Thursday, 5 September 2019
Before work, we had a visit from Jodie and Doug from the J’s cottage—and a gift of some home canned pears and peaches from Jodie, her first venture into canning.
We had a short workday.
First, deadheading and spot watering at The Depot Restaurant.
We then drove north through downtown Long Beach, where folks had already put out chairs to watch the hot rods coming to town for this weekend’s Rod Run to the End of the World.
I would much rather see chairs than planter sitters!
Shiny trucks and cars already lined the street.
Boreas Inn
We did about an hour of weeding and deadheading.
Although the weather was uncomfortably hot, this temperature gauge lied.
I had a quick visit with Susie when I went into the inn’s kitchen to get some water for one of her porch plants. There, she and two friends/weekend guests were sorting out some dahlia and rose bouquets for the rooms.
When we no longer have to water Ilwaco planters two nights a week, we could take a walk on the path to the beach some evening.
The Red Barn
On the way to the Red Barn Arena, our van confirmed my displeasure about the day’s heat.
We watered, weeded, and deadheaded our little garden at the barn.
Diane’s garden
Life is easier when we can park in the horse pasture right next to Diane’s place. Today was one of those days. Some guests in an RV, also parked there, had a darling little fluffball of a dog to greet us with gentle wiggles and no barking.
Holly, in Diane’s large dog run area, bounced in pleasure because she knows I will give her pets and a biscuit.
I stayed inside the fence of the roadside garden. Sandridge Road was bustling with fast traffic, much more than usual, some rods showing off and some the locals trying to avoid traffic on Pacific, the main highway. I deadheaded with the long handled clippers.
Allan began by deadheading the septic vault garden…
and then went out to the roadside outside the fence, which made me so nervous (because of all the traffic) that I cut the job a bit short. This is the last week for the sweet peas, so they do not have to have every seed pod clipped off. I am just so pleased that they made it to Rod Run weekend.
As we drove off, I was pleased to say we would not be working again till Tuesday.
Port of Ilwaco
After watering at home and unloading our tools from the van to prepare for our Saturday trip to the Castle Rock Bloomin’ Tour, we went to help Jenna set up for tomorrow night’s Slow Drag.
She had us walk along Waterfront Way finding places to tape some black and white chequered flags. One rod was already on display.
We saw some tuna caught today.
While gathering flags, I had suddenly remembered how last year’s Slow Drag featured the DJ putting a great big speaker tripod right in the little curbside garden behind the Nisbett Gallery, wreaking some havoc that I was too polite to rant about at the time. I was determined it not happen this year, so Allan went home to acquire some stakes to hammer in around the wee bed.
I put up more checkered flags, glad no one was closely observing my solitary incompetence with sticky packing tape.
After Allan had the stakes driven (with difficulty, because concrete had spilled into the corners of the beds)…
….three of Jenna’s helpers helped me untangle a length of checkered flags and staple them to protect my garden bed of cosmos, Coreopsis tinctoria, and more.
More help arrived to push one of two bleachers into place.
Allan had gone to Don and Jenna’s house to get a stack of tires to make the photo frame for the event. He saw her gorgeous cat.
The tire stack came up so short that folks would have to kneel to get in the frame. Allan went on a quest for a couple more tires. I may or may not have been with him and we may or may not have found a couple of bald tires in a certain blackberry patch in an area where lots of stuff gets piled around. By the time you read this, any missing bald tires will have been returned to their nest.
Here is how the tire frames a photo:
In the evening my night blooming cereus, whose proper name I am too tired to look up, bloomed, filling the room with its subtle fragrance.
I pay a fee every year for the extra storage required to have this photo-heavy blog and to keep advertisements off of it (I hope). But today, I am closing with a new ad that features the Port of Ilwaco as its location. It was filmed earlier this summer.
Friday, 6 September 2019
at home
The best thing of the day was that I got nine hours of sleep, practically unheard of, which means I have banked some sleep for getting up early tomorrow for our trip to the Castle Rock Bloomin’ Tour.
I did not get the hours by going to bed early.
My one mission for the day was to scoop water out of the garden boat and replace it with fresh rain water, and so I did. The water had gotten so murky that I feared for the fish.
It was exhausting. I had the idea of watering a lot of pots with green water, but ended up just pouring buckets full on the garden around the boat. When I got down to about an inch of water, I found the fish. It seemed perfectly happy and vigorous despite having lived in murk for a few weeks. Now if only I can find its friend in the bigger pond. Some weekend soon dipping that one out till I find the fish will be my mission.
Allan helped me pour some rain water jugs into the canoe and I carried some small white buckets full and then got the rain barrel hose water running. Got this full before the barrel ran out.
I wanted to stay home and sift compost but had the social obligation of going to the Slow Drag to take photos for Discover Ilwaco. It is an event that I have enjoyed very much since 2009, although not as much as I enjoy sifting compost.
