the shopping list, hoping the Basket Case still had some of the same cultivar.
I realized with glee that our weeding job earlier this spring had been so effective that we could probably touch up the entire beach approach garden in just one day. Soon, I hope.
To my delight, I found another fairy door in the garden.
Jo’s Garden
We planted a plethora of painted sage in Jo’s garden.
The center of the shasta daisy patch is lower than the edges. I think it because the Cow Wow! mulch got spread more thickly along the edge.
With all this planting of salvia viridis going on, I had better show new readers what it looks like:
I was relieved to see that the entry garden had begun to grow out of a mysterious problem of repeatedly dying foliage. Jo was not at home till later today, but she texted me that she had figured it out. She had sprayed with that anti-mosquito recipe that has been making the rounds on Facebook, with ingredients including mouthwash and epsom salts. In the areas she sprayed, the plant leaves were burned. Mystery solved! Beware of where you spray that recipe (and note that Google will tell you it’s not very effective, anyway).
The big Annuals Planting Time is officially over for work, leaving only the rest of my annuals planting at home.
Basket Case Greenhouse
We couriered the cheque for plants from Long Beach over to the Basket Case Greenhouse.
With all the salvias out of the van, I actually had room to buy my two hanging baskets!
I did get one golden thyme, then ran out of steam to go back to the beach approach and plant it.
World Kite Museum
We added Gardner and Bloome Soil Building Compost to improve the garden.
Ilwaco
In order to not have to water on Sunday, we drove around to all the Ilwaco planters and added just enough water to make them happy, without getting out the water trailer or the usual 20 buckets for bucket watering. Thanks to rain this past week, they each needed just an empty Costco sized mixed nuts jar dipper full of water.
I did not plant any nasturtium seeds in the planters this year because last year, the deer feasted on them.
Salt Pub
After a brief time at home, I went out again to meet Our Kathleen for dinner at Salt Pub. Allan stayed home because he was loading up his boat for a sailing adventure in Portland tomorrow.
We had the baked to order cookie with ice cream for dessert; so good, and the end of such an eventful work week, that I forgot to take a photo. We had been so deep in conversation that I had not even photographed the view of the port.
Now for two days off in my garden. I have a desire to not leave my property even for the Saturday Market. Meanwhile, Allan will be off on a Saturday adventure.
Ginger’s Garden Diaries
from my mother’s garden diaries of two decades ago
1995 (age 71):
May 20: 1:00-7:40 with time out to eat. HOT Spent almost all afternoon planting flower seed (finally). I love doing this job outside so it doesn’t matter if I’m sloppy. Then I spent the evening sorting my seeds into: Do now, do next, do later i.e. plant in fall, winter, etc.
1997 (age 73):
May 20: ?-5:30 Dahlias were my #1 job for today but it was raining. It cleared up in early afternoon so I went out and got all the dahlias planted! Then I started pulling the bedraggled forget me nots, the yellow invasive plants and sweet woodruff. I am going to plant some seeds in front to see how they do.
1998 (age 74):
May 20: cool-rainy. I had the blahs today. I really didn’t want to go out but I did around 2:00. I potted some tomatoes and needed more room in the greenhouse so I dragged the “window box” begonias out. (Don’t ask me how I managed that.) I replaced the tubs of tulips with the begonia boxes. Then it started raining. I also moved several trays of tomatoes to the greenhouse to be repotted (maybe tomorrow).
Sorry to hear you are having a bout of finger-blight and outright theft up there. Unfortunately, plantings in public places will always be subject to those who cannot appreciate the labor and expense that goes into maintaining beauty for everyone.
So deer eat your nasturtiums? So far, they have left mine alone. I do have problems with them trying out plants and ripping them out of the ground, mainly herbs. Thyme seems a mystery to fawns, and I watched one pull a plant out of a pot one day before shaking her head and dropping it. I repotted it, and found the plant out of the pot again the next day. The plant went up on the porch after that. The males in autumn are worse, destroying blueberry bushes. They are fond of rubbing antler velvet off on them, and turn them into match sticks. I will have to fence in blueberries this year if I want any left.
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Interesting re thyme!! I do look around to see if a deer might have moved any plant that is missing in a deer corridor. 😉
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They developed a taste for nasturtiums last year. Before that, they showed no interest.
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I do not have a blog myself but have been lurking around gardening blogs for several years. All the photos and chatting really feed my soul. I garden in zone 4 Montana. I have my own yard, the garden at the church (only 3 of us ever go to pull weeds and we cannot keep up with the dandelions and clover). Then our garden club in town constantly is asked to ‘help out at the Chamber, or the Library beds, or the ones along the walking path at the Senior Center’ all for free of course.
Times when I feel overwhelmed by these chores – which are supposed to be something i love – i just read your blog.
You two work so hard!! Thank you for all you do around your town. You are an inspiration!
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Thank you so much. My very best friend lives in Big Timber, Montana And writes a blog called Yummy Montana that I think you would also enjoy. Good for you for volunteering
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I am very glad to hear about the extra two hours sleep. I was getting worried.
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Thx Mr T!
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