1 July: goodbye to a longtime job

A Real Time Reminder

It’s garden tour day!

just a reminder that it is almost time for the Music in the Gardens Tour

Here’s an article about the tour by our friend Debbie Teashon of Rainyside.com.

Now back to our chronological catching up.

Wednesday, 1 July 2015

Ilwaco post office

I began the day still shaken from yesterday’s watering woes.  The sight of our volunteer garden at the post office cheered me up.  Then we were off to our north end jobs, with a couple of small jobs on the way.

The Red Barn and Diane’s Garden

Allan’s photo

watering the Red Barn Arena garden

one of the pretty horses

Allan’s photo showing the garden behind the pasture’s gate

Diane and Larry’s garden next door with Stipa gigantea

California poppies in Diane’s roadside garden

penstemon

Salvia viridis

grooming the container garden (Allan’s photo)

Golden Sands Assisted Living

At Golden Sands, regular watering with the sprinkler system has the courtyard garden looking wonderfully lush.

The enticing view from the hallway window made me happy.

SW quadrant

SE quadrant

NE quadrant

Marilyn’s Garden

Next, we went all the way up to lower Surfside to do some weeding at Marilyn’s garden.

a neighbour of Marilyn’s (Allan’s photo)

looking south—Marilyn’s daughter, Nancy (of the Depot Restaurant) is doing a good job of watering.

elephant garlic about to discard its cap

Tall miscanthus now hiding the neighbours’ garage. The next layer down is Helianthus ‘Lemon Queen’ which will bloom in late summer.

looking north—weeding the gravel path was my project today

Klipsan Beach Cottages

After Marilyn’s we drove south again to our very favourite job, Klipsan Beach Cottages.

view from the west gate of the fenced garden

in the background: tall Thalictrum ‘Elin’ with hazy purple flowers

Thalictrum ‘Elin’

Erysimum ‘Winter Orchid’ and Agastache ‘Acapulco Salmon and Pink’

Nicotiana langsdorfii

I wish Mary still knew the names of all her roses.

Lily ‘Landini’

daylily

driveway garden

Eryngium ‘Sapphire Blue’

Rose ‘New Dawn’

This year we are getting an extra long bloom time from Euphorbia characias wulfenii.

Geranium ‘Rozanne’ embracing a boxwood.

the weekly view looking southwest over the bird bath

fairy door (Allan’s photo)

Andersen’s RV Park

We had been weeding and deadheading at Andersen’s for about an hour when owner Lorna came outside and told us the big news:  Barring any unexpected last minute glitch, the deal was about to close on selling the park.   I turned in our restroom key (and said we’d get it back next week if something went wrong at the last minute).  I might as well tell you now that the deal did close for sure a few days later, so our walk around the garden saying goodbye was really the last time.  I have always told Lorna that when she sells, we are leaving with her as it is a good time to further accomplish our goal of cutting back a bit on work.  She says the new owners, a young couple from California, intend to do the gardening themselves so it worked out for the best for everyone.

A farewell look at Andersen’s gardens:

west garden, Payson Hall (blue roof), picket fence and garden shed (upper right) gardens

Payson Hall clubhouse

Payson Hall detail with Allium schubertii and Brodiaea ‘Queen Fabiola’

one of six whiskey barrels on the west side

the west garden

west garden

west garden telephoto

 

Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’

Stipa gigantea

garden behind office

detail: Eryngium ‘Sapphire Blue’ and Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’ and godetia

picket fence garden (east side of house and office)

lilies

picket fence from inside

My only regret in leaving now is that I planted some of every kind of sweet pea that I had here, and now won’t see all the different colours bloom.

old fashioned wooden picket fence

one of two big hydrangeas

the garden shed garden

Allan’s photo

a guest arriving (Allan’s photo)

I will miss the fun of seeing a “wagon train” of RVs come in, led by the first driver, who is known as the wagon master.

As we were leaving, Lorna gave us this chair.  She is packing to move full time to her Seattle townhouse.

It’s on my covered front porch now; Thank you, Lorna.

Jo’s garden

Jo and Bob had returned from Montana.  She had called to ask me to stop by because they had brought us a present.

Jo’s garden all ready for Fourth of July company.

Verbascum and Nicotiana langsdorfii

Jo’s back deck with bunting

Coco! (Allan’s photo)

our present: Thanks, Jo and Bob!

(She did not even know I had been whinging on about my watering woes yesterday.)

Port of Ilwaco boatyard

We ended our day watering at the Ilwaco boatyard.

Allan’s photo; we have to water from behind the fence

a bit of finger blight on the Echinops (blue globe thistle), as usual…

 

 

Stipa gigantea and lavender

Stipa gigantea and Ceanothus

boatyard south end (telephoto compression)

boatyard north end

We took some of our bucket water to give the new curbside plants at the port a boost.

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

So….what shall we do with the extra few hours from not going to Andersen’s?  I suppose we could put it toward weeding the Long Beach beach approach garden, or….we just might spend it on our own garden.

We are now down by several jobs, as we quit two small jobs over bad pruning and slow payment, and Todd has the Wiegardt garden, and we gave Casa Pacifica to Sea Star Landscape Maintenance, Cheri is doing her own garden, and Flowering Hedges has been doing Erin’s garden.  It has delighted me to be divested of all of these jobs; however, I suppose we need to be careful that we don’t go too far into early retirement and lose our ability to afford to go garden touring.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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23 June part two: the shortest workweek begins

Tuesday, 23 June 2015

We only have two and a bit days to get our work done this week, because of leaving for the Hardy Plant Society Study Weekend on Thursday afternoon.  This has been looming over my stick in the mud homebody head for weeks, months even, ever since we registered in February.  There will be gardens to tour and speakers to hear and slideshows to savor.  Dan Hinkley will be the keynote speaker.

On the way to work, we had a brief mission at Ilwaco City Hall.  Allan had spotted a plant that he thought might be a dandelion.  It turned out to be a dog daisy.  I could not pull it without disturbing a nasturtium so I just clipped it as a quick solution to the way it was messing with my symmetry.

It was just not right.

Next, as related in yesterday’s post, we toured Steve and John’s garden, and then we devoted ourselves to work till 8 PM.

Klipsan Beach Cottages

We did but an hour of weeding and grooming.

view over the birdbath in the fenced garden

lily

lily and new rose foliage

in the garden; cottages on the ridge

Mary and Denny picking raspberries.

