26 April: work in Ilwaco

Wednesday, 26 April 2017

We were surprised when midmorning brought some pleasant, sunny weather.

kitchen window sunshine

back garden

I had noticed some tulips tucked in around shrubs and so picked a bouquet for Salt Hotel without spoiling my own garden picture.

obscure tulips next to giant rhubarb

some pink spikes of persicaria bistorta to add to the bouquet

corydalis and pulmonaria

Steve and John will feel my pain at this mass of native meianthemum.

Cat drama:

bouquet in progress

I added some blue scilla (a pest, but I like it here).

The scilla matches the ones across the driveway.

 My first plan was to do a rough weeding of the boatyard garden in preparation for the season’s first Saturday Market.  We were barely on the way before I decided that mulching the trees could take priority (and be more fun). We were soon on the road to Peninsula Landscape Supply, with a couple of stops on the way.

fragrant mock orange by Salt Hotel

Salt Hotel courtyard

Basket Case Greenhouse

On the way, we picked up a few plants at the Basket Case.

someone else’s baskets

Roxanne and Darrell helping a customer load

an awesome neon sign that someone had in their Astoria basement, recently acquired.

a bit early to buy cosmos so they will stay in my little greenhouse at night for a couple of weeks, maybe

Peninsula Landscape Supply

Soil Energy, one yard (Allan’s photo)

enticing items

On the way up and back, we drove by Diane’s garden.  The septic system is going in, the tree stumps have been removed, and the roadside garden is gone, for now.

wow…I should have tried to rescue the leftover narcissi along the roadside!

Corner garden was not  touched.

I bet the narcissi might come back because the bulbs are probably still underground along the roadside.  Soon, replacing that garden will be a project for us.

Ilwaco

A stop at home to offload plants:

Frosty (Allan’s photo)

We mulched the ten street trees on First Avenue.

the boatyard

at work

before

after

I thought about a quotation that I recently read in this article about “Our Misguided Hatred for Pigeons”:

“In what sociologists call our “imaginative geography” of cities, there’s a border that separates clean, orderly civilization and wild, uncontrolled nature. “That doesn’t mean there’s no nature, but ideally, the city is the place where we invite nature in in ways that we control. We cut out little squares in the concrete, and that’s where the trees belong. We don’t like it when grass and weeds begin to grow through cracks in the sidewalks, because that’s nature breaking out of those boundaries that we want to keep it in.”

On the curbsides in Ilwaco:

It’s not our job to clean the curbsides, and I actually like to see weeds growing there.

The columnar pear foliage is the worse for wind wear:

A cold wind came up and then we had this, making the mulching of the last tree rather miserable:

back home for dry clothes

Mike’s garden

A few blocks to our east, we mulched Mayor Mike’s garden.

sitting out a squall, I noticed the pampas grass fronds were done.

Allan fixed it after the squall

all nicely mulched:

I noticed the gold boxleaf honeysuckle was shaggy!

quickly made it rounder, the way Mike likes it.

this one, too

We were tired, but thought we could manage one hour of weeding at

The Port of Ilwaco Boatyard.

The garden is very horsetaily.  The big perfect weeding needs doing next week before the annual children’s parade, and yet we need to do something to make the garden look better before this Saturday’s market.

I thought we’d get this section done:

before

before

mystery: why is this Stipa gigantea and a few things around it dead?

Not one but two hours later, we had done an adequate weeding this far:

horrible horsetail where we left off

with this far to go (but not as much horsetail grows south of the gate)

Maybe tomorrow we can do a rushed barely adequate job on the rest before going to Long Beach to tidy up as much as we can before this weekend’s clam festival.

Brace yourself for this last photo, by Allan.  I have not had time at home to apply Sluggo as much as I should, a problem that happens every year around this time.

two things erased today!

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25 April: rain and reading

Tuesday, 25 April 2017

As predicted, we had a rainy and windy day.  I felt a little restless about it.  Views as I paced from window to window:

kitchen

north front

north front

east front

Allan’s study, east

Allan’s study, east

Skooter does not like to go outside in the rain.

south

I pondered how if I got my whole south window replaced, I could take photos out of the non screened side.

