5 July: work and art

Wednesday, 5 July 2017 (part one)

Allan had not gotten enough sleep because of Skooter’s 2 AM antics:

Skooter somehow attained the highest bookshelf.

We set off on our work rounds that take us north once a week, along with a plan for a garden tour (which will be tomorrow’s post).

Port of Ilwaco

We began by bucket watering the drive over garden, a small pocket between two driveways,  at the port.

It had been driven over.  (Allan’s photo)

driving by the boat yard

The Depot Restaurant

southeast of dining deck (Allan’s photo)

north side of dining deck

The Escallonia ‘Pink Princess’, which wants to be ten feet tall, is growing again to hide the Clamshell Railroad sign.  The restaurant was a train depot in days of old.

I’ve suggested removing the escallonia.  Chef Michael thinks, I am sure correctly, that it keeps a bad driver from running into the corner of the building.

after

The Red Barn

These helianthus have to go.  They don’t get enough water.  (Allan’s photo)

After watering the garden and the planted barrels, we walked next door to

Diane’s garden.

We had to walk along the highway because the field we usually cross was occupied.

These tire tracks did not inspire confidence.

One of the back yard planters

I got to see my good friend Misty, although she went straight into the house when Diane brought her home from errands.  Then Holly came out of the truck.

Do I hafta sit?

not for long!

Whiskey was also visiting.

So ready to play with Holly.

We drove back to the beach side on Sid Snyder Road to…

The Anchorage Cottages

Many guest vehicles were in the parking lot, so we parked behind the office, giving you a different entry view as I walked around the west side of the cottages.

We were greeted by our good friend Mitzu, who has had to take tranquilizers because of a week’s worth of fireworks noise.

Mitzu has had a stressful week of fear.  (Allan’s photo)

I weeded and deadheaded; Allan fertilized all the containers and the window boxes.

center courtyard, Rose ‘New Dawn’

by the office

We drove across Pioneer Road to the bay side to see what new plants might have arrived at

The Basket Case Greenhouse.

successfully growing a tomato in a bag of soil

greeted by my friend Penny

a real sweetheart

Darrell in the center greenhouse (Allan’s photo)

gazanias coming forward

gazanias

gazanias

We drove back to the ocean side on Cranberry Road to make a delivery to

Jim Unwin’s Hobbit Studio.

We were giving Jim and Annie a Feliway cat comfort diffuser that I no longer needed, for Annie to try to help their two cats get along better.  This entailed a tour of the art studio, which we have visited before on the peninsula wide studio tour that takes place every Thanksgiving weekend.

Jim’s Hobbit Studio

Jim at his work bench.

a double silhouette and a little sailboat (Allan’s photo)

Allan’s photo

art ingredients

Annie’s rose (Allan’s photo)

We drove north to

Klipsan Beach Cottages

Tetrapanax ‘Steroidal Giant’ taller than the fence (Allan’s photo)

Tetrapanax

red dragonfly (Allan’s photo)

June bug

lily and roses

birdbath view

east gate

garden art from the Forsythea shop in Astoria

Mary’s new rose

Our good friend Bella was in the basement and did not want to come out.  She is terrified of fireworks and despite being given tranquilizers and having music played for her to drown out the noise, she has tried to dig through the floor, has hidden in the closet, and has climbed into the bathtub for safety.

She had her paw over one ear.

Nine days of fireworks fear for peninsula animals (Allan’s photo); from June 28th to July 5th.  Ridiculously long.

on the basement couch

We drove further north, almost to Nahcotta, for a garden tour which will be tomorrow’s post, and then south to do some watering of the curbside gardens at

The Port of Ilwaco.

Ilwaco pavilion curbside garden (Allan’s photo)

Something happened at the port.  (Allan’s photo)

the condor (Allan’s photo)

Westernmost bed needs its daisies clipped or pulled.  Next week.

a fasciated Linaria stem in the Salt Hotel garden

eryngium, yarrow, and parsley

Join us tomorrow on the garden tour that delighted us today.

