5 May: countdown

I was so tired while writing that I called yesterday’s post “Friday” instead of Thursday. In real time, here is a PSA:

Friday, 5 May 2017

The predicted rain storm and thirty mile an hour winds did not arrive!

I was so hoping we could accomplish a whole lot of garden tidying pre-Sunday’s parade so that we would not have to go back to Long Beach on a crowded Saturday afternoon.  (We will be attending the Saturday parade in Ilwaco, but not the Sunday one in Long Beach.)

Others in our household had no particular worries:

on the porch

Smokey and Skooter

Skooter is not to be walked on.

Peace was soon restored.

later

Ilwaco

Before leaving our block, we did two tiny garden tasks: mowing at the J’s and weeding round the Norwood garden.

We spent a little while weeding our volunteer garden at the Ilwaco Post Office.  The garden is still looking rather dull.  While we weeded, an old man said “Why don’t you plant something I like so that I’ll have something good to look at?”  While I chuckled weakly, here is a hint: Gardeners  prefer to not be teased while they are working.

dullsville garden at the moment

Depot Restaurant

Just some quick deadheading…

north side of deck

Tulips ‘Night Rider’ (left) and ‘Virichic’ (right)

Tulip ‘Flaming Spring Green’

Tulip ‘Green Wave’

Long Beach

When we got to the welcome sign and I opened the back of the van, I was momentarily appalled to see a flat of bidens sitting there, that had not been unloaded last night.  I then decided to just plant the darn things, since the welcome sign was their destination.  I would usually wait for annuals planting till the magic date of Mother’s Day (which is next Sunday).

low yellow bidens along the front edge

The tulips on the back side had gone over, every one.

all moldy and unattractive

too much rain! (Allan’s photo)

Allan’s photo

Too bad that boring moment between spring bulbs and annuals happened this weekend.

Here’s how the whole welcome sign would look if we didn’t control the horsetail:

the east end, around the faucet….

cheatin’ weedin’ with string trimmer (Allan’s photos)

The Red Barn 

Part of the weekend’s events will include a “cowboy breakfast” at the Peninsula Saddle Club.  Figuring that the patrons might spill over to the Red Barn Arena next door, we detoured to make sure the little garden there looked ok.

after some weeding (Allan’s photo)

Diane’s garden

I was eager to talk to Diane about garden plans, while deadheading her narcissi.

Misty, as you can tell, is getting older. Diane and I discuss….

The roadside garden will return as soon as a fence is built. (Allan’s photo)

Long Beach

Allan and I finished the north parking lot berm at last.

North “berm”

 I had high hopes that the second one would also be done today.  I even had a fantasy that Allan would have time to do the string trimming that is the way we handle the less planted middle berm.  I left Allan to it….

south berm

Allan’s photos:

cleaning up along the edge

…while I went to groom four blocks of tree garden and planters.

lots of Baby Moon narcissi still blooming for parade day

‘New Baby’ is white and yellow.  (really)

fringed tulips still blooming

escallonias that would like to be eight feet tall (left over from someone’s volunteer planting)

crocus foliage

I used to tidy up foliage like that before parade day.  Now I leave it, on the theory that it is good for the bulbs…and that the fuller the planter is, the less likely to be sat or stood upon.

Primulas have been blooming for weeks.

thrilled that Fifth Street Park, west side, did not need weeding

Fury: Out of 20 of these late blooming tulips in two adjacent planters, all but 7 had been stolen.

I called Allan to see how he was doing…and due to the plethora of weeds, the south berm was still not done.  We had to abort that mission so that he could de-horsetail by the Heron Pond while I tidied the north two blocks of trees and planters.

more late blooming narcissi on the northernmost block

These tulips might hang on for Sunday.

As I weeded the tree garden outside Dennis Company, a friend and business owner stopped by to tell me of her anger at a politician who had just said that “Nobody dies because they don’t have access to health care.”  (Really? It took me less than one minute to remember two people I knew who had died of exactly that.)