This and one of the front windows is “blown”.

I find it very hard to spend money on things like this.

Just going out on the front porch to take this photo made my hands cold:

Allan did take a few photos on his way between house and shed:

and at the post office:

hesperantha blooming now instead of waiting till fall

one broken lily sprout

Fortunately, I had a big book to read with over 300 pages to go.

No Logo

I finished it by nine o clock, and then watched Deadliest Catch and felt wimpy for not being willing to work in the rain.

I felt blessed that we live in a relatively advertising-free environment.  Here at the “lost corner” of Washington State, we have only two chain restaurants (a rather gaudy McD’s and a low key Subway that blends in), and even though two of our three bigger grocery stores are franchises (IGA and, I think a Thriftway), they are still referred to by their old names (Sid’s and Okie’s).  While we do have billboards advertising local businesses, all but two extra large ones (between Black Lake and Seaview) are gentle on the eye compared to most billboards, and just advertise local motels and resorts.  This makes the Long Beach Peninsula a more restful place to live if, like me, you want to get away from advertising, brand names, and glitz.

Post script for those who are interested: No Logo by Naomi Klein

The book was excellent, even though somewhat outdated (published in 2000).

Some particularly interesting points:

How a certain McD restaurant went after any restaurant with McD in its name:

This reminds me of the local story of how Starbucks went after an Astoria coffee shop named SamBuck’s.  The owner’s name was Samantha Bucks!  (She had done a logo that was sort of a take off on the SB logo.)  Read more about that case here.

A mention of community gardening:

A whole chapter about the Reclaim the Streets movement had this interesting story.

Of course, they lost…

Re child labor, the National Labor Committee, and director Charles Kernaghan:

About how sweatshops and child labor get so much more attention when attached to a brand name (Nike, for example):

More about the Zapatistas (Klein also wrote about them in The Shock Doctrine).  I just very much like what Marcos had to say:

Note to those who care: From what I had read recently, some of the Romany people consider “the g-word” to be a racial slur and would prefer that we use the word Romany.  If you care about that sort of thing, as I do, here is some beginning reading about it.  Google will give you much more.  I’d rather err on the side of politeness so have given up “the g word”. 

Tomorrow more rain is predicted, and I have a book of light reading lined up for a change.

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24 April: Fifth Street Park

Monday, 24 April 2017

The predicted rain was over by a little after 11 AM.  I had been expecting a stay at home day more like this (but with a book):

in the back garden:

Tulip ‘Fire Wings’

Tulip ‘Fire Wings’, from Brent and Becky’s, nice and tall with good foliage

This much rain since Friday night!

fringed tulips

I think this tulip might be ‘Vaya Con Dios’, except I don’t have any record of buying that one…and yet is sounds familiar.  Wow.

wish I knew!

white and fringed

center bed

Allan’s garden with Acanthus ‘Hollard’s Gold’

To stay home in my garden was less enticing than these photos indicate because the weather felt cold like winter.

Long Beach

near Fifth Street Park

We began work in a light, cold drizzle.

southwest quadrant of Fifth Street Park

This swampy garden has a wealth of horrible horsetail.

before (Allan’s photo)

While Allan started weeding, I deadheaded two block of street trees and planters.

Tulip ‘Fire Wings’

I’m quite taken with ‘Fire Wings’.

by the carousel

The harsh winter gave this hardy geranium a set back.

Darmera peltata, southeast Fifth Street Park

When I returned to the area Allan was weeding, I was amazed to find him almost done.  I weeded the northwest quadrant a bit and then we were ready to get mulch.

after weeding (Allan’s photo)

Cathy of Captain Bob’s Chowder had given us some brownies (because today is her Friday).  They gave us strength.

fortifying

Allan’s photos from the rest of the day:

mulch load one

next door to Fifth Street park in the Best Western Hotel planter

mulching

after

Of course, the horrible horsetail roots are still in there, but the fluffy mulch will make them easier to deal with.  (By the way, supposedly horsetail spreads more when it is pulled and less when the tops are broken off at ground level.)

much better, for now

Back to the mulch pile for another load:

We added another set of buckets full to the northwest side of Fifth Street Park and then went to the north parking lot berm at four-ish o clock.  I don’t like being at city works at gate closing time, the time the city crew is going home, because it becomes confusing whether to lock the gate;  perhaps there might be one more crew member still out!  A berm was a perfect fill in project for awhile.

before

after

before

after-ish, still much to do on another day

driving by Veterans Field

Now we could get a third load of mulch.