Mary had learned that the reason her raspberries are not prolific this year is because we did not have a cold enough winter.

Mine look just like that, dried up and sad.

Allan’s photo: Bella in the basement, got hugs and kisses from me.

Golden Sands Assisted Living

During another brief stop, Allan strimmed the center lawn while I filled the birdbaths and did some light grooming of the four quadrants.

I’m still pleased with my rhododendron pruning from last week.

Note: I believe in letting rhododendrons get to, and stay at, their full size.  I knew, however, that if I did not prune these, eventually someone else would.  And I knew I could do a better job.

SE quadrant with lots of sweet williams

lilies; I have a lot of this one around, must be from a Costco bag.

NE quadrant, still not much pizzazz

One of my mom’s Joseph’s Coat roses

NW quadrant, with a nice cluster of alliums in the shadow

SW quadrant

I still hope for greater effect from this garden than I manage to create…

Andersen’s RV Park

looking west; Agyranthemum ‘Butterfly’ is beginning to bloom

looking east at the poppy field

Allan’s photos: west garden path in progress

after

west side of house and office, and poppies

red Papaver rhoaes and assorted colours of California poppies

Brodiaea ‘Queen Fabioloa’ in the Payson Hall planters

behind the office

Miscanthus variegatus and Stipa gigantea west of the office

office planter with Allium schubertii

picket fence garden

orange lilies peeking over the picket fence

lilies and Allium albopilosum

cottage with climbing rose

Anchorage Cottages

The first thing I noticed was something…wrong..with the window boxes.  I analyzed and realized that the lotus vines were no longer on the outside edges.  Someone had taken them out to paint the windowsills and put them back cattywampus!  Allan helped me rearrange them.

lotus vine not supposed to be in the middle!

fixed

I was not entirely content because the four short inserts In two adjacent boxes had gotten switched so much that some of the plants were no longer growing forward.  I could not wrap my brain around getting them back just right.

The lone Hymenocallis festalis (Peruvian daffodil)

Mitzu coming to greet me

my good friend

Allan’s photo

center courtyard

sweet peas in office courtyard

Agastache ‘Cotton Candy’ in office courtyard

These window boxes were all shipshape. All had responded well to last week’s fertilizing.

Escallonia iveyi by the sport court

Allan said to take a picture of the cryptomeria grove for Steve and John.

Port of Ilwaco

In the evening, we watered and weeded our way down Howerton Avenue at the port.

at the marina, a bird for Mr. Tootlepedal

reflection in the Bruce Peterson Gallery window

I began by watering the Peterson Gallery curbside garden. Bruce and Wendi Peterson are supporters of the watering effort (by providing a hose and water); their gallery is open Saturdays during market season, so please do go visit if you can: 223 Howerton Ave SE, Ilwaco, WA.  Tell ’em I sent you.

Allan bucket watered the one garden bed where the only solution is bucketing water or hooking up three hoses to the mayor’s RV park across the street and then having the hoses driven over by passing vehicles. For now, Allan bucket waters it.

round one: buckets lined up to dump

The garden was parched.

Eryngium ‘Sapphire Blue’

Allan thought this Eryngium looked so thirsty that he filled buckets while weeding and watering by the Ilwaco Pavilion and went back for a second round.

This is time consuming and back-challenging and we will only do it for places that do not have a hose nearby.

Port Office from Waterfront Way

Just to the east of the Port Office is the Don Nisbett gallery.  Don and Jenna have been known to go out and water for us, so do stop in and tell them thank you for making Ilwaco more beautiful!

Eryngium ‘Sapphire Blue’ in Port Office curbside garden on Howerton.

I moved on west to water the Port Office and the Time Enough Books garden.  Karla of Time Enough  provides us with a hose and water, which we so appreciate, as the port office hose only reaches one end of her curbside garden…so do stop in and buy a book, greeting card, or just pet the sweet shop dog, Scout.

a hose from Salt Hotel

Julez and Laila, the civic minded owners of the soon-to-open Salt Hotel, are letting us use their water to care for not only the curbside garden in front of their building but also the one in front of the vacant building to their west.  We thank them from the bottom of our hearts and will do everything we can to promote their business venture.

They are already offering surfing lessons, having moved the surf shop down from its previous location in Seaview.  (Photo from last Saturday)

The garden was so dry from last week’s watering fiasco and much appreciated some moisture.

Regarding last week’s difficult day, reader William Duchie made this encouraging comment on the blog re-post on our Facebook page:  “A wonderful ministry for the soul of the lower peninsula and its people. Rejoice in it!”  I like that.  I thought at first that a ministry should be free, then remembered that church ministers get paid, so…yes.

Salt owner Julez’ dog had made an escape…

on the loose!

and was rounded up and brought home. (Allan’s photos)

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18 June: catching up

Thursday, 18 June 2015

Mike’s garden

We began a few blocks east in Mayor Mike’s garden.

weeded the path, did some watering

Mike’s oriental poppy

lots of pizzazz

boxwood and pulmonaria

Mike wondered if we had cut back the middle of the Echinops (blue globe thistle) below:

floppy globe thistle

I told him that, like a lot of plants this year in my garden, it seems to have reached for the light during our many grey, unusually dark midspring days and then flopped open.

We did not have time today, but soon we must cut back this climbing rose so it does not smother the tree…soon enough so it will put out new growth for next year.

The Depot Restaurant

I still feel that the Depot garden is starting off slowly this year.

At last is has something besides green to offer: an Eryngium ‘Sapphire Blue’ in bloom.

The main reason that the Depot is a slow starter is because almost all the feature plants are tall ones so that they show up behind the big log that marks the edge of the carpark.

Long Beach

We pulled the scrimmy horsetail out of the Long Beach welcome sign garden.  The cosmos are beginning to bloom.

yellow bidens along the front edge

white bacopa along the back edge

both sides now (with blue bacopa along the sidewalk)

Andersen’s RV Park

First, we weeded the road box.

We had not managed to get to Andersen’s at the end of the day yesterday.  That was a good thing, as we had more energy for it today.  Allan weeded on the west side, and fertilized the barrels, and I groomed the picket fence garden and Payson Hall planters.

today’s garden areas

Payson Hall clubhouse

barrels and RVs

the west bed

The poppy field has popped.

looking east toward the house and office

looking west toward the ocean

some pink California poppies mixed in (with a big silvery verbascum)

one of Allan’s projects, before

after

before

after

He extended the strimmed area so that the staff will know how far they can go without hurting the garden.