As I deadheaded tulips in a planter five minutes later, a friend and valued community member walked by and told me how she and her family are seriously exploring a move to Canada.  I felt sad to hear it but I certainly understand.

Meanwhile, Allan’s project:

before

Someone had deposited painted rocks at the edge of the waterfall (without falling in).

“love” rock and some leftover easter egg decor

after

sidewalk edge, before

after

We still had the east side of Fifth Street Park to check up on with some light weeding.

Darmera peltata leaves…

and flowers (Allan’s photos)

7 PM shadows

Just last year, I would have been able to push till 8:00 PM to try to finish the berms.  Now, I find that I just cannot.  We drove by to look…and found a stack of lost buckets!  Allan said he thought he was running inexplicably short on buckets.  This is a sign of how tired we both are.

He had been too tired to remember where the buckets had gone to…. They had been just sitting by the north berm.

Nobody’s parade day is going to get ruined by some weeds in the parking lot beds and so…we are not going to finish the berms till next week.

workboard tonight

Planting Time is starting to show up on the work board.

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2 May: rainy Oysterville tulips

Wednesday, 2 May, part two

After working two jobs in the rain, we drove north of Oysterville on a mission to see the always impressive Oysterville garden’s tulip display.

Arriving in Oysterville, we took the scenic loop.

Peter and Linda’s garden

arriving at our destination in increasingly heavy rain

THE Oysterville garden

Join us in our usual walk around the garden that looks as fine in rain as it does on a perfect day.  I kept my camera pointed down between photos and felt very lucky to not get a water spot on the lens.

We walk along the roadside verge, looking in….

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

with tetranpanax and camassia (Allan’s photo)

We turn in at the driveway…

This southerly bed will have plants taller than me come summer.

Allan’s photo

the glorious terrace

at the back of the garden

The gardener puts on the crisp lawn edge with an old fashioned half moon edger.

the allée of Hydrangea ‘Incrediball’

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

onto the north lawn

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

yellow Welsh poppies

woodsy garden west of the lawn

rodgersia and camassia

Allan’s photo

primulas

Allan’s photo

 

Allan’s photo

returning to the front, to see the tulips from the inside.

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

a trio of golden barberries

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Erysimum (Allan’s photo)

honesty and digiplexus

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

lunaria (Allan’s photo)

Allan’s photo

from across the street

That opulent display of tulips was well worth the drive and the drenching stroll; in fact, I did not even notice the sensation of rain (other than being aware my camera was wet yet again).

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2 May: rainy work

Tuesday, 2 May 2017, part one

Even though more unfortunate rain had arrived, it was not such a cold and windy rain, so we decided that we could polish off two jobs and two errands and make a pilgrimage to a favourite local garden (which deserves a post of its own, tomorrow).

The Anchorage Cottages

not an ideal work day

Mitzu greets us (Allan’s photo)

I had brought four Nicotiana langsdorfii to plant.

lots of narcissi deadheads  (Allan’s photo)

sword fern unfurling (Allan’s photo)

so much scilla in the center courtyard (was there when we first started this job years ago)

center courtyard

species tulips

Some of the larger tulips in the office courtyard had just gone all moldy from rain, leaving some pots empty till annuals planting time…which is fortunately coming up soon.

just sad

I was going to put the little pot into the big pot, above, for some interest, but the sides of the little pot were also sadly moldy.  (Manager Beth said she will clean it and do the tiered pot arrangement.)

My favourite Tulip ‘Green Wave’ still looked good.

Spring bulb window boxes will be switched out for summer ones soon.

The Planter Box

We made a brief stop to buy some fertilizer and check on our cosmos seedlings.  I did not actually walk back to look at them, just got a good report from Teresa.

potted narcissi for sale

Soon we will be shopping in the big greenhouse.  Mother’s Day is my target date to start planting annuals.

Allan’s photo

Klipsan Beach Cottages

Even though the rain and wind were increasing, we knew KBC would be more sheltered from wind and figured we could stand an hour of weeding and deadheading, and we did.

