Monday, 26 June 2017

Our post office garden
We headed to Long Beach to begin with some weeding and mulching of the Bolstad beach approach. We’d already gotten a late start (because of the Monday doldrums) and had done a bit of a garden driving tour in Seaview, waiting till the magic moment of noon when registration would open for a Willapa Bay barge trip for members of the Willapa friends group. We parked in the Long Beach big parking lot so Allan could register with “Eventbrite” on his phone. That did NOT work so we drove all the way home so he could do it via computer. Therefore, we did not even start work till 1 PM!
First, we gathered Soil Energy at the works yard (and saw the killdeer family hustling about too fast for photos). The mother only played “broken wing” for a moment so she might be starting to trust us.

Allan’s photo
I had walked from the yard half a block to the office to ask for another heap of mulch to be acquired. (After the Fourth of July, I was told; they crew is very busy right now.) On that short walk, I realized I had completely forgotten to wear my knee brace after a weekend of intermittent gardening at home. I would regret that as the day progressed.

beach approach garden

rose hips and a painted rock (Allan’s photo)
We are already getting asked by passersby what the rose hips are.

rugosa rose and beach strawberry (Allan’s photo)
I said to Allan that if we just did the “end cap” section by the arch, we would be halfway done with the beach approach garden (because I had done the other short “end cap” section last week). When I saw how many roses were poking out into the street, we ended up trimming the end cap and the first section, so now, HALLELUJAH!, we are more than halfway done with the 13 sections of this rather half-arsed, rushed weeding job.

shearing roses by the arch

after
We then started the watering of the Long Beach planters AND trees. Because of so much rain, this is the first time the street tree pocket gardens have needed watering this year. Allan did the 18 trees and 5 planters and the Fish Alley barrels while I did the rest of the 37 main street planters. (There are fewer trees than planters, but the trees are much harder to water because the quick-connect dealie is down in a hole, and the first time, the hole is often filled with mud.)
Allan’s photos (brace yourself for something yucky in the second one and a later one):

the quest for the faucet, which is in a slightly different spot in each tree.

EWWWWWWWW baby slugs. (I find this in the planter faucet caps, too.)

poor li’l slugs

faucet hooked up (then hose gets attached)

another search for the hook up

found it (just for fun, they are not always on the same side of the tree)

EWWWWWWWW I don’t even want to see this! I don’t even like seeing the picture on slug bait boxes. But this is the true life of gardeners.

faucet is often filled up with dirt

found the hook up

tree garden by Abbraccio coffee bar is all smashed up by some recent roofing next door (we think)
I’d like the Abbraccio tree to be the best because I like the new coffee bar so much. Unfortunately, it is one of the most boring tree gardens. Next year will be better.

not easy to water the corners

hookup right under a bumper

another one full of dirt

Dirt has to be pried out so that the quick connect bayonet can go in.
My watering round photos were few because I was really missing my knee brace:

City crew member at work.
I noticed big blackberries emerging from a rhododendron at the back of this park, way up high. I didn’t have time or equipment to deal with it today. Must remember later.

Someone yanked a gladiolus right out of the ground, for no good reason, and left it there. I did not plant big glads in the planters but I leave the ones planted by volunteers years ago. I replanted this one. It will now not bloom this year because it was distressed, and so was I.

looking across the street at a planter by the Elks drab wall.

Brodiaea ‘Queen Fabiola’ making up for its annoyingly messy foliage

I saw where the corner of a tree garden was dry because of car bumper problems.

Hungry Harbor Grille

Glad I planted the tough and pretty Knautia macedonica under some of the trees. (It’s not a noxious weed here, yet.)
Speaking of noxious weeds….I had been unable to get one of the planter’s water to turn on (one where the faucet is really low in the planter) so we finished by moving the van to that one, so that Allan (with more manual dexterity than me by far) could hook up the hose for me. Then he removed a problem that has been bugging me: a fennel under one of the trees. It is definitely on the noxious list…
And reseeded itself from here:
And has been setting a bad example under that tree. He couldn’t get the root out because it went under the concrete.
I completely forgot my idea that we should check and water the planters in Long Beach on Sid Snyder drive. Now that will have to wait till Wednesday. We would not have had time, anyway. Allan worked till dark.
My big plan had been to water the Ilwaco boatyard while Allan watered the Ilwaco planters. I simply could not; my leg hurt and the boatyard watering takes a lot of stepping over and around obstacles. It can wait till tomorrow, which will be one of my favourite kind of work days: an all Ilwaco day. In fact, we will have two all Ilwaco days while we try to get the public gardens perfect for this Saturday’s fireworks show at the port.

Allan’s photo while watering an Ilwaco planter