Diane’s garden | Tangly Cottage Gardening

Posts Tagged ‘Diane’s garden’

7 March: three small jobs

Posted in journal, tagged barn cat, Diane's garden, gardening, Red Barn Arena, spring clean up, sword ferns on Mar 8, 2022| 8 Comments »

Monday, 7 March, 2022

The Red Barn

We made our first visit to cut back perennials and to weed. Disney was well pleased to get one biscuit, take it away and hide it, get another half…although just half was rather disappointing…but not as disappointing as not getting a third. We had to save some for other dogs!

(more…)

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13 Nov: fall clean up continues

Posted in fall clean up, journal, tagged Diane's garden, fall clean up, Red Barn Arena on Nov 21, 2019| 8 Comments »

Wednesday, 13 November 2019

I wanted to capture how sparkly the azolla looked on our small pond after a night of rain.

I failed to show the sparkle. Azolla is a water “fern” that came in to my ponds on some plant or other. If we have a hard freeze, it might go away. I like it. I just scoop it out with a net and throw it on the garden bed nearby. A most interesting article in Scientific American, “Can the Fern that Cooled the Planet Do it Again?”, tells about its prehistoric history and how it might be useful against climate change. The article also states that is is edible (and tastes “like a blade of grass”). It’s a must read. Perhaps azolla should be taken off the noxious weed list, eh?

midday back garden; the hips are from Rosa moyesii

Norwood garden

We finally got two doors down to the Norwood garden to trim up the small garden beds.

Allan thought the entrance needed a bit of a trim…

…so he fixed it.

trimming lavender

before, east side (forgot the after)

west side lavender before

after

The lavenders are probably a decade old and still bloom profusely.

I fretted over the privet I cut back hard last time, to make it more shapely next year. I scraped at a stem with a fingernail and it is green underneath, so it should be fine.

Allan weeded the north bed.

We then stopped at the Depot Restaurant just to water the window boxes.

still blooming (Allan’s photo)

Long Beach

We went to Dennis Co in a quest for mulch, the quickest place to buy some bags for a south end job. They did not have what I wanted (Soil Building Compost and potting soil