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7 June: work before play

Wednesday, 7 June 2017

Another two part post, as this blog falls further behind real time.  Our day had only four jobs, two of them brief, and would end with a tour of THE Oysterville garden, which always deserves its own post.

The Red Barn Arena

Amy and her barrel racing horse

Allan’s string trimming alternative to using round up right behind the garden

My friend Disney, the mother whippet, who likes me. It is her son who snubs me. Unless I have a treat.

Diane’s garden

new lawn going in by Steve Clarke and crew

All we did was fertilize and deadhead the three groups of back yard pots.

The Basket Case Greenhouse

I had a check to deliver and a few plants to seek.

middle greenhouse

north greenhouse

Middle greenhouse; all three greenhouses have many choices.

Allan’s photo

I love this peachy diascia, and that is my favourite tender fuchsia, Pink Marshmallow.

I got myself an Orange Rocket Barberry, shown here with Roxanne. This time, I won’t forget to water it. I’ve killed two Orange Rockets by neglect in the first year.

a poster by the sales desk

The Anchorage Cottages

Allan pruned the center courtyard viburnums to keep them from coming forward into the perennial border.

Allan’s photo: before, coming too far forward

 before (Note that I do not like the look of the Arbutus on the right.  I gave it some Dr Earth fert.)

after

Mitzu supervising

during

after

Dutch Iris

with gorgeous markings

‘Eye of the Tiger’ Dutch Iris

Dutch Iris and Solanum crispum ‘Glasnevin’ (blue potato vine)

Two of the four windowboxes

Climbing hydrangea

north end garden

climbing rose and ceanothus

The Planter Box

I wanted 18 more painted sage for me, and more Dr Earth rhododendron fertilizer, and then I saw some Cosmos ‘Double Click’ and ‘Seashells’ and ended up with two full flats of plants.  Oops.

at The Planter Box entrance

Klipsan Beach Cottages

We spent an hour in intensive grooming of the garden.

east side of fenced garden with Climbine Cecile Brunner rose and honeysuckle

looking in the east gate

birdbath view

Allium ‘Mount Everest’

The gold is Persicaria ‘Golden Arrow’

clematis

Mary had a little time to work with me. She is picking snails that are hiding in a daylily.

Allan had planned to clean up buttercups along the roadside edge of the swale (by the road up to the cottages).  He found that the housekeeping and grounds crew had done a beautiful job there, so he did not have to.

Allan’s photo: well done, and not by us.

Allan’s photo

This gave him time to do a good clean up on the outside of the fenced garden.

Podophyllum (Allan’s photo)

bindweed on the weigela! (Allan’s photos)

Allan’s photo: One of Mary’s snails on the run.

We then went north to THE Oysterville garden: Tomorrow’s post. On the way, we took a scenic route through Ocean Park.  Allan’s photos:

on Park Avenue

While I went into the Oysterville garden, Allan detoured on foot to the bay to look at the boats.

Oysterville by the bay

These are all part of the Oysterville regatta, a July event that seems to be an invitational event sort of for the Oysterville crowd.    Everyone uses the same kind of boat so that skill is the factor in winning, followed by a barbecue.

On the way home down Sandridge Road, we saw that (as expected) Steve Clarke and Co had completed laying Diane and Larry’s new lawn to perfection.  We did not stop; it did look like there will be room to create a very narrow remake of our roadside garden although I’m concerned about it being closer to the road, thus more nervewracking to work on.  We shall see!

In Ilwaco, we drove down Howerton to assess the gardens and saw both artist Don Nisbett and Butch of Coho Charters.

Fisherman Butch

Butch said, “No matter what they say about you, I still think you do a great job!”

 

 

 

 

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31 May: better than expected

Tuesday, 31 May 2017

The workday began late because when I was walking peacefully with a mere 1/3 watering can to the greenhouse to water my tomatoes, my back went into a spasm.  I hobbled in (after watering the tomatoes!) and stood against a door for awhile to straighten up and slathered on some Traumica, the miracle cure that Jenna gave me a sample of awhile back.  I am a skeptic about natural cures so it’s not a placebo effect when I say this stuff is amazing.

I was still somewhat disabled as we took off for work, and I felt anxious about the day.