The picket fence garden

(Above) Raymond from The Planter Box has made the weed-killer burnt patch of lawn all nice and green again.

The sweet peas are looking happy and full of potential.

Asiatic lilies: Landini or Blackout

On the way out, we did a bit of weeding by the garden shed.

the garden shed garden (with fig tree, and with Allan weeding)

The Anchorage Cottages

Anchorage, near the Cove Restaurant at the Golf Course

Our garden areas are the courtyards within the array of cottages.

We made our usual rounds of the garden beds at the Anchorage, and I got the windowboxes and containers all fertilized…some with the blue stuff and some with nice organic Fox Farms Tiger Bloom; I can afford to use the latter at smaller jobs than Long Beach town.

shade garden on a north wall with astilbe, Fuchsia ‘Sharpitor Aurea’ and Geranium macrorrhizum

The golden fuchsia is small in the photo above, and is the plant that inspired my first ever contact  with Our Kathleen.  She used to stay at The Anchorage before and had asked at the Planter Box what that fuchsia’s name might be, and Teresa called me up to ask the name.  I may even have talked to Kathleen on the phone; her sharp memory would supply the details.  Later, I met her in person in the Anchorage gardens.  Facebook made communication easier so that we could become real life friends.

Calla lilies on the north wall

The pink hydrangeas in the “Zen courtyard” are enjoying the new mulch and Beth’s weeding job, and look much better than last year.

center courtyard

happy, fertilized plants in the center courtyard containers

Solanum crispum ‘Glasnevin’ (blue potato vine)

I hope the fertilizer inspires the window box plants.

office courtyard

Allan took on the project of weeding under the grapevines down by Ocean Beach Boulevard.

before

This involved bending and crawling.

after

Boreas Inn

I was well chuffed that we found time to spend an hour at the Boreas Inn garden, just weeding.

Boreas Inn and its trail to the beach.

island beds on the west lawn look so small!; round roof at mid photo is hot tub hut

looking west to beach trail

I was shocked to find the deer have been eating Gaura ‘Whirling Butterflies’

and Eryngium ‘Jade Frost’

but not all the Eryngiums, thank goodness.

Deer have never bothered my Gauras before.  Two days later, I found Gaura at the Ilwaco boatyard garden also severely browsed.  Darn it.

Verbascum ‘Jackie in Yellow’, back for a third year (albeit rather small)

The Cove Restaurant

Thursday night means Fish Taco night at the Cove Restaurant.  We were joined by Dave and Melissa from Sea Star Landscape Maintenance, who had been to Portland and back today.

Allan’s photo

I just realized that Thai soup with prawns is Tom kha goong, and with chicken is tom kha gai.  I think I am showing off a little by saying that.  I used to go out for Thai food probably once a week in Seattle. Never mind; Jason’s soup is spectacularly delicious.  He sent us out a scallop amuse bouche that had us all exclaiming with pleasure.

Jason’s scallops

with tiny, sweet Peruvian peppers

tom kha soup

Patti J and Lisa and Buzz were there.  I had to name drop and tell Melissa that Buzz is the one who wrote the recent interview article with Caitlin Jenner that has been all the media rage.  A woman came over and said she reads my blog every day (hi! and thank you!) and I said “Even the whining?” and she said “That’s the best part!”.  That is reassuring, as I’ve been doing a lot of whining lately.

As we departed, Parking Lot Cat came to greet us, leading to this amusing set of photos by Allan as all the “cat people” fawned over him.

PLC is a star!

 

 

 

 

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10 June: four north end jobs

Wednesday, 10 June 2015

I had a hard time getting going this morning.  Devery stopped by while doing her daily check up on Nora’s house and picked some strawberries from our garden;  I have asked her to do so as I am too busy to keep up with them.

Allan’s photo; Devery is there!

Allan’s photo

strawberry pickers

Allan’s photo: tadpoles in the water boxes

by our driveway: poppy flowers in the Eleagnus

Ilwaco post office garden

Post Office garden….I assess it can wait till tomorrow to be watered.

First job of the day:

the staking of a windblown Eryngium ‘Sapphire Blue’ by Azure Salon

Basket Case Greenhouse

Our stop at the Basket Case was simply to pick up five plants for Long Beach planters, to replace plants stolen recently by thieving varmints.  While there, I was delighted to see Ed and my nephew, Jackson Strange.

Ed, Nancy, and Walter and Shadow

me and Jackson

most darling!

still some left of one of my favourite perennials: Agastaches (hyssops)

As we departed, a cedar waxwing had gotten into the main greenhouse and was having a hard time figuring out how to get out.

Allan’s photo

Marilyn’s Garden

We began at our furthest north garden, in Surfside.

My good friend Goldie came to greet me.

Goldie

my very good friend

looking north from the back steps

I was mad at myself because I forgot to bring some painted sage to plant here.  Next time!

Alliums

Allium albopilosum

interlude

On the way south to our next job, we bought an oscillating sprinkler at Jack’s Country Store, which resulted in driving down Ridge, one block over from the highway.  There I admired two pocket gardens which I do think might be asked to be on the garden tour next year or the year after that!  (I believe Nancy has enough gardens this year.)

garden one, a sweet cottage garden…

with river rock walls…

and a driftwood fence.

a few blocks south, a handsome fence and patio

Klipsan Beach Cottages

While I groomed the fenced garden, Allan did some weeding along the woodland swale:

before

after

He got a whole heaping wheelbarrow of weeds removed.

In the fenced garden:

looking in the east gate

view over the birdbath

Verbascum

one of Mary’s roses

sit spot

fuchsias and daylily well matched in colour

honeysuckle

Rose ‘Jude the Obscure’

Jude’s petals on boxwood and Hebe ‘Boughton Dome’

Rose ‘New Dawn’ from outside the fence

outside: Euphorbia and fennel

Golden Sands Assisted Living

blue sky by our parking place…and hardly any wind!

On the way through the hallways to the courtyard garden, I met a new friend named Susan.

Susan, very friendly and sweet! (Allan’s photo)

I had not even been sure we should take time to stop at Golden Sands, till I had remembered that the birdbaths surely needed filling, and indeed they did.

