14 May: planting hell, day six (I think)

Monday, 14 May 2018

World Kite Museum

We fluffed up the entry garden with some mulch and enhanced it with a few cosmos and agastaches.

Allan’s photo

Tulip batalinii ‘Bright Gem’ is still going strong in the blue pots.  I’m getting oodles more T batalinii next year.  It blooms and blooms and blooms at the perfect time for late spring colour.

As we were about to leave, Allan kept saying “Have you seen my trowel?”

going back to look

trowel in back pocket

Of course, as always happens with planting, this all took longer than I had expected.

Planter Box and Basket Case

We made the rounds again for a few plants to finish some jobs with.

At The Planter Box, co-owner Raymond helps load a laburnum tree. (Allan’s photo)

I bought myself a variegated hydrangea. (Allan’s photo)

At the Basket Case, we were greeted by beloved staff members.

Allan’s photo

Buddy basking at the door of the greenhouse.

Roxanne’s dad showed Allan that the hanging baskets for Long Beach town were all lined up and ready to go.

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

We made the quickest ever stop at the Depot Restaurant to pop in two Agyranthemum ‘Butterfly’, thus finishing a planting job, and we got two more Long Beach planters done and eight or more of the previously planted ones watered.  (There are 37 planters downtown and…twenty more-ish on the beach approaches that we haven’t even dealt with because there is too much plant theft out there to plant anything new).

We had an unfortunately short day just when we needed to work long days, because tonight was an important city council meeting. We hurriedly filled some water buckets at the boatyard…

…in order to get some water onto a few of the Ilwaco planters, and then I barely had time to water down the new plants before the meeting.  It was stressful, and I still had a headache.

After popping the plants into the garage to dry out, we attended the crowded meeting and public hearing…

Allan’s photos

….where it was decided, to our great joy, that a conditional use permit will be granted to the would-be new owner of the Doupé Building so that she can add five apartments to the back of the ground floor (while still preserving the front commercial space).  This is necessary to help offset the million dollars or so needed to repair this gorgeous but decrepit and abandoned old building.  It is so far gone that we hear the price had gone down to $195,000.

Doupé Building, 2012

and 2008, when the hardware store was still open.

You can read more about this fascinating old building here, in an article by our friend Madeline.

“Workforce” rental housing of any quality is at a shortage here.  The nine units upstairs and five down should help folks who would like to move here and work at places like Salt Hotel…as long as the rent is affordable.  We shall see.

At home, I worked till ten in the garage, sorting plants and reloading them into the van.  This all took place during day five of a headache.  (While common enough for me in the past, it has been maybe ten years since I have had one of my old-style headaches that lasted this long.)  More than one friend suggested that the headache is from Annuals Planting Hell stress, and I did find that rubbing Bengay on my neck took the pain down several notches.

Kite Museum and Depot are done!

 

 

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13 May: Sunday planting

Sunday, 13 May 2018

I thought it might be weird and difficult working at a hotel garden and in Long Beach on Mother’s Day, but needs must in Planting Hell, which was truly planting hell because I still had a headache.  Of course, the direst diagnoses were percolating in my mind, making me so worried about all the still unplanted plants and what would happen to them if I could not work.  One of my favourite authors, Patricia Highsmith, wrote a book of short stories called Little Tales of Misogyny.  I could call this blog Little Tales of Hypochondria if I shared every health related thought that daily weighs down my mind.

While I tried to get myself going in the morning, Allan watered two doors down at Norwoods…

and across the street at the J’s:

Finally, I had some plants gathered and was ready to start work, beginning with planting some cosmos at

The Shelburne Hotel

While I planted in the front garden, Allan watered the back garden.

West side fence garden, mustard transplanted from my garden is doing well (Allan’s photo)

The late morning weather was getting increasingly hot.

planting in the front garden

The soil was still slightly damp underneath, and every plant got water in the hole and then more water once in, dipped from buckets.

little cosmos from six pack (Allan’s photo)

This year, I am not fertilizing the tall cosmos ‘Sensation’.  I think putting fertilizer in each hole is what has caused Cosmos ‘Sensation’ to sometimes bolt to extra tall and not bloom till October…because my “pinch” of fertilizer can vary in size.  I’ve read recently that they like a lean soil.

Allan planted assorted thymes along the edges of the front garden: creeping thyme, woolly thyme, a variegated thyme called ‘Foxley’, ‘Silver Posie’ thyme and lemon thyme.

Allan’s photo

Shelburne front garden, looking north

and south

I heard a guest say “I love this garden, it has some of everything.”

Gardening was also going on at the gallery to the north of the Shelburne:

I love a garden boat.

Leaving the Shelburne, the temperature had just dropped from 80 when I took this photo:

We drove up to Long Beach, looked at the crowds of people, and I had the idea of finishing planting at the

Depot Restaurant.

But what if they have a Mother’s Day brunch? Allan surmised wisely.  I checked their Facebook page.  Fortunately for us, they did not open till five and so we were able to plant there.

bidens, and an Agastache ‘Summer Fiesta’ in the barrel under the east window. (Allan’s photos)

cosmos going into the garden

We can’t cross this job off the list till I get Agyranthemum ‘Butterfly’ for that barrel planter.  I had them all picked out at the Basket Case on Friday, but got distracted and left that tray uncollected mid-greenhouse.

Long Beach

By now, it was past mid afternoon, and we figured some of the Long Beach tourists had gone home.  We collected buckets of soil at city works, for planters that are low.

Soil Energy Mulch

Although we still did not get all the planters done, we made good progress.  The big stress was the heat, which fortunately had decreased to a pleasant evening of 65 ish degrees.  This meant some of the planters we had planted not long ago also had to be watered.  That is another factor of Planting Hell…we plant, and then the next day have another place to plant, but meanwhile the plants in the first place are screaming for water.

I haven’t been wearing my knee brace for the last three days.  I realized why: I am taking so many pain killers for this darn headache that it is making my knee feel better.

In the Dennis Company planter, I was surprised to see the blue bacopa had come through the winter and was blooming along the edges.  Most unusual.

blue bacopa and Geranium ‘Rozanne’

I was thinking a lot about bulbs today.  John (of the Bayside Garden) likes a tidy garden and finds bulb foliage messy.  It sure is.  Every planter is now plagued with dying bulb foliage that cannot be removed yet (because letting it die back strengthens the bulb).  Some planters, where big strappy narcissi are left over from volunteer days, are especially hard to work in now and they look unsightly.  I try to plant the tiny narcissi with delicate foliage (like ‘Baby Moon’).  Without the spring bulbs, I would have to plant all sorts of spring annuals, so I cannot give them up.  At least we can just yank the big tulips; they never do as well the second year.

Cosmos ‘Sonata’ is going toward the centers of every planter that has room.  

By evening, the terrible heat had gone away, and as we turned to drive down our street in Ilwaco, we could see a blissful cool fog at the end of the street.

Allan’s photo

My headache (day four) had actually stopped being horrendous and was feeling more like a heat related headache.  I did not get to erase anything from the work list. We have not finished any planting job.

Because I still could not find an hour at bedtime to watch a full episode of 2016’s Gardener’s World, I found another old episode featuring Geoff Hamilton.

You may recall that I was worriec in the other Hamilton episode I’d watched when he said that variegated ground elder stayed in its place.  Tonight, he revealed that “variegated ground elder has been on the market a little while and it is showing its true colours, and we have to get it out of here!”

