Friday, 19 May 2017
Ilwaco
I had had a bright idea several days ago of some shrub rearrangement at the J’s across the street. Of three dwarf hydrangeas, one looked fairly good, one quite sad but with a few leaves, and one looks dead but has green underneath the bark when I scrape a stem. Putting the good one in the middle would at least make the picture balanced. And if the good one turns up its toes, we can replace it with three matching ones. If not, we can maybe replace the outer ones with a matched set of two, so it won’t be off balance.
before (Allan’s photos); the good hydrangea is off to the left.
Underneath the soil, Allan found landscape fabric. That explains why so many of the shrubs were planted on mounds (by the previous owner, not the J’s).
landscape fabric underneath! No wonder the shrubs could not get their roots down; no wonder they were tipped over sideway.
replanted with the best one in the middle and with all three given some Dr Earth evergreen fertilizer.
a tidy garden at the J’s
I got to pet a sweet dog at the post office.
Further down the street, we saw our friend Ed Strange (Strange Landscaping) and his buddy, Jackson.
Jackson! (Allan’s photo)
On the way out of our town, we had one plant to put in at the main intersection and four at the Ilwaco city hall planters.
Long Beach
City Hall: The Basket Case baskets are hung up all over town now.
While Allan weeded and groomed Fifth Street Park, I checked on a couple of blocks worth of planters.
Sparaxis in a planter. I need to plant this in every planter. It seems not that common in bulb catalogs.
Sparaxis and Cerinthe major purpurascens
a gorgeous tail wagger in a parked vehicle (taken from a distance so as not to get him too excited).
I had planted a matched pair to tone with this building.
The abused plant still looked alive at the base. Remembering a live faucet on the outer wall of the Hungry Harbor across the street, I filled my bucket partway, dunked the plant, lugged plant and water bucket back across, and trimmed and replanted the bidens with water in the hole, then clipped its partner plant to match in size.
dogs big and little outside the Hungry Harbor
Last fall, I had had a big mystery while bulb planting. A set of three special Camassia ‘Sacajawea’ bulbs had gone astray while I was planting Fifth Street Park. I looked for them so hard. Today, I saw the three of them about to bloom under one of the street trees (along with a noxious weed Iris pseudocorus that I had tried to get rid of). How could this be?
The camassia has variegated leaves.
I figured it out. I was sorting bulbs and handing Allan sets of narcissi to plant under each street tree, and must have handed him the camassia by mistake. I thought it would do well in the park where the soil is damp; I will try to transplant it later. That tree, with its mess of vigorous hesperantha (formerly schizostylis) is not the best place to show off something special.
You might agree with me that a trio of something tall and columnar would look great in that park. I’m not supposed to plant anything taller than the fence!
that big dog again
I transplanted some red monarda, divided out from Vet Field garden last night, into this damp bed in the SW quadrant.
Darmera peltata and gunnera in Fifth Street Park (SE quadrant)
Some of that red monarda would do well in the damp bed behind the gunnera, etc. But will I remember for long enough to get some moved from Vet Field?
We took time to go to Abbraccio Coffee Bar.
crossed dogs outside of Abbracci (I got to pet one). (Allan’s photo)
A delightful Abbraccio break (with no checkers played)….I used to love to play checkers but honestly do not remember how. Allan challenges his computer to chess on most nights.
I rushed out of the coffee car to meet a tiny Boston terrier…Lily, age 4 months…who was causing quite a sensation.
Before leaving Long Beach, we dumped a small load of debris, mainly so I could ask the city crew to get the water turned on for the welcome sign garden (where we had pulled dead tulips at the beginning of our Long Beach time today).
When we went to city works to dump debris, Allan found this marble in the pile.
The Planter Box
We picked up some cosmos for Long Beach and elsewhere.
The big front greenhouse showed signs of a rush on annuals. (Allan’s photo)
healthy Seashells mix cosmos (Allan’s photo)
with Teresa, some desk-leaning rest
The Basket Case
The gardening grapevine (AKA Melissa) had told me that a Blooming Nursery truck had been seen on its way to Basket Case this morning. We had to see what was new.
plants overflowing in abundance
Hot Toddy: cute name for a daylily. (I don’t collect daylilies, though.)
I could not resist a new to me red salvia named ‘Free Speech’.
per Blooming Nursery
couldn’t resist some agastaches and echinaceas…
Another new feature: Penny, the grandparents’ dog, who is being dogsat this week.
Allan’s photo
my sweet, soft, adorable, and quietly talkative new friend Penny
Darrell
got me some penstemons and agastaches and lemon grass and more
Klipsan Beach Cottages
We drove north to KBC to plant some cosmos and to weed and tidy the garden.
our good friend Bella (Allan’s photo)
Clematis montana in evergreen huckleberry (Allan’s photo)
horrifying bindweed pretending to belong (Allan’s photo), in the debris area behind the garage
creeping buttercup removal featuring the ho mi tool (Allan’s photo)
Mary, garden owner, edged outside the fenced garden. (Allan’s photo)
Mary’s edging tools
nicely edged
belly rub time
Bella will put her foot on your foot or arm to ask for more belly rubbing.
fenced garden weeded and with cosmos planted
bird bath view
sit spot
Rhododendron ‘Cynthia’
the pond (Allan’s photo)
Long Beach
Although I was tired, we found the energy to plant some agastaches in the big Lewis and Clark Square planter. While I delegated the planting (which I so do not enjoy), I checked on the intersection of planters.
This planter has the weedy, running, short season of bloom blue geranium (‘Johnson’s Blue’?), not nice, long blooming, well behaved Rozanne. I thought about re-doing it this spring. Did not get to it. Maybe in fall. Originally planted by a volunteer.
We also found the energy to finish planting the two planters at Ilwaco City Hall. We had
meant to plant cosmos in the Kite Museum pocket garden and completely forgot to stop there.
at home
Allan amazed me by finding even MORE energy to mow (while I sat in my chair and read the scintillating news of the day). Way out in the bogsy woods, he found that our bridge railing had just rotted away and fallen over. The water in the swale had been up to the base of the railing for most of the winter.
??!!??
Later: Skooter wants to come in Allan’s window!
Skooter
We now have two days off, except for maybe having to water all the newly planted Ilwaco planters on Sunday. (Edited to add: Some drizzle on Friday night saved us from watering Sunday. I hope we don’t regret waiting till Monday.)
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