Just as I was going out the gate, a woman was looking in and said she loves the garden. I gave her a garden tour.
She’s from Rockaway Beach, Oregon. (Rock rock Rockaway Beach.) As people always are, she was amazed at how big the garden is. Her husband parked his cool car right in front.
I was about to leave for Slow Drag when I got a message from the business owner adjacent to what is my best port garden this year. “So I just pissed a guy off sitting in the flower bed in front of the store. He just spit in the garden. Now he is kicking the plants. People can be jerks. Next year we will tape it off.” She soon added “I’m going home.” This from someone who had always loved the event.
Next year we most certainly will tape off more garden beds, which has not been necessary in the past (except for that one speaker tripod). Allan had already departed to take photos. I hustled down there right away with some marking tape and ran a line through the garden, getting two people to move their chairs in order to do so. One said they had not hurt any plants. Yet one of their chairs had ground a special eryngium into one flattened leaf of mush. I said “That’s a five dollar plant”, actually $15. Another guy sarcastically was going to offer me money. I walked away rather than say, “Are you gonna drive to Joy Creek Nursery and get me another one, because I can’t get it here!”
I have never seen so many people in the garden beds before. In past event, the gardens have pretty much been treated with consideration. These are, of course, the same beds we spent a day earlier this week fluffing up to near perfection for the big night.
My heart was not into enjoying the race. It took me half an hour to calm down enough to take any photos. Usually, I take a few hundred photos and winnow out to about 300 good ones for the Discover Ilwaco page. This year, I took under 100 and winnowed them down to just 33, not all of the event itself. Sometimes my hands were shaking. I wanted to be home sifting compost instead. My feel turned toward home several times but I persevered because of my fondness for the organizer of the race, who was counting on us taking photos. Allan did much better than I did, giving us enough to make an album on Discover Ilwaco.
I did not enjoy the weekend hours we spent processing and uploading those photos.
Next: I’ll let our annual “Slow Drag and the Gardens” post (link goes to an older post) speak for itself about the event. It was all good fun for everyone but the gardeners.
I shouldn’t let myself care about some smashed plants. The gardens will recover. Yet I wish gardens got more respect. I can only imagine what would happen if I were wearing jeans with studded pockets and sat on a shiny vintage car. I would never dream of treating someone’s precious vehicle with such disrespect. I wish the same were true for the gardens into which I put my all.
Your gardens give so much pleasure to so many people (locals, and those of us who enjoy them through your blog) that it’s a shame that a few inconsiderate oafs can bring your mood down. I liked your studded jacket/fancy car analogy!!!
Keep your chin up, my gardening friend!!!
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Thanks, Terena!
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Skyler, that is a cute photo of you with Jodie and Doug. Love the Ford truck ad. That tuna is amazing! Your night blooming cereus is amazing, too. As for the slow drag, I’m sorry a few people have to disrupt a fun event with their rude behavior. I hope you have nicer, more respectful people there next year.
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Thank you. Most of the crowd was pleasant indeed.
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Perhaps you van fence off the beds with barbed wire!
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Checkered flag bunting is as wild as we can get. Motion activated sprinklers that only spray within the boundaries of the gardens would be fun but they are not plumbed. 🙂
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So sorry this got spoiled for you this year. There were far more spectators this year downtown also. Some people just do not respect anything that is not their’s.
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Thank you.
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Yeah, just take note of the planters most likely to be squished and flag them off. It is not that they have no respect for gardens specifically, it is just that they believe the human species is dominant, is master of any domain, and as such does not have to make room for, accommodate, nor live in harmony with any other living thing on the planet.
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That’s the plan. The odd thing is that in previous years I’ve been pleasantly surprised with how respectful people have been of the gardens. This year was so different, it took us unawares. From now on, I’ll expect and prepare for the worst.
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Plant more thistles and nettles!
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Nettle tea!
I do have lots of Eryngiums but clearly not enough.
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Poison ivy is an option…
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🙂
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I have been reading your accounts of this event for a few years and know how much you have always enjoyed it. I am sorry it was ruined for you this year.I’m certain the port merchants appreciated how hard you and Allan worked to prepare the gardens, and perhaps a community effort to prevent this passive-aggressive sort of vandalism will emerge from this . People who don’t garden absolutely do not have a single clue about what it takes to create gardens like these. I am always amazed by how many residents of my neighborhood in Northern California never go outside . It would drive me nuts to be cooped up in the house all the time.
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That’s insightful that they have no clue how much work goes into creating a garden. That explains a lot.
For example, at the boatyard I’ve heard people refer to the long border as wildflowers. Even said appreciatively, it reveals they don’t recognize it’s a carefully chosen selection of perennials.
I feel the same astonishment about people who choose to spend most of their time inside (even though I long for reading weather). When we go on a drive, I marvel at all the houses with no gardens at all. Yes, people are busy but I had one when working seven days a week.
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