Another Hamilton gem: “Herbacious perennials thrive on being moved, but shrubs like to get their feet under the table and keep them there.”

He likes weeding.  So do I.  I just wish I had time to weed, can hardly wait till the planting is all done so I can back to just caring for the plants.

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25 May: all Ilwaco

Thursday, 25 May 2017

With the big tourist crowds of Memorial Day weekend and the local extravaganza of “The World’s Longest Garage Sale” (from Chinook to Oysterville), we had to get the port looking fine.

This involved some planting as well as weeding.

post office garden

me talking with Betsy, director of the museum, taken from behind the Stipa gigantea

I could not find the sunflower seeds I wanted to plant at the back.  Added more cosmos.

Then we drove a couple of blocks to the port to start weeding and adding a few plants to the curbside gardens.

Looking east. We would do the east end if we had time later in the day.

looking west

The marina is across the parking lot. (Allan’s photo)

I got to pet this doggie. (Allan’s photo)

a good butt scritching

Pleased to see most of the Eryngiums are budding this year. (Some years, some of them don’t.)

my favourite bed. Thinking I should get a yellow helianthemum to balance the orange one.

Helianthemum’s only flaw is a short season of bloom.

Drive over garden still rather flattened. Lucky the alliums did not get driven over. Would look better with more soil, as the soil is compressed by tires.

north of the port office

We found time to pull most of the noxious weed, Geranium robertianum (Stinking Bob) from the south side of Purly Shell Fiber Arts; shop owner Heather emerged and helped, which I appreciated so much.

Stinking Bob would take over the whole port. It went in the garbage can. The pelican is from Basket Case Greenhouse.

at Time Enough Books, looking west

Bookseller Karla says the ceanothus is causing a sensation.

Allan’s photo  OleBob’s café is named for two friends, Ole and Bob.

Karla had recently given  me the wonderful book, Cutting Back. I told her about the author’s encounter with Joan Baez while pruning an old ceanothus.

perfect book

Leslie was pruning at a retreat when Joan Baez emerged.

Karla will order the book for you if you want to read more.  Meanwhile, the UPS truck  delivered a new t shirt with Ilwaco’s longitude and latitude on display.

on the left: a must read for me; I am not very good at growing cutting flowers.

figuring out where to plant

weeding the bookstore landscape (Allan’s photos)

Karen Boardman from Ocean Park stops to give us words of admiration for all our gardens.

After the planting of the garden boat and some curbside plants at Time Enough, Allan went to string trim and weed a bit down by Ilwaco Freedom Market while I backtracked to weed the curbside at Powell Gallery.

With my knee brace on, I was able to walk on this river rock bed that I have lately had to delegate to Allan.

velvet grass in a California poppy at Salt (Allan’s photo)

Allan’s string trimming

It seemed we now had time to loop around to the east end curbside beds.  But driving down Lake Street, I realized we hadn’t checked Mike’s garden for a couple of weeks.  We hoped to find nothing to do there. Of course, there was some weeding, deadheading, and path raking.

path caked with cherry blossoms (Allan’s photo)

Mike’s raked path

Then on to weed some of the beds from Elizabeth Avenue to the Ilwaco Pavilion.

Looking west from Elizabeth

just across the parking lot (Allan’s photo)

I must confess that we skipped over three xeriscape (lava rock, river rock, and bark) gardens that we do not plant up.  We still had the whole boatyard to do and only today for Ilwaco.

After weeding at the old Shorebank building, we stopped at Salt to check on a santolina that Allan thought was not worth saving.  He was right.

by Ilwaco Freedom Market

We skipped weeding the last two beds. I hope the dog daises will dazzle people (those who don’t know it’s sort of a noxious weed) and distract from weedy grasses.

The curbs had been painted all along the port. (Allan’s photo)

columbine reseeded into the Salt river rock bed, which has soil covered with landscape fabric under the rock (not our doing!) (Allan’s photo)

Salt had a new and attractive smoker.  Wish I had gotten the whole sign…was tired.

making brisket, smelled delicious

Allan’s photo

Next, the boatyard.

Our friend, former LB city manager Gene Miles stopped by to talk about bonsai.

Allan left me at the boatyard with wheelbarrow and cosmos and went off to hook up the water trailer and water the street trees and planters.  I was mighty tired.  While getting plants out of the van, I found a bag of seeds that had gotten soaking wet…My fault. My proposed kitchen garden of red runner beans and some greens. I would have to plant them as soon as I got home.

Allan’s photo. He had been cultivating a garden of poppies under the red sign. Someone had string trimmed it flat.

Allan’s photos in town:

more digging in the corners of the tree beds. What is up with this??? This one has a perennial sweet pea.

one of the Ilwaco city hall planters; we can plant more delicate plants there because the office staff waters.

Parts of the boatyard garden were so hard and gravelly I could not hammer any cosmos into them.  We simply MUST mulch this whole garden next fall.  I had not realized it had gotten so low in spots.

7 PM….I had come this far…

and had this far to go including the long strip beyond the gate.

Being on hour nine of work was just about beyond me.

The garden had a haze of horsetail again.

so much to do

I skipped that center section as Allan arrived; it takes him an hour and three quarters to water the Ilwaco planters.  He set to weeding the section above and I went on with cosmos to the end.  My mood was dire as I had to accept that the boatyard would be far from perfect for the holidays.  The only comfort is it looks fairly good driving by, not so good to critical walkers-by.

weeds and plants in the boatyard garden (Allan’s photo)

cosmos seedling, watered with a dipper, and sluggo (Allan’s photo). My thought: poor little things.

Allan’s photo

I have been trying to be chipper and say Annuals Planting “Time” instead of “Hell”, but today was most definitely planting hell.  The last minutes were cheered  by two passing young fishermen, one of whom commented that they enjoy the gardens and that “Gardening is hard work!” I said, “Not as hard as The Deadliest Catch!” And he said, “That’s not so hard; it’s all done by hydraulics!”

Sometimes I wish there could be some signage explaining that all the public flower gardens (not the lawns) in Long Beach and Ilwaco are done by just two people, so have mercy with the imperfection.

geese seen while dumping weeds (Allan’s photos)

Erasing quite  a bit off the work board was not as cheering as usual.  I really had so much wanted to achieve perfection.  Once upon a time, when I was up to working seven days a week, ten hours a day at this time of year, we could achieve perfection before the holiday weekends.  Maybe we could have if we were not combining weeding with planting.

Of course, I had no oomph left to plant the veg seeds that had gotten wet.  I put them on a plate with a wet paper towel to keep them damp till our Saturday off.

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12 May: much planting in Long Beach

Thursday, 12 May 2016

Woke up at six AM…first thoughts were of the Job in Jeopardy.  Only a tiny sip of ZZZquil (perhaps leading to memory loss) let me return to slumber and get more than four hours of sleep.  I will be glad when this situation is resolved so I can move on mentally!  I should hear an answer by tomorrow (Friday the 13th).

Long Beach

We began the methodical planting of the Long Beach planters with the short cosmos near the centers and enough trailing plants to fill up the edges.  Each plant had to be burbled first in a bucket (pot held under water till it stops bubbling) and each planter had to be thoroughly watered, with water in each planting hole, because our weather has been so dry.  Each plant gets a dose of Dr Earth granular fertilizer mixed with some Quench (a natural corn starch product that helps the soil stay moist between waterings, giving us perhaps one extra day between each watering).

I only took two photos during work time, of the display at the Wooden Horse gift shop.  I loved the dragonfly screen but it was over $100.