Our methods are rather primitive.

on the way back to the park, a little more planter deadheading

Fifth Street Park, NW quadrant, mulched, and some Nicotiana langsdorfii planted, and Sluggo applied because sweet peas are finally coming up!

our audience

at home:

Standing at the kitchen sink, Allan saw Skooter going up onto the roof!

looking down at the south cat door

We were concerned that he would not be able to jump down as easily as getting up, but after awhile, from back indoors, we heard a loud thump and he soon came inside.

work board tonight; I don’t see much hope of achieving my original goal of having the berms and beach approach weeded by this Saturday’s Clam Festival.  OH WELL.

To add to my scheduling woes, I learned the Ilwaco Saturday Market will be opening early, this weekend, which means people will be walking by the horsetail infested boatyard garden.  Sigh…there is only so much two people can do in horrible weather.

This is our problem:

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22-23 April: meal and meeting and reading

I added this belatedly to yesterday’s post.  Here is a gofundme to save some lovely woods here on the peninsula.  I think this is the last day. 

https://www.gofundme.com/help-save-a-forest

Saturday, 22 April 2017 (continued)

After the Earth Day Science Rally, we wanted to go to our favourite progressive café, the Blue Scorcher.  Parking was impossible, so we ended up at the Uptown Café in a Warrenton shopping mall, having read a good review of it some time ago.

It was so cute inside that I want to share the photos with you (separately from the rally photos).  The food was reasonably good. The music was not too loud and was of a sort of thoughtful, indie style that I liked. I had a revelation that I’d rather eat reasonably good food in great ambience than great food in boring ambience. 

in an ordinary shopping mall

I very much liked the look inside.

Allan’s photo

high ceilings with art panels

quite a taco salad (and my poor camera drying out)

afterwards, outside Petco (Allan’s photo)

That guy carries his dog a lot!

and at home, orange on orange:

and a small cupped narcissus

             Sunday, 23 April 2017

Another rainy day….,

We had our monthly Indivisible meeting at the Ilwaco Community Building. 

Community building garden:

And an interesting two hour long meeting:

Gwen had gotten a letter from the sheriff praising the high quality of the recent town hall event. 

Allan and I took Jaime to the meeting so that she could go on a visit with another member. 

At home, my Davidia has begun to flower within its deer cage. I wish I could free it but am uncertain if it would be deer food. 

Skooter contemplates rain (Allan’s photo)

Rain meant a reading day, first the finishing of a novel by a favourite author. The protagonist is a thinking baby who is not quite yet born. 

This long passage brought home to me how much I wish I could stay around to see what happens to our world and made me think about friends’ babies who will be in their 80s at the end of this century. I hope. 

Three score and ten, not enough. I want four score and five at least. 

I paused for some thoughts about life and death. 

Then I read an interlibrary loan on one of my favourite subjects, The Rural Studio. 

Oh, Samuel Mockbee, I wish I had known you. 

“Sambo” died of leukemia less than ten years after starting the Rural Studio.  I had better stop having the ridiculous feeling that I’m too old and that it is too late to accomplish much. 

Look, without a vehicle, a gardener could get a lot done with this set up:

I have time to start another book, so here I go. A reading day is good; I feel under the weather from being cold and wet for two hours during yesterday’s Earth Day rally.  

Next up:



The forecast does not look promising for getting the beach approach and other parks done in time for next weekend’s Razor Clam Festival. I hereby declare that I’m done fretting about it. 

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22 April: Earth and Science Day

Saturday, 22 April 2017

The weather did not look good for our planned political activity.

out the window: wind and rain

Such a day would have been just perfect to read this book that just came from the library:

Nevertheless, we persisted in our plan to go to Astoria.  Maybe the weather would be better there, as sometimes happens across the river.

crossing the 4.2 mile long Astoria Megler Bridge

The weather was not better.

as we drove by to find a parking place

For two hours, about thirty people braved pouring rain and 30+ mph wind gusts to join in the nationwide March for Science.  Our version was a rally, not a march.  This intersection is one of high visibility where every vehicle going east through Astoria drives by.