Looked at my post office garden from my passenger seat instead of getting out to pull a weed.

Because of the late start, I decided to reverse the polarity of the neutron flow and slingshot around the sun by not doing Diane’s garden first, as originally planned.  The task awaiting there was to move about a half yard of river rocks. They had been used to edge the roadside garden.  We had stacked them against the house when we dismantled that garden for the septic installation project.  That had seemed like an ideal place until we recommended the brilliant Steve Clarke to install her new lawn.  He was going to wrap it around the side of the house, so now the rocks had to go to a new storage spot.  Maybe by end of day I’d be able to bend over to bucket up the rocks.

The Depot Restaurant

I watered; Allan ran the string trimmer by the parking area.

Depot garden today

We lowered the escallonia to make the sign show. (Allan’s photo)

The Anchorage Cottages

I filled in the planters with some painted sage while Allan did some weeding.  I put off till next week the pruning of the center courtyard virburnum, which is sneaking forward into the perennials border.  My back was feeling considerably better by now although I still moved cautiously.

our good friend Mitzu (Allan’s photo)

Anchorage center courtyard

The Planter Box

I had used up all my painted sage so needed some for Diane’s garden.

white dahlia at the Planter Box

a bit more painted sage and some fish fertilizer

some chicks (Allan’s photo)

Klipsan Beach Cottages

As we parked behind the fenced garden, we heard a great screaming ruckus up in the trees.  “It’s a bald eagle,” said Allan.  In a rather horrible way, the eagle appeared to be eating out of a stellar jay bird nest.  The jays were off to the side screaming and shrieking.  (Allan later pointed out that the jays are also known to raid other birds’ nests.)

looking up

Not a nice bird at all. (Allan’s photo)

talking back to the angry jays (Allan’s photo)

In the garden, Allan’s project was to prune the honeysuckle over an entry gate.

before

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

view from on high (Allan’s photo)

after, no longer raggedy with uppies

After weeding and grooming the garden, I took some photos for the KBC Facebook page.

driveway garden with purple and pink Geranium sanguineum

pink Geranium sanguineum

with chartreuse Lady’s Mantle

a crevice garden!

dianthus

Allium schubertii getting starrier.

Allium albopilosum just getting started

Allium bulgaricum

Thalictrum ‘Elin’ getting taller (in front of the dark pink rugosa rose)

Another angle: The thalictrum has the blue-grey foliage.

birdbath view

I asked Allan to take some photos of the big rhododendron by where we park.

The Basket Case Greenhouse

Allan’s photo

I needed to pick up some plants for one beach approach planter in Long Beach.

a hen visiting from the house next door (Allan’s photo)

another bird

hens n chicks

afternoon snack

Allan’s photo

got two of these gorgeous diascia for me

Gazania ‘Sunshine’

I also had the pleasure of picking out two baskets for our house.  (I’ll have to get photos of them later at home.)

Allan’s photo: The center basket with pink and yellow was one that I picked.

Diane’s garden

We got to Diane’s at five, prepared to move a pile of river rock.  As we entered the garden, I saw the most joyous sight:

Steve had already moved it with a back hoe!

yard looks leveled in preparation for lawn installation

Allium (Allan’s photo)

Allium albopilosum (Allan’s photo)

some of the back garden pots

I squeezed Diane’s painted sage into a couple of the pots rather than out in the garden bed by the road; that bed seems dusty now with everything that is going on.

my good friend Misty

I also got to see the new puppy, Holly, twice!  Once here, and once at our last job of the day…

The Red Barn

Diane brought Holly over while checking on Diane’s horse.

I was snubbed by a whippet again!

He breezed right by me.

Our little Red Barn garden

At home, I was able to erase more from the planting list.

Allan prepped for our first job tomorrow by hauling soil amendments two doors down.

Guest photo:  Steve and John saw an Allium bulgaricum in Astoria and sent me this photo from a small garden on Exchange, just above the Fort George Brewery:

Steve’s photo

And Melissa sent me this from THE Oysterville garden:

Melissa’s photo

 

 

 

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19 May: a very doggy day

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.