Wooden Horse gift shop

a handmade dragonfly screen was worth the price; I hope the artist would get a goodly amount.

The rest of the workday photos are Allan’s.

planting trailies; headband shows I had a headache.

While focused on planting, one must also be aware of traffic.

Cosmos pinched so they will get chubby.

Could not resist trying this cute little trailing chenille plant. It will not do well with being sat upon and may not be as drought tolerant as I crave.  I try to plant red to go with red paint trim, and so on.

new Erysimum ‘Bowles Mauve’ to replace old leggy ones.

Planting blue flowers by the police station.  The orange California poppy crept in on its own.

Owner of Wind World Kites, across from the Bakery, likes the Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’; we’ve taken it out of other planters as its period of bloom is short and it is too pushy.

I was stressed about time, as the job was, as always, taking longer than I had hoped.  By three thirty, after much anxious clock watching, we had cleared enough space in the van to take a break and go pick up the next wave of plants.

The Planter Box 

We collected more trailing plants for the edges and some more cosmos, short and tall, and some plants we would need tomorrow.

ornamental grasses, daylilies and more at The Planter Box

The Basket Case

plants lined up on the counter

checking my list twice

Fred adding up

back to Long Beach

Cerinthe major purpurascens and golden marjoram

We pushed as hard as we could to get done before our weekly garden club dinner, and failed.  Five planters remained unplanted.  At 6:45, one intersection had not yet been watered and we were out of time…till I checked my phone and saw a text that Dave and Melissa were also running late.  We hurried to water the last four planters on the last intersection of the day and headed to dinner only ten minutes late.

a rose in the last planter to be watered; one of the planters with lots of shrubby plants from volunteer days, no room for cosmos or trailies!

The Cove Restaurant

We all agreed that during this busiest of gardening seasons, we will have to make our reservation for later than 7 PM next time.

me, Dave, Melissa, in the foyer at the Cove

darling Sondra, owner of the Cove Restaurant at the Peninsula Golf Course.

refreshing salads all round

Allan’s fish and chips

my middle eastern spicy chicken dish

Dave’s noodle bowl

lemon mascarpone cheese cake

The four of us gardeners were so very tired and yet managed to carry on the usual amusing (to us) conversation.

at the end, Melissa sleepy with leftovers wrapped by Sondra into a swan

Tomorrow, we must finish planting the leftover Long Beach planters.

1995 (age 71):

May 12:  Repotted cuke plants.  They are so tall.  I’m not sure they will survive transplanting.  If they don’t I’ll replant direct in garden.  Planted several pots of last year’s marigold seeds into plant trays in greenhouse.

1997 (age 73):

May 12:  Moved boxes and boxes of my pots etc from garage to shed to make room for yard sale stuff.  Weeded in patio flower bed.

1998 (age 74):

May 12: Still cool and rainy so I started checking my violets.  I reduced the width of the plants by removing the outer two rows of leaves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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11 May: still reeling, and work

Note to other WordPress bloggers:  I think I found out how to get to the old editor without fail.  Go to comments, then to Posts (on the left nav bar) and jump straight to “all posts”, and the old editor, which I much prefer, opens instead of the more streamlined and spacious new one.  Joy.

Wednesday, 11 May 2016

Ilwaco

watering Time Enough Books curbside garden (Allan’s photo)

Armeria maritima at Time Enough Books (Allan’s photo)

On our way to planting up the garden boat at Time Enough Books, I saw how great the boatyard garden looks today. On the way out of Ilwaco, we photographed it.

boatyard poppies

clamshell railroad sign

boatyard looking south from gate

Allan found a weed photobombing the poppies.

poppies, without dandelion, Allan’s photo

poppies and lupines, Allan’s photo

boatyard gate

looking north

Allan’s photo

Stipa gigantea, my favourite ornamental grass

looking north

Allan’s photo

inspirational boat name

interlude

Because I’d had a poor night’s sleep because of thinking of the recent job debacle, I needed coffee from the Great Escape drive through.  I had resolved to call the problematical place of work before going in today, to talk to the manager about how the temporary manager had disliked our garden and tried to take it away from us.  I had time to call as we drove between the Ilwaco work and the next job. Much to my shock, even though the real manager, who has always been a supporter of the garden, was back, she said the prospect did not look good for us, and implied “corporate” had had their attention drawn to the garden by the person who disliked it, and that while she would fight for us, she could not guarantee we still had the gardening job.

I reminded her (not that she needed reminding) that we had created the garden from four weedy scrubby unmowed almost grassless (all weeds) lawn areas, and had done it for a year as volunteers, that we and my mother (before she died) had provided most of the plants for free and that we had charged “grandma rates” for five years since being offered the job after my mom died.

She said just that just last year, someone from high up had come to tour the facility and had said, upon entering the courtyard, “My God, look at this garden!  This is the best looking courtyard of any of our places!”

I did not expect it to play out that the job was still so very much at risk and was taken by surprise.  My concern had simply been what if the temporary manager had been called on to be there again at some time.  By this point in the phone conversation, Allan and I were at the coffee drive through.  I said, “If we don’t have the job, I need to know that I can come get my mom’s….” and I started to cry so hard that I could not say the word “birdbath.”  I started over and tried the sentence again…and could say it…until I got to the word “birdbath” and again I suddenly started crying so hard that I could not say the word.  Three times this happened, and finally she said “You’re trying to say birdbath.”  I replied, “Yes, sorry, I can’t say the word for some reason.”  She assured me I would be able to get it, but that I should wait, because she was going to try more reasoning with the powers on high, and she would call me and let me know on Friday.

I had not even gotten into how two rosebushes there are from my mom’s garden, as is a small yellow rhododendron, all beloved by her, all given supplemental water by me to keep them happy, and this is the wrong time of year to even try to move them to my own garden.  (The rhodo might survive.)  I don’t know the names of the roses(one velvet red, one copper coloured) so I cannot just buy new ones .

We had planned to plant cosmos there today; now I did not know if we were going to plant cosmos or anything else there ever again.

Still reeling mentally, we went on to our next job.  I was halfway through planting there before I even noticed that I had an iced mocha in my cup holder.

The Anchorage Cottages

Mitzu’s greeting

We planted cosmos in the gardens and annuals in the window boxes and containers.

plants set up for Allan (his photo)

plants planted (Allan’s photo)

center courtyard

by the office

one of the window boxes

The Planter Box

We made a stop for the cosmos we would need for the rest of today and some for tomorrow.

I’ve had no time to go through the roses to see if perhaps ‘Berries and Cream’ is in here.

annuals in the front greenhouse

Both the Planter Box and Basket Case have donated extra plants for that garden that is now perhaps no longer “mine”.

We drove on past the Job in Jeopardy; that garden would get no cosmos today nor would it be weeded or the little lawn strimmed this week.  Perhaps someone else would mow the wee lawn and undo our years of encouraging flowers to grow in it.

Klipsan Beach Cottages

All we had to do here is plant cosmos.  The garden had been carefully mulched with Gardener and Bloome Soil Conditioner by Josephina, her dad and sister, all part of the KBC working crew.  As I get older, and as the Long Beach job has gotten bigger, I appreciate not having to do all the garden tasks here. Although it might be a bit late to mulch, and hard to work around big plants, Mary and Denny were inspired to do so by how dry and hot the weather has been.

