Thursday, 14 March 2019
During the cloudy morning, the species tulips in the scree garden stayed closed.
Skooter captained the good ship Ann Lovejoy.
When we arrived at the post office, I remembered that the quilt show at the museum would mean lots of extra foot traffic Friday through Sunday, so we spent about an hour spiffing up our volunteer garden. A before photo is lacking and would have shown that Allan dug out a big self sown red grass that was right by the sidewalk. The garden shows off better now.
The grass was just past the fifth stepping stone.
Then we could get on to our paid work, taking up where we had left off on Monday with the trimming of santolinas, vastly speeded up with The Toy. We worked from Salt Hotel to the Freedom Market.
Almost all the photos today are Allan’s.
I had been eager to get the Salt sword ferns trimmed before they started to unfurl.
Allan strimmed the grassy verge by the Freedom Market because no one else does. (It’s port property next to a sidewalk between businesses.)
Almost to the west end:
Some Hermodactylus iris in the curbside garden:
The Van Engelen bulb catalog says, “Commonly referred to as the Snakes Head Iris, this graceful 1597 Mediterranean heirloom has lightly scented flowers comprised of taupe standards with yellowish-green striations and taupe-edged purplish-brown falls. A terrific garden variety, its finger-shaped tubers can multiply underground, yielding more flowering shoots as it matures over time.”
We took a load of clipped santolina home to our compost bins. The tulips had opened more as the day has brightened.
Frosty told Allan which bin to use.
Our neighbours got their daily biscuits.
The entire front garden smelled of apricots from the hamamelis.
When we arrived at the boatyard garden, the free wood bin across the street (where last week’s dozens of pallets had been taken by someone) had a cool piece of driftwood that Allan snagged and took back to our place.
We trimmed the many santolinas and did some weeding all along the boatyard.
I planted some phlomis and some tall yellow achillea, dug up from my garden, at the boatyard and the curbside gardens.
I had had an absurd fantasy that we might also have time to plant Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ starts in all of the Ilwaco Street planters. Ha. Didn’t happen. Maybe tomorrow or Saturday.
Back at home, while Allan offloaded our compostable debris and went off to dump the weeds, I unpacked an exciting box from Annie’s Annuals. The packing from Annie’s is the best and easiest to unpack of any mail order nursery of my experience.
Box of healthy plants…
Each of the three plants has its own removable box…
And that box easily deconstructs to reveal the potted plants.
So easy, especially compared to that nursery whose order last year was packed in so much shredded paper that it was hard to not damage the plants while unpacking.
The Annie’s plants are beautiful. She sells perennials as well as annuals.
Here’s what I got. I am showing you the prices, too, because they are competitive with buying in person at nurseries, and the plants are such a good size.
I got the rose ‘Grandmother’s Hat’ because of the name. The rose I want most is ‘Special Grandma’, which I have seen in the Tootlepedal blog and which seems to only be available in the U.K.
I had an exceptionally special grandma.
I was able to erase two santolina tasks from the work board. My hope is to get Long Beach santolinas done by the end of this week. I’m trying to remember if there are any left at the Boreas Inn that might need doing.
Soon (I hope) nothing will stand in the way of starting the beach approach weeding.
I, too, like the way Annie’s Annuals packs their stuff. Cardboard is easily recycled. I recently decided to take increased ownership of how I impact the environment with regard to what I purchase and the way it’s packaged, When plants arrive in lots of plastic with non-degradable packing peanuts I try not to order from that vendor again. Last fall, I contacted a big online vendor to say in a nice way that their packaging was bad for the environment. They responded (in essence) that they didn’t care.–I will no longer buy from them. In contrast, last week I received a rose from High Country Roses and was pleased they’re using cornstarch packing peanuts and brown paper.–All of these went into my compost heap.
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Shame on the one that didn’t care!!
The one I found hard to unpack was at least very compostable.
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Glad you are feeling better from the vaccine after effects and able to get out in your gardens.
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Thank you!
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I am sorry about the unavailability of Special Grandma. I hope that Grandmother’s Hat will be an adequate substitute.
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Thanks, Mr. T!
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The hamamelis is gorgeous! I love that driftwood Allan snagged. The plants from Annie’s Annuals look very healthy.
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We have a bit of green santolina at work. It is not as popular as one would expect in a chaparral climate. I really think it should be used more in landscaping. Some dislike the aroma. I think it is totally awesome!
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The aroma is one of my favourite things about it. A garden show with a segment about a California garden, years ago, is what turned me on to them.
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That makes sense, except that it really is not as popular as it should be. It is such a sensible plant. Once it gets established, it does not need much at all. It probably looks better if watered a few times through summer. Otherwise, it is a natural choice. Instead, plants that need more water are more popular.
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