Thursday, 15 August 2019
Our work start was slowed a little when we saw Jenna trying to figure out how to get a free table from outside the Ilwaco Pharmacy into her vehicle. We had already stopped our rig to water a dry looking Ilwaco planter, during which time Allan saw the entire swallow family.
Allan then loaded the table into our trailer for delivery later in Long Beach.
The Depot Restaurant
The barrel planter under the east window shouted to me that everything was dry. The windowboxes confirmed it, so we took extra time to water.
Long Beach
We deadheaded and Allan strimmed around the welcome sign.
We delivered the table to Jenna’s gallery…
Because we were parked near Fifth Street Park for the delivery, I changed my plan from weeding Coulter Park to trimming the last area of tatty lady’s mantle in Fifth Street’s SE quadrant. The three tree bed is a goshawful mess of weeds in damp soil, with roots all wrapped around the tree roots, so the only work we do on it is trimming it down a few times a year. I think the whole bed should be turned back into lawn. The saturated soil has always made it a happy home for swamp sedge and is a mucky mess to weed.
As you can see, the sky was a lovely grey with no sun to be seen.
I admired the rudbeckia in the NE quadrant of the park.
To think that once upon a time I did not like that fine plant for being just too orange and plain. I love it now.
While Allan cleaned up the three tree bed, I deadheaded and did horsetail patrol in the NW quadrant. A large group of tourists sat on the benches, eating their lunches from Captain Bob’s Chowder and declaring it was the best chowder they had ever had. They were facing me and watching as I weeded, with one of their large dogs barking at me from three feet away. I longed for a cloak of invisibility and had to remind myself over and over “The park is for people.”
It looked good when I was done, but my shoulders were up around my ears.
We bought some creamy garlic chowder to take home for a comfort food dinner. (We have a neat little mini refrigerator-freezer in our van.)
We then embarked upon watering all of the downtown planters.
The Knautia macedonica is back in my favour in the two planters where it resides, having reverted to green from the variegated Knautia ‘Thunder and Lightning’. I was not happy when the center had grown sparse. Now it has filled in and has been blooming non stop without any deadheading all summer long.
The very first chrysanthemums are flowering behind Geranium ‘Rozanne’ in the planter by NIVA green.
From there, I could see across the street to the Erysimum ‘Bowles Mauve’ that I wish I had pulled last fall.
I had anthropomorphized it when it started blooming like mad: Oh, it wants to live despite its sparse woody base. Now it must stay there till after Rod Run. Maybe. I can hardly bear it, but I think an empty space might look worse.
When I got to the northernmost planters, I walked an extra half block and pulled bindweed out of the bus stop corner of Coulter Park.
The back of the park looks ignorable…Even the lawn is dry. That area is due for some changes next year (by the city crew, not by us).
The front of the L shaped park is still pretty and green.
I noticed an appealing faux sedum item in the window of Dennis Company.
While I was watering the planter at the south end of Dennis Company, a nice employee came out and asked if we take care of the street tree in front of the store. Yes, we water it once a week, I replied. She told me that a man had come in all upset that the ivy was going to kill the tree.
Here is the ivy in question, a bit of small-leaved variegated ivy that gets trimmed once a year.
I had much to say, and apologized to the Dennis employee for “killing the messenger”. I probably did not plant the ivy, or if I did, it was about 20 years ago when reputable garden writers were saying that the more delicate forms of ivy were still ok to plant, even though English ivy had become a noxious weed here. I pointed out that the tree is still a fine and healthy specimen after 20 years, that the ivy is a small leaved variety that grows slowly and gets trimmed now and then, that its roots are down among the tree roots so we’ve never been able to get rid of it, and that I firmly believed that googling would back me up in it being harmless. And that 2020 would be my last year of all the annoyances of the job. That was a far cry from Monday, when I loved the job and wondered how I was going to bear to let it go.
Google did back me up. Despite our alarm about English ivy destroying biodiversity in the Pacific Northwest, in the UK the Woodland Trust says “Ivy does not kill or damage trees and its presence doesn’t indicate that a tree is unhealthy or create a tree safety issue in its own right.” The American Ivy Society of course says “The answer from the American Ivy Society is NO [ivy won’t kill a tree]. When people look at deciduous trees in winter and see evergreen ivy growing up the tree trunks, they incorrectly assume that the ivy (Hedera) is taking over the tree, or damaging or even killing the tree. Ivy is not a parasite but simply attaches to the trunk by means of adventitious roots that cling to the surface of the tree’s bark. The roots do not penetrate the bark which is a non-living, outer protective layer of a tree.”
I won’t plant any kind of ivy anymore, and I battle English ivy when I find it. I am just so, so glad that that little patch of green and white variegated ivy will be someone else’s problem by the time I am 66 years old. I can almost guarantee that no one is going to let it climb all the way up the trunk.
Before long, my beloved ratibidia had soothed my nerves.