While I did the planting, Allan pruned the honeysuckle and rose over the east gate.

during (Allan’s photo)

Allan’s photo, during

after (Allan’s photo)

sit spot in the fenced garden

behind the bench: Tetrapanax papyrifer ‘Steroidal Giant’

new buds of Steroidal Giant

‘Polka’ Rose

view from the sit spot

Dutch iris and rose

I wish I knew this rose’s name.

early evening light

Rose ‘Jude the Obscure’

late afternoon sun

Marilyn’s Garden

We did not get to Marilyn’s till after five.  If we had been able to do the Job in Jeopardy, we would not have arrived there till at least six.  As it happened, Marilyn’s daughter was there and told us the neigbour’s husband had just moved into the facility of the Job in Jeopardy, and she had been wheeling his chair through the courtyard and they had been loving the garden; his room has a view of the garden.  I said I did not even know if we still HAD that garden in our care, although I did hope that the situation would resolve in our favour soon and that I would know by Friday.  Shock and sympathy were forthcoming.  A lot of people around here are familiar with that garden.

We added cosmos to Marilyn’s garden and weeded.

view from the street

looking south

looking west from the back steps

looking north; I learned from Ann Lovejoy to always leave a space between garden and house for maintenance and air circulation.

Ilwaco and home

We were back at home over an hour before dusk.  If we had done the Job in Jeopardy as well as all the others, as planned, we would have been leaving Marilyn’s at dusk.  I had time to sort plants for tomorrow and even to admire my own garden (and fret a bit over the weeds).  Allan had time to water the curbside garden at the east end of the port AND the Ilwaco Community Building Garden.  You have probably noticed how many of our gardens require hose watering.

east end curbside, Howerton Avenue (Allan’s photo)

east end curbside garden (Allan’s photo)

community building garden (Allan’s photo)

Community Building garden, watered (Allan’s photo)

The planting load is getting smaller.

back garden

Rose ‘Radway Sunrise’ and Aquilegia ‘Clementine White’

Siberian iris

horsetail, roses, and rue

looking west

It was so grand to be back to Ilwaco early enough to do some much needed watering and plant sorting that I recalled I had been wishing for just one less job.  I just never thought it would be one that we had given so much love and attention to and one that was so closely connected to my mother.

1995 (age 71):

May 11: Store day.

1998 (age 74):

May 11:  I just goofed around after sleeping late.  The weather is cold, which would be good to plant but I didn’t feel like it.

 

 

 

 

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10 May: back to Jo’s, eventually

Tuesday, 10 May 2016

In the wee hours, just  before sleep time,  I started thinking about the recent job debacle, when a new temporary manager of a place thought our courtyard cottage garden was “trashy”, and it sunk in that a staff member had suggested I bid on doing the job that I had turned from weeds and scrub into a garden and had been doing for over 6 years.  (She was trying to help; the temporary manager did not even bother to contact me before bringing in other people to bid.) All sleep fled till I took a benadryl.  (I wish Melatonin worked for me; it does not.)  I’ve been swearing off benadryl because of a scary study (inconclusively) linking it to Alzheimer’s. Lack of enough sleep made the sorting and loading of plants in the morning a matter of intense concentration.

breakfast: eggs from Garden Tour Nancy’s chickens

at the Ilwaco post office

Long Beach

The big plan for the day was to finish planting the “uppies” in the Long Beach planters that we did not get to yesterday, and pick up Jo’s cosmos and painted sage and get over to Jo’s to plant in good time.

Some agastaches (this year’s uppie!) ready to plant in Lewis and Clark Square

In the big Lewis and Clark Square planter, orangey-peachy agastaches will echo the colour of the Kabob Cottage behind the square, I hope.

Kabob Cottage earlier this spring

Four new perennials went into the Vet Field corner.  Helenium ‘Chelsey’ (red) and Lobelia laxiflora..  I need more of something along the front edge by the flag pole.

Vet field looking south; am thrilled no one is bothering the alliums

Planter Box

Long Beach took so much longer than I thought it would that we did not get to The Planter Box till almost two.

the main greenhouse

Today was the day we began picking up cosmos six packs.  The painted sage is not quite rooted enough so we will plant them on another go-round next week.

(By the way…three days later….we have picked up all we need and the Planter Box still has some left for sale.)

coleus ( a plant I’d get for myself if I weren’t too busy to nurture it)

Teresa and I admiring the Marble Arch sage; healthy but not quite big enough yet.

Basket Case Greenhouse

collecting some more annuals from the back greenhouse

rearview mirror of the van (Allan’s photo)

Jo’s garden

We did not get to Jo’s till after three and worked on cosmos planting, along with six choice Heleniums, for two hours.

cosmos going in (Allan’s photo)

Siberian iris (Allan’s photo)

honeysuckle (Allan’s photo)

 

just one area at Jo’s where we planted cosmos today

roses

Allan’s photo

and more roses

cottage window box (Allan’s photo)

neighbor dog visiting (Allan’s photo)

Long Beach welcome sign

We collected some buckets of soil from our pile at the city works yard to fluff up the sign garden. By 5:30, we were adding Cosmos ‘Sonata’ to the front and back of the welcome sign, along with four Agyranthemum ‘Butterfly” to the front.  I had debated about the latter, as it is a pain to deadhead.   Its bright yellow is perfect, though, for drawing the eye to the sign.

Todd stopped by to inform us that we rock.  He noticed the bidens along the front (a yellow trailing annual) and said it is a weed in North Carolina.   We agreed that its seeds are like painful little needles.

I was probably orating about the number of plants…

Allan’s photo, soil added to the back of the sign

front

back

My big plan was to finish the day by planting cosmos in the garden boat at Time Enough Books and watering the curbside gardens there and by the port office, while Allan watered the Ilwaco planters, and then sort more plants at home.  Even though it was only 6:30 when we finished the welcome sign, I simply could not find the oomph to do another planting job.  It was good thing that I went home instead and got to sorting as that task (including making lists on a clipboard) took until dark.  Somehow Allan found the strength to get the Ilwaco planters and street trees watered.

Tomorrow would be our day to return to the job that was on shaky ground, along with two longtime jobs, with cosmos in tow to plant at each one.

from a few days ago: Calvin on the quilt that Jo gave to me

1995 (age 71):

May 10:  Pulled broccoli plants that had gone to seed.  They are to be shredded.  Potted the rest of tomato seedlings in greenhouse.

 

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16 May: annuals planting from south to north

Saturday, 16 May 2015

Ilwaco

We began our Saturday with a brief trip to the Ilwaco Saturday Market, for photos and for a treat from Pink Poppy Bakery.

Allan’s photo from the port office deck

Allan’s photo

a damp day

We bought Swedish Traveling Cake for work, and Chai cupcakes for after dinner.

Allan could not resist some pickled garlic.

our neighbours’ booth (Allan’s photo); They have a staff of booth-runners at markets all over the Northwest.

inside Time Enough Books at the Port (Allan’s photo)

I bought Ken Druse’s new shade garden book, having ordered it at Time Enough Books.

Allan’s photo

Bookstore owner Karla and I talked about how excited we are that the Salt Hotel is about to open at the end of the block, and how much it will revitalize the port.

I’ve been so busy that as I write this a week later, my new Ken Druse book has not yet emerged from its bag.

On the way north, Allan had a book to pick up at the Ilwaco Timberland Library.  He photographed the handsome unfurling of the ferns that I pruned there fairly recently:

Dutch iris still blooming in the tiered garden (Allan’s photo)

As we headed north to work, I took the first of several photos for the Rhodie Driving Tour photo album.

in Seaview

The Depot Restaurant

a check up on the Depot garden

Allan planting some bright yellow sanvitalia in the barrel by the east window.

