Thursday, 29 June 2017
Our plan to finish the port on Friday suddenly got changed when I saw an ad in the paper last night that Ilwaco Freedom Market was holding a BBQ in their parking lot on Friday. Their strip of bark/would-be garden would have to be done Thursday, along with the curbside garden in front of their store. I wondered if this would change up our schedule so much that we’d have to work on Saturday…
Port of Ilwaco
In this infrequently watered garden, the recent hot day and the wind had crisped up some of the dog daisies.

before

after

Some daisies were good enough to stay through the holiday weekend.
The curbside garden got a good watering, as did the garden next door at Salt.

Eryngium ‘Sapphire Blue’
Allan had the terribly boring part of the job (his photos follow): Running the string trimmer along the sidewalk to the marina:
and the tedium of weeds in a barkscape with tatty landscape fabric (which we are slowly removing; obviously it does not prevent weeds).

I hope that we can create more joy in this bed by next year.
On the way out of town, even though we were feeling time pressure, we circled round the block to deal with this in a tree garden (Allan’s photos):
Fortunately, the sign-putter did not get mad about being told it just could not be in the tree bed, no matter how gently placed.

It’s not even a great patch of garden….However, the sign sets a bad precedent for future damage.
Long Beach
We checked on and did not feel the need for any work at the welcome sign.
The Fun Rides have now moved into a parking lot area near the center parking lot berm. We felt the need to at least string trim said berm. Allan dropped me off at Veterans Field to weed and took time for a bit of strimming there.
Meanwhile, Allan faced the tedium of the boring and never watered center berm:

He found a dirty diaper as well as weeds. Unfortunately, used diapers are not an unusual find in the parking lot area.
I started the watering round earlier than Allan did so was able to do four blocks of planters to his two. My walkaround:
I realized that the theme of most of my planters IS the meadow look.

Today, I had the hard task of carrying bucket water to the four Fish Alley planters…a long walk to the back end. I sometimes think this is the hill I will die on.
I am very disappointed in the Salvia viridis, painted sage, this year. They are supposed to look like this:
But this year and last year they have been disappointing. Everywhere I’ve planted them this year, they are just putting out one small disappointing bract on the top:
If these plants don’t shape up, I am going to go off them and not use them next year. For so many years they have been the most asked about plant (many times per each summer watering session) in the planters. Last year, when they were also dull, no one asked about them at all.
Allan’s watering walk around:
So he saw this woman with a hat clearly decorated with planter flowers (Cosmos and Geranium ‘Rozanne’ and California poppy). She told him her two year old had picked them, and she was perfectly happy to have her photo taken.
In other unrelated news, a local realtor told Allan that she had seen a woman picking a bouquet from under the trees. When the realtor suggested the woman not do that, the woman (not the woman in the hat) kept picking, saying she “had permission”, which the realtor doubted. Allan assured her that permission had not been given by us.
In better news, he saw someone taking photos of the flowers, as it should be.
We finished Long Beach by weeding in Fifth Street Park. It is taking a long time to get interesting.
Port of Ilwaco again
More watering of the Howerton curbside gardens was essential. Allan started east of the Pavilion while I watered and weeded by the Nisbett Gallery, port office, Time Enough Books…

Someone had braided a grass by Loading Dock Village. Allan thought a clever student from the driving school did it while waiting. (Allan’s photo)
In the curbside gardens, I have found eremerus (foxtail lily) to be a big disappointment. They just mostly dry up like this one:
And only one looks like it should, so I may have to give up on planting them:

Artist Don Nisbett told me he’d given this little bed 11 gallons of water on the recent 90 degree day. Thank you, friend!
Allan caught up to me and dropped off the trailer at the boatyard, went home and hooked up the water trailer, and came back to help me finish watering at Time Enough.
Allan still had to water the Ilwaco trees and planters. At 7:30, he dropped me off at the boatyard to weed.
I walked down to the north end to begin. There, the weeds were the worst with lots of tall velvet grass.

tree garden watering where the sign had been (Allan’s photo). I do not like that wild sweet pea in there. He does.
I was getting close to the stretch that had been partly weeded earlier this week.

I have planted a few lilies in the boatyard to test if deer will eat them. I think a human picked some of the flowers off this one.
I started to wonder when Allan would show up, as the song lyrics “Gettin’ dark, too dark to see…” ran through my mind. I pictured slowly pushing my wheelbarrow home in the dark. The odd thing was I still had loads of energy and could have weeded for another two hours (by headlamp?), thanks in part to my Unloader knee brace.
It was 9:30 at home before the trailer was unhitched and parked. Allan saw this disturbing sight on the roof next door:
I didn’t know I still had it in me to do a ten hour day and was well chuffed.
A 10 hour day — You have me beat.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You crammed a lot of good work into one day! I’ve been meaning to mention the book Morville Hours by Katherine Swift. It’s one of the books I’d take with me to a desert island. You might like it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you. I will order it!
LikeLike
It’s looking colorful up there, Skyler. You and Allen do a lot of work!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, Lavinia.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sorry to hear that the painted sage did not turn out as good as past years. It is a mystery to me why some years a planting will look wonderful, and other years not so much.
I have been unable to get gaura to have a long bloom season, let alone return, despite being within zonal range. Is “whirling butterflies” always reliable for you?
I had sworn off all gaura, until I recently saw gaura lindheimeri Baby Jane in the garden centre, and I succumbed. Again.
A ten hour gardening day. All gardeners know the effort that goes into that. Hope you treated yourself in the day (or two) following!
LikeLike
A long day indeed. I liked the meadowy look around the anchor a lot and of course I love the eryngiums.
LikeLike