We parked and joined the others.

I’m pleased to tell you that during the entire two hours, even when the group dwindled toward the end, our ears were filled with a cacophony of vehicles’ horns tooting in approval, and we got many waves and upturned thumbs.  I saw only one negative face, followed by two bumper stickers: One read “Trump Pence” and the other read “[something something something] GUNS.”

my photos:

I am slow with puns and just realized…There is no PLANet B.

My sign held up well, covered with clear adhesive shelf paper and edged with packing tape.

Some walked down to a traffic island down the block.  There, they were visible to traffic coming east and turning toward Commercial, and also to traffic heading west on Marine Drive.  I decided to join them, partly because I wanted a better look at the garden.

a well kept garden

My sign is a large one and the wind was strong on the traffic island.  I decided to rejoin the others over by the post office.

That was the moment when my saturated camera said it had had quite enough of the storm.

I hope it revives!

I turned to my iPhone for a few more photos and then decided that it, too, was getting much too wet.

Here are four photos taken by another attendee (I do not know who):

Someone got much better photos of my sign than I managed to get:

 

Photos by Carol Newman: 

Allan’s photos:

1:01 PM we were done!

And then the rain stopped!

PS. Here is an earth day oriented gofundme to save a local woods. https://www.gofundme.com/help-save-a-forest

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21 April: little things

Friday, 21 April 2017

I had some small work tasks to complete, after which I figured we would make it out to the beach approach to get at least half a garden section weeded and clipped.

My own garden looked enticing…

…as did Smokey,

Frosty,

Skooter,

and neighbour cat Onyx.

But work we must.

work board this morning

Port of Ilwaco

A bit late, I transplanted some chives and elephant garlic to the Freedom Market garden.

transplanted these Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ starts to a less walkedupon spot!

Making the store’s garden as pretty as this, the curbside garden, is my goal…except for the walking upon is a problem.  So, making parts of it pretty is my goal.

Long Beach

deadheaded the welcome sign, front…

and back

We decided we had better dig out the ivy in the big Lewis and Clark Square planter next, in case we punctured the sprinkler system.  Best to not do that, but if it happened, best to do it when the city crew is available rather than after hours.

While Allan did the digging, I planted some Geranium ‘Rozanne’ and Erysimum ‘Bowles Mauve’ in nearby planters.

the shrubbiest planter’s one week of glory

so called “blue” tulips for the police station

street tree (Allan’s photo)

Folks were gathering in Veterans Field, half a block away, for a “Walk for Veterans”.

The walk begins (Allan’s photo)

The planter in question (Allan’s photos), before:

variegated ivy

and after:

That was not easy.

a lot of ivy to dump at city works

When we arrived at city works, we learned that the planter at the south end of town was ready to plant.  I’d noticed the same planter as before, still roughly mortared, but now full of soil again.  The crew had met with the frustration of the one replacement planter breaking when they tried to move it…so now they will be doing their best to re-mortar the old one and make it look good.  Therefore, it was time for us to plant it.  This changed our day by giving us a more pleasant project than weeding the beach approach.

We rescued the little roses that I had heeled into the mulch pile and that had gotten covered with a new load of mulch!

found it!

battered but alive; good thing I knew sort of where to dig.

I also gathered some little shrubs, left over from volunteer planter days, that I would put elsewhere rather than back into the planter.

ready to plant a few things

Last fall, a vehicle drove into this planter and cracked it, and moved it enough to crush the plumbing system (now fixed).

roses and Rozannes in

It makes me nervous to plant all fresh plants for fear someone will steal them.

Next…something that we had to do today…

The Red Barn’s…

…little garden needed deadheading and weeding.

The Red Barn has crabbing as well as horses.

crab pots

While I was weeding, one of the dogs came by…

and snubbed me!

all pretty well weeded

Diane’s garden

Next door, we deadheaded and weeded at Diane and Larry’s place.

narcissi deadheads (Allan’s photo)

new planters to drill holes in (next time)

planter assortment

I love fringed tulips!

