Castle Rock Bloomin’ Tour: Cowlitz River Dahlias and Succulents

Saturday, 7 September 2019

Cowlitz River Dahlias and Succulents

We drove down a long woodsy road, one lane with turn outs for oncoming cars…

…till we arrived at a field full of dahlias.

You could wander the field with a clipboard, writing down which dahlias you wanted to mail order.  I could have but did not because I already have so many assorted ladies in waiting at home.

Allan’s photo

My photos:

The fluffy ones are amazing and have great colors, especially when they have speckles or are two toned…

…and picotee.

This one almost looks fasciated.

I love the spider dahlias.

The huge dinner plate style, though astonishing, are not my cup of tea.

My favourites are the ones with tidy spoon shaped leaves, especially the smaller pom pom ones (didn’t see many of those here).

Allan’s dahlia photos:

Apart from dahlias, we saw chickens…

and succulents and a few perennials (including Salvia ‘Amistad’, of which I bought two). I got me one of these:

Sempervivum ‘Oddity’ (Allan’s photo)

I had to get me one of the Albuca ‘Frizzle Sizzle’—new to me.

Albuca spiralis ‘Frizzle Sizzle’ (Allan’s photo)

Also had to try one of these (sorry, no photo was taken of the plant, yet).

For next year’s Bloomin’ Tour, I intend to be mentally prepared to order some dahlias, speckled, picotee, and spidery.

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2 September in the Bayside Garden

Tuesday, 2 September 2014 (part one)

Steve and John’s most amazing bayside garden deserves its own separate post, so I’m dividing today into two parts.

After dining with them last Thursday night at the Cove, we were invited for a garden tour and lunch at Steve and John’s bayside home, where all is soothing and uncluttered.

We took some tomatoes and a bouquet of flowers and foliage from our garden; the bouquet went into the most perfect vase of wood (with a water holding insert).

in their kitchen

Plant lovers that our hosts are, we spent quite some time discussing the various plants (including one I had to look up later, Clematis heracleifolia ‘New Love’ to the right, and Rubus lineatus, a few types of boxleaf honeysuckle, Hypericum (maybe ‘Albury Purple’), sanguisorbas, etc etc. Just the sort of conversation I love to have, although of course my mind went blank on some plant names till later.

the bay view (east) from the house

and the north view to the flower and kitchen garden with the newly planted green roof (which we will examine closely later).

The window reflection above shows the bay and a good architectural feature: the opening into the lower level of the house has cross pieces like a window frame; Steve and/or John’s idea to enhance local architect Eric Fagerland’s design.

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

I wish I had taken a photo of the luncheon table, a few steps down from the kitchen. Sometimes it seems intrusive to take photos showing the inside of friends’ houses, so I tend to avoid it even at moments when it would be appropriate.

Allan did take this photo in the kitchen.

I hope I am counting and not pointing. (On an earlier visit, I did point at the drawer and cupboard handles, whose shape is the shape of a wave, so perfect for a home by the water.) The book is Eden on Their Minds, which I took to show them.

I did (of course) photograph Chef Steve’s delicious food.

the salad, with greens picked from the kitchen garden

mushrooms in sauce on polenta cakes

so delicious

After lingering over coffee, we went out to tour the garden. To Allan’s and my surprise, a very light mist had begun to descend. Before we went to see the new green roof on the pumphouse, John showed us the diagram he had made on his computer.

I wish I could remember how many inches each layer represents. It is a very exact diagram.

The view from John’s computer desk would prevent me from getting much done; I would just gaze.

Then outside and to the north of the house…

…to the patch of dahlias by the kitchen garden.

the renowned dahlia ‘Bishop of Llandalf’

dahlia with a glimpse of Willapa Bay

an extra that the catalog added to the order

a dahlia guest

The dahlias came from Old House Dahlias (Mark Harvey) in Portland (purchased at the Portland Home and Garden Show).

We turned to a close examination of the newly planted green roof of the pumphouse with its collection of succulents generously sent by Garden Tour Nancy’s friend Mary from Pasadena. Mary had been here for Music in the Gardens and clearly appreciated Steve and John’s garden.

green roof

John gives a sense of scale.

succulent forest at eye level

Pink salvia by the pumphouse with Cuban oregano

Now began our walk through all the borders.

a hydrangea flower on one long sideways stem

Hydrangea fading into subtle autumn hues.

It had been bright blue like this…

The subtler colours have their own beauty.

Chamaecyparis obtusa ‘Lemon Twist’ (Lemon Twist Hinoki Cypress)

Salvia guarantica

This plant was from Seaside gardener Pam Fleming.

