Tuesday, 19 March 2019
We woke up to the sound of battering wind again. I had asked about it on a local weather group. Among the usual snarky replies (“It’s called weather. Happens all the time. Shocking I know.” “Then why bother to have a weather group to discuss it?” I wanted to reply but did not), I got one informative answer: “Strong high pressure east of the Cascades and a thermal trough of low pressure along the immediate coast causes these extremely high winds. High pressure blows to lower pressure. Unusual for March more common late summer and into fall. As the winds blow down the Cascades, the air compresses and warms as it makes it’s way to the ocean beaches. Thus we are well into the 70’s. Warmer than Portland and Vancouver!”
I was pleased to learn that someone in the know agreed that it was unusual for March to have warm weather and winds over 30+ mph.
We tried to go to work at the Shelburne, based on my theory that it would be less windy there. We arrived and parked and I considered my mission of planting sweet peas along the windswept sidewalk. The wind shook our van. The bamboo and rhododendron looked like this:
Still feeling down and out from yesterday’s plant theft discoveries, I decided on “self care” instead. Allan readily agreed to not mind wasting the drive to Seaview, and we went right back home without even stepping out of the van. He thought the wind might be good for sailing on Black Lake, and after a bit of paperwork, that is just what he did. I’ll share here when he blogs about it over on his site.
I stayed well out of the 35 mph wind watching Gardeners’ World (2013) on Inside Outside tv. It made me so happy that I could feel myself smiling the whole time. Frosty was happy to have me in the comfy chair.
I was as happy as this lovely man buying flowers at the Malvern Garden Show. (I wish I knew him.)
After four half hour episodes, the wind dropped and I could no longer stay indoors without feeling guilty. As always, the compost bins are the perfect excuse to avoid all the weeding that awaits me. (I like weeding, but I like compost more.)
Bin two was half full of potentially good stuff.
I got an oyster basket of rough compost that was moderately fine but didn’t quite go through the sifter.
It went around my new Stachyurus praecox.
Before:
After:
I reached the bottom of Bin Two…
…and got one and a half barrows of lovely sifted compost.
…with which I mulched most of a widened garden edge.
I examined the new ponds carefully for frogs and found none.
After some garden appreciation…
…I returned to Gardeners’ World for a pleasant evening.
Meanwhile, after sailing, Allan had worked on his own garden job, the Ilwaco Community Building garden.
Here is his progress report.
With the two day unusual wind event over, we should be able to work on planting sweet peas tomorrow.
Compost post. Yay!
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:-D. Always cheering, eh?
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Good looking compost work all round. I am glad that you got the wind explanation. Bad weather is a bit more tolerable if you know what is causing it.
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Thanks, Mr T!
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Flowering quince happens to be one of the theme plants that we will be using more of in our landscapes. It is uncommon here, and there are very few at work so far. Yet, it is so compatible with they style of the redwoods and the rest of the landscapes, and more in a style that we would like to promote. We work with a very unique situation here, in which we want a landscape that looks like it belongs in a redwood forest. Compared to Southern California or the Santa Clara Valley, it is VERY different.
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Sounds absolutely beautiful.
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Oh, it is. It is not my way of gardening, but it is fun to keep it this way for those who come here from all over. It is something that I will miss when I go back to just growing what ultimately ends up in landscapes such as these.
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