In the past, fringed tulips’ edges have browned off in the rain.  This year, we got massive record breaking amounts of rain and yet the fringes look great!

Tulip ‘Green Star’

Diane likes pastels, and purples and whites, not yellows and reds and oranges.

Tulip ‘White Parrot’

Basket Case Greenhouse

We drove a mile or so up Sandridge Road to get some plants for the almost empty Long Beach planter.

pelican for sale

Darrell, Roxanne, and me talking plants

Long Beach

Now we were able to make more of a planter impact, leaving room for annuals when the weather is a bit warmer.

Allan’s photos

At City Hall, we planted a couple of shrubs from the planter’s former array.

This variegated boxwood from a planter a few years back…

is now somewhat balanced by a variegated euonymous.

driving home, 6 PM

It had gotten HOT today, and for once I had been grateful for a cool wind.

We just barely had time to go home, unhook the trailer, unload some plants, load a couple agastaches, drive back to Long Beach, plant the agastaches in the planter, and be ten minutes late for dinner with Dave and Melissa (Sea Star Gardening) at

The Cove Restaurant

petting Lacy on the way in

Cove entry garden

arriving late

refreshing dinner salad

Sondra’s lasagne for me and Dave

lemony prawns scampi for Melissa

Reuben with waffle fries for Allan

a dessert for four of us to share

The four of us solved some of the world’s problems (we wish); tomorrow Allan and I will try to solve more at an Earth and Science Day demonstration.

ivy job erased!

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20 April: spring in the Oysterville garden

Thursday, 20 April, 2017

Between jobs today, we took ourselves on a tour of THE Oysterville garden.

approaching

from the road, bleeding hearts and rhododendron

that pear that years ago let me know something special was happening here…

front garden; a lot of tulips still in bud

Euphorbia

front entrance

a wealth of honesty (lunaria)

Allan’s photo

Tulips, Spring Green I think

tiny cupped narcissus

an urn of hellebores

along the front

south side

This area will be tall by summer.

I love this boxwood curve.

tree peony

callistemon in a pot; a comment later suggests it is a Grevillea rosmarinifolia which is quite possible!

the glorious terrace makes me weepy

Dave and Melissa (Sea Star Gardening) bring this mulch from a horse (not theirs) named Skyrocket.

Skyrocket mulch

other side of driveway

fresh hornbeam foliage

the glorious allée of white Incrediball hydrangeas

west end of the allée

woodsy side path, double hellebore

big pots of tree ferns

unfurling

hellebore (Allan’s photo)

rhododendron foliage (Allan’s photo)

rhododendron

primrose pool

celandine

hellebore (Allan’s photo)

unfurling

in the allée again

Allan’s (tele)photo

more viridiflora tulips

Allan’s photo

by the north lawn

ferns and primulas

mulching is in progress

camassia en masse

magnolia (Allan’s photo)

magnolia (Allan’s photo)

 

north lawn

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

 

coming around to the front garden again

golden barberries

Allan’s photo

 

front porch

Allan’s photo

 

We must visit again soon to see tulips in bloom.

Allan’s photo

Not terribly much to our surprise, we saw Dave and Melissa’s truck approaching.

Allan’s photo

They had brought more mulch.

Time for us to leave and go to work ourselves at Klipsan Beach Cottages (yesterday’s post).

across the street from the Oysterville garden: low tide on Willapa Bay

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20 April: easy work

Thursday, 20 April 2017

Pouring rain almost put an end to the idea of work.

We’d had this much rain overnight.

And then it stopped by midmorning.

I scheduled an easy day, which included a visit to THE Oysterville garden.  That self -guided tour will be our next post.

At home before work

Azara microphylla ‘Variegata’ and Skooter (Allan’s photo)

Erythronium (dog tooth violet)

Allan digging a Tetrapanax sprout, too close to the maple

Acer campestre ‘Carnival’

Acer campestre ‘Carnival, acquired from Dancing Oaks last year

Our post office garden looks unexciting so far.  I planted some bachelor button seeds.