Rudbeckia fulgida var. sullivantii ‘Little Goldstar’ backed with Salvia guaranitica

red fountain grass backed with Salvia ‘Black and Blue’ (backed with Eupatorium (Joe Pye Weed)

red fountain grass, a dahlia, and a dwarf conifer that looks like a fern

Senecio greyii with leaves edged in silver

dahlia

Asclepias by the pond

Caryopteris ‘Blue Balloon’

Genista: I like the airy appearance without the flowers.

a bright pink hebe

pond garden; the pink phlox is ‘Sherbet’

Coronilla valentina variegata (with the pale foliage, had bright yellow flowers, common name scorpion vetch!)

the pond garden from the other side (with rain making splashes in the water)

The spruce (left) will get outsized and will be removed soon.

On the other side of the entry drive, we took a close look at Hydrangea ‘Plum Passion’.

Hydrangea ‘Plum Passion’

delicately fluffy lacecap flowers

Pittosporum, love the black stems

The bench may get an arbour soon.

As the rain became a bit harder, we strolled on up the driveway.

On the left of the driveway is a new bed, created with painstaking effort to get the native meianthemum (false lily of the valley) out, at least for awhile. The exposed root reminds me of the stone crevice garden at the John Kuzma garden in Portland.

new bed with new species rhododendrons

looking east toward the house

young species rhodo with old snag

We all wondered at this red rhododendron blooming now.

seems odd!

an impressively large fungus at the base of some salal

with Steve’s hand for comparison

an offshoot of the fungus

on up the drive to the house

Hebe ‘Quicksilver’ to the north of the driveway

Steve and John’s ladies in waiting section is admirably small. They had just been to Whitney Gardens and Nursery and returned with a few treasures (limited by plant hauling in a Prius).

Pinus densiflora ‘Golden Ghost’, stunning

Just gaze upon that foliage.

and look some more

Rhododendron ‘Cherries and Merlot’

along the front of the house

the drainage swale between the wings of the house; water from the roofs drips into here with a pleasant sound.

With the rain coming down in earnest now, we prepared to leave, although we were not sure if we were going to be able to work or not.

Rain or not, we had to examine the upper garden more thoroughly.

the form of the almost human, huggable tree

Steve says “The huggable tree is:

Xanthocyparis Nootkatensis ‘Green Arrow’ (Green Arrow Weeping Cedar)

The foreground shrub in the same shot (to the left) is:

Ulmus x Hollandica ‘Jacqueline Hillier’ (Dwarf Elm ‘Jacqueline Hillier’)”

the clearing of the white hydrangea

a kiwi among rhodos seeks hosts on which to climb

a bank of heather dating back to the old garden (pre Steve and John)

I was still taking photos after we got in our van to drive away.

looking north from the parking area

and northeast back to the house

This spectacular garden will be on a Water Music Festival rhododendron garden tour next spring; I will let you know as soon as the date is set.

For our previous visits to the garden, see:

our first visit, Sept. 26 last year

a springtime visit, April 23

a June visit, June 21

the garden on tour day, July 20

I want to live a long life to see young parts of this garden mature over the years.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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23 Oct: short day

Wednesday, 22 October, 2013

Pretty soon all the days will be this short or shorter.  (I am looking forward to that although by March I will be craving the longer days again.)  Today we had a dinner engagement “overseas” so we worked on the south end of the ‘Ninsula in order to be ready.

First, the usual compost bucket switch at Olde Towne.

Luanne’s pumpkin decor

I poked the bigger Ilwaco city planter outside and found it disconcertingly dry.  I revised my plan of doing Long Beach and then Andersen’s RV Park.  The planters needed water today!   To get a head start, we borrowed Chester’s watering can and watered five of the planters nearest to Olde Towne.  Then,  on to Long Beach….parking would be easier in Ilwaco later in the day.

At my request, Allan tackled the montbretia removal in Fifth Street Park where it had snuck in around a daylily.   Just a clean piece of the daylily (a good maroon one) went back in.

Allan’s first project, before and after

The pineapple sage is finally blooming!

On the south side of the park, the ornamental grasses have redeemed themselves from the day after the windstorm of a couple of weeks ago.  They looked so bent over then, I almost chopped them.

Almost cut these grasses, happened just the other day.  They were getting kinda long, could have said they were in my way.  But I didn’t…and I am so glad!

I walked around and checked each planter, fretting over how dry some of them are.  Mysteriously, some are damp and some quite dry.  The water has been turned off so there is nothing I can do but wish for a rainy day.

Asphodel about to bloom…wish I had more of these.

 I remind myself once again to remember to cut back, in mid spring, ALL of the Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’.  The few that I missed look terrible now.

the bad and the good

the usual self reminder to plant more dahlias next year

still a vibrant and rather messy mix by Home at the Beach shop!

Several of the planters have chrysanthemums, all several years old and all but one still vigorous.

across from Dennis Company

by the Elks building

The one one that is peaked and disappointing is by NIVA green.

not up to much!

I wish my favourite shop had a better chrysanthemum show!

When I got back to Fifth Street, Allan had been working on and removed four wheelbarrow loads of weeds and cut back lady’s mantle from this difficult garden bed.

a tough little bed, rooty and damp

It had looked pretty good early this month with a show of Schizostylis.

