26 May: rocking Long Beach

Friday, 26 May 2017

Smokey looking forward to a relaxing day

while picking up a book at the Ilwaco Timberland Library, tried to capture the garden looking flowery.

rhododendron at the library (Allan’s photo)

The book, a graphic novel recommended to me by a friend who had seen a movie based on it, looks so wonderful that I am going to have to wait to have time enough to read it straight through.

Watch this trailer and you will see why I am eager for the movie to become available.  My friend saw it at the Seattle International Film Festival.

Long Beach

Today was the day to get as much as possible of Long Beach looking good for the big holiday weekend.

easternmost planter on the Sid Snyder approach…but I had meant Bolstad beach approach so we went there instead.

westernmost planter on Bolstad, looking empty because the Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ I had filled in with have all been stolen.

It is bloom time for the beautiful wild beach pea.

Allan’s photo.

looking east toward town over a not yet weeded Armeria (sea thrift)

Whoever the chronic thief is of beach approach plants, the culprit is fairly new.  As you can see, older plants did get established, and are left alone mostly because they are hard to remove.  In the last couple of years, almost all of the newer plants added to fill in or replace old ones are repeatedly taken.  The plants already have a tough time because they get no water unless the city crew waters with the water truck; I have stopped being willing to haul bucket water out here.

looking east from the end of the beach approach garden

rugosa roses starting to bloom

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

more lupine

Rosa rugosa ‘Alba’

walking back half a block to get my clippers (see them sitting on the edge?). The planters closer to town have fewer plants taken out of them.

When the city gets a new pile of mulch, I intend for us to mulch this garden bit by bit over the summer. It has become grey sand.

a rather nice planter close to town

single pink rugosa rose

I wish we had time to weed the beach approach garden.  We did not.  At least the planters were attended to.  Next we groomed the city hall garden.

On the north side of city hall, my Aruncus (goats beard) had flopped forward way early this year.  (We even have eye hooks in the building for always having to tie it back midsummer!)

before: Usually it waits to flop till it has bloomed!

I cut it back, including cutting off flowers.  I wonder if it will now flower lower down?   I am sick of this problem and decided something I should have done years ago: I am going to move this plant to a park in the fall…or to my own garden. I originally dug it up from the woods by my house, when the road was going to be widened, and brought it to city hall.

After cutting back. As you can see, this garden is always in shade.

more of the north side garden

The west side has an edge that I love at this time of year while the armeria and creeping thymes are blooming.

All 37 of the downtown planters needed watering.  We did the north two blocks together.

Allan’s photo

Cosmos look happy (Allan’s photo)

Allan found a good and bad thing.  The northernmost planter had its plumbing fixed.  Good.  Bad:  One of its two mature Geranium ‘Rozanne’ had been dug up and left to sit and dry out.

NO! And no one here has any of this plant left for sale.  However, I think it will revive.

cut back, replanted

It needed more soil, so we went to city works and got a bucket to add at the end of the day.

I had been obsessing about having forgotten on Wednesday to get trailies for the Vet Field planters.  I thought we just had time to zip up to the Planter Box to get some, so we did.  I also picked up some painted sage for me.

my painted sage and cosmos (Allan’s photo)

trailies; probably supposed to be red white and blue, but not.  Also, tomato and cukes for me!

Planter Box pretties, Allan’s photo. I missed seeing these!

Back in Long Beach, Allan focused on an excellent weeding of Fifth Street Park while I watered the other four blocks of planters.  While he weeded in front of Captain Bob’s Chowder, Cathy came out and gave him two cupcakes.

Fifth Street Park SW quadrant

camassia (Allan’s photo)

My watering round:

First Place Mall, new lavender planted last week has been thoroughly squashed, how and why?

I found an unusual number of painted rocks today.  Often I leave them; today I kept two.

I kept this little cutie.

Note the yellow bulb foliage in above rock photo.  I had intended to remove all yellowing foliage today.  By the time I was partway through, I knew I would not have time to address every leaf.