Each one had acquired a yellow duck. (Allan’s photo)

Allan’s photo: These birdbaths seem to await our arrival to be filled.

The tiny Tiger Eyes sumac may finally decide to grow this year. (Allan’s photo)

brand new seating by the dining room doors

The weekly overview of the four quadrants:

SW quadrant

SW quadrant

long view of NW quadrant

NW quadrant

NE quadrant

detail

long view of SE quadrant

SE quadrant

SE quadrant

As we left, I made another new friend named Ginger.

Guiding Ginger so she did not get under our vehicle.

my new friend, with the same name as me mum

Andersen’s RV Park

Allan took on the project of weeding by the entry.

before

after, a subtle difference

before

after; an impressive difference—The rose is Rosa rugosa ‘Blanc Double de Coubert’

He also tidied up along the walkway by the restrooms and laundry room.

before

after

I weeded by the garden shed, the picket fence garden, and the Payson Hall boxes:

the garden shed garden

climbing rose on one of the two cottages

the picket fence garden

west side, the poppy field

red poppies, many still to come

and California poppies mixed in

home

I had to do a good watering of the front garden with the new oscillating sprinkler, and on the back patio I found that the Hymenocallis (Peruvian daffodil) had begun its brief and amazing show:

Hymenocallis

AKA Peruvian daffodil

Coolest thing today: Mary and Denny of Klipsan Beach Cottages gave us a blue gate leg table.  Wrestling it in and out of the trailer was hard (easier for Allan) and rearranging our comfy guest chair to make room for it was mentally hard, but it is now in a spot in our living room where I will be able to have breakfast while looking out the window instead of in the windowless corner (where the dining table naturally fits, due to a low hanging ceiling light fixture in the double wide floor scheme).

new table in the garden book corner

Next: two mostly Long Beach days during which I do hope we can manage some more beach approach weeding…

 

 

 

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3 June: Ilwaco, Golden Sands, KBC, Andersen’s

Sorry I am no good at coming up with clever titles.  For that, you must go to the Tootlepedal blog!

Ilwaco

We bucket watered some of the Ilwaco planters.  This did not work well, as I pulled a side muscle with the first bucket I picked up out of the trailer.  I had filled them only half full to make them a mere 25 or so pounds instead of a full bucket which, accounting for some water slopping out, weighs about 40 pounds.  After that, I could not bend over to weed.  That’s dire, as I always weed bending over.  This, we concluded, is the end of the bucket watering experiment, and we will be returning to using the water trailer.  That makes it a one person, driving job: thus, Allan’s job from now on this year.

This one features blue flowers because Azure Salon is the shop closest to it.

I immediately noticed that someone had picked off one of the small-flowered alliums in the planter.

I see finger blight; do you?  Look just to the right of the tree trunk, under the poppy bud.  I ALWAYS see.

The tree garden that got weed-eaten not long ago is starting to recover, with the poppies bravely determined to make a show (and four new plants added).

On the way out of town, we wondered when the Buoy 10 sandwich shop (at the stoplight intersection) would open.

The Planter Box

We stopped at the Planter Box garden center to pick up three more flat of Salvia viridis.  I know, I keep saying annuals planting time is over…

At The Planter Box: snapdragons…

dahlias

Eryngium ‘Jade Frost’ and ‘Big Blue’

Eryngium ‘Big Blue’

an assortment of lovely roses

Golden Sands Assisted Living

O happy day!  O happy day-yay!  The sprinkler system is on in the Golden Sands courtyard!  We were able to devote our time solely to weeding, at last.  (And Allan strimming the oval center grassy patch.)  Fortunately, by the time we got here, I was able to bend over and weed again…painfully.

Golden Sands Assisted Living. The courtyard shows so well on Google earth.

SE quadrant

SW quadrant

NW quadrant, still the slowest one.

NE quadrant and my mum’s old window

The two south quadrants that are heavy with self sown sweet williams (from a wildflower mix) look showiest now.  I am confident that the other two quadrants will come into their own later in the season.

Klipsan Beach Cottages

Next, we went to our favourite job just a few blocks up the highway.  My side was feeling better and the day stopped being miserable.

I had a few Cosmos ‘Antiquity’ and a few more painted sage to plant.  The weather had become sunny and warm, for the first time in days.

in the fenced garden

Agastache ‘Acapulco Salmon and Pink’ and Erysimum ‘Winter Orchid’ : color echoes.

made for each other

hardy fuchsia

Verbascum

I have thought this was rose ‘Bow Bells’…but it is too pale, I think now.

Gosh, I need a rosarian friend to help me ID some of the roses in this garden…and my own (which is rather embarrassing).

Dianthus ‘Charles Musgrave’

Rose ‘Jude the Obscure’

The pink rhododendron by where we park at Joanie’s Cottage is still blooming.

While I weeded, Allan took on a pruning project: cutting all the uppies from the rose and the poky-outties from the honeysuckle over the east center gate.  His photos:

before

before

before

after

after

Interlude

Even though it had not orginally been on my work list for today, it occured to me that we should check on a business pocket garden that we care for. As we pulled into the parking lot, I saw something different.

The front had been cut off all of the Erysimum ‘Bowles Mauve’, exposing the dead innards.  This is a perennial that gets woody inside after a few years and then needs to be replaced.  I had figured these were almost at that stage but that we could get one more grand year of flowering out of them.  Here they were on May 25:

And today, with all the poppies that were reseeding into the block wall also gone):

It had clearly been done with a string trimmer, and whoever had wielded it had gone vertically up the front of the plants.

Perhaps it had been problem to have the flowers poking out over the top of the wall; perhaps it interfered with parking.   We could have trimmed up all the woody bits, and swept up, and tidied up, and spent an hour or two trying to make it fit my personal garden vision (which would have left dark holes in the front of the plants where we clipped dead stems out).  What I did instead was pass on the card of Sea Star landscape maintenance, a good gardening business whose owners live at the north end, much closer to this garden, and we drove away.  We will continue to shop at this excellent  store.  I would not have let the garden go had I not known that I could refer it into the capable hands of Dave and Melissa.

Onward!

Andersen’s RV Park

We spent a couple of hours weeding at Andersen’s to close out the day.   I weeded in the picket fence garden while Allan did more near the back office door.