We needed more projects in order to time our watering of Ilwaco correctly.  I had the brainstorm to cut back the so-called dwarf mugo pine at the edge of the park.  It had grown into the walk space on both directions.  Mike Kitzman, parks manager, had been amenable to cutting it down, but that had not happened and I did not want to be that bold.  I forgot to take a before photo.

during and after…all the sideways, sidewalk blocking branches gone…and it’s lower

On our last look at the park, I noticed the Jerusalem sage is having a second yellow flowering.  I find that unusual.

Phlomis fruticosa

Also unusual: an Eryngium ‘Jade Frost’ NOT reverting to green

We still needed one more thing to do to make the time come out right, so we cut back an Escallonia up by Scoopers market; I thought it was blocking the traffic sightline.  We did not plant it; it dates back to volunter planter days.

In the late winter, I am cutting these all the way down.

After dumping in the Long Beach works yard, we went to the Ilwaco boatyard to fill up buckets for watering….a job we thought was over after that big rain that now seems long ago.  No rain is forecast till a week from now…

in the boatyard

I picked up some trash from the boatyard garden and admired the ongoing cosmos show.

south end of boatyard garden

second flowering on blue globe thistle

Cosmos, north end

Cosmos picotee

looking south from Eagle Street

Allan bucket watering

I had gotten into a pruning mood, and one of the street trees particularly bothered me.  These are all columnar pears, and they sure are not very columnar in nature.  The one by the Col Pacific Motel keeps wanting to grow toward the sign.  Last year, its lopsidedness had gotten so big it blocked the view of the sign.

Better? Hmmm.  Now I want to take just one branch off the other side…

Allan found some nasty sluggy things in some of the leaves, and I think they were pear slugs!  Yuck.

They are so…sideways for columnar trees.    I did not have time to tackle more of them (maybe just as well) but we did take off a couple of lower branches on the one across the street.  A six foot tall person would have had to move over on the sidewalk to pass this tree:

after a slight lifting of the under-branches

If it were more columnar, the Portside Café sign would show better.  I see just where to cut….

However, it was time to meet Tom and Judy for our ride across the river.  I madly chopped up tree branches into our garbage wheelie bin for the last twenty minutes of the work day, so that the pear slugs…or whatever…go away in  the trash pick up tomorrow.

After an exciting ride across the Astoria bridge in Tom’s sporty red VW Golf R, we met Larry and Robert for a happy, hilarious, and delightful dinner gathering of six at La Cabana de Raya.  The only bad thing about today’s nice cool grey weather was that we did not get much of a river view, and no sunset.

two out of three amazing appetizers: Fresh guacamole and Ceviche

The sixth of us didn’t solve all the world’s problems over dinner…..Just Ilwaco’s, and had much laughter in the process.

Like the ending of My Dinner with André, we talked and talked until we looked around and saw that the restaurant was empty and the staff was cleaning up.

we closed it down….at our table in the back

When I got home and turned on my computer to blog, I received a message from Mary, two doors down, to come get some of the salmon her husband had caught, and in the process I got to hold their little two-and-a-bit pound Yorkie!   It is a fortunate life to be blessed with such good neighbours…two doors down, four doors down (Tom and Judy) and five doors down (Larry and Robert).  (Three doors down is empty and being worked on.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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a rainy day

Friday, September 20, 2013, part one

I was disappointed to be woken at the usual time because I had expected a rainy day off.  And then I heard the gurgling of water in the rain barrel outside my window and looked out to an increasing drizzle.   So at last, it turned out to be the day to go get new shoes.  We were off “overseas” to Astoria.

As often seems to be true, the sky over Astoria and points east was lighter and we were out of the rain as soon as we got through the Chinook tunnel.

bright sky over Astoria; Columbia River to our right

Because a 55 mph wind is predicted for Sunday, the workers on the bridge were folding up the enormous tarps that cover the highest part.  Last year, they got caught out by the first storm and had to close the bridge because of the dangerous flapping!

Screen shot of news story, in case it eventually goes away as old news:

last year!

A shoe shopping expedition is not a treat for me.  I find it very hard, and always have done, to acquire comfy shoes.  Last year, in the local Reach Out Thrift Store, I happened upon a pair for $2 that felt soft as butter.  (I had been looking for a work shirt, not shoes, but checked the shoes in a desperate attempt to avoid actual shoe shopping!)  It turned out that they were SAS, an expensive brand, but one that would be worth any amount of money to me.  Since the ones I bought that day were already worn and now have holes by the little toe, today we went across the river to the store that carries them: Gimre’s.  I had the most pleasant shoe shopping experience of my life there and bought two pair, and that is enough about shoes!

Ok, for my friends who do love shoes, here they are:

left: new slip ons, middlle: new laceups, right: thrift store pair

I commend SAS for making such great shoes.  I will even try to keep the slip on pair out of the dirt…(We’ll see how long that lasts.)