The Depot Restaurant

I planted the wee sprout of tetrapanax in the garden on the south side of the dining deck…my second attempt to get one started there. Light weeding and deadheading ensued.

north side of deck

Tulip ‘Akebono’ (Allan’s photo)

the barrel by the east window

Tulip ‘Virichic’

Long Beach

A stop at city hall to pick up our cheque led to some deadheading and weeding.

the ramp garden

north side: pulmonaria still blooming

north side

signs of finger blight

city hall west side

Basket Case Greenhouse

I’m collecting plants for the upcoming Planting Time, so far just perennials.  I consider it too early for annuals, and yet, as always, I am concerned that folks who plant (too) early will get all the good stuff before I’m ready for annuals (round about Mother’s Day).

Darrel waters the many tempting plants in the annuals house.

Me and Roxanne with Geranium ‘Rozanne’ and some Erysumum ‘Bowles Mauve’

Buddy behind the desk

YOU, yes you (those who live here), should snap these callistemon.  It’s rare to see them for sale on the Peninsula!

heucheras

and more heucheras

Buddy woke up.

We left the Basket Case and took ourselves to Oysterville to tour its premier garden, one of the top two gardens on the Peninsula (the other being Steve and John’s bayside garden).  If there are better gardens here, I have not seen them. That will be tomorrow’s post.

Driving south from Oysterville, we saw Todd gardening at a Nahcotta bed and breakfast.

in front of the Charles Nelson Guest House

Todd Wiegardt at work

Allan’s photo

Klipsan Beach Cottages

We spent a pleasant two hours at Klipsan Beach Cottages. In a preview of Planting Time, Allan planted four Nicotiana langsdorfii, one Erysimum ‘Bowles Mauve’, and an Agastache ‘Acapulco Salmon and Pink’.

Sarah

driveway garden

Tulip bakeri ‘Lilac Wonder’ has been going strong in this spot for years.

looking in the east gate of the fenced garden

Allan planting

He found a furtive dandelion.

tulips (Flaming Spring Green and a parrot in bud)

the burgeoning garden

Tulip ‘White Parrot’

blue inside

Tulip ‘Artist’ hiding under rhubarb

Tulip ‘Artist’

tree peony in bud

fringed pink tulip

Thalictrum ‘Elin’ will get about 7 feet tall.

“pink” narcissi

more narcissi

Fritillaria meleagris, in the lawn bed that I note needs mulching.

double hellebore

white narcissi

Podophyllum (Allan’s photo)

Mary, her friend Katie, Bella, and Katie’s dog Libby, back from the beach (Allan’s photo)

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photos: a hard to reach blackberry sprout across the pond

He got it.

Ilwaco

We drove around by the port on the way home, just to see how lively the 4-20 event was at the Freedom Market pot shop. (Their outdoor barbecue looked well attended.)

garden boat at Time Enough Books (PV=Plant Vessel instead of FV for Fishing Vessel).  Allan’s photo

Tulip ‘Akebono’

While Allan mowed at the J’s (across the street), I planted some poppy and bachelor button seeds in the back garden.  The weeded spots in the east and west bed have seeds, and the unweeded spots will let me know where I can put new plants (after more weeding).

a seeded spot

At the J’s (Allan’s photo)

Next, our tour of the Oysterville garden.

And we really do have to get back to the beach approach weeding!

 

 

 

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19 April: blustery weeding

Wednesday, 19 April 2017

We had sort of a storm, with lots of wind.  The rain stopped by mid morning, leading to a dilemma.  I had wanted to finish yesterday’s long blog post; an internet glitch had resulted in all the text and photo arrangement being lost, but the photos were in the media library ready to be inserted and captioned.  And then….the power went off.

Someone unfortunate had driven into a power pole two thirds of the way up the Peninsula.  Because we are on the same grid as the hospital, we got our power back within two hours.  (As I write this in the evening, Dave and Melissa, way up in Oysterville, are still without power.)

I used our battery back up’s last bit of oomph to catch up on the Tootlepedal blog.  And then I could find no good excuse to not try to weed.

