Monday, 17 June 2024
at home
In mid March, I had planted three flats of cerinthe seeds which had gotten ruched up in the greenhouse by a critter so that only three pots of seed germinated for my end of May plant sale. So I had recently replanted them thinking I would have some from my end of July garden open day, and….a critter got into them again! The seeds must be tasty. Now they are covered, which makes them awfully shady.
I did some weeding while thinking about my long ago friend who is fading from life up in Seattle. I hoped for some sort of last minute miracle cure from “failure to thrive”; even though he is in hospice, couldn’t a miracle happen?
Skooter kept me company.
Of course, he was lying on top of some little weeds that I wanted to pull.
On my Radway Sunrise rose, I saw a better garden helper going after a sudden influx of aphids.
I hope it calls its friends for help, and that some birds find the aphids, too.
I was thrilled to see my Baptisia ‘Brownie Points’ is blooming. I just read that it is a creation of plantsman Han Hansen, who I have the pleasure of having as a Facebook friend, and who recently posted a photo of a 2025 introduction of a stunning baptisia with golden foliage and blue flowers.
A stunning rose whose name I forget but that I will find one of these winters:
Out in the willow grove on the south fence, a white rambling rose is blooming prolifically.
At its feet…
Next door
I weeded at the Norwood garden, Allan mowed their lawn, and on the way back, which is a route that goes through Alicia’s back garden, I noticed that one of her Malva ‘Zebrina’ has a dramatically fasciated stem.
There is no harm in it. It is just interesting. I will share it with a Facebook group called Fasciation Fascination.
Underneath, the bed was pretty weedy and I resolved to do something about it, because Alicia is a wonderful neighbour and is not retired, and we (almost) are and have plenty of time.
Tuesday, 18 June 2024
We’d had a welcome bit of rain.
next door
I weeded some of the grass and unwanted montbretia. We overflow onto Alicia’s large parking pad with our trailer and sometimes a pile of debris and wanted a way to say thank you. She will not hear of Allan mowing her lawn for free but this, I think I can get away with.
Allan helped clean it up.
That’s better.
That was so satisfying that I turned next to a garden bed that I had created out of a hard to mow edge of lawn on her property against our west fence and then had neglected.
Somewhat better!
Cistus ‘Mickie’ peeks through from my garden.
That was so satisfying that I was inspired to move on to the old stump garden, originally a big maple around which her grandma, Nora, had made a garden bed. It had gone to weeds, and both Alicia and I had worked on it and planted some things at different times, and now it needed rescuing.
Allan helped dig up a white potentilla shrub (an extra from my garden that I’d moved over here) that was encompassed with a pheasant grass…
…and he got it divided so the woody dead part could be discarded and the good part saved, not an easy task.
After:
I have a dream of removing the chunk of lawn between the new maple and the old stump, where the yellow wheelbarrow is, below…
…because the grass there doesn’t go all the way around the stump, and there are some big rocks that could be crowbarred forward to make an edge. I had better prove to myself I can keep the other areas up better before I expand.
at home
Allan had repaired a partially completed stained glass window that he had gotten for $5.00 at a friend’s yard sale and found a place to put it on the fence at the end of the deep swale.
He also noticed that beautiful rose by the fire circle. It also has exceptionally glossy and disease free foliage.
And Geum ‘Totally Tangerine’.
I noticed my hardy red and white gladiolus, pretty sure it is cardinalis.
Paul’s Himalayan Musk rose is still putting on a great show, more white than pink now.
Can be viewed from Alicia’s side, too.
We both noticed flowers in the northeast corner of the front garden, viewed from the sidewalk…
An orange lily…
And my ‘Veilchenblau’ rose, which I got from a cutting from Bryan’s mother, Louise, from her Seattle garden, and managed to get it from my Seattle house to Seaview in 1992, from Seaview to Ocean Park in January 1994, from there to my first house in Ilwaco in July 1994, and then restarted it from a cutting here in 2010.
It spills over into the other side of the old ornamental plum tree, too.
I treasure it as a memento of my dear and much missed friend, Louise: friend, mentor, gardener, Quaker, peace activist; I loved the way she called her son Bryan “chum” and so valued the way she kept in touch with me for many years after she moved to Canada.
In the driveway garden, Callistemon viridiflorus is blooming in chartreuse.
I still had to water and found Skooter lounging on the greenhouse patio.
I have to confess that Ive been so tired at the end of yesterday and today, with sore legs, that I have used the hose to water instead of rain water buckets.
Tomorrow is our weekly work day. I am finding it difficult to have to leave my property. (I include Alicia’s yard in my comfort zone because our properties flow together.)
A wonderful accomplishment of neighbourly gardening. And a balm to ease you through the sad news of a friend’s slow journey in passing from this plane.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You are rich in old friends, and old fashioned plants and flowers. I had to look up fasciation, a fascinating term! I’ve seen it without naming it.
The ‘Veilchenblau’ rose is so beautiful! I love walking through through your and Alicia’s gardens. The stumpery has promise!
Best wishes to your old Seattle friend, and you, Skyler.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I like the stunning but nameless rose a lot.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, Mr T!
LikeLike