Back to (mostly) garden theme, with this digression for one of the best hotel advertising slogans ever:

hotel elliot

I continue to be an ardent admirer of the Astoria planters on Commercial Street and some side streets:

chocolate cosmos on Commercial

planter with Fuchsia

Periscaria

Euphorbia and Verbena

(I hesitate to use Euphorbia in planters because if someone broke off a piece, hurting their eye with the toxic sap would be a high price to pay for finger blight.)

I adore the planters with wire sides and plants spilling out all the way to the ground:

planter

closer

The rain caught up with us in Astoria, so we went to lunch, passing this cute storefront on the way.

We also passed a curbside garden on Marine Drive with a name I recognized:

Jessica’s garden

I met Jessica some years ago and loved the slogan that she used for her gardening business, which I think was called Wyndlesham Gardening:  “Hand Tool Gardening”, and am pleased to have found this interview with her on that subject.

Chocolate cosmos in Jessica’s garden

Jessica’s garden

We dined on the lunch buffet at the wonderful Himani Indian Cuisine.  Guess which plate is mine and which is Allan’s.

messy vs. tidy

I went back for a bowl of raita.  I could eat a mixing bowl of the stuff!  (Yogurt with cucumber.)

On the way back to the van, we peeked into the interior of a building that I remembered from when a tea shop used to be in its basement.

as I remembered: cool architecture indoors

Our parking spot was very close to the wide Columbia River.

the great Columbia

and the scent of water and pilings

Crossing the bridge again, we found the big tarps completely bundled off to the sides and decided we had better take the coming storm seriously.

Just a few hatches truly needed battening at home.  Allan took the blue bottle hanger (from Back Alley Gardens) out of the danger tree.

rainy day garden

blue bottles coming down

and time to take down the great wall of china…

and the beautiful hanger made by Sheila (New Leaf Plants and Pottery)

Poor spider had to move so we could get Sheila’s pottery down.

The space between the house and shed is a fierce wind tunnel in a storm from the south.

cats underfoot, as often happens in the garden

It seems awfully early for a storm to come and batter the garden.  Before the storm:

Dicentra scandens climbing into a hanging basket

a perfect clump of Dianthus

boat (The Anne Lovejoy) with cosmos

The Solidago ‘Fireworks’ has fizzled out:

browned off now

But Lemon Queen is going strong.

Helianthus ‘Lemon Queen’

dahlia

I took a walk around because the flowers might be bowed and battered soon.

for Ann who wants more photos of garden signs

Nicotiana langsdorfii

some Fuchsias for Mr. Tootlepedal

fuchsias against a darmera peltata leaf

Fuchsias fronted with Persicaria ‘Firetail’

I checked out the bogsy wood because in a high wind it will be too dangerous to go back here.  I tucked the Bogsy Wood sign more safely against a tree.

bogsy wood

autumn leaves in a salmonberry tunnel

When all the salmonberry leaves fall, we will have our winter view of the port buildings.

The swale under the bridge will fill with water…

Under the danger tree (a big dead alder, died last year) is a shade bed that will disrupted if the tree falls before we have it cut.

shade bed in danger

Allan wheeled a blue pot from the base of the tree to a safe spot.

heavy!

We left the lady to fend for herself, and may regret it.

she lost her feet so was inexpensive….but heavy!

blue pot safely tucked by the boat

Mary and Frosty take cover from the rain.

Mary is not a bird hunter so does not have to wear a BirdsBeSafe collar.

Throughout the garden we could hear frogs.  We had an appointment to keep, so I only found this one.

Pacific tree frog

The frog sees me!

For a non working day, this has gone on for much too long and we still had two garden visits to make before dark…

to be continued…

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two work days

Monday, September 16, 2013

I was so sure that we were going to get a rain day off that I was completely flummoxed when Monday was nice enough for working.  (We do work in rain, but if we don’t have to, we don’t!)   At first I could not even figure out where to go, but then I remembered a pruning project at The Anchorage Cottages.

I forgot to take a before…so here is a during.

I pruned the Viburnum in the center courtyard with a bit of pruning of the Ceanothus as well.  I actually picked up a handful of old leaves from under the Viburnum to see if the annoying odor that comes from the Viburnum when wet emanates from the old leaves.  NOPE.  Just from the plant in general, apparently!

after

Allan’s project was to tackle the sweet woodruff in a shady north wall border.

before and after

All summer long a broken paver in this area has bugged me.  A sudden tiny brainstorm occurred today:

install the paver as a half circle! leaving off the broken piece.

Allan put the river rock in there and it helps make it look nicer.

I am not against all groundcovers, just certain ones (sweet woodruff and the horrible aegepodium, to name two.)  On the other side the north wall garden, I quite like the big patches of Geranium macrorrhizum.

a good groundcover, in my opinion

By the office, Allan removed several clumps of Stella D’Oro daylilies.  I’ve gone off them, too!  Poor plants…

will put in something much better

Next project here will be to mulch with cow fiber, which must be done on a Monday just to be sure any stink is gone by the weekend.   I don’t think cow fiber has any bad odor but someone might be able to smell faint eau de poo.