I had a sudden revelation: Why does not the garden on the north side of the deck extend further east?  What was I thinking, stopping it an an angle like that.  No one does much mowing or strimming of that grass, so why not get rid of it?

needs expansion!

Today’s plans did not allow time to implement the idea.

Long Beach

We had forgotten to add two Geranium ‘Rozanne’ to the back of the welcome sign.

sweeping up after some horsetail control

The Planter Box

We needed more cosmos, necessitating a stop at The Planter Box.

snapdragons

calendula

Back in the employees only greenhouse, I saw a gorgeous Dicentra called ‘Valentine’.  I’ve never seen one so red.  I want it badly…but it is sold already.

Dicentra ‘Valentine’, now on my must have list.

want it, can’t have it!

a cart full of six flats of Cosmos ‘Sensation’ and ‘Psyche’ (Allan’s photo)

On the way out of the back greenhouse, I noticed some Cosmos ‘Candy Stripe’ on the sales floor.  They had got past me thus far; I snagged one 6 pack for my own garden.

Wish I had more of this picotee cosmos.

Allan’s photo of me carrying the Candy Stripe cosmos; he thought the flowers looked like bagpipes.

Traveling north to our next job, we sustained ourselves with our Pink Poppy Bakery treat.

leaving the Planter Box carpark with Swedish Traveling Cake

Golden Sands Assisted Living

wheelbarrowing cosmos down the hallway (Allan’s photo)

I truly entered Annuals Planting Hell while planting 60 cosmos in the Golden Sands garden.  Maybe the sprinklers weren’t on yet; I found some of the ground was dry underneath so had to put water in each small hole.  I had not brought a dipper, so tried a tiny plastic dish that Allan found.  My head just about exploded with how long it took and after about ten cosmos, I walked out to the car (a long trip down the hallways) for a proper dipping container (a reasonable sized Costco plastic jar that had held nuts).  Life immediately became easier.

On one side of the courtyard, the red rhodos are blooming at their unpruned height.

southwest corner

On the other side, they got pruned severely.  I did not and do not approve, but everything outside the four quadrants of flowers is out of my hands.

the tall and the short of it (short ones are in southeast corner)

I also noticed that the shrubs under the windows had been pruned to window sill height, but apparently at the same time someone had severely chopped two of the roses, planted by volunteers (outside the flower quadrants).

roses chopped severely…at the wrong time of year. Why? I do not get it.  You can hardly even tell there is a rose in each of these photos.

detail: WHY????

Oh well…I must just focus on our four quadrants…which are about to burst into bloom.

Northwest quadrant

mom’s red rose in NW quadrant

NE quadrant

aquilegia

Rudbeckia starts from our Kathleen are sizing up!

SW quadrant; Allan handwatering in case the sprinklers are not yet on.

SE quadrant with the first of the sweet williams.

I’m horrified to see salal appearing at the edge of the SE quadrant!

No time for salal control.,..and can’t find out about sprinklers because it is Saturday.

Allan strimmed the center lawn and spared a scabiosa that had reseeded there.  (I’d like it to be all moss and flowers…)  (Allan’s photo)

We have a mini-river of Geranium ‘Rozanne’ in that mossy lawn.  Allan weeded around them. (Allan’s photo)

Klipsan Beach Cottages

I did some light weeding and planted 24 cosmos.  While I did so, Allan weeding along the north fence.

before: Allan’s photo. That buddliea, belonging to a neighbor who never retrieved it, has languished in that pot for years and has now rooted into the ground.

After: I didn’t agree with cutting the pot away, but now I regret that so he can do so next time! (Allan’s photo)

I resisted the buddleia rescue because they are now maligned and considered weedy (except for the new sterile cultivars).  We can just keep the old flowerheads trimmed and it will be fine.  Poor thing.

Dutch iris

rose clambering into the bay tree

to the right: Thalictrum ‘Elin’

Allium multibulbosum (white) and albopilosum (purple)

Allium multibulbosum

rose with Anthricus ‘Ravenswing’ and Dutch Iris

I wish I knew this rose’s name.

another of Mary’s roses

…whose name I wish I knew.

the weekly view

looking in the east gate

the lower level of the fenced garden, with Knockout roses

Next door, by where we park, a couple of the rhododendrons at Joanie’s cottage have come into bloom too late for the Rhodie Tour.

red one…

and pink one

The prettiest compost in the dump pile.  Allan found this pile of spent flowers from Rhododendron ‘Cynthia’, raked out of the pond

Ocean Park

On the way north to our next job, we did a driveby check on the Oman Builders Supply garden….It did not appear to need our urgent attention.

Oman Builders Supply Ocean Park

This house and rhododendron caught my eye.

This lineup at the Ocean Park Post Office caught Allan’s eye.

Marilyn’s Garden

Next, we planted cosmos in Marilyn’s garden in Surfside, our northernmost job.  The garden had gotten terribly weedy in our absence.

Allan’s photos, along the house, before

and after

He rescued a buried Eryngium ‘Sapphire Blue’ at the corner of the house.

That Phygelius has to be pulled out from around that Eryngium, though; the Phygelius has crept sideways out of its alloted space and will get much taller than the Eryngium and will hide it again.  Next time!

during…it was worse when I started!

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

horsetail among the phygelius

after

Virburnum

Cosmos in

looking north down the path

and south

At the very end, I had to wade in to clip the blackberries that i saw while taking photos.

on the way home

There was some excitement at an intersection when three emergency vehicles drove by, and a large fire axe flew off the firetruck and landed in the ditch just north of us…and not, as it could have a few seconds earlier, in the nose of our van.

Allan retrieved it.

We took it back to the fire fighters, as we had seen where they were going (a few blocks north).  They were surprised that it had come loose.

Allan’s photo

The axe was riding in that slanted holder; very odd that it flew out so forecefully.

After that adventure, we took the Nahcotta route home and photographed just a few more rhododendrons before dusk.

Rhododendrons by Willapa Bay (just south of Nahcotta Post Office)

At home, I was able to erase a few more planting tasks from the work board.

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11-12 May: APH stream of consciousnness

My apologies in advance to friends who are going through chemo, who are lonely, who are suffering in other ways.  My hell is nothing like your hell.

That said….for the last two days Annuals Planting Time did get rather hellish.

Sunday, 11 May 2014, Annuals Day Three

Did not want to leave my garden…I so want to weed the east bed…

and the west bed, and I want to make that red box level! and maybe plant something in it!

So many plants are flowering…Persicaria bistorta suberba…

I don’t remember planting this!

Siberian iris reminds me why I put up with its floppy ways.

This will be the last year I miss May in my own garden.  Or do I say that every year??  Off to work….

To work: we planted cosmos, painted sage and a lavender in the Port Office garden.

Some time on Saturday, someone stole an Allium! Of course I notice! And mutter.

I plant many to try to counteract the finger blight, but never enough.

The view soothes my nerves.

The day starts to go pear shaped when we run an errand and had a brief but stressful encounter with someone who has a chip on her shoulder about this and that.  I feel a little head explosion because I do not have time for all this….It is ANNUALS time, not time to sort out the problems of someone who is not a friend.

Next, the Planter Box, where I buy out all the painted sage that they grew for me, and more tall cosmos for Andersen’s RV Park.

I make sure to get some Sweet 100 tomatoes; last year, I waited till after annuals hell and there were no more to be had.