Allan’s photo

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.

PPR means Peninsula Poverty Response.  I should probably replace this leggy Erysimum, right?

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).

NOOOOOO.  One of my special new orange bidens pulled right out of the soil in a planter.

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.

Fifth Street Park, NW quadrant

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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22 Sept: autumn begins in Long Beach

Thursday, 22 September 2016

On the way out of town, we checked a couple of the Ilwaco planters to make sure they were not too dry.  They were fine.

The Depot Restaurant

north side of dining deck

ultra floppy Boltonia ‘Snowbank’

I hope it has better posture next year.

pleased with how Cornus ‘Hedgerows Gold’ lights up this muddled area.

southeast corner of dining deck

I so hope my tetrapanax start grows tall here next year.

Long Beach

We decided to take a big chance on the rain storm predicted (35 mph wind and half an inch of rain) for Friday and not water the Long Beach planters.  We would be mighty sorry if the storm did not materialize.

welcome sign…cosmos still low on flowers

from the sidewalk, with Echibeckia

debated pulling cosmos blocking the lights…left them for one more week

The only way to not block the lights that are supposed to illuminate the sign at night would be to have extremely low plants.  It is a dilemma.

Long Beach city hall with Basket Case baskets

With Basket Case’s Nancy Aust retiring, she will be a hard act to follow.  She plans to return and help the new owners with the baskets next spring.  Every time we work in Long Beach, folks ask how the baskets are so great.  I answer that Nancy makes them in very large containers with a soilless mix and time release fertilizer and the city waters them every day and fertilizes them frequently with liquid fertilizer (Miracle gro).

In the little pop out up the street from city hall, a late planted wildflower mix from seed was successful.

We did some weeding and some sightline clipping of a sad mugo pine.

Before. Someone (not us) had pruned it.

after. I’d like to hoik it out and start over with something lower.

passersby

Allan’s photo

by the Dennis Co cranberry harvest mural (Allan’s photo); it was redone last year but is sadly flaking off.  I had just given this fellow some Schizostylis starts from city hall.

We groomed all the planters..  One I had not attended to for awhile had way too much reseeded columbines:

The foliage gets hideous with leaf miner.

I pull out as much by the roots as I can!

after

looking across to the planter from which I yanked much aquilegia

I popped into NIVA green (my favourite shop) to get a new set of photos for its Facebook page.

lamp by owner/artist Heather Ramsay

some new purses

Heather is just about to decorate for Halloween.

We finished by weeding Fifth Street Park.

northwest park quadrant with Melianthus major

Rudbeckia ‘Cherry Brandy’ and Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’

a Boltonia actually standing up. Captain Bob and Cathy are on a well deserved vacation.

southeast park quadrant with Darmera peltata and gunnera

a little pruning in a dark corner, before

and after

at home

As we arrived at home, with a couple of hours to go before dinnertime, our new neighbours  Thandi and Mike of the beloved Sou’wester Lodge came walking by, with an even newer neighbour, their new baby, Celestine.  (The three of them just moved into one of my favourite old Ilwaco houses two block west.)  Allan got some photos:

Thandi and Celestine

We had a tour all around the garden, although Celestine, at two weeks, is too young to truly appreciate the fairy doors in the bogsy woods.

teeny tiny

a nice sit down on the patio for awhile

The Cove Restaurant

Time again for the highlight of our week, our North Beach Garden Gang dinner with Dave and Melissa (Sea Star Gardening), joined this week by Todd (Willapa Gardening).

Cooley has to wait in the Sea Star van.

Lynn treated us to some warm brie and roasted garlic left over from a catered event!

refreshing caesar salad

Korean noodle bowl with kimchi and turkey egg

Allan opted for a less exotic burger.

As always, we were the last diners to leave the restaurant.  Now for four days off, a luxury that we may have to give up next year but for now…we like it.

---

1997 (age 73):

Sept 22: Drs appt at 10:00.  My glucose test was 115—which is normal!  He said to quit taking Tolazimide and get another glucose test in 10 days.  Bill Jr started garage roof.  He took off old shingles.  I weeded in the “ditch”.  I thought it was kind of hot.  Later I found out it was 80 degrees.  No wonder I was soaked.

