Tuesday, 15 October 2018
We had an all Ilwaco bulbing day.
J’s & Norwood’s & Mike’s garden
We started at the little blue cottage across the street. I had noticed in a recent photo that some blue fescue looked old and tatty, so it got removed (by Allan) and new bulbs put in its place. Meanwhile, I set the bulbs out across the street at the Norwood garden and then Allan planted them while I planted at the J’s cottage.
Every bulb I planted around the J’s birdbath required banging a hole through the stupid landscape fabric that is underneath this garden (not installed by the Js; it was there when they bought the place).
At the Norwoods, Allan’s befores and afters of the north side (he weeded, too, mostly pesky creeping sorrel):
We will mulch the south side bed when we start our mulching rounds. It is narrow and was planted by the previous owners of the house.
Next we planted white and pink and blue spring flower bulbs (narcissus, tulips, crocus, iris Dutch and reticulata and assorted whatnots) at Mike’s. His garden was looking quite fine with pink hesperantha but not one photo was taken.
Port of Ilwaco
Planting at the boatyard and the port came next. The hot weather was more manageable down by the water. Today, there was no wind, so our bulb bags did not blow away. That was a treat.
We headed down to the curbside gardens along the port with an assortment of narcissi and some species tulips that I hope are small enough to not entice deer. I wish I could plant lots of crocus and Iris reticulata there. It was heartbreaking a few years back when crows or seagulls pulled out almost all of those little bulbs as soon as their early green sprouts started to show.
By five thirty, we had made it all the way down to the west end, putting some new bulbs in almost every bed.
At home, the evening was pleasant, warm, windless, even after dark. I would love to have sat around the campfire but instead I had to sort the next batches of bulbs for several more hours, with the front and back garage doors open with the van parked in the driveway to give me some privacy from the street.
Do you have special tools to help you put bulbs in the ground, or is all by hand so to speak? Either way, I predict spring is going to look quite pretty all around the peninsula.
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By hand tool. Allan uses a trowel and small hand mattock and I use my ho mi (Zen digger, EZ Digger, Korean hand plow).
Sent from my iPhone
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I know spring there will be beautiful with all your hard work, Skyler and Allan!
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Good to see ticks on the board.
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Thanks, Mr T!
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Ah, the California poppy again.
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Yes, so many!
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That was one of the distinctly colored ones too.
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