Allan’s photo: before

Allan’s photo: after

Allan’s photo: before

and after

It is a tough area to weed, with tight soil, invading rugosa roses, and lots of couch grass.

The poppy field is starting to bloom.

I also requested that Allan do one of his excellent strimming jobs along the lawn edge of the picket fence garden:

The picket fence garden; today Raymond from the Planter Box had reseeded the section of lawn and that had experienced weedkiller overdosing.

Ilwaco 

Just over the course of today, the Buoy 10 signage had been installed.

The sandwich/chowder/fish n chip shop must be almost ready.

When we got home, I went into the garden to plant just a few of the ladies in waiting (potted plants).  To my shock, I saw a deer track, and a nibbled rose, and then some nibbled Geranium ‘Rozanne’.  WHAT?  I pictured spending my weekend putting more bamboo poles along the fence, which they must be jumping.  I walked around and saw more damage to astilbes, sanguisorbas, and….OH!  The very back gate had been left open on Monday, by either me or Allan.  So the deer had had two night to come in and thoroughly browse.  I noticed that salmonberry and dwarf fireweed were also eaten and thought that if only the deer would concentrate on those, they could come live in the garden.  I closed and very securely latched the gate and wondered how hard they would be trying to get in now that they know about all the tasty items inside the fence.  Allan and I both walked around checking that no deer remained hiding out in the garden.

Allan’s photo: Stipa gigantea against the sunset.

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29 May: Ilwaco to Andersen’s

Friday, 29 May 2015

Ilwaco

The day began with the new routine of bucket watering half of the Ilwaco city planters.

As you can see, it can be a long walk with a bucket between planters.

Eventually, I suppose we will return to Allan watering with the water trailer, but for now when we are so busy we just don’t have time for that; bucket watering saves over half an hour.

I do like this banner at city hall.

bucket watering the city hall planters

City Hall; as you can see, the weather remained grey and chilly.

The Depot Restaurant

There’s not much excitement in the Depot flower garden yet.  We went after the ever present bindweed.

today

strong foliage of Rodgersia coming up…over bindweed and the ajuga that has fallen out of my favour.

the new expansion

added a Sanguisorba ‘Dali Marble’, realized had put it too close to the Agastache ‘Golden Jubilee’.

Oh dear, well, it’s ok to have plants close together if you want a quick impact at a place of business.  I can shift them in the fall….

I bought flea medication for the cats at the Oceanside Animal Clinic next door and admired the cute motel across the street.

Seaview Motel has cute cottages and pretty little garden beds.

Long Beach

I had meant for us to get to the Long Beach welcome sign yesterday to pull the maddening scrim of horsetail.  Today, we did, knowing it will come back by next week.

back side, before: The feathery cosmos foliage might help camouflage the horsetail to the unknowing eye

after

front, before

after

Next, while Allan weeded at Veterans Field, I checked to see if the “dry” block of planters had been watered by the city crew.  They had, and very well indeed.

Thank you! Nice and damp soil.

We try not to plant anything tall right next to the hose connection because we have to twist our quick connect faucet and hose to get the water on.

I peeked down Sandpiper Mall at the exterior display of Home at the Beach, a charming shop that recently moved from 7th Street to this location.  I had no time to go inside today…much to do.

Home at the Beach

Todd called and then came by Veterans Field after picking up the tree peony I’d left for him in my driveway.  While he helped pull bindweed out of the Lewis and Clark Square garden, he regaled me with an excellent prank he had played at an Ilwaco cafe.  He had asked the proprietor and her helper if she knew anything about the boatyard garden because, he said, he had picked a huge armload of flowers there and a crazy lady had appeared and yelled at him that it was her garden and he should not be picking flowers!  The café ladies looked appropriately shocked when he said “I have the flowers in my car, do you want them?”  Then he broke down and confessed that he actually knows us and had helped us weed the boatyard garden a couple of times and was then informed that now they recognized him from Skyler’s blog.  Hmm.  I said “Kathleen will love this story!” (and I was right) and that he had provided some of the café patrons with a good dose of gossip.  We all got a great deal of enjoyment out of the story (and he had also brought us not just a funny tale but also two sweet treats).

I invited him to follow us to our next job so he could have a tour of….

Jo’s garden

I wondered if this rose by the entryway is Pink Grootendorst.  I think it might be because of the carnation-like fringed flowers.

Rosa ‘Pink Grootendorst’?

Allan just happened to have pulled out a rooted side piece that I do hope came from this rose and not the more aggressive rugosa rose.  (Although this is a rugosa, so far it does not seem to run like mad.)  If it takes, I will have one in my own garden to examine.

Allan’s project was to fix this…

Without necessary parts, he capped a hole in the ‘octopus’ that was leaking and will connect that sprinkler later.

Allan’s photo: touring Jo’s garden

While Allan worked on his project, fixing a broken sprinkler, I also took Todd to see the Boreas Inn garden.  Then Allan and I left Jo’s and went onward to….

The Planter Box

….Where we found Todd just finishing a shopping errand, so we had a look at the cosmos in the back greenhouse.  To his apparent amusement, I bought two more flats…after all my rejoicing that annuals planting time was over.  I could not resist, as there were some new varieties, ‘Antiquity’ and ‘Happy Ring’, both of which I very much liked last year, and ‘Rubenza’, which I think might be a shorter one.  (Just Googled…three feet tall, so shorter than ‘Sensation’, with deep red flowers.  Now I want more!)

Cosmos ‘Antiquity’ last year

The Planter Box is the place to get a wide assortment of vegetable starts.

The Planter Box has all sorts of veg starts for sale now.

Andersen’s RV Park

We put in some weeding time at Andersen’s.  I weeding the picket fence garden and then helped Allan with the garden behind the office.  He took some before and after photos:

across from the back office door (before)

after

the garden right behind the office, before

after

before

after: This bed is challenging, always, as it is infested with couch grass.

I started weeding further along the bed behind the house, an area where mostly the staff walks, not guests, so it is always the last to get done.

Allan’s photos: still much to do.

We were not going to get done today.

At the far end of the above garden, one of my favourites is coming into bloom:

Baptisia australis (Allan’s photo); the rugosa rose will swallow it if we do not do some editing soon.

the buds of Baptisia australis (false indigo), Allan’s photo

The poppy field is beginning to bloom.  (Allan’s photo)

foxglove (Allan’s photo)

The foxgloves around the park always remind Lorna of her mother; her parents started the park in the late 1960s and she took over in 1988 and has run it since then.