We dropped the debris at Peninsula Landscape Supply.  Their U-Pick Dahlia garden has some lovely blooms.

dahlias and oyster shells

To fill out the day, I remembered the beach strawberry removal project at the courtyard garden beds at Golden Sands Assisted Living.

Now that the sprinklers are working, we can really begin to address the weeding.  The strawberries can stay outside the landscape timbers.  Inside, they get up in the business of the other plants and have to go away.

progress in SW quadrant

horrible NW quadrant weeding must wait till next week as we ran out of daylight.

Throughout the beds we have to rogue out all the tiny little scabiosa seedlings or they will take over.

haze of self sown seedlings

One more session of weeding and maybe we will be ready for more mulch at Golden Sands!

I am pleased to report that outside the quadrants, the roses that were so dry and unhappy are leafing out and blooming thanks to the repaired sprinkler system (fixed by Raymond Millner from The Planter Box).

a much happier rose

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

We had another slow start due to weather but at least I knew where we were going.   The first job was Mayor Mike’s  weeding.

Schizostylis at Mike’s garden

Next, a compost bucket switch at Olde Towne Trading Post Café where an old birdhouse awaits the right buyer.

very nice

Some gardens down at the Port got weeded next.  I am very pleased with how well these are holding up and how relatively low maintenance they have proved to be.

Port office, south side

Such a beautiful view we see when we turn from the garden and look at the water.

beautiful clouds over the marina

We deadheaded at The Depot Restaurant and then nipped round the corner and did a little work at Crank’s Roost.   I know, I said we had made our last visit there, and made a big dramatic goodbye post, and then another goodbye post, but it still needs the occasional deadheading!   When the new owners totally take over, we will be done.  (Nothing against them, but we are sentimental about liking the previous/current owner and we can’t imagine the job without her!)  It is very possible the new owners will do their own gardening.

Crank’s Roost daisies, before..

and after deadheading

For some reason, this cute Crank’s Roost chair looks like a little fairy chair, but I am sure it is full sized!  Or is it?

a sit spot

After Crank’s we went to the Ilwaco boatyard to work till sunset.  The one long section, south of the gate, that we had not finished the other day looked good until one got close up and saw all the pesky creeping sorrel.

creeping sorrel at ground level…  the leaves taste like lemon!

While we were working, I saw a man walking up the block toward us stopping to photograph many plants.  He introduced himself as a visitor from a town near Purdy, here to go fishing, a gardener and former chef.  We had an enjoyable conversation about plants and I hope he will find this blog and send us a Facebook friend request.

boatyard garden, end of day

Working late has its benefits as we got to see a moonrise and some glowing pre-sunset clouds.

moonrise over Jessie’s Fish Co

clouds over Baker Bay

and more glowing clouds over the boatyard

It promised to be quite a sunset, but we were tired so went home, went indoors, and I have to admit I forgot to even look out the window later to see the pinkest time of the sky!

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watering woes, July 25

We’ll get to the woe about halfway through the day.

First we went back to Larry and Robert’s as I had decided to stuff even more annuals into the boat.

garden boat, looking south

There really IS too much soil showing in the garden!

Larry has told us he is getting lots of compliments on the garden. I am determined to mulch with cow fiber this fall. I avoided it because I figured their three little dogs would be too interested, but the garden does need it.

The Alliums have survived little dogs and wind!

Next, some more watering and garden boat plant addition at Time Enough Books…

Time Enough Books street garden on Howerton

the boat on a sea of Geranium ‘Rozanne’

Should I pull the golden marjoram at the back end of the boat’s outside and have it be ‘Rozanne’ all the way around?

looking east down Howerton

I was relunctant to pull the toadflax that has reseeded here but I think, looking at the photo, that it is time.

Next, on to the Depot Restaurant garden, where one bright dahlia calls out for more tall bright dahlias…It does catch the eye more than my beloved cosmos.

Dahlia among the Cosmos

At the restaurant entrance, the plantings by Nancy Aust of The Basket Case are thriving.

Nancy’s artistry

The Basket Case was our next stop of the day to pick up some annuals that they were donating for the Golden Sands garden. It’s always poignant for me when The Basket Case has closed for the season!

They will re open late Feb ’14 with the first spring annuals. Meanwhile, Fred and Nancy’s work is not over as they tidy up the greenhouses but then they will have a nice relaxing end of summer.

I have been becoming increasingly anxious about the state of my “edibles” for the edible garden tour on August 11, so we stopped at Peninsula Landscape Supply so that I could buy some “Fox Farms Grow Big” liquid fertilizer!

Peninsula Landscape Supply was buzzing with activity.

Next, on to Nahcotta/Ocean Park for weeding and deadheading at The Wiegardt Gallery. Hint of the day: When your Alliums fall over, stick them into a shrub (here, a cistus) for a surprise. You could even spray paint them with exotic colours.

a shrub with allium flowers

Next, all the way to almost-Surfside to check up on Marilyn’s garden and to pick up the table and chairs we lent her for garden tour day.