At the desk, a California poppy that I do not have. Was it called ‘Bubbles’??  (next day: it’s Candy Kiss’)

Next, The Basket Case Greenhouse for still more annuals.

I made sure to get a photo of Biggun, who was visiting (with the kids) for mother’s day.

Godetia for Andersen’s. It is a pleasure to have a big vehicle this year.

The day goes further pear shaped when we are planting, and planting, and planting at Andersen’s, and I go for the flat of pretty big blue Bacopa and…it is still back at the Basket Case, left by me in one of the greenhouses.  I think hard but can blame no one but me.  We go back at four to get it (fortunately a short drive) and don’t realize till the next day how nice Fred was to put up with us…because we had forgotten they close at three on Sundays!!

the blue bacopa retrieved

plants lined up on the Andersen’s lawn

The day degenerated further when I realized there was no way in the world we are going to get The Anchorage planted, too.  That had been my great big ridiculous unlikely dream.  It took way longer at Andersen’s because of the way that the white phlox has gone berserk in the picket fence garden.  Allan masterfully dug a whole bunch out (and if we were not so swamped, someone could have had the starts) to make room for cosmos.

phlox gone, cosmos in, thanks Allan

I even found some sweet pea babies still alive that had been swamped by the rampant phlox.  And put in more seeds; we shall see how that goes.

Andersen’s west side

More plants were added to fill out the Payson Hall planters.

Payson Hall alliums (schubertii and albopilosum)

Maybe too many volunteer California poppies at Payson Hall. (The red is ranunculus.)

pink armeria (sea thrift)

We had to run an errand to Seaview, to deliver some Sluggo (iron phosphate slug bait) to The Depot Restaurant for owner Nancy Gorshe to apply to her mom Marilyn’s garden.  I waited, sitting by the door like someone whose date had not showed up, because it was mother’s day and people kept coming in to be seated.

My view while waiting; all mothers got a red rose.

I got a little verklempt about the mother thing, and Allan (I found out later) fell asleep in the van while sitting in the driver’s seat waiting.  I enjoyed watching Nancy at work graciously seating party after party and after awhile was able to give her a quick lesson in how to apply Sluggo.  (I kept the jug of it under my seat till then as it is not a very appetizing thought, slugs.)  When I told her that I felt guilty we had not been up to Marilyn’s for a month or more, she said she would rather do some tasks (deadhead narcissi and apply sluggo, her two recent garden lessons) than have us quit.  She said if she had not been so busy, she would have posted on FB a happy mother’s day as I have been mother to the Marilyn garden since we created it seven years ago.  That reminded me that Basket Case Nancy had wished me Happy Mother’s Day for my cats, and Planter Box Barbara had wished me a Happy Mother’s Day for my plant babies.  I became less verklempt.

The Depot garden

Finally we got back, as planned,  to Garden Tour Nancy’s in Long Beach, where I helped her place the plants she had acquired at the Basket Case the day we were pre-touring gardens and her car broke down.  Seemed like forever ago, before annuals planting kicked in full force.  We spent a little time in the house then, having the most delicious curry caper dip with chips and crackers.  I was greedy because the food at the Depot Restaurant, being carried past me to the tables, had looked and smelled so good.

Nancy’s windowsill, from my chair while eating snacks.

Home at dusk, exhausted.

Monday, 12 May 2014, Annuals Day Four

A couple of things weighing on my mind, not the least the unpleasant encounter at the hardware store the day before, woke me with a start at 7:30 AM and that was that.  I read emails and looked at Facebook till Allan awoke as there would be no more sleep.  So, with just about five hours of sleep to fuel my day, we were off again for day four of Annuals.  Starting to seem like planting hell instead of planting time.

My goal was to do several smaller jobs and be able to check more than just one off the list.

It was pleasant to plant cosmos and painted sage at Larry and Robert’s, just half a block away.

a garden corner there; the soil was still moist and easy to plant in.

To make life just that little bit difficult, I had somehow a few days earlier got a thorn in the back of my hand, and today it was too sore to wear a glove or even a bandaid, and yet I could not get soil in the wound because hypochondriac me was sure that would mean infection and death.  This led to much whining.  (Poor Allan.)  He said it was in a very sensitive spot, the same spot you test infant formula to see if it is the right temperature as there are lots of nerves there.  I felt like less of a whiner then.

Next, we went to The Anchorage Cottages, a day later than I had hoped.

added trailing lobelia, Cosmos ‘Sonata’ and lotus vine to the windowboxes; the violas still look too good to replace.

south courtyard needs weeding but no time

got the pots all planted up in center courtyard (shown here) and in office courtyard

On the way out, I saw dead stems on a Viburnum right by one of the cottage doors…NO time to prune, which is maddening.  (Look next to the number 7…dead twigs!!!)

On the way to the next job, we realized why we were increasingly uncomfortable.

81 degrees????!!!!!!

We had a few plants with us for the Red Barn and Diane’s garden so we got the Red Barn ones planted (all eight of them).

part of our scenic view there

horse getting groomed

We just placed Diane’s plants in her containers (next door to the barn) and I made a list, and then we were off up Sandridge Road to the Basket Case for more annuals.

At Basket Case…they have an astilbe I want but danged if i can find the time to buy it..too focused on annuals time.

We were rushing to get back to Diane’s to plant before dinnertime, which always seems like the wrong time to be working at a private home, when a friend driving in the other direction waved us down.  Allan pulled over, while I pleaded “Drive, DRIVE!  JUST DRIVE!”  I am sure when our friend approached I looked wild eyed in the passenger seat as I said I did not have time to talk because we were trying to get work done before dark and we were already running late.  If I believed in astrology, I would think the moon was in SOMETHING as the encounter had to do with an apology for something, the second difficult encounter in two days.  Mercury in retrograde?  Why, why, why, during planting hell (which WAS ticking along as the new and improved Annuals Planting TIME till days three and four turned hellish).  (Ok, the apology was for saying my planters don’t look as good as the ones in Victoria.  Or that they do not matter because Ilwaco does not look as good as Victoria.  Or something like that.  I don’t even know and I don’t have time to deal with it right now.)  (Let me assure you this has nothing at all to do with anyone who regularly appears in this blog!!)

Back to Diane’s, planted up all her pots.

I was so tired that I said i could not face planting the cosmos I’d brought for the roadside bed.  Then I thought how miserable it would be to not plant them and not get to cross the job off the list.  So I dug deep, deep, deep, and did it, with Allan’s help.  (He did the toughest part, planting in an area that needed some weeding first.)

just finishing the planting of the roadside bed

I must remember to buy something tall for this corner.  Did not have enough cosmos.  Am STILL gonna cross the job off the list!!!  (And i did swear off multiple exclamation points awhile back, didn’t I?)

no time to finish weeding the corner of this bed…MADDENING.

back where we park outside Diane’s lot; I was so seized up I could NOT walk over the The Red Barn. Needed a ride.

We had two new little barrels to plant up by the new entry fence.  I had picked fairly drought tolerant plants…thyme, catmint, gazania, sedum, Erysimum ‘Bowles Mauve’ because someone will have to haul water to these:

one of them, just planted, using Ann Lovejoy’s principle of stuffage for instant effect and so the plants can prop each other up in this windy site.