Clematis in bloom

clematis and evergreen huckleberry (Allan’s photo)

ajuga at its best (Allan’s photo)

Pieris

Euphorbia characias wulfenii (deer proof, outside the fence

driveway garden

in the fenced garden

fringed tulips (Allan’s photo)

narcissus

lilies and Thalictrum ‘Elin’

Tulip ‘Green Star’

Tulips ‘Green Wave’ and ‘Flaming Spring Green’

tree peony buds

more tulips

Mary had placed out some new dianthus to plant.  Allan planted them.

Now we have more chives to plant in the port gardens!

Mary and me

We visited the rain drenched garden in Oysterville (next post) and checked on the way home if some interesting new shrubs had arrived at

The Basket Case….

where we learned that said shrubs were being fetched today.

at The Basket Case

tomato in a bag

Basket Case doggie

We were cold and wet and yet very pleased to have the Anchorage and KBC done for this week.  Now we can focus completely on parade garden prep during the next three days that are supposed to deliver nicer weather.

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28 April: Long Beach prep

Friday, 28 April 2017

a postcard promising a new exhibit at our local Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum

Today our main mission was to get Long Beach gardens as fluffed up as possible in the areas where the annual Razor Clam Festival would take place.  But first:

The Depot Restaurant’s 

….garden needed deadheading.

This is not a good beetle.  It was inside a curled up leaf.  I haven’t identified it, though.

north garden, with tulips, looked better in person

lily foliage and tulips

Long Beach

The wind and some deer damage (at the right end) have diminished the tulip display on the front of the sign.

The backside is still awesome.

We checked the planters on the west end of the Bolstad approach…

no Autumn Joy left in the most western one 😦

I felt a sense of mild and unsurprised disgruntlement and disappointment in human nature. But the Autumn Joy was not stolen from the next three planters to the east, so that was good news.

ducks on a pond or are they gulls? (Allan’s photo)

just off the beach approach, path from restroom parking lot is a pond now (Allan’s photo)

Allan then worked on the Veterans Field gardens and the north parking lot berm while I walked around and checked on all of the Pacific Way planters AND made notes on what plants each one might need.

Vet Field (Allan’s photo)

berm, before

after (Allan’s photo)

across the street from the berm (Allan’s photo)

my walk around:

the first flower on a Geranium ‘Rozanne’ recently added to a planter (and first Rozanne of the year)

red tulips to match red building

parrot tulip ‘Rococo’

note to Allan: must weed this horsetail before the parade on Sunday, May 7

No time to visit NIVA green today

must put nice edge on this little garden in Coulter Park before the parade…and weed the whole park…next week.

Sometimes vehicles make it hard to weed the tree gardens.

possibly Tulip ‘Madonna’

bud of T. ‘Flaming Spring Green’ and some cute yellow hoop petticoat narcissus

would love to find the energy to totally dig out and redo this planter of boring, once blooming blue geranium (left from volunteer days).  It is a mad runner and fills back in every time I thin it.

thrilling asphodel, last year’s birthday present from Dave and Melissa, from Plant Delights Nursery

Fifth Street Park still looking nice with mulch.

Tulip bakeri ‘Lilac Wonder’ STILL blooming

I called Allan to meet me at the last four planters because I was exhausted.  He weeded the very weediest street tree garden while I finished the planters.

before

after

southernmost east side planter; Allan in view weeding that difficult tree garden (right middle of photo)

We weeded at city hall and the big pop out because lots of folks will be walking by this weekend.

city hall detail with Erysimum ‘Bowles Mauve’ (Allan’s photo)

Eryngium ‘Jade Frost’ foliage (Allan’s photo)

After checking on the Sid Snyder Drive planters…

sweet little species tulip in a Sid Snyder Drive planter (Allan’s photos)

Tulip batalinii ‘Bright Gem’ with a poppy seedling

and the kite museum garden…..

just a touch of string trimming at the kite museum….and those tatty hebes are still there!

