Friday, 20 May 2016
I awoke after five hours of sleep, thought briefly about the lost Golden Sands garden, and went back to sleep for two more hours. The cycle of sleepless stress is finally broken.
Before work, Allan helped me place my mother’s birdbath in the front garden. It will make a fine view from my writing desk.
Allan’s photo: Two round marks in the center are from yellow duckies that sat in the birdbath at Golden Sands…where it was only filled with water on the days we worked there, or by rain.
I found decorative glass pieces to put on those spots.
Mom’s birdbath under the Tetrapanax ‘Steroidal Giant’, from the window
On the front gate, we found a treasure:
Allan’s photo
Later, an email revealed it was from Patti of the Seaview garden. She’d also given us some cool rusty stuff earlier in the week after Melissa’s birthday party.
rust from Patti (Allan’s photo)
At the library, I had a book to pick up: an interlibrary loan of book 4 of the Cazalet Chronicle. We did some weeding along the sidewalk while we were there and I cast a stern eye on the clump of salal that wants to run to the right and interfere with the rhododendron.
I am sure its horrid roots are firmly entrenched under the sidewalk. I want it gone.
I placed the Geranium ‘Rozanne’ (rescued from mowing in the Golden Sands lawn) atop the wall and Allan planted it. The ones that had not been mowed flat, he cut back hard to avoid them looking wilty to passersby.
placing Rozanne at the Community Building
Allan’s photo, a planting place for Rozanne
pulling bindweed
Long Beach
the welcome sign
after pulling some horsetail
Next on the Long Beach town list: weeding the big pop out.
It was a pleasantly cool day for comfy clothes.
after…just a little better. The rugosa roses are rambunctious. I regret planting them here.
We checked on all the planters on the Bolstad approach. A Mental Health Walk was planned along there for Saturday, sponsored by NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness).
lots of sand in planters closest to the beach due to recent winds (Allan’s photo)
beach sand and verbascum (Allan’s photo)
This darling little dog was ignoring his guardian. He came to us and Allan nabbed him and carried him back to her.
little dog on the loose (Allan’s photo)
I found some of the usual theft (which is one reason why the beach approach planters are especially challenging, the others being sand, salt, drought and wind).
one side: nice little golden thyme tucked in on the edge under the catmint
other side: matching thyme is gone, and the catmint is a small division to replace one that was stolen earlier.
Someone treats these planters as their own personal nursery of free plants. I put golden thyme back on the shopping list, hoping the Basket Case still had some of the same cultivar.
Allan weeding
big footprints in the sand
a bit of weeding on the beach approach ground level
I realized with glee that our weeding job earlier this spring had been so effective that we could probably touch up the entire beach approach garden in just one day. Soon, I hope.
rugosa roses
view looking east
the fairy door some good fairy added to a planter
am thrilled to see some of the poppy seeds that I planted have germinated
How beautiful thyme is when it is left alone to establish rather than being swiped.
To my delight, I found another fairy door in the garden.
telephoto so as not to disturb the occupants
rugosa roses that were cut back to the ground not long ago
reminder to self while parked near city hall: must remember to weed that tatty garden of not much up ahead on the corner
Jo’s Garden
We planted a plethora of painted sage in Jo’s garden.
Jo’s center courtyard
center courtyard daylily
northwest garden bed
The center of the shasta daisy patch is lower than the edges. I think it because the Cow Wow! mulch got spread more thickly along the edge.
Plants respond to Cow Wow. The center is lower. Phlox is along the fence.
west garden bed
north side of house, looking east
center courtyard
guest cottage
painted sage (Salvia viridis) added to entry garden
salvias planting before (Allan’s photos)
and after
With all this planting of salvia viridis going on, I had better show new readers what it looks like:
Salvia viridis
I was relieved to see that the entry garden had begun to grow out of a mysterious problem of repeatedly dying foliage. Jo was not at home till later today, but she texted me that she had figured it out. She had sprayed with that anti-mosquito recipe that has been making the rounds on Facebook, with ingredients including mouthwash and epsom salts. In the areas she sprayed, the plant leaves were burned. Mystery solved! Beware of where you spray that recipe (and note that Google will tell you it’s not very effective, anyway).