Marilyn’s, looking north

Next, we worked on the garden at Oman Builders Supply in Ocean Park, several miles south of Marilyn’s…

…mostly deadheading Erysimum ‘Bowles Mauve’

This is a garden which does not get enough water. My drought tolerant selections are doing pretty well. The staff do water with a soaker hose but it does not get to every plant. I don’t think much of soaker hoses!

Klipsan Beach Cottages was our next job and I found much of beauty there:

the driveway garden, newly redesigned this year

Mary wanted mostly low plants in her driveway garden and it has turned out well.

on the other side of the driveway, looking northwest to deer fenced garden

Glumicalyx gloseloides…supremely fragrant nodding chocolate flower!

lilies

Dierama (Angel’s Fishing Rod)

more lilies

daylily

Leaving the paradise that is KBC, where I can always count on Mary and Denny to keep the garden well watered, we drove just a few blocks down the road to Golden Sand Assisted Living. I had a whole wheelbarrow full of wonderful plants for the garden there, some perennials donated by my friends Kathleen Shaw and Sheila and some annuals from The Basket Case Greenhouse.

barrow of plants (backed with our trailer with table and chairs)

I had had a long talk with the maintenance man at Golden Sands a couple of weeks before about making a better watering system with raised, permanent back and forth sprinklers like the set up at Pink Poppy Farm and I had hope that I would find the new system in place. But no, all was the same as before with cute twirly sprinklers that do not work well to cover the whole area of each garden quadrant in the courtyard. I spoke to Pam, the activities director, of my deep frustration and woe and she took me to talk to the director. Turns out the watering plan, even though it had been mentioned at a staff meeting, had not made its way through channels to get to her, and she is willing to make it happen. In fact, she wants to get a plumber in to find out once and for all how the wonderful sprinkler system (which has a leak somewhere) can be made functional again. I am now a big fan of hers; she says she “makes things happen”. So once again I am filled with hope…but meanwhile I cannot plant any of our donated plants because the conditions are not good enough for them. This is a bad time of year to plant without good watering.

in the courtyard…the plants that we cannot plant yet…

The Helianthus ‘Lemon Queen’ shows the effects of the sprinklers not reaching all of the plants. I dragged a chair over to give a height reference.

This one gets only the hose water we give it once a week.

This one gets some spray from the sprinkler.

In my own garden, Klipsan Beach Cottages garden, Andersen’s garden, Jo’s garden, Fifth Street Park in Long Beach and others where the plants get watered sufficiently, Helianthis ‘Lemon Queen’ is already towering over my head.

There are some good things going on in the garden at Golden Sands. Due to the cow fiber mulching earlier this year, the dahlias in the quadrant outside my mom’s former window are finally going strong. Wish she could see them. Some people believe she can.

mom’s dahlias

Mom loved the really huge dahlias.

Eryngium ‘Sapphire Blue’ was also a favourite of my mom’s.

Here is another example of water woes. In the quadrant where we ran out of cow fiber, the dahlias are small and languishing. The dairy manure helps so much in keeping the garden moist and happy.

a sad little dahlia in the unmulched NW quadrant

We hose watered all around the edges. This is not cost effective and takes up all our alloted time, leaving us no time to weed.

a terribly thirsty rose and much unweeded horsetail

If the watering problem is solved, I believe that this garden has so much potential that it could be on the garden tour; it could be a tropical-feeling paradise.

SW quadrant…shows signs of greatness

The edges of the quadrant gardens and the areas outside need mulch and water, and with the addition of some more good plants it could then be tour-worthy and that would be wonderful for the residents…what fun it would be! I hope that by this fall my watering woes here will be solved.

Here go the plants back out to the car…unplanted…

dagnab it!! ….out the door….

The most maddening thing was having to stuff them all back into the tiny car again.

always a challenge to carry plants…

I shook off the frustrated feeling and we went on south to the Anchorage Cottages.

Anchorage lilies

And then we ended the day with the weekly deadheading of the Long Beach welcome sign.

with Agyranthemum ‘Butterfly’ and an edging of Bidens

We use the more compact bidens in the sign garden. The first year I used a very trailing kind and its sharp little seeds tormented us every time we deadheaded!

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Sunday off!

First:  The Music in the Gardens tour is next weekend.  For sneak peeks of some of the gardens, see: Sneak Peeks.

Sunday July 7th began with a visit to Olde Towne Café to celebrate and support the first day of their summer Sunday opening.

Olde Towne Trading Post Café

The best part is that we came at a lull and Luanne had time to sit and schmooze with us.

Then it was back home for a busy and productive day in the garden.  Days off have to be productive either in the garden or on the computer since there are so few of them.  No chaise lounging.

Flowers that I particularly enjoyed:

Platycodon, common name balloon flower because of the adorable buds

And it opens might pretty, too.

One of my sanguisorbas. I collect them, then lose the tags.

the stunning buttercream lily

if only it would last longer!

