15 Nov: down to one

Thursday, 15 November 2018

Instead of the predicted rain, we had another beautifully sunny day.

Long Beach

I had woken up early with a thought of cutting down what loomed in my mind as a terribly out of scale miscanthus in Fifth Street Park, which was not even supposed to be on today’s agenda.  When we got there, it did not look anything like the monster in my mind.

So instead, I used The Toy (Stihl cordless shears) to cut down a much smaller grass on the other side of the park, one that does not die back well.

before

after

Brainstorm: In late winter, when we return to work, we will move a bit of this grass over the other side, by that not so big miscanthus, to make the two end pieces of the park match better.

The Red Barn

We mulched with a bale of Gardner and Bloome compost and admired the horses.  Horse admiration is really why I keep this tiny job. (Also, it is conveniently next door to Diane’s garden.)  Allan’s photos:

a Friesian

before

after

The Shelburne Hotel

Allan checked the pots up on most of the second floor decks and balconies:

We had two missions: a preliminary trimming of the vastly overgrown wisteria and more weeding and cutting back in the garden.  We were especially going after orange montbretia, badaster, aegepodium, and misplaced and aggressive Spirea douglasii.

The wisteria will get a massive cutback in February.  It has built itself up and up into a huge mound, with dead underneath, and its flowers are mostly hidden.  Today was only a small beginning.

before

after

the vast mound

after (leaving some street-view-blocking leaves for now)

I began, and then Allan took over while I weeded.

after (Allan’s photo)

Allan is in there.

after

before, inside the fence ((Allan’s photos)

and after

It will be February ladder work by Allan to do the rest.  (I will haul the debris to the trailer.)

At the end of the work day, the garden was far more cut back than I would do with my own.  I think the tidy look makes most hotel guests feel that the garden is cared for in winter.

looking north

looking south

Even with all the mulch we have applied, I wish the soil level was higher in there.

looking south

back garden

calendulas for Chef Casey

back garden, pineapple sage

The one mission I did not complete this fall was a thorough (although probably futile) dig out of the madly running and stinky houttuynia in the bed above.  It is now on my agenda for February 2019.

pub windows aglow

We sadly could not be lured into the pub tonight because we had a full trailer load of debris to offload at home, some for the wheelie bin (invasive weeds), some for the chipper and some for the compost pile (clean debris only).

And now we are down to one day of fall clean up: The final work visit of all (our) time to  Klipsan Beach Cottages, scheduled for tomorrow.