Lorna also loves the old bearded iris.

Because real estate is “hot” on the Peninsula right now, I had many poignant thoughts about possibly leaving this garden if it sells.  I know I keep saying I want fewer gardens in order to actually get caught up.  And yet…the sweet peas are coming on  at Andersen’s…and I do adore some of the plantings.

office back door garden

This is the only garden where I have Halmiocistus wintonensis.

Halmiocistus wintonensis…a handsome once-a-year-bloomer

The picket fence garden, with sweet peas a couple of inches tall…sigh…

Penttilas Chapel by the Sea

On the way home, we spent a couple of hours at the difficult end of the funeral home garden in Long Beach, getting velvet grass out of the groundcover of kinnickkinnick.  Many of the grass roots remain.  I am thinking the groundcover should come out for easier weeding.  Along the sidewalk, a bed of lavender infested with thick white grass roots in tight soil was a challenge to weed.  Allan’s before and after photos:

before

after

after: no time before dark to finish the most obscure corner

before

after (with some creeping buttercup left behind due to lack of time

This is not even the sort of job I would take on, were it not that the larger driveway garden is so very much more to my taste.

driveway garden has interesting plants (last week)

Even though there were some weeds left, I was able to cross Penttila off the “projects” list and now consider it a regular maintenance job.  Now there is just one big project left: the thirteen sections of the beach approach garden, and fertilizing my own back garden at home….which I have a feeling might not happen this year except for individual needy plants.

I suppose I need to add “plant cosmos!” again.

We are taking a three day weekend.  Or rather I am, as Allan would like to get the community building garden weeded, after a boating adventure on Saturday.

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20 May: mostly weeding

Wednesday, 20 May 2015

Ilwaco

The grey, chilly, dark, and sometimes misty weather continued.  I welcomed it as it saved us worrying about watering all the plants we have recently planted.  The pressure of Annuals Planting Time is slowing down, so that even though we still have planting to do, it is not all planting all the time.

First thing today:  We usually do a little something to our volunteer garden at the post office during our daily mail stop.

Ilwaco Post Office garden

post office detail: Eryngium ‘Jade Frost’ and Allium albopilosum

I wanted to check on the rest of the Howerton Avenue gardens, the ones we had not gotten to yesterday, as the port will be a busy place during Memorial Day weekend.

the bed by the Ilwaco pavilion

pink California poppies

green santolina in the next bed to the east

the tiny and vulnerable “drive-over garden”

The Marie Powell gallery garden bed, looking west

The new ArtPort Gallery is located in the space that once housed the beloved and much-missed Pelicano Restaurant.

Powell Gallery bed, looking east

Eryngium and Lavender further to the west

With the port gardens having achieved something near to perfection, we drove north to our next job.

The Anchorage Cottages

My good friend Mitzu greeted us.

Anchorage manager Beth told us that Mitzu probably expected a doggie treat like the UPS man brings.

I think she’s right.

We had some milk bones that I carried for the Casa Pacifica dogs; they were too big or not tasty enough, as Mitzu was not interested in having a small corner off of one.  So I gave her a tiny bit of cheese from our lunch box.  We must add some small dog treats to the items we carry with us.

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

the north garden by the office with Geranium ‘AT Johnson’ beautifully run rampant

This is one job where I don’t mind this particular hardy geranium filling in a large area….at least for now, till it starts to look tatty.

I am usually obsessed with pulling this one.

Ceanothus, barberry, and one of those Canadian Explorer extra hardy roses (I think)

I added some more plants to the various containers while Allan did some weeding.

On the way to our next job, we stopped at both the Basket Case and The Planter Box to get some assorted Eryngiums for an end-of-day project.

The Basket Case

Allan did a photo essay at The Basket Case about why we trim sword ferns in the early spring:

Hidden behind the greenhouses, here is a completely untrimmed sword fern.

Here is one that was trimmed last year (by Allan, during a time when he was waiting for me to shop) but not this year.

Here is one that Fred just trimmed in the display garden. (You can trim them carefully at end time; it is easier in early spring before the new fronds have unfurled.)

Allan’s photo in the south greenhouse

Regarding petunias, one situation where they are FABULOUS is in Nancy’s baskets.  (The one above mainly features calibrachoa (million bells); I see petunias in a couple of the background baskets in that photo.)

Allan’s photo: me and Fred.  I have a Miscanthus ‘Gold Bar’.

Fred pointed out to be that he had two shrubs I had requested; I had not even realized that.  I grabbed me one of each: Dichroa febrifuga and Itea ilicifolia.  There was one left of each, so get ’em if you can; if they are still there at the beginning of June, I am taking them both!

Right: Dichroa in my garden two years ago. Stunning.

The Planter Box

From the Basket Case to the Planter Box, across Cranberry Road

We swung over to the main highway to get a couple more Eryngiums that I new the Planter Box had in stock.

at The Planter Box, Allan’s photo

me and owner Teresa, Allan’s photo

checking the progress of the painted sage second sowing (Allan’s photo)

Andersen’s RV Park

Next, we had alloted a couple of hours to weeding, as far as possible in that time, all the beds at Andersen’s RV Park.

a grey day at Andersen’s

In the women’s restroom: my former partner, Robert, painted this “Desert Rose” mirror.

I surely do wish I could have that mirror if the RV park sells….

I had weeded the garden shed and the picket fence gardens and helped Allan on the west garden with the rest of our time.  I had suggested he use the string trimmer on the path; being light sand, I thought that might work way faster than hand weeding.  It was not fast, but it did the job.

before, Allan’s photo

after, Allan’s photo

before: Allan’s photo

after, Allan’s photo

The poppies are just barely beginning to bloom here.

Still did not get this edge weeded by the office back door.

in that same area: Oriental poppies and Halmiocistus wintonensis

While weeding, I admired the fine specimen to Stipa gigantea from several angles.

Stipa backed with Payson Hall club house.

with Miscanthus variegatus, another of my favourites

looking through to office back door

looking south from Payson Hall

Ilwaco again

My shopping for Eryngiums culminated in adding five cool plants to the garden in front of the soon-to-be-open Salt Hotel on Howerton.  It’s a tough area to plant because thick landscape fabric must be cut for each plant.  Allan did it while I pruned the ceanothus back from the sidewalk at the Time Enough Books garden to the east.