…we filled up the rest of the day with more weeding of the north parking lot berm.

berm, weeded (Allan’s photo)

but did not QUITE get it done before time to meet Dave and Melissa at

The Cove Restaurant

two tired gardeners (Allan’s photo)

delectable clam chowder; I made Mel take her spoon out so I could get this photo.

dinner salad

Thai street prawns (spicy)

vegetable stir fry

fish and chips (Allan’s photo)

curry fish dinner (Allan’s photo)

Melissa and I always agree that our North Beach Garden Gang dinner is the highlight of our week.

All of us had been working hard to the point of pushing ourselves to the limit and it felt mighty good to sit and eat and talk about gardening.

Tomorrow: I hope to work in my own garden!  We won’t be attending the clam festival; you can read about it from a past year here.

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21 April: little things

Friday, 21 April 2017

I had some small work tasks to complete, after which I figured we would make it out to the beach approach to get at least half a garden section weeded and clipped.

My own garden looked enticing…

…as did Smokey,

Frosty,

Skooter,

and neighbour cat Onyx.

But work we must.

work board this morning

Port of Ilwaco

A bit late, I transplanted some chives and elephant garlic to the Freedom Market garden.

transplanted these Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ starts to a less walkedupon spot!

Making the store’s garden as pretty as this, the curbside garden, is my goal…except for the walking upon is a problem.  So, making parts of it pretty is my goal.

Long Beach

deadheaded the welcome sign, front…

and back

We decided we had better dig out the ivy in the big Lewis and Clark Square planter next, in case we punctured the sprinkler system.  Best to not do that, but if it happened, best to do it when the city crew is available rather than after hours.

While Allan did the digging, I planted some Geranium ‘Rozanne’ and Erysimum ‘Bowles Mauve’ in nearby planters.

the shrubbiest planter’s one week of glory

so called “blue” tulips for the police station

street tree (Allan’s photo)

Folks were gathering in Veterans Field, half a block away, for a “Walk for Veterans”.

The walk begins (Allan’s photo)

The planter in question (Allan’s photos), before:

variegated ivy

and after:

That was not easy.

a lot of ivy to dump at city works

When we arrived at city works, we learned that the planter at the south end of town was ready to plant.  I’d noticed the same planter as before, still roughly mortared, but now full of soil again.  The crew had met with the frustration of the one replacement planter breaking when they tried to move it…so now they will be doing their best to re-mortar the old one and make it look good.  Therefore, it was time for us to plant it.  This changed our day by giving us a more pleasant project than weeding the beach approach.

We rescued the little roses that I had heeled into the mulch pile and that had gotten covered with a new load of mulch!

found it!

battered but alive; good thing I knew sort of where to dig.

I also gathered some little shrubs, left over from volunteer planter days, that I would put elsewhere rather than back into the planter.

ready to plant a few things

Last fall, a vehicle drove into this planter and cracked it, and moved it enough to crush the plumbing system (now fixed).

roses and Rozannes in

It makes me nervous to plant all fresh plants for fear someone will steal them.

Next…something that we had to do today…

The Red Barn’s…

…little garden needed deadheading and weeding.

The Red Barn has crabbing as well as horses.

crab pots

While I was weeding, one of the dogs came by…

and snubbed me!

all pretty well weeded

Diane’s garden

Next door, we deadheaded and weeded at Diane and Larry’s place.

narcissi deadheads (Allan’s photo)

new planters to drill holes in (next time)

planter assortment

I love fringed tulips!

In the past, fringed tulips’ edges have browned off in the rain.  This year, we got massive record breaking amounts of rain and yet the fringes look great!

Tulip ‘Green Star’

Diane likes pastels, and purples and whites, not yellows and reds and oranges.

Tulip ‘White Parrot’

Basket Case Greenhouse

We drove a mile or so up Sandridge Road to get some plants for the almost empty Long Beach planter.

pelican for sale

Darrell, Roxanne, and me talking plants

Long Beach

Now we were able to make more of a planter impact, leaving room for annuals when the weather is a bit warmer.

Allan’s photos

At City Hall, we planted a couple of shrubs from the planter’s former array.

This variegated boxwood from a planter a few years back…

is now somewhat balanced by a variegated euonymous.

driving home, 6 PM

It had gotten HOT today, and for once I had been grateful for a cool wind.

We just barely had time to go home, unhook the trailer, unload some plants, load a couple agastaches, drive back to Long Beach, plant the agastaches in the planter, and be ten minutes late for dinner with Dave and Melissa (Sea Star Gardening) at

The Cove Restaurant

petting Lacy on the way in

Cove entry garden

arriving late

refreshing dinner salad

Sondra’s lasagne for me and Dave

lemony prawns scampi for Melissa

Reuben with waffle fries for Allan

a dessert for four of us to share

The four of us solved some of the world’s problems (we wish); tomorrow Allan and I will try to solve more at an Earth and Science Day demonstration.

ivy job erased!

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20 April: easy work

Thursday, 20 April 2017

Pouring rain almost put an end to the idea of work.

We’d had this much rain overnight.

And then it stopped by midmorning.

I scheduled an easy day, which included a visit to THE Oysterville garden.  That self -guided tour will be our next post.

At home before work

Azara microphylla ‘Variegata’ and Skooter (Allan’s photo)

Erythronium (dog tooth violet)

Allan digging a Tetrapanax sprout, too close to the maple

Acer campestre ‘Carnival’

Acer campestre ‘Carnival, acquired from Dancing Oaks last year

Our post office garden looks unexciting so far.  I planted some bachelor button seeds.

The Depot Restaurant

I planted the wee sprout of tetrapanax in the garden on the south side of the dining deck…my second attempt to get one started there. Light weeding and deadheading ensued.

north side of deck

Tulip ‘Akebono’ (Allan’s photo)

the barrel by the east window

Tulip ‘Virichic’

Long Beach

A stop at city hall to pick up our cheque led to some deadheading and weeding.

the ramp garden

north side: pulmonaria still blooming

north side

signs of finger blight

city hall west side

Basket Case Greenhouse

I’m collecting plants for the upcoming Planting Time, so far just perennials.  I consider it too early for annuals, and yet, as always, I am concerned that folks who plant (too) early will get all the good stuff before I’m ready for annuals (round about Mother’s Day).

Darrel waters the many tempting plants in the annuals house.

Me and Roxanne with Geranium ‘Rozanne’ and some Erysumum ‘Bowles Mauve’

Buddy behind the desk

YOU, yes you (those who live here), should snap these callistemon.  It’s rare to see them for sale on the Peninsula!

heucheras

and more heucheras

Buddy woke up.

We left the Basket Case and took ourselves to Oysterville to tour its premier garden, one of the top two gardens on the Peninsula (the other being Steve and John’s bayside garden).  If there are better gardens here, I have not seen them. That will be tomorrow’s post.

Driving south from Oysterville, we saw Todd gardening at a Nahcotta bed and breakfast.

in front of the Charles Nelson Guest House

Todd Wiegardt at work

Allan’s photo

Klipsan Beach Cottages

We spent a pleasant two hours at Klipsan Beach Cottages. In a preview of Planting Time, Allan planted four Nicotiana langsdorfii, one Erysimum ‘Bowles Mauve’, and an Agastache ‘Acapulco Salmon and Pink’.

Sarah

driveway garden

Tulip bakeri ‘Lilac Wonder’ has been going strong in this spot for years.

looking in the east gate of the fenced garden

Allan planting

He found a furtive dandelion.

tulips (Flaming Spring Green and a parrot in bud)

the burgeoning garden

Tulip ‘White Parrot’

blue inside

Tulip ‘Artist’ hiding under rhubarb

Tulip ‘Artist’

tree peony in bud

fringed pink tulip

Thalictrum ‘Elin’ will get about 7 feet tall.

“pink” narcissi

more narcissi

Fritillaria meleagris, in the lawn bed that I note needs mulching.

double hellebore

white narcissi

Podophyllum (Allan’s photo)

Mary, her friend Katie, Bella, and Katie’s dog Libby, back from the beach (Allan’s photo)

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photos: a hard to reach blackberry sprout across the pond

He got it.