The big Annuals Planting Time is officially over for work, leaving only the rest of my annuals planting at home.
Basket Case Greenhouse
We couriered the cheque for plants from Long Beach over to the Basket Case Greenhouse.
in the perennial house
Geranium ‘Orion’, supposed to be even better than ‘Rozanne’
I recommend these echibeckias for long season of colour, even though they were not hardy for me. I was going to plant eight of them at Golden Sands! OH WELL!
With all the salvias out of the van, I actually had room to buy my two hanging baskets!
perusing the Blooming availability list, and remembering (finally) two hens and chickens for Diane’s little planter
I did get one golden thyme, then ran out of steam to go back to the beach approach and plant it.
World Kite Museum
We added Gardner and Bloome Soil Building Compost to improve the garden.
It takes an effort to get the tightly compacted mulch out of the bale.
Our friend Patty, the museum store manager and official Garden Waterer, came out to admire.
Ilwaco
In order to not have to water on Sunday, we drove around to all the Ilwaco planters and added just enough water to make them happy, without getting out the water trailer or the usual 20 buckets for bucket watering. Thanks to rain this past week, they each needed just an empty Costco sized mixed nuts jar dipper full of water.
freshly planted not long ago
I did not plant any nasturtium seeds in the planters this year because last year, the deer feasted on them.
By the boatyard garden: someone had picked a bouquet and then abandoned it in a planter…which is not the meaning of the signs that read “please leave the flowers for everyone to enjoy”!
boatyard garden, looking south
north fence…once upon a time I had a garden along here, too. It got dug up when new utility lines were installed.
east: the leaning tree garden and one little planter
center: Eryngium ‘Sapphire Blue’
south end of boatyard garden
Salt Pub
After a brief time at home, I went out again to meet Our Kathleen for dinner at Salt Pub. Allan stayed home because he was loading up his boat for a sailing adventure in Portland tomorrow.
Salt Hotel and Skookum Surf (surfing lessons)
I had just had time to pick a bouquet, something I try to do weekly for Salt because I value the place highly.
my delicious chili
Kathleen’s nachos
We had the baked to order cookie with ice cream for dessert; so good, and the end of such an eventful work week, that I forgot to take a photo. We had been so deep in conversation that I had not even photographed the view of the port.
the moon over Salt after dinner
later, on my lap: Smokey and Frosty
Now for two days off in my garden. I have a desire to not leave my property even for the Saturday Market. Meanwhile, Allan will be off on a Saturday adventure.
Ginger’s Garden Diaries
from my mother’s garden diaries of two decades ago
1995 (age 71):
May 20: 1:00-7:40 with time out to eat. HOT Spent almost all afternoon planting flower seed (finally). I love doing this job outside so it doesn’t matter if I’m sloppy. Then I spent the evening sorting my seeds into: Do now, do next, do later i.e. plant in fall, winter, etc.
1997 (age 73):
May 20: ?-5:30 Dahlias were my #1 job for today but it was raining. It cleared up in early afternoon so I went out and got all the dahlias planted! Then I started pulling the bedraggled forget me nots, the yellow invasive plants and sweet woodruff. I am going to plant some seeds in front to see how they do.
1998 (age 74):
May 20: cool-rainy. I had the blahs today. I really didn’t want to go out but I did around 2:00. I potted some tomatoes and needed more room in the greenhouse so I dragged the “window box” begonias out. (Don’t ask me how I managed that.) I replaced the tubs of tulips with the begonia boxes. Then it started raining. I also moved several trays of tomatoes to the greenhouse to be repotted (maybe tomorrow).
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Tangly Cottage Gardening 