Allan ready to plant

Eryngium ‘Big Blue’ from The Planter Box set up to plant

The old Harbor Lights Motel will become Salt Hotel, as soon as the sign arrives.

The new owners, Julez and Laila, have added some plants of their own by the building.

Allan’s photo: Each plant must have a hole cut through fabric to plant. Oh, we do hate fabric in a planting bed.

Allan’s photo: step two

This time, he added some potting soil to the hole, I don’t usually believe in coddling a plant with special soil in the ground, for fear its roots will just circle in the good stuff.  Here, though, we decided to try it as the soil is so bad and rubbly.

Allan’s photo: rocks replaced and washed with water.  Eryngium ‘Big Blue’ from The Planter Box

He figured out that each plant took 12 minutes to plant here.

Eryngium ‘Jade Frost’ from The Basket Case.

Miscanthus ‘Gold Bar’ from The Basket Case

Gold Bar Miscanthus will stay nice and short.  Yesterday, I had been going to plant some of my stash of Panicum ‘Northwind’ in here…till I learned from Todd that it gets 4-6 feet tall.  We try to stay low with plants along Howerton, to avoid blocking traffic sightlines.

planted these and Eryngium ‘Blue Hobbit’

on the water side of the hotel

Once again, we worked till eight. typical for the big push of getting ready for the holiday weekend.

 

 

 

 

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15 May: Annuals Planting Time continues

Friday, 15 May 2015

Eleagnus ‘Quicksilver’ by our driveway

This may be the first year it has bloomed with tiny, intoxicatingly fragrant flowers.

on the way out of Ilwaco, some deadheading of Narcissus ‘Baby Moon’ at city hall; the two dead flowers had been bugging me for two days.

Long Beach

We began with adding a lot of cosmos to the back side of the Long Beach welcome sign.

Cosmos ‘Sonata’ set to go in (Allan’s photo)

all in  (Allan’s photo)

front side, with cosmos added (Allan’s photo)

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Taking up where we left off yesterday, we continued the planting of Cosmos ‘Sonata’ on the two northernmost blocks of planters.  As we worked, blog reader and Facebook friend Merry presented us with two delicious cookies that gave us a boost of energy.

Thank you, Merry!

Allan’s photo

the very last of the tulips (and a variegated Euonymous left over from volunteer planter days)

Some of the planters were planted up, back in the day, by volunteers, with full sized shrubs that require lots of shearing and that allow little room for annuals.  They certainly are beautiful (most of them) and those planters are the easiest to take care of.  I would like to redo one further south that is just red azaleas and is quite dull all summer long.

the newly redone planter by Dennis Co; I can manage to redo just two or three a year.

Diane’s garden and The Red Barn

After the last planter had its cosmos, we headed north for more plants, stopping to count up how many we will need to plant Diane’s containers.

the roadside garden at Diane’s, with Stipa gigantea (ornamental grass)

Allan strimming at The Red Barn Arena

Our quiet rechargeable weedeater doesn’t scare the horses.

The Basket Case Greenhouse

I now had a list of exactly what I needed to finish the annuals planting in Long Beach.

the gatekeeper of the “employees only” greenhouse where we get to shop

Allan’s photo

Kitty accompanies us all around the nursery. (Allan’s photo)

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

After collecting our plants, Fred and Nancy and I perused the new availability list for cool plants to order.

Basket Case Nancy and Fred (not to be confused with Garden Tour Nancy)

What to buy….Some Sanguisorbas and Agastaches!

Andersen’s RV Park

Next stop, Andersen’s.  Rose ‘Climbing Cecile Brunner’ is in bloom over the picket fence arbour.

Climbing Cecile Brunner

Allan cleared all the old bulb foliage from Leucojum (Summer Snowflake) from the white brick planter by the house and planted begonias.

Two wheelbarrow loads of foliage came out.

after planting some begonias and New Guinea impatiens

Allan’s photo

We added some assorted Calibrachoa to the Payson Hall planters at Andersen’s.

Payson Hall

All the time, I feel weird about planting them as my feelings tell me it is about to sell.  After all this worrying about my newly planted babies, it will be funny and kind of a relief if we end up working there all summer after all, even though I so very much want one less big job.

planting Payson Hall

Long Beach again

Finally, we added some godetia and blue bacopa to the sidewalk end of the Long Beach welcome sign.

Allan’s photo

We had worked till dusk, and the spotlights were on at the welcome sign.  The last thing I wanted to do was more planter work.  However, on the way home through Ilwaco I saw an annoying sight: a plant pulled up and just left sitting on top of one of the planters.

“Stop the car!” I yelled at this sight.

“Whyyyyyyyy?!?!?!”

The plant was one I had mentally slated for replacing, and we had a fresh new non-leggy Erysimum ‘Bowles Mauve’ to go in its place. I noticed something else really weird at the same corner but in the gathering dusk I did not have the time or energy to do more than take a picture and wonder what had happened, and then put it out of my mind till later; the plants under one of the street trees were just…flat…What the heck???

It would be a couple of  days before I had time to take a closer look at this tree garden. Something is wrong.  Why is it flat?  Too tired to think about it.

At home, the work board got just a bit more erasing.

All the Andersen’s annuals are in and the cosmos are planting in all the Long Beach planters.

I forgot to add this photo from yesterday:  I thought the colours in Nellie’s garden, seen on the way home, with the yellow house to the south as backdrop, looked stunning.

Look how the top of the hedge, all aglow, is almost the same colour as the yellow house,

 

 

 

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11 May: Annuals Time officially begins

Monday, 11 May 2015

We usually are careful to wait till Mother’s Day for planting annuals, to avoid cold nights. Jo’s annuals never suffer from being planted (at her request) a week or two before any of our other clients, but I don’t want to risk it unless the client is determined (like Jo!).  This year, we’d begun annuals last week, here and there.  However, annuals time can’t officially begin without changing the work board.

the work board as it was

I still have not gotten my back garden weeded enough to fertilize more than a few plants, and we have no sign of when we might have time to weed the 13 sections of the beach approach garden.

The annuals board has begun.

