24 November: perfect weather at the port

Wednesday, 24 November 2021

Before work, we saw a visitor next door.

Ring-neck Pheasant

The weather was perfect. Not cold, no rain, no wind. I decided we should do the boatyard and port rather than Js’ and Norwood because the port is so exposed to bad weather.

Ilwaco Fire Station garden

Allan added some mulch. I added some bulbs.

Ilwaco boatyard garden

We cut some but not all plants back. Some perennials look interesting all winter. Some are already messy or just too close to the sidewalk.

I tried cutting back the Euphorbia ‘Portuguese Velvet’ (below) from the sidewalk. You can see the sap, which burns some people’s skin, for which reason I decided the whole plant had to get dug and come home with me. It wasn’t till I wrote this after 7 PM that I realized the three nice pieces got dumped with the other debris because I forgot to retrieve them. Allan knows right where they are and will go get them back for me tomorrow.

Stipa gigantea, Allan’s style

Stipa gigantea, my style

Lily! Very soft and sweet

Trimming shrubs back from sidewalk

Oh dear, the second Ceanothus has dieback now. I will deal with it in February. The budget has run out for autumn pruning at the port.

This baptisia got cut down.

Geranium ‘Rozanne’ that got cut back last time we were here.

We took some time to weed the one street tree nearby that we had not finished last month.

Below: Boats at the north end of the boatyard.

I used to have a volunteer garden bed running along the north side, too, with a concrete block edge that the port bought for me. One winter there was some nearby road construction. All the trucks parked there and buried the whole garden, even the edging blocks, by parking on it and pushing everything into mud. I did not try to recreate it. I kind of blocked it from my memory. It is maddening to think of it. I had one of those orange ball buddleias, lots of perennials and poppies. It was beautiful. The edge blocks were like this one…and are probably still buried, a whole city block’s worth. I have no photos of it that I can remember. It was before I even had a computer. (I just realize this paragraph illustrates three uses for the word “block”.)

We went home to drop off a bit of compostable debris.Our neighbor, Frieda, who has never let me actually pet her, got a biscuit.

I collected some plants for the port. Frieda followed me for another biscuit. A bit later, she was hoping for a third one.

Howerton Avenue gardens

We weeded and clipped our way from east to west on the port curbside gardens.

A Kniphofia from Beverley got added.

Wind damage on wax myrtle?

Pearly everlasting cut down

Eryngiums, left up in dried stars

Eryngium ‘Sapphire Blue’ reblooming, never saw that before

Crab pots stacked to the south of our alders

Crabbers get to set their pots on December 1st this year, so they will have a good Christmas.

Weeding at Time Enough Books

A favor for Purly Shell

Cutting down an elderberry so it doesn’t scrape the building. It grows back this big every year.

As dusk approached, Allan went to dump debris and I kept weeding and planting two good plants from Xera Plants…an Erigeron glaucus ‘Wayne Roderick’ and a cleverly named watsonia.

In the almost dark, we planted another kniphofia from Beverly at the west end and then we were done…

…with only the Salt Hotel garden and a bit of the western beds left to weed. I hope we get a break from predicted rain in the next week to at least get that done . The work board tonight: