Thursday, 11 July 2019
at home
The heavy rain, amounting to 1.47 inches, had given us an extra day off.
The ponds brimmed with fresh water.
The red rain gauge told a beautiful story.
Today’s big plan: to dismantle and move my three trough gardens. They had turned out to be in too much shade.
And they also blocked access to weeding the most difficult corner to the left of a bog planting tub.
I can say I have rewilded that corner with long grass for frogs and insects to hide in.
Skooter helped with the dismantling.
Allan helped move the troughs, which are actually old water meter boxes.
When I heard some whining next door, the dogs got their biscuits.
The photos make the day look cool. It was over 70 degrees of sticky heat.
I welcomed a break when an uphill neighbor, Beverly, stopped by to bring me two fragrant roses from her inland garden.
We had a bit of a tour, of course.
Because I don’t focus much on growing food, I had relegated my strawberry patch to containers outside the deer fence in order to make room for the ponds. Bird netting had not worked to keep the deer off. Four plastic window box containers of strawberries could fit where the troughs used to be.
The containers used to sit here, in front of a repurposed filing cabinet where a red runner bean and a cucumber plant are failing to thrive.
Instead of the plastic window boxes, I used the drawers from the filing cabinet for the strawberries and will try to keep bird netting over the others that are still outside the fence.
I guess this is Upcycle Corner now.
MaryBeth came by while I was wrangling strawberries, to return the book Swallows and Amazons to Allan.
I started the parade of compost again.
I realized I had an audience.
The fifth barrow got me to the bottom of bin two.
Judy from Ocean Park had come by because I had planned to give her the free garden tour ticket that a friend gave me. She could not use it after all, so I called Beverly and she was pleased to come get it. She brought me a little plant, looks like a heuchera, has flowers “like tiny bubbles”.
This is the first year in the last four that the local garden tour did not conflict with the Grays Harbor tour (my favourite) or the bi-annual Tillamook tour. I almost used my free ticket, but the tour preview photos were overhead drone shots that showed so much of the gardens that I decided that I’d rather spend the day in my own paradise. I think “sneak peek” preview photos of mysteriously enticing garden vignettes are wiser, not giving almost everything away in advance. I want to be intrigued, enticed, not shown as much as a movie preview that tells too much of the story,
How I laughed when I remembered that in 2016, when I used to manage the local tour’s Facebook page, I was told I could no longer post any vignette-style sneak peek photos. I resigned then and turned the page over to someone else. The gift that gave me was that we went elsewhere that year and discovered the Grays Harbor Master Gardeners tour.
Meanwhile, in the garden…
With a few breaks to get out of the heat, I had gardened from 11:45 to 8:45.
Allan had done a bit of work on our local mowing jobs (all on this block) and then rewarded himself with a concert in Long Beach, featuring a Roy Orbison and an Elvis impersonator.
I might have gone for Roy, but not for Elvis. One of them changed clothes and turned into Neil Diamond at the end.
I had a pleasant evening in with Springwatch on Britbox TV.
Friday, 12 July 2019
Today, I weeded, because I am expecting company from afar next week. Allan hung some mosaic plates for me, made by our friend Michele Naquiaya, an artist who left Ocean Park for a thriving artistic life in Ijijic, Mexico.
I woke Skooter up while weeding. He was too comfy to help in the garden.
It was over 70 degrees and muggy again. I did retreat to the house for an hour of reading.
I restored the salmonberry tunnel…
…had a visit from Devery, and turned out some compost in the relative coolness of the evening.
That is as far as I got with compost because I remembered that a new Gardener’s World episode should be on Britbox. It was not! Why? I did find it elsewhere online, a wildflower meadow special. I learned that since WWII, wildflower meadows equal to one and half the size of Wales have disappeared from Britain, and I could swear I heard someone say that birds-foot trefoil is fed upon by 160 different insects. Is that possible? If you watch it (available here for the moment), tell me if I heard that right.
Also…Monty in a wildflower field must have set many hearts aflutter…
I accepted an invitation that would take me off the property tomorrow, only by two blocks, not too far.
What a great idea for the file cabinet turned on its side. I have severe compost envy when I see what you’ve made. Also am smitten with the mosaic plates and your sign.–Cool, cool, cool!
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Thank you!
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Lovely job of upcycling! I agree with hairytoegardener: the mosaic plates are totally cool!
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Thanks!
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Love the mosaic ! Grateful not be be in eastern US… so hot😓. Feeling fortunate. I totally spaced the tours😒
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Sorry you forgot the tour!
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The mosaic plates are pretty. I love your salmonberry tunnel picture, and also the sanguisorba “lilac squirrel.” The real star of today’s blog, though, is Skooter!
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Thank you! I’ll tell Skooter.
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I love your blog and have been reading for several years. Today, I did what I should have done a long time ago, and signed up for email updates. And the delicious shot of Monty reclining in the meadow had nothing to do with that. Really.
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I think my reply might not have gone through. Thank you! I hope the BBC would not be mad at me for swiping a screen shot of Monty. Could not resist.
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You are a busy person even when you are not busy at work. Your composting is very impressive.
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That compost compliment means a lot coming from you! Thank you.
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Monty in a wildflower field !? Haha so funny.. well you certainly deserve him but clearly after your hours and hours of garden work in that list we were all too tired and not much more but a fluttering heart would be accomplished. How do you do it? Thank you for another wonderful post !
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Thank you. Yes, not much oomph is left after a gardening day. 😉
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Ditto Compost Envy
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