While we have some of annuals in at Andersen’s and the Red Barn already, they won’t get crossed off till they are completely done.  Cosmos are an annual, too.  Here, “annuals” means container plants like calibrachoas and trailing lobelia, quite a different planting experience than putting cosmos in the ground.

Mary watched us leave for work. I wished I could spend the day with her in our garden.

First stop: check the painting situation at the Depot Restaurant. The lattice is done.

planted three Agyranthemum ‘Butterfly’ and two Helichrysum ‘Limelight’ in the barrel.

The Planter Box

We began to collect our flats of cosmos from the back greenhouse of the Planter Box.

some handsome heucheras on our way back to the last greenhouse

I often ponder this table and two chairs, as we have a larger chair that matches this set.

Teresa and Raymond,  sibling owners at The Planter Box

a van packed with cosmos (Allan’s photo)

With the van stuffed with flats of cosmos and more, we drove to Andersen’s RV Park, just a few blocks up the road.

Andersen’s RV Park

Allan watering the garden shed garden after some weeding and the planting of cosmos there.

Alliums in the garden shed garden

allium closeup

Allan’s photo: We also have Agyranthemum ‘Butterfly’ and some Salvia viridis (painted sage).

Cosmos ‘Sonata’ short) and some Agyranthemum ‘Butterfly’ went into the Payson Hall planters.

pinching after planting

planting cosmos deep down in the picket fence garden (Allan’s photo), with sweet peas

Each plant gets some Dr Earth fertilizer mixed with Quench, or whatever natural moisture retentive product that we are using now that Zeba Quench has seemingly disappeared from the market

If you plant cosmos deep, they root along the stems like tomato plants do.

I have a feeling we won’t be working here all summer to see this garden mature…

It’s weird planting annuals at places that are for sale.  I always wonder if I will see those gardens through the summer.

Having one fewer job would be wonderful.  I just don’t want a sale to happen right after we’ve added all the new babies.  Either before or at least two months after annuals planting time would be perfect.  

Speaking of fewer jobs, I completely forgot to tell you about the moment of truth while we were planting at Jo’s last week.  I realized, after spending all day (as usual when behind on work) trying to figure out which job to quit to make life more manageable, that one job did have to go.  I chose the most private one, because it has less impact on the world.  I wrote to the client with much sadness at quitting in May, of all the times…but said truthfully that I had thought I could manage one more year at this pace and I’d been wrong.  I recommended three other gardening businesses.  Because the home is being extensively remodeled right now, it would not be a bad year to have the garden in transition.  In the long run, I don’t have time to implement a whole new garden bed around the newly shaped house, nor do I have time to make the woods parklike, as the client dreams of, and I think one of the younger and possibly less busy local gardening businesses could find the time and energy to turn it into something wonderful.  Fortunately, our client understood.  So, a poignant farewell to Casa Pacifica and its darling dogs….   I knew I wouldn’t be able to make the break in person in the presence of my good canine friends Dusty and Spook.

On the way home from Andersen’s today, we drove by the hotel at the port to admire the increasingly charcoal grey paint job.

At home: I burble every flat of painted sage so that they stay healthy and vigorous till we get them planted. (Allan’s photo)

Allan’s photo: waiting for the air bubbles to stop.

Allan had to clean up an entire bin of hand tools from the van because the container of corn starch based soil moisture product sprung a massive leak and coated everything in the large tote bin.

Allan’s photo, as he transfers to product to a new container. That was a big leak.

It had happened at Andersen’s and fortunately we did not spill any on the ground, as that would have made the lawn dangerously slippery.  I miss Zeba Quench; it had more substance, like fine grains instead of a powder.  I learned about it from Ann Lovejoy.  Allan says whenever he tries to order it online nowadays, it is unavailable.  On one order, a synthetic gel like product was substituted and we refused it.  Allan even corresponded with the man behind Zeba Quench, who sent us some directly, and then that contact fizzled out.  It’s frustrating.

One job got erased from the work board: Cosmos at Andersen’s.

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8 May: annuals and finally a campfire

Friday, 8 May 2015

Today we had a big annuals project that consumed much of the day.

The Depot Restaurant

We checked on the Depot Restaurant garden first.

looks like the lattice is painted….

Emergency bucket watering was needed by the front entry.

I see we need to keep an eye on the garden as the sprinklers are not yet on due to the restaurant being painted.

assessed from the van that tulips in the barrel will hold it for a few more days…and drove on.

The Basket Case Greenhouse

Our mission was to pick up loads of Agyranthemum ‘Butterfly’, yellow calibrachoas, and white bacopa for planting at Andersen’s RV Park.

lots of beautiful hanging baskets

Nancy’s basket creations

Calibrachoa ‘Vampire’

me and Nancy picking out some yellow Echinbeckias for Long Beach

some are yellow, some our orange (indicated in small letters on back of tag)

I’m trying the new echinbeckias, a cross between echinacea and rudbeckia, for the first time this year.

Andersen’s RV Park

The Andersen’s planting job, which involved Allan transferring soil from two old barrels to two new ones, and setting up the three painted planters (six actually, as they are stacked one on one for three displays), and both of us planting all the annuals, plumb wore me out so only two rather nondescript after photos were taken. Allan had left his camera at home.

the six barrels, planted (showing five, with the west RV parking in background)

three colourful planters in the poppy field, which needs weeding but we have no time.

Long Beach

On the way home from our dinner yesterday, I’d noticed under streetlights that the planters near NIVA green needed to have old bulb foliage removed, so we stopped to do that…

and noticed these California poppies and Tulip ‘Formosa’ in a nearby planter.

Then, at the welcome sign, we pulled out loads of dead bulb foliage and planted the echinbeckias, some Agyranthemum ‘Butterfly’, and some yellow bidens (in front) and white bacopa (in back).  I did not use as many Butterfly as last year deadheading them was such a chore.  I do hope the echinbeckias are as showy and easier maintenance.

front side, no flowers as yet

back side, with the bacopa planted…still need to get taller plants in there.

That’s all we had time for as we had a social plan:  The weather was at last good enough to allow a campfire evening with our Kathleen.

at home

evening sunshine from the fire circle (with Hosta ‘Sum and Substance’)

Mary observing

dinner prep (sausages and whole wheat buns)

ah…at last the campfire we’d been hoping for, on the last evening of Kathleen’s vacation week.

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