1998 (age 74):

Sept 22:  I planted the new Spring Hill Poppies mostly in the UDFB [Upper Driveway Flower Bed] and the special red one in tam area [former juniper tam bed, now flowers, by the roadside].  Also planted the armerias I grew from seeds.  I picked some apples and peeled and made apple sauce until 7:00.

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29 June: all the other jobs

Wednesday, 29 June 2016

in which we do all the jobs but Long Beach and Ilwaco

at home

front path, looking east

The Depot Restaurant

Grasses enclosing south and east side of dining deck. This fall, I will try transplanting some Tetrapanax ‘Steroidal Giant’ there.

north side of dining deck

east wall

Dierama (Angel’s Fishing Rod)

looking southeast from the parking lot

The Red Barn Arena

our little Red Barn garden

Diane’s garden

along the highway

The Basket Case Greenhouse

We stopped to see what was left of the end of season sale and I bought a few variegated oregano and thyme for the Ilwaco post office edge.

me and Fred (Allan’s photo)

Fred and Nancy are retiring right after this end of season sale…and that is another “letting go” that is happening this year.  They have buyers who will take over the business.  I am fighting the “It’ll never be the same!” feeling.

Marilyn’s garden

looking southwest from the road

from the driveway

looking south

Eryngium ‘Sapphire Blue’ (Allan’s photo)

looking north

Allan’s photo

There is a lot of plant snobbery about plain ol’ shasta daisies.  Well.  I like ’em, and that is my truth.

looking west from the back porch

Allan weeded along the back wall.

While we were away garden touring, Marilyn’s daughter sent me this:

“so love all the poppies and red this year. thank you, garden magician” photo by Nancy Gorshe

And I don’t think I have posted these yet:

Scooter and a deer, photo by Nancy Gorshe

photo by Nancy Gorshe; the deer are eating the Crocosmia this year.

Klipsan Beach Cottages

my good friend Bella

and Sarah or Tommy

Clematis ‘Rooguchi’

Helenium ‘Autumn Lollipop’

Helenium ‘Autumn Lollipop’ is so cute!

Helenium ‘Moerheim Beauty’

birdbath view

sit spot

lily

roses and hydrangea with Thalictrum ‘Elin’ on the left

Allan’s deadheading of ‘New Dawn’ rose, before

and after

Anchorage Cottages

center courtyard

A ceanothus that had been slowly dying had finally completely plotzed, so Allan cut it down.  I recently read that it is not unusual for ceanothus to die off like this.

before

after

Now the one on the other end of the center courtyard garden a tall healthy ceanothus throws the garden off balance…drat.

Solanum crispum ‘Glasnevin’ (blue potato vine)

east wall near office

office courtyard

Since the Hardy Plant Society garden tour weekend, I have had a nagging feeling that I need a new client who is a plant nut, with a big budget, and no need for hardscaping, and who would just let me play with planting new plants.  I realized today that that client is ME.

At home, Allan found this unusual carrot in a package and thought it should be recorded:

 

 

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20 June: Long Beach accomplishments

Monday 20 June 2016

Before work, we went two doors down to Jeff and Mary’s house to lend some long handled loppers.

Mary’s tiny little Yorkie, Missy, all of two pounds.

The sweet and friendly dogs in the next yard over: Dickens and Harley (Allan’s photo)

Dickens and Harley, the sweetest guys

Still delaying work, we stopped up on School Hill to visit Todd, Dave, and Melissa, who were all working together on a property that will soon be for sale.   The yard was huge and enviable with one of the more private back yards I’ve ever seen in the city. The house is said to be seven bedrooms and will be far out of our price range.

from the back deck of the house looking toward the port

The yard from Google Earth

We began our work day by poking at the Ilwaco planters and then the Long Beach planters.  Both felt like they could wait till Wednesday for water.  Because of going to the Hardy Plant Study Weekend on Thursday June 23, and not returning till Sunday June 26, I was glad to not have to water Monday and then again on Wednesday.  Leaving for four days is always stressful for me because of watering worries.  Ideally, we would water Tuesday and Friday.  Not this week.

in Long Beach: Hallelujah! Wet enough!