Allan’s photo: Skooter blocks the other cats from exiting the cat door

Oh, how very much I did not want to weed, because of the wind!  I told myself that if I just filled one bucket with weeds, I could come back in.

We had had this much rain overnight.

Allan string trimming

As I pulled some of the easier weeds, I observed and concluded that my earlier idea of composting in place was just not working.  We just have too many snails and slugs that like to hide in the debris and eat lily buds.

next to one debris area, a chomped lily bud

another chomped lily!

Now that I have good compost bins, I carried many armloads of debris and binned them.

gathering debris

I told Allan that I now have so much debris that I need a door for Bin B.

I found another sad columnar evergreen.  Dang blang it!

I tried to focus on weeding the center bed so that I could erase it from the work board.

It had a wealth of shotweed and horsetail.

My audience all afternoon:

Allan’s photo

Devery came over and we had a good chat.

Debris in the west bed, which I will move on my next day in my own garden, had not stopped a giant ornamental rhubarb from showing off its size.

While I love my periscaria bistorta ‘Superba’, I think it is getting too vigorous.

West bed: Persicaria is just starting to show its pale pink spikes.

tulips in the garden boat (Allan’s photo)

The  wind increased to 30 mph, making the last part of the center bed miserable to weed. Because I wanted so much to erase one thing from the work board, I thought really hard about The Deadliest Catch.

Deadliest Catch puts my job into perspective.

I had got not just one bucket but four heaping wheelbarrow loads of weeds removed.

after

However, I think the garden beds need a nice crisp edge.  I had noted the crisp edge on the Tootlepedal’s glorious garden during my blog reading today.  You can see the garden photos in this entry.  Part of the excellence is the trimmed hedges and Mrs. T’s plantings, but I do think the crisp lawn edge is important.

some extra lambs ear and Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ to go to Long Beach or the port

Just as I finished, really big rain drops arrived.

Meanwhile, Allan had gone to get a new sheet of plywood, and on the way he went to the library and felt compelled to deadhead at the Ilwaco Community Building.

art in the library

a stray narcissus at the Community Building

deadheading, and library books (before the rain came)

community building garden

He drove home via the high school road to see if their tulip display was on for this year.

Camera is above the window.

 

It is indeed on.

AND it is well protected.

I wish all OUR gardens were as well protected.

Back home, Allan lined up the old trailer side on the new cut plywood in order to drill out the holes for bungee cord lashing.

The old side became a new front for the center compost bin.

By then, I had made myself a nice cuppa Builders Tea.

in my big Don Nisbett Slow Drag mug

and a bit of a treat left over from my birthday

one “home” bed erased from the work board

I have two guest photos to share, texted to me by Melissa, of her and Dave’s garden. The container has Tulip sylvestris. 

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18 April: some easier jobs

Tuesday, 18 April 2017

We were revived by our day off but were not ready to face the rest of the beach approach project. Today would be a day of smaller, easier jobs.

Next to the driveway as we left for work:

tulips

Narcissus ‘Chinita’

Port of Ilwaco

An event this Thursday at a port business inspired us to deadhead narcissi all along the Howerton Way gardens.  We won’t be attending but we expect it to draw a crowd.

We want to make sure the gardens look nice for this business that watches out for flower jackers. (A few weeks ago, Allan got asked from the Freedom Market’s upstairs window what he was doing digging up plants in the garden. We appreciate that vigilance.)

We worked our way from east to west.

east end, looking west

The marina is across the east end parking lot.

 

nautical trash

The scrimmy little horsetails are not my mission today.

CoHo Charters lavascape

deadheads by the old Portside Café (Allan’s photo)

by the Fort George Brewery office

The old Shorebank building (now empty)

kinnikinnick looking really quite nice and making one big buzzing bee happy

Wax myrtle and arbutus that got the full windstorm blast from across the Shorebank parking lot…

Another storm blasted wax myrtle

We will trim up those shrubs before the May 6th Children’s Parade and opening day of Saturday Market.  No time for that today.

Allan went on to deadhead the west end while I weeded between Shorebank and the Port Office, including the little garden on the south side of the port office building.  The tide was low…

looking west

Little brown birds scavenging the muddy rocks

Looking east, with lots of interesting driftwood

In the wheelie bin enclosure, I found a salvage piece which will be great to add to our fence.  Its little doors will provide a peekaboo effect.