Allan had to heave the heavy bags of soil to fill these, and while I planted he dug congested narcissi out of another barrel, not an easy task at 7 PM after a hard day.

the cleaned up barrel, planted with red, yellow, and blue annuals

Blue bacopa, Agyranthemum ‘Butterfly’, Diascia ‘Deep Red’, Cosmos ‘Sonata’, white alyssum, Calibachroa ‘Lemon Slice’ and ‘Vampire’.

While Allan planted, I sorted and burbled (soaked in a bucket) plants for the next three whiskey barrels.  (Those would get the same as above, but without the red diacia; earlier in the day, they had each gotten two Diascia ‘Denim Blue’.  WHY did they not get red diascia?  Well, I could have SWORN I had bought four of them at Basket Case but I had miscounted somehow…HOW???? and I only had ONE!!  ONE, why?????)

Allan planting the other three barrels in the dusk.

NOOOOOO! these blue lobelia were supposed to go in the Diane planters!!!!!!

Blast.  I have a bit of a second wind so am able to walk over to Diane’s and quietly pop the lobelia into her back porch pots.  I hope they get watered soon because I did not want to turn on the hose and make a ruction.

We head for home at last after moonrise, 8:10 PM

the two new barrels, looking rather tiny after all that work

At home, I am able to have the pleasure of making a dent in the work list.

checking jobs off the list

even better when I erase them from the whiteboard

Tomorrow, we will start on the Long Beach parks and planters.  That could take two days, and that is if all goes well.

 

 

 

 

 

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10 May: annuals day two

Saturday, 10 May 2014

Day one of Annuals Planting Time was at Jo’s garden, before the rains came. Now we have entered the stretch of nothing much but planting annuals for as long as the weather holds.

Before we left home, I took two photos of Nora’s back lawn. The Peninsula mowing services are all running behind and it has gotten long and looks magical spangled with yellow creeping buttercups. Yes, it is one of the most annoying weeds in the garden, but doesn’t it look rather grand?

buttercup lawn

We started work by planting some sunflower seeds and six ‘Sea Shells’ Cosmos in our post office volunteer garden. As we drove away, I realized I had forgotten to apply Sluggo. Then we planted cosmos in the boat at Time Enough Books and I realized I had forgotten to bring bookstore owner Karla her bill AND I needed just one more cosmos to fill out the boat. So home we went. It wasn’t a very effecient start. After a brief chat with Karla (and Bill Clearman who had popped in to pick up a book!), we took a quick tour of the Ilwaco Saturday Market. At last, a week late, the market had good weather for opening. You can tell we were in a rush; a photo of Bill buying a book would have been charming, but off we went at high speed and I did not even think of it.

Pink Poppy Bakery was top of our list of booths to visit.

Pink Poppy Bakery: Madeline gets us four little hand pies, 2 lemon curd and 2 chocolate espresso.

These tiny pies have the most perfect flaky crust, worthy of my grandmother’s pie making skills.

dogs strolling the market

The Port Office garden; I had to check to rememeber which plant had died and left a big hole. Lavender! It went on my shopping list.

market goers enjoying the view behind a plant booth

Our second shopping stop

I needed a new bag to replace the one that friend J9 gave me years ago. The middle one, with a blue and green flower on it, is now mine.

a flower pot arrangement

We were in such a rush that we did not make it past the market halfway mark and turned back to the parking lot.

Narcissi ‘Baby Moon’ is still blooming in the curbside gardens. It has been in bloom for at least three weeks.

We remembered to double park at the post office and throw some sluggo into the garden and to trade compost buckets at Olde Towne Café. There I was pleased to see regular blog reader Ann and a friend.

Ann and Phil at Olde Towne

I had heard that her father, Pete Hanner (formerly a professional singer, who sang so beautifully at Nora’s funeral last year), had performed at the recent talent show. Ann told me yes, he had, and his song of choice was “What a Wonderful World”. I do wish I had seen that; we got home from work that night halfway through the show time and saw many cars parked at the community theatre three blocks west of us. Not only is it just a good song, but I have a real soft spot for it because my beloved Joey Ramone made a recording of it near the end of his life. To celebrate the world so soulfully at that time moves me deeply. I see friends shaking hands. Saying, “How do you do?” They’re really saying, “I love you”. It was so good to see Ann; she said she had taken a friend on a walk through of my garden recently. She knew I wouldn’t mind at all and she was not bothered by all the weeds.

Unfortunately we could not linger and on we went. On the way out of town, Allan saw such a pretty sailboat on Black Lake and took a few photos. I know he wished he was out sailing.

At The Anchorage Cottages we planted four 6 packs of tall cosmos and some painted sage and I counted up how many more Uppies and Trailies I would need for the containers there (lots!).

Anchorage, west side with an old hawthorn

Anchorage beach trail

By the fervent request of one of the housekeepers, we planted a chocolate cosmos. I had forgotten last year!

one of four window boxes

The violas in the window boxes still look great. I had been going to plant the annuals this year in some plastic window boxes that would fit (sort of) into these wooden ones, after emptying the soil. I may change my mind if the soil (fresh last year) is still soft in the wooden ones; if planting is easy, I just may wait till next fall’s bulb time to start the new regimen, which will be to rotate plastic liners containing bulbs for early spring and annuals for summer.

The astonishing ‘Green Wave’ tulip, last to bloom!

Green Wave

the center courtyard

blue oat grass, backlit

a once blooming and somewhat rampant rose

With a list of how many annuals we needed, we were off to the Basket Case Greenhouse. However, we were not buying for The Anchorage yet. Today was buying day for Andersen’s RV Park, a job I have been doing so long that I don’t even need a list. I pretty much know exactly what to get…and it’s a lot of plants.

just some of the plants lined up for loading

The Basket Case was bustling on this day before Mother’s Day, not the best day to shop. We kept out of the way of the regular customers and waited for a lull to tally up.

a busy day

At Andersen’s, I set up the plants and Allan planted six whiskey barrels:

this shows three of them

the barrel arrangment

Each gets one Agyranthemum ‘Butterfly’ in the middle, and on the outside a ring of three Callibrachoa ‘Lemon Slice’, three Sanvitalia ‘Aztec Gold’, and three white Bacopa. The Bacopa is a new twist this year. Lorna has always wanted white petunias in this barrels, and every summer they look like little wilted handkerchiefs, requring much deadheading and never looking wonderful. I made an executive decision to use bacopa instead; the new cultivars have much bigger blooms than they used to, and Basket Case Nancy says they do great in full sun. As I placed them, I chanted “Slice, Bacopa, Callie” over and over again to keep my order right. The three bright pots in the poppy field each get a ‘Butterfly’ and three plain yellow callies and some trailing nasturtium seeds. Which I did not get around to planting.

three bright pots, freshly painted; one is behind the rosemary

Just one Papaver rhoeas (Flanders Field Poppy) has flowered. Soon there will be many.

looking east: the poppy field about to pop

looking west

The weather was perfect: sunny, not too hot, with just a little breeze.

Allan planting the Payson Hall planters

An RV club was in the hall playing games and laughing and about to have a potluck dinner. Three ibuprofen enabled me to keep moving. It was dicey there for a bit and I started to think planting time had already turned into annuals planting hell. I helped Allan plant (more butterflies
at the back and some apricot and orangey callies along the front edge of the Payson planters and eight 6 packs of short cosmos, and some Salvia ‘Victoria Blue’ down the middle) and then I went round to plant four big pots by the office door. We both worked a tall raised bed right next to the east wall of the house. Only five sun coleus plants went in today (later, it will get some begonias); the hard part was removing a wheelbarrow full of floppy bulb foliage first.