Ilwaco

We drove around by the port on the way home, just to see how lively the 4-20 event was at the Freedom Market pot shop. (Their outdoor barbecue looked well attended.)

garden boat at Time Enough Books (PV=Plant Vessel instead of FV for Fishing Vessel).  Allan’s photo

Tulip ‘Akebono’

While Allan mowed at the J’s (across the street), I planted some poppy and bachelor button seeds in the back garden.  The weeded spots in the east and west bed have seeds, and the unweeded spots will let me know where I can put new plants (after more weeding).

a seeded spot

At the J’s (Allan’s photo)

Next, our tour of the Oysterville garden.

And we really do have to get back to the beach approach weeding!

 

 

 

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19 April: blustery weeding

Wednesday, 19 April 2017

We had sort of a storm, with lots of wind.  The rain stopped by mid morning, leading to a dilemma.  I had wanted to finish yesterday’s long blog post; an internet glitch had resulted in all the text and photo arrangement being lost, but the photos were in the media library ready to be inserted and captioned.  And then….the power went off.

Someone unfortunate had driven into a power pole two thirds of the way up the Peninsula.  Because we are on the same grid as the hospital, we got our power back within two hours.  (As I write this in the evening, Dave and Melissa, way up in Oysterville, are still without power.)

I used our battery back up’s last bit of oomph to catch up on the Tootlepedal blog.  And then I could find no good excuse to not try to weed.

Allan’s photo: Skooter blocks the other cats from exiting the cat door

Oh, how very much I did not want to weed, because of the wind!  I told myself that if I just filled one bucket with weeds, I could come back in.

We had had this much rain overnight.

Allan string trimming

As I pulled some of the easier weeds, I observed and concluded that my earlier idea of composting in place was just not working.  We just have too many snails and slugs that like to hide in the debris and eat lily buds.

next to one debris area, a chomped lily bud

another chomped lily!

Now that I have good compost bins, I carried many armloads of debris and binned them.

gathering debris

I told Allan that I now have so much debris that I need a door for Bin B.

I found another sad columnar evergreen.  Dang blang it!

I tried to focus on weeding the center bed so that I could erase it from the work board.

It had a wealth of shotweed and horsetail.

My audience all afternoon:

Allan’s photo

Devery came over and we had a good chat.

Debris in the west bed, which I will move on my next day in my own garden, had not stopped a giant ornamental rhubarb from showing off its size.

While I love my periscaria bistorta ‘Superba’, I think it is getting too vigorous.

West bed: Persicaria is just starting to show its pale pink spikes.

tulips in the garden boat (Allan’s photo)

The  wind increased to 30 mph, making the last part of the center bed miserable to weed. Because I wanted so much to erase one thing from the work board, I thought really hard about The Deadliest Catch.

Deadliest Catch puts my job into perspective.

I had got not just one bucket but four heaping wheelbarrow loads of weeds removed.

after

However, I think the garden beds need a nice crisp edge.  I had noted the crisp edge on the Tootlepedal’s glorious garden during my blog reading today.  You can see the garden photos in this entry.  Part of the excellence is the trimmed hedges and Mrs. T’s plantings, but I do think the crisp lawn edge is important.

some extra lambs ear and Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ to go to Long Beach or the port

Just as I finished, really big rain drops arrived.

Meanwhile, Allan had gone to get a new sheet of plywood, and on the way he went to the library and felt compelled to deadhead at the Ilwaco Community Building.

art in the library

a stray narcissus at the Community Building

deadheading, and library books (before the rain came)

community building garden

He drove home via the high school road to see if their tulip display was on for this year.

Camera is above the window.

 

It is indeed on.

AND it is well protected.

I wish all OUR gardens were as well protected.

Back home, Allan lined up the old trailer side on the new cut plywood in order to drill out the holes for bungee cord lashing.

The old side became a new front for the center compost bin.

By then, I had made myself a nice cuppa Builders Tea.

in my big Don Nisbett Slow Drag mug

and a bit of a treat left over from my birthday

one “home” bed erased from the work board

I have two guest photos to share, texted to me by Melissa, of her and Dave’s garden. The container has Tulip sylvestris. 

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