Lower right, above:  more of the wild impatiens I keep pulling…and pulling…and yet some are flowering now…and I like them…but if they go to seed there will be zillions more to pull next year.

a rose from Heirloom, possibly Hot Cocoa, and Eryngium ‘Jade Frost’

If I were retired, I would have have all the names and tags sorted out.

I know this one: Papaver ‘Lauren’s Grape’

The Dahlias are out…and big…and seem kind of early to me.

dahlias

Dicentra scandens climbing into a hanging basket

planted hibachi

Garden tour organizer Nancy came over for awhile to pick up a ‘Banana Cream’ daisy that I had got her and to bring me some of the beautiful garden tour posters to distribute.  As we walked the garden, she was taken with this Japanese iris; this photo is to remind me to share a piece with her later this year.

a Japanese iris from my old garden

Luanne came over to visit at the same time so we had a lovely confab sitting on the patio.  I decided not to pester them to be photographed for blog fodder.  The cats will do as they provided entertainment.

Calvin was caught out sleeping in the garlic.  He is usually so shy that no visitor sees him.  Here he might be trying to figure out how to escape the attention.

Calvin

Mary and Smokey stage a mock battle

Mary retires to join Frosty at the cat door.

Nancy showed me that the scapes of the garlic (blossom tops) need to be removed so the strength goes to the bulb before harvesting.  Since I usually grow elephant garlic for the flower and its cute little paper cap, I did not know this.  Allan made sauteed snow peas with garlic scapes as part of dinner, and it was delicious.

garlic scapes and peas: my big harvest

I am still fretting a bit about being on the edible tour because two of the gardens that I know of so far are very serious edible growers….and my garden is frivolous except for spuds, strawberries, blueberries, herbs, raspberries…and some salad bowls.  Peas and beans.  Garlic.  No lovely rows of veg to be found anywhere, though.

I told Nancy I can grow edibles, in fact started gardening exclusively with edibles in my old Seattle garden till a fateful lecture by Ann Lovejoy turned me into a plant collector.  I related how I had asked Allan last summer “If I grow edibles, will you  cook ’em?”  He had not been very interested in that.  Later I found Nancy had had a little talk with him on this subject.  Thus the nice peas and garlic scapes for dinner!

One project for the weekend was to clean up the east side of the bogsy wood.  I had begun Saturday evening before fireworks but had taken the springy not very good ho-mi back there with me so did not get far.

before

Sunday: quite a satisfying after

Again I ran across the saying that I quite like and had the bright idea of hanging on the fence.  Allan helped.  Actually, he did all the drilling and wiring and hanging.

sign on old chair back

I was thrilled to find some of the beans I had planted and forgotten about had come up.  They got some nice fish fertilizer and Sluggo protection.

at the foot of the purple camellia

Another project: to control (i.e. pull) the nasturtiums.  That’s kind of ironic because they are edible.  But they are swamping the blueberries in one area and that will not do.

before

after

While I was in there, I got a good look at the poppies in the middle of the garden.

ruffly!

with filipendula

In the center bed, Geranium ‘Rozanne’ is swallowing Alliums, Eryngiums, and Lobelia tupa.  I am beginning to get the idea of how big Rozanne is and will move more plants to give her all the room.

the voracious ‘Rozanne’

Behind the cat bench another area needed de-nasturtiuming.

before, with the cat bench moved to one side

after, just a little less blurry

I found my lovely white dahlias all sideways under the nasturtiums making it so easy for the slugs to chew upon them.  I hope they recover now that they can see the sky again.

In the greenhouse, I have tomatoes!  Edible!  (Eventually.)

tomatoes

Allan did a marvellous job of weeding the very difficult bed down the east side of the fence: difficult because grass grows in under the fence from next door.

weeded

And he put up the new sign that we got at Niva green in Long Beach.

over the garage door

from license plates

We were both out till dusk, and at the end of the day another lily had begun to open.

twilight in the front garden

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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September in our garden

2 Sept: a mystery. Got it at Hardy Plant weekend. Late blooming and blue.

2 September, a glorious new rose from Heirloom Roses

2 September, sweet peas and Robinia pseudo acacia ‘Frisia’

front garden with Veronica and Eupatorium, 5 September

Nigella (Love in a Mist), 5 Sept

Cleome, 5 Sept; an annual

on the porch, 13 Sept.

above, birthday basket (March 2011) from Nancy Aust of The Basket Case Greenhouse, still blooming a year and a half later! (through porch window)

front garden, 14 Sept

front garden, Sanguisorba and Cleome, 14 Sept

Sanguisorbas

I love Sanguisorbas (burnets) and have collected them every since seeing them in a slideshow during a lecture by Piet Oudolf at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show years ago.  They are one of the plants that made me long for a sunny garden.  Deer like them so I could not successfully grow them at Discovery Heights or Wiegardt Gallery, two of my more meadowy but unfenced gardens.

white sanguisorba, 14 Sept

Cleome, 14 Sept

front garden, Salvia viridis, 14 Sept

Salvia viridis (painted sage) is my favourite annual after Cosmos.  The pink, white or blue colour comes from bracts rather than the tiny white hidden flower.