I reflected grimly on how the rugosa roses that had volunteered under one tree, and that we had tried to edit severely this spring, have jumped all over this tree pocket garden. Then I saw a little rock.

and another on the next planter

It’s officially ok to keep a rock.

Many of the rocks today were from Marysville.

I do not “rehide” them, though; I put them on the edge so folks are not ruching around through the planters to find them.

You might think this is the second one I kept; it was not.

I found a shocking thing in one of the planters:

Three packs of unplanted Cosmos ‘Sonata’!

There had clearly been a breakdown in communication regarding which of us was supposed to plant them.  Happily, they were still alive (and got an immediate drink); unhappily, the Agastache which had also been sitting in the planter to be planted was long gone, being more visible.  I will replace it with one of my own.

THIS was the other rock I kept today.

I had permission.

If I had had some string, I would have tied up my asphodel. It has been blooming for weeks unscathed.

one remaining Night Rider tulip

I lugged bucket water to the barrels at the back of Fish Alley.  I have often thought I will just drop dead doing that.  Joking.  Sort of.  While there, I contemplated what to do when the bulb foliage dies down.

I’ve added an Erysimum to the center awhile back. Everything I planted last year around the edges, mostly herbs and sedums to avoid having to water too often, has been taken since last fall.

The two barrels by the street are not decimated…

But they no longer match because one is missing its Santolina ‘Lemon Fizz’.

sparkly

Allan and I met up.  It had taken me two hours and fifteen minutes to water the planters, and I had simply not been able to get the water to the one by the pharmacy to turn on.  We moved the van to Vet Field and I got some plants ready for the stage planters while Allan walked to the pharmacy planter and watered it.

We had time to check the Sid Snyder approach planters…

One had a nice sea thrift mixed with lithodora one one side…

…and its other side emptied by a thieving varmint.

There is one planter out of the ten or so on this approach that was still done by a volunteer from a business.  We noted that nothing had been done to it this year so we went to talk to them.  Two years ago, we had planted drought tolerant plants in it that had been pulled out and tossed into the dunes when the business, under a change of owners, decided to do the planter after all.  (I think they could not tell our plants from weeds.) I did not want that to happen again.  Figuring Allan was the “nice one”, I had him do the asking, and a good thing, too, because the owner said s/he was no longer going to do the planter because last year we had “taken the plants and used them  downtown”!  When Allan returned to the van and told me this, I just about had a head explosion.  HE returned to tell the person that there was no way that had happened.  He tactfully said, “We use a different palette”, which I hope the person understood.  In other words, we do NOT use red geraniums and pink petunias in the Long Beach planters. Partly because petunias need more frequent watering than we can provide. (The city crew waters the hanging baskets daily; we water the planters twice a week.)

My concern is that the planter that needs replanting is a vulnerable one and that everything we put into it will be stolen.  I said to Allan that we will plant it once, with drought tolerant plants that can hold up to just a weekly watering, and if those plants are stolen…I give up and will make it just beach strawberry.

Our last task was to put the bucket of soil into the northernmost planter with the sad Geranium ‘Rozanne.’  Allan did it.  I sat and looked kitty corner at the round bed in Coulter Park.

over there where the flag is

It bothered me to know it is weedy and has yellow bulb foliage and here comes a holiday weekend.  A cold foggy wind had arrived and there was lots of hasty holiday traffic and I simply could not face hobbling across the street to weed and fluff.  Perfection was not attained.

The Cove Restaurant

We look forward all week to our North Beach Garden Gang dinner.

Cove entry garden (Allan’s photo)

in the foyer (Allan’s photo)

house salad (Allan’s photo)

Caesar salad

stir fry bowl (Allan’s photo)

Cove burger for Dave

halibut with lemony risotto

tired and a bit sunburned (we all forgot to use sunscreen on this first really sunny day)

a dessert for us all to share of lemon cake and rhubarb cake. The latter was especially good.

I have to admit that after all that, the cupcakes from Captain Bob’s Chowder went down a treat at midnight.