We left home late because of an unexpected visitor: a gentleman from North Carolina who was friends with Jeff and Mary (two doors down) and was here to go fishing with Jeff. He had heard from Mary about our garden (and from her back porch, there is a view down Nora’s back garden showing an enticing glimpse of ours). I walked through with him as he took lots of photos to show his wife. She is, he told me, a painter who likes to paint gardens, and he told me her name so I could Google her website later on.
I was impressed with how well he saw the garden and what he chose to photograph; he noticed the tunnel cut through the salmonberry with a painted door at the end. Not everyone notices that.
It took me two weeks to get around to looking up her page, Connie Winters Art. I strongly encourage you to peruse it; she is a wonderful artist!
We began the work day with a quick fix: taking some buckets of water from home to the two most westerly planters on the Bolstadt beach approach in Long Beach. There had been a misunderstanding: Allan thought I meant to have him skip watering them because we are so bored with the planting of plain old vinca out there (done by someone else ages ago). I had noticed them wilting the day before and wanted them refreshed before kite festival. Had we known what the day’s weather would bring, we wouldn’t have bothered.
On the way we saw these folks photographing their vintage autos by the iconic arch.
the Bolstadt arch
Next, I had a small mission. Teresa of The Planter Box had messaged me the day before asking if I wanted a “Pistachio”. Before she even finished, I asked “Pistachio Hydrangea??!” Yes! It had been on my list of plants to acquire for ages, so I got two, one fore me and one for another garden….probably Larry And Robert’s where we can keep a good eye on it, although it would also look good against the greeny colour of the Wiegardt Gallery.
Hydrangea ‘Pistachio’ from The Planter Box.
I admired a beautiful Clematis for sale.
And then, way up north to Marilyn’s garden….
begonias on front porch at Marilyn’s
Phygelius
I think this is some kind of phlox, but I wish I knew for sure. It spreads, but not aggressively (so far) and the deer do not eat it:
phlox? wish photo had turned out better
?
I have inquired on the Plants to Identify Facebook group, as I should do more often.
Helianthis ‘Lemon Queen’ is starting to bloom and will put on a good tall show for a few weeks.
Helianthus ‘Lemon Queen’, a favourite perennial
I am amazed the deer are not eating Marilyn’s lilies. Do I dare plant more throughout the garden? I might try!
oriental lilies
looking northish from the back steps
bronze fennel, lovely and thuggish (too many tiny seedlings)
Next, the usual routine: Back down to Wiegardt Gallery on the cusp of Ocean Park and Nahcotta.
The bed on the west side of the building is so unsatisfactory to me. It does not get enough water (not for lack of trying, but soaker hoses just do not work well) and just looks scraggly. But I have a solution! Pam Fleming of Back Alley Gardens will be pleased to hear that I want to plant evergreens here. Because of rampant deer and because Eric did not like it when I used to have two escallonias (too big!) , I am thinking three groups of Ilex ‘Sky Pencil’. That may be trite, but I know they will work. And surprisingly few people on the Peninsula use them. (So they are not trite here…yet.)
terrible, terrible, terrible
If it got more water, the Helianthus ‘Lemon Queen’ would be beautifully tall. I must get rid of the horrible Geranium ‘A.T. Johnson’…have tried…it is a curse. The nice pine scented Geranium macrorrhizum can stay. If it were my garden, I would plant some lemony small very columnar gold conifers….
The north bed looks better with three variegated Miscanthus:
height and repetition
I still love the view to the street (Bay Avenue);
lots of grasses with cotoneasters and a few rhodos
Some drizzling began while we were weeding at Wiegardt’s. By the time we got to Oman Builders Supply Ocean Park store, we had a serious situation.
rain and lots of it
So we went to the Full Circle Café…
driftwood fence, Full Circle on Bay Avenue
inside…nice and dry…
with pie
The sad thing is we had just eaten our lunchbox sandwiches or we could have had one of their tasty lunches.
We waited for awhile and saw the sky looking brighter to the southwest…so set off again optimistically.
The café is almost this close to the ocean.
The Klipsan Beach Cottages garden awaited us. Even the birds looked rather hunched and miserable, as we had called the weather wrong and the rain soon returned.
hunkered down
After awhile, I took shelter from the torrent in the garage. Allan was off working under some trees. Neither of us were prepared with proper coats for this weather.
unfinished job
Mary, garden owner, had come out to chat and commiserate. At first I told her we would bail out for the day and come back. Then I realized that the weather already had us running behind and it is a long drive back to KBC, so we perservered and worked through the weather.
in the fenced garden
sweet peas
Veronicastrum virginicum…
with lilies
After getting thoroughly soaked, we bailed on the rest of the day and went home. I managed two photos on the way to check the greenhouse tomatoes:
Sarah Sloane’s bird
And a quotation; a reader has asked me for more photos of quotations in the garden. Eventually, I hope to do a post with all of them together.
from “The Pleasures of Merely Circulating”