We then delivered a check from Long Beach to the Basket Case Greenhouse, and were kindly given a preview of the clearance sale prices that will start on Wednesday.

Fred and me at the Basket Case

I got myself several hens and chickens at 25 percent off.

As usual, Shadow wanted to ride along.

On the way to work (finally!), I had such sad news in a message: My very good friend and all around wonderful dog, Ralph, had passed away; he had been diagnosed with cancer not long ago at age 12.  Here he is last December at his home, which he shared with his best friends, Bayside Debbie and Dave.

At last December’s Christmas party, a napping Ralph.  My very good friend Ralph will be sorely missed by all his fans.

Long Beach

We had time for some projects, beginning with the weeding of the pond garden by Pacific Realty.

We parked outside NIVA green, where I got to pet this soft and handsome Great Pyrenees.

I refreshed my collection of photos for the NIVA green Facebook page.

Heather Ramsay models a new hat for sale.

some advice

Outside, I got to pet Jeff, one of the Pacific Realty dogs.

an important realtor

pond, before

and after (Allan’s photos)

There was an antique Franklin car event in town. (Allan’s photo)

With the pond garden weeded, we went to the parking lot berms and weeded the north and the south ones.

blackberry from north berm

Stipa gigantea

Rosa rubrifolia (Allan’s photo)

birds foot trefoil…a shame it is considered a weed, as it is so pretty

Spiraea douglassii

The spiraea is swallowing a hydrangea.

I pretty much let the most vigorous shrub win on these berms, which have to get by with no supplemental water in summer.

This flying pig hood ornament adorned a parked car. (Allan’s photo)

Some grass weeds have returned, and the soil is low, and the red hot pokers needed deadheading.

This chokecherry will have oodles of black shiny berries later on.

berm edge, before

and after (Allan’s photos)

We dumped our load of debris, including rugosa rose clippings that had been sticking out sideways, and filled all our buckets from our city works Soil Energy mulch pile for the berms and for Fifth Street Park.

some mulch for Fifth Street Park

Sanguisorba ‘Pink Elephant’ (Allan’s photo)

Sanguisorba ‘Pink Elephant’ (Allan’s photo)

Fifth Street Park, NW corner mulched along the edge

Much nicer at the berms, although could use more.

before

after (Allan’s photos)

Some nice vignettes can be found on the berms.

I had hoped to get done with work by six to have an evening at home (because I don’t like the thought of leaving home for four days!).  I keep trying to tell myself a different story, that I am going to have a great time and that I WANT to go on a garden touring adventure.  I will, and I do, but nothing for me beats a weekend at home in my own garden and I agonize over giving one up, and city traffic (Salem) is a horror to me, so I do feel anxious.

We checked on the little garden at the World Kite Museum.  It’ll be quiet after hours, I thought, only to find the board was just finishing a meeting so the parking lot was bustling.  That meant I got to meet another dog!  I’d been weepy over Ralph today, and I like to think that all the dogs I got to pet today were a gift from my good friend.

Benny!

a cutie pie. with a soft coat

Ilwaco

Getting home was delayed by the sight of much chickweed in a planter, leading to the checking of several planters for weeds that had gone rampant in the rain; the planters had not had their twice weekly once over for about ten days.  I saw a sightline problem as well, on a small columnar pear that had been broken off by vandals several years ago and had come back from the snapped trunk.

a planter that had had a mass of chickweed….

and a sightline problem…

fixed

That’s all I wanted to do as was so eager to get home.  It will do for now.

At home. Those sneaky snails…everywhere!

front garden lilies

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Ginger’s Garden Diaries

from my mother’s garden diaries of two decades ago

1998 (age 74):

June 20:  HOT  I went out to pluck my pink rhody and then I found myself with a shovel digging and pulling out that purple geranium that had taken over all the beds.  I removed a huge number of plants.  That bed looks a little bleak.  I think I’ll direct seed some of the annual seeds in that area.

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