This went home with us.

 Interlude at home

As we parked in front of our fence, I thought about how interested I would be to see our garden as a passerby.

I’d be looking over the fence for a better view.

I remembered a few gardens in Seattle into which I used to peer through and over fences.

The cats had something to say about how we should stay home for the rest of the day.

Smokey

Skooter appears

Frosty

Calvin, being not especially outdoorsy, doesn’t much care whether we stay home or not.

Calvin woken from his usual daylong nap

The garden looked extra fine and tempting.

tulips and cardoon

Japanese maple (Allan’s photo)

golden bleeding heart

Tulip ‘Green Star’

Ribes speciosum still in full flower

Ribes speciosum and tulips

patio tulips

a lavishly fringed tulip (and Frosty saying, “Do stay!”)

tempting

I have pretty good willpower about going to work (necessary for longterm self employment).  Off we went.

Allan photographed this good old dog when we stopped at the bank to put a cheque in.

The Anchorage Cottages

Beth and Mitzu (Allan’s photo)

We expected to just deadhead and weed.  However, Beth needed help with the climbing hydrangea which had fallen over in the recent big windstorm.

They got it pushed back and well tied to the new trellis.

The wind was hard on a lot of the tulips in containers, especially in the office courtyard.  They fared better in the more protected center courtyard.

center courtyard; an array of pots is just to the right

some courtyard containers

purple fringed tulips

pink fringed tulip

window boxes with tiny species flowers

narcissi and unfurling sword fern

Long Beach

Next, we picked up from the city works yard as much Soil Energy Mulch as today’s buckets would carry.

our mulch stash, with plants that were removed from a defunct planter

Our first mission was to mulch the corner bed at Veterans Field.  Some sort of Veterans walk is beginning there later this week so we want it to look fluffy.

Allan’s photos, before….

during; an annoying and constant wind made the day cold.

after

With that done, I went on a deadheading walkabout of the city planters and street tree gardens, while Allan went to weed and add some mulch in two areas of Fifth Street Park.

He found this big lily bulb…

a bright orange tulip

and some annoyingly persistent horsetail

My photos while walking the planters:

Tulip ‘Flaming Spring Green’

foreground: parrot Tulip ‘Rococo’ in bud

Tulip bakeri  ‘Lilac Wonder’

bench sitter

Reminder to self: Put “dig out planter ivy” on the work board so I will remember it.

horrible variegated ivy.  I blame myself from many years ago.

exciting bud on Asphodeline

orange tulips

and a painted rock placed by California poppies that might be orange later on!

pink fringed tulip, and progress on defunct planter (the lamp post has now been removed)

some big tulips, windblown, chomped by deer, broken, or picked

In the same planter, Tulip bakeri ‘Lilac Wonder’ have been blooming for weeks.

Note to self: plant many more ‘Lilac Wonder’.  They are my favourite species tulip and they do so well here.

Tulip bakeri ‘Lilac Wonder’

I was awfully tired for the last two blocks of deadheading and figured as soon as we got home, I would sit down.

at home

At home, I took four buckets of deadheads out to the compost bins while Allan (almost always a man of boundless evening energy) set to mowing the lawn.

The compost bins inspired some compost turning.  A day of varied jobs is much less exhausting than an all day, same place weeding project.

I had gotten all excited when seeing the bottom of bin B:

It looked like it might be siftable!

It wasn’t.  But soon will be if I keep turning frequently.

bins after today’s turning

I need more green stuff before flipping another layer.

While Allan also mowed the next door lawn for our next door neighbour, I checked the hydrangeas over at the J’s garden for signs of life.  The twigs are green when snapped but still no leaves, not even at the base.

good looking sword ferns at the J’s

Back at home, a stunning narcissus with a deep green center (and tiny spider):

I got a bit of a start when I thought each leaf of my Davidia tree had a snail in it.  No, those are flowers buds

Not like the horrible snails everywhere in my garden due to lack of time to properly police them.

Allan’s photo

Tomorrow, yet another storm is due.  I look forward to reading a book.

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