Nicotiana langsdorfii

Annual, or tender perennial, Nicotiana langsdorfii with little green tubes is up there in my top ten (or five) favourite annuals.  I used to grow it, then had forgotten about it till I saw it on a garden tour in June 2011.  This year I got lots and lots of it from The Basket Case and more from Back Alley Gardens in Gearhart (all sourced in from Blooming Nursery near Portland.)

Echinacea ‘Green Envy’, 14 Sept

above….backed with the silvery toothed leaves of Melianthus major and more Nicotina langsdorfii.

dahlia, 29 September

dahlia, 29 September

I never had enough sun in my old garden to grow dahlias although my mother and I grew scads of them in her Long Beach garden.

water lily dahlia, 29 Sept

September harvest

I did grow some edibles, but harvested the corn too late and it had turned to pure starch.  The potatoes were yummy.

south window view, 29 Sept

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twilight in the garden

In our own garden, an evening of plant observation as dusk falls.  Some gardeners get up very early for that perfect morning lot.  I am more like Tallulah Bankhead:  “Do you mean to tell me that there are two nine o’clocks in the day?”  So evening light is what I get.

Twilight: August 20th

back garden

back garden with Achillea and Leycesteria ‘Golden Lanterns’

Acanthus spinosus

annual candytuft

sweet peas in front garden

poppies

annual poppies and Artemisia ‘Powis Castle’

river of Geranium ‘Rozanne’

sweet peas in back garden

dahlia

dahlias

dahlia

dahlias

dahlia bouquet

rudbeckia

rudbeckia

yellow and white dahlia

lilies as darkness falls

twilight

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Gardens by the Sea Tour: Cerveny-Russell garden

29 July 2012, a benefit for Clatsop County CASA

from outside

After a pleasant walk we arrived at Lisa Cerveny and David Russell’sgarden.  You may have noticed that almost every house in Gearhart is clad in cedar shakes; it is the law, we think.  From the programme:  “An abundance of dahlias and an extensive rhododendron collection feel so at home in this well designed gardener’s garden.”

lilies inside the front gate

to the left of front gate

front porch, with me (oops)

good dahlia cages

front garden

front garden

Walking to the right from the front gate, we reached a big porch between house and garage.

Beside the stair rail twined vigorous sweet peas.

From street to garage, the driveway had one of those center plantings that I like so very much.  I still wonder if I could try this at home or if our little driveway is too narrow.  But since in winter I use the driveway for a mulch pile dumping area, I guess I cannot have this:

driveway planting

To get to the back yard, most people went up and over the deck, but we went to the far side of the garage.

between deck and garage

utility path by garage

into the light

A squeeze effect is always good, and the utility path led us from the shade out into the light.

To our right, a big dahlia garden, and head, lawn, hedges, rock walls.

pink dahlias

dahlia patch

dahlias

Most of the tour guests came down the stairs from the side porch past this glorious clematis.

clematis

back garden entry point

clematis and hydrangea

dahlia patch from back porch

Partway across the expansive lawn with dahlia garden.

another overview

Allan got up close with the lawn to photograph the beautiful lush grass for our friend Tom Hornbuckle…he who mows his own perfect lawn every third day.  He wondered, upon seeing the photos, what kind of grass it was.  This would be a big one to mow that often!

a lawn view for Tom

another lawn view

rock wall enclosing the lawn

and a look back at the multi-level garden

We stepped up to the top of the low rock wall to a shady level and looked back on the expanse of lawn and the far away patch of dahlias.  You can imagine in my garden much lovely green turf would have been displaced by garden beds…which is not to say I do not admire the restraint required to preserve such an emerald carpet.

Coming around the other side of the house…

By the shady path at the side of the house grew special rhododendrons and a fern collection.  Note, bottom left (above) a tree trunk coming through the fence, which is built around it.  We will soon see this from the other side.

rhododendron

hydrangea at front corner

Coming around to the front again.

dahlia cage

After another pause to admire the excellent dahlia cages, we left to see the next garden, right next door!

********************************************************************************** Human interest story!  As may not be clear except for when I occasionally mention this, I have spent the last year catching up on my blog by adding retroactive garden tour posts from 2008-12.  As this entry was written in January 2013, my six and a quarter year old Mac finally plotzed with an ominous clunking sound in the hard drive area.  Call the WAHmbulance because, like many whose heads are in the garden, I have not been very good at backing up, although I did better than some and may have “only” lost the originals of 2000 or so photos.  My staycation may be cut short by the dire economic reality of buying a new computer.  (If I had not turned whole heartedly to the Mac, it would be cheaper…but I can’t go back to PC.)  Thanks to Allan for letting me take over his computer to finish this entry and move on with the blog on these rainy winter days.  (30 January, 2013)

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