From my shopping from memory, I had ended up only short of 11 “uppies” (upright plants such as Agyranthemums, Osteospermums, or Cosmos ‘Sonata’) for Andersen’s and I will get them tomorrow.

I had also completely forgotten a most important item: GODETIA, one of Lorna’s favourite annuals.

I fretted over the sweet pea seedlings, or lack thereof, along the picket fence. I could see some, but where the heck are the many that I am sure I saw earlier? Did my weekly application of sluggo fail to protect them, or did the rain beat them to mush? We will be back tomorrow to plant cosmos (tall ones, which task will involve some weeding and some thinning of phlox) and then will get all those annuals for the Anchorage, and hope we can get those planted as well.

Home by about 7:30, I explored the plant stash for more cosmos. Where did that tray of tall Sensation Cosmos go? Oh, they all went to Jo’s garden! Hope the Planter Box is open on Mother’s Day so we can get more. I smelt the most delicious scent on the back patio and searched for a large plant or vine that could be giving off some a quantity of sweetness, and then realized it was my new acquisition from the Basket Case:

Zaluzianskya ovata, night scented phlox: INTOXICATING

I hope Sunday goes smoothly and efficiently. I would love to cross both Andersen’s and Anchorage off of my annuals planting work list. (I had forgotten to put Erin’s garden on the list, so despite completing Time Enough books, the list has not gotten any shorter.)

 

 

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annuals hell 2013 officially over!

Today we got the last of the Cosmos planted. I could think of two unplanted places that might take some, so I suppose I might buy a few more six packs, but maybe not! It is a shame that there are still some very nice Cosmos at the Planter Box that need a home. I suggest local gardeners go buy some. Oh, but not all the Cutesies. I am dissatisfied with having Agyranthemum ‘Butterfly’ as the only tall plant on the LB welcome sign, south side. The north side, with Cosmos, looks better. So I think we will add four six packs of cutesy cosmos there. (It, like ‘Sonata’, is short.)

Today, we were surprised by a fierce rainstorm while at the bank, so we went to Olde Towne, just a block away. We wound up staying a bit after the rain stopped, just because life is pleasant there.

Olde Towne Café

We put in Luanne’s two flower containers the two different colours of Salvia patens grown by the Planter Box. Not sure what the blue one was called in the seed catalog but the pink is called “Patio Pink”. I adore Salvia patens and before this year have only seen it in cobalt blue and “Cambridge” (light) blue.

The cobalt blue (left) is still my favourite.

We stopped at Larry and Robert’s to put two Petunia ‘Pretty Much Picasso’ in the boat and two Salvia patens in the pots on the front steps. I just needed a home for my last four Salvia patens, and now they are dealt with!

Larry and Robert’s east side

I discussed with Larry some exciting plans for the back yard, now that they have had their old deck removed!

Next, on to Mayor Mike’s…but a pause to wait out more of this:

intense squall; not worried because ’twas light around the edges.

In the front corner, closest to the street, I planted a signature patch of three Cosmos and three painted sage, and three more of each elsewhere in the garden. Now the painted sage is all planted (but there are a very few more six packs available at The Planter Box; tell ’em I said it is ok to sell them to you!)

corner signature

I pulled a big patch of horrible scilla: a precursor to the end of the day… Should have taken a photo of how bad the area it was in looked before pulling and how nice afterward. More on this later!

scilla by the bucket (with a spent iris)

Allan did a beautiful job of weeding the path and path edges:

well done

Oriental poppies

I probably would not plant Oriental poppies in such a small garden because they leave such a gap when they are done.

Below is that little daisy…What is it? One sees it in photos of famous British gardens, between stair pavers or on walls…

I have forgotten its name!

We then spent over an hour at Cheri’s garden, where I planted one of the two Penstemon ‘Burgundy Brew’ that I thought should go to oenophile clients. And six cosmos. I forgot to take any photos at Cheri’s garden even though I meant to show how well filled in is the area where we put transplants that needed to be moved last month from the future outdoor cat run. I was distracted by another rain squall and then an amusing conversation with Charlie (who asked us when we were going to retire…oddly, a thought I had just been pondering myself!).

We then went to our last job of the day, Ann’s garden, which we have sorely neglected all month because it is not a major destination for annuals.

south border, before and after, weeded by Allan

Ann has the oddest weed, one that is unfamiliar to me. It looks just like a forget me not but has small greenish flowers, maybe with a tiny it of blue, so is useless and yet as invasive as forget me nots are! The foliage is kind of yellowy at this time of year. It was all over the edge garden, above left.

Now, here is why I hate, hate, hate, scilla (blue bells). Ann, and my grandmother, and many other gardens have the big coarse one, but I was just reading that the delicate Siberian Squill is also quite pesky. My grandma’s garden was over run with lank dying horrid scilla foliage in springtime, swamping and burying other plants, and so is Ann’s and several other gardens I know. It has appeared in areas of my own garden from where it had been growing in the lawn.

scilla, rampant and hideous

The lank dying foliage is a home for slugs, and smothers other plants, and mingles with the narcissi so that when one pulls the scilla out, out comes a good narcissi bulb by mistake. So annoying! We pulled buckets and buckets and buckets of it and only got four smallish areas done. This is why I cried “NOOOOOOOO!” when I saw that someone had in a kindly meant and sharing way planted some in a new garden we had created for a friend. Fortunately, our friend believed my warning and is removing it….but slowly, so as not to hurt HER friend’s feelings.

The lily of the valley that we have weeded out twice, roots and all (we hoped) has, but of course, sprouted back. This is another plant someone might share with you. Don’t accept it!

here it comes again

I was glad to get back into this interesting garden, despite my dismay with there being scilla everywhere (as I knew there would be from the fact that everywhere one digs, one finds white scilla bulbs). I managed to fit in five six packs of cosmos, in hope that the deer will leave it alone. (They usually do.) I Sluggo-ed heavily because so many slugs were hiding in the scilla leaves.

frilly Oriental poppies

peony and iris…after much removal of scilla and that weird faux-forget me not.

Ann’s enclosed veg garden is looking wonderful.

I hope we can spend a whole day here next week.

Our last small task was to plant one pink Calibrachoa to fill the planter in front of Peninsula Sanitation office. This entailed a drive past the boatyard where we saw two boats named after friends of ours.

for Nancy and Mary

We were too wet and cold from having been considerably rained on while weeding Ann’s garden to spend the last half hour of daylight weeding the east end garden bed on Howerton at the Port. Tomorrow? At home, before getting dry, I popped in three remaining cosmos and can now declare that annuals hell is over. These are the only unplanted plants in our possession now:

all that is left!

Two rosemary for the Depot, a Burgundy Brew for Gene, a four o clock donated by Planter Box for Golden Sands, three artichokes for Leanne (Casa Pacifica), a ‘Green Jewel’ echinacea for the Wiegardt Gallery, a golden thyme for a beach approach planter and a Verbascum ‘Jackie in Yellow’ for Erin’s garden to which we STILL have not been this year. (Someone else has been weeding there, thank goodness!)

We need more yellow flowering plants for Erin. Why NOT use Agyranthemum ‘Butterfly’ even though it is an annual? Some short cosmos to punch up the effect at the welcome sign. Eight more beachy perennials for the Bolstadt beach approach planters. Some plants for Larry and Robert’s front stairs pots. (Kind of shady there. I think they want colour, though, flowers, not a tasteful perennial planting.) Those will be fun to gather and do not represent a descent back into planting hell.

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