6-7 July: a short workweek

Wednesday, 6 July 2016

Today was our day for all the jobs other than Long Beach and Ilwaco.  At this time of year, about an hour and a half of deadheading and weeding is all we need to do at the bigger ones.

Calvin says he would like me to stay home.

Post office garden looks bare where we removed some grasses along the edge. I do not like to see so much soil.

in the post office window

The Depot Restaurant

Dierama at the Depot

“angel’s fishing rod”

camera now known as Spot

Persicaria was abuzz with bees.

garden north of dining deck

I trimmed the pollen out of the flowers that might brush someone’s shoulders.

The Red Barn Arena

our little Red Barn garden

I carry with me some organic mint horse treats for occasions such as these.

Allan’s photo

garden supervisor

a noble profile

“Horses make a landscape more beautiful.” -Alice Walker (Allan’s photo)

barn cat

Diane’s Garden

along the road

Lavatera ‘Barnsley’

blue veronica

back yard containers

The Planter Box

We stopped to get me a couple more bags of potting soil.

front patio display

Calendula ‘Strawberry Blonde’

roses

Allan’s photo

Marilyn’s Garden

from the street

looking south

Scooter

Moments communing with animal friends are the best part of my day.  It was HOT, thus the hat.

looking west from the deck, giant Miscanthus hiding the garage next door

looking north

my good friend Scooter

telephoto

I asked Allan to prune some shrubs away from the house in the native hedge by the narrow east side path.

before

after

Klipsan Beach Cottages

When we arrived and parked, the warm sweet piney smell reminded me of childhood camping near Lake Wenatchee.

blue sky, sweet smells, looking up by where we park

Melissa texted this photo from The Oysterville Garden, where she and Dave were working today.  She wrote “[The garden owner] wanted you to see the allée.”  If I had gotten this text while we were still way further north at Marilyn’s, we would have driven over to Oysterville.

Hydrangea ‘Incrediball’ in Oysterville

At Klipsan Beach Cottages:

sit spot with Tetrapanax ‘Steroidal Giant’

Agapanthus

Bella

Sarah

birdbath view, for the weekly record, spots or not

The Anchorage Cottages

greeted by my good friend Mitzu

Escallonia iveyi at The Anchorage

An old yucca that had sat not doing much for years decided to bloom this year.

center courtyard

in the center courtyard

Kindly note how the purplish inside of the Allium tones perfectly with the purplish part of the Agastache.

This was completely intentional, as always.  😉

Allan made a bench in the Zen Courtyard sittable again.

during.  Allan says the bench was buried when he started.

after

Long Beach

We added some nice Soil Energy mulch to two of the Long Beach street trees.  We are planning to do this to several of the trees where soil shows.  Soon we will be out of our mulch pile, and the city crew is so busy we may not get another pile till fall.

all fluffy

Ilwaco

evening light on our apple tree

On the way home, I got a text from Jodi across the street asking if we could take on the garden of their little beach house.  I like it, it is small, and the commute is short, so I said yes.  Later in the evening, we went over to look at the project and sat around their fire circle with glasses of fine wine.

…along with my new friend, Daphne.

We’ll be starting the project after the upcoming garden tour weekend of July 16th.  It will give you something new to look at on this blog.

Thursday, 7 July 2016

I had not intended to have a two day work week.  Today was supposed to be the watering day for Long Beach and Ilwaco.  Pouring rain made it a Garden Tour Blogging day.  The rain barrels filled up and I was happy and content.

Because of the rain, Allan and I went to the Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum (3.5 blocks west) to see a photography exhibit.  A modern photographer has photographed the landscapes described in a book that Allan recently read:

While we were there, the museum director, Betsy Millard, offered us four panels of some old fencing.  It is marvelous stuff that would make our garden look like something from The Addams Family.  I looked at it and tried to lift an end of one section and felt my leg sort of give way and sorrowfully said we just couldn’t do it.

With Betsy.  I used to be much stronger.

The fence  has been replaced by local welder Jacob Moore (also of Pink Poppy Bakery) with a fence that echoes the railroad theme of the museum courtyard, where an old train car from the Clamshell Railroad is on display.

Allan’s photo

new fence by Jacob’s Hammer (Allan’s photo)

the old train car “Nahcotta” (Allan’s photo, taken yesterday)

I went home and brooded and fretted and realized I have an almost impossible time asking people for favours.  I posted about this issue on Facebook along with the realization that I could actually pay someone to deliver those excellent gothic fence pieces (not that I know exactly what to do with them yet).  I am used to being the one paid or asked to do things for people, not the other way around. Within an hour, I had offers of help and an arrangement to get them delivered on some later day by Jacob himself.

Meanwhile, Allan fetched the one small piece that would fit in our trailer.

sliding it under the new fence

at home. You can see how the wide pieces would overpower our tiny little wooden trailer.

 In the evening, we had our meeting of the North Beach Garden Gang at…

The Cove Restaurant

We were joined by Todd this time, always a treat.

same old story…going on about finger blight (plant theft) or some such thing. Allan, please feature someone else talking next time. It does happen!

strawberry and feta salad

spicy Thai prawns

vegetable noodle bowl (Allan’s photo)

We stayed till after closing, as always, and were given sweet little desserts by the delightful Lynn, our server.

Thank you!

We always know it is time to go when she gets the vacuum cleaner out.

Sondra’s Cove Restaurant garden at dusk. (Allan’s photo)

There would be no lingering and talking in the parking lot today because of sideways wind and rain.

I’ve already written about July 8th in the “plant tag” post of a couple of days ago so next will be the July 9th weekend.

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Ginger’s Garden Diaries 

from my mother’s garden diaries of two decades ago

1997 (age 73):

July 7: cool and cloudy  Picked raspberries—froze 2 pkgs.  Worked from 3:00 to 5:00 “pruning” rows 1 and 2 of strawberries.  Called in Bluestone Perennial order.

1998 (age 74):

July 6: HOT  Today I worked in the shade planting seedlings into several bowls.  There are several plants (annuals) too tall for bowls.  I think I’ll plant these in some big peat pots and some in the peat trays so I can plant them directly into the flower bed when they are big enough to fend for themselves.

July 7: Another morning headache so I took this day off.