After watering downtown, we watered the Sid Snyder beach approach planters. There, I do the four planters closest to town on foot, while Allan drives out to the three westernmost planters. Now it was his turn to get disgruntled.
I found about it when we reunited at the World Kite Museum and did a bit of light deadheading.
He showed me his photo of how one of our planters, on the sidewalk next to a resort, had been trimmed completely down, except for the rosemary, which had been hacked at. Right before kite festival!
The plants cut to the base were two smallish ornamental grasses and a handsome echinops (blue globe thistle). They had been there for years, leftover from volunteer planter days, making it an easy planter to maintain. To some non gardeners, they would not have been recognizable as good plants.
Just lovely for kite festival week (and you probably know how I feel about red bark).
There used to be river rock where that new red bark now lies. I think that made more sense for drainage.
It was too late to go to city works, so I said to Allan, “Let’s go to city hall; they are still open. You’ll feel better if you tell the staff about it and show them your photos.” So we did, and because of the always sympathetic ear of the city staff, he did feel better. The plants will grow back, but not for kite festival, Labor Day and Rod Run weekends.
Update, next day: As you can see, the planter is tucked into the resort property. The powers that be agree that the resort can take care of it from now on and we no longer have to water it. We wash our hands of it, not our problem. I hope they dig out the perennials that do not appeal to them and replace them with something that they like. They could configure their sprinklers to hit the planter as well as the adjacent garden.
Ilwaco
I watered and weeded at the boatyard while Allan watered the street trees and planters.
I found the most wonderful hose at one of the boatyard faucets.
It is like one of those cloth hoses that always burst, but this one is made of metal, puts out a good amount of water, and does not kink. I absolutely must have one. It is short, about 40 feet, but maybe two could be hooked together for watering the port gardens. I can see, though, that if someone drove over it, it would probably be ruined. A boat guy said, “You couldn’t drag it over your car” without causing damage.
The boatyard garden needs a thorough going over. I am just not sure when. I spent an hour watering and an exhausted hour weeding.
Allan kindly watered both our volunteer gardens at the post office and fire station so that I could get on with the half monthly billing.
We now have a three day weekend, except for a private home watering job that we agreed to do. Allan is off for a two night boating campout near Portland and I will leave my property as little as possible considering that said watering job must be done.
Please post again in a month or two after you purchase that hose to let us know if it holds up. If the hose is as good as it seems, I’m gonna’ buy one. Squirrels eat my hoses. Argh!!! So funny how some people are ga-ga about red mulch. ??? A local tree company delivered a big pile of chipped oak tree mulch to my house. I offered to share with my neighbors. No one took any. One ONLY uses red mulch. The other doesn’t use mulch at all and of course the mycorrhizal fungi that grows in it after decomposing for a while really turns them off.
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Yes, WHAT is appealing about red mulch? So fake looking, except if one lives in a desert area I suppose.
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Agreed.
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I’ve been reading about how very beneficial wood chip mulch is. The natural kind. I won’t use it on perennial beds (so far) because I like reseeding. But we’ve been chipping our own and it is fantastic in the woodsy areas. Incredible to me that someone would use only red mulch. Yuck.
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I’m a recreation therapist in a long-term care home, and my job is to be the ‘always happy and cheerful’ person. I love my work and the residents, but this grey, rainy weekend I, too, am looking forward to staying home and seeing no-one. Books to read, blogs to catch-up on, the cat to spoil, good food and a glass or two of wine. While mother nature waters my garden for me. Bliss. I wish you the same, Skylar.
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Thank you so much.
My mom really appreciated the recreation and social life when she moved into assisted living. She had always been shy and had severe social anxiety so it was really the first time she was drawn into a happy social life.
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I dread working in my front garden and being so exposed to my neighbors. None of them are gardeners or I dont think it would be so bad. I can just imagine how uncomfortable you would feel at times. At least I have enough privacy in the back to be able to even putter in my jammies. Your public gardens are looking spectacular and I am enjoying the creative blog headings.
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I hear you. I try to to front garden work on a weekday off when it feels less conspicuous. No one on the block within sight of my place is a gardener except for one perfect and frequently mowed green lawn.
The front yard definitely gets neglected at times because I’d rather be in back. I’ve planted for privacy up front but after nine years there are still areas that are open. I want to offer a gift to the street and privacy at the same time.
Sent from my iPad
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Plenty to be disgruntled about. I hope that your long weekend, restored your spirits.
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It did, and thank you!
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I prefer to garden in the back for a couple of reasons. The privacy and being able to dress as I want, and crawl around butt in the air without being gawked at. Also neighbourhood thefts have me not placing really nice plants, pots, nor garden art – or even tat – in the front. It will just get stolen.
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That is really sad re the thefts.
I feel gawked at all the time in all the awkward gardening poses while working in public. I just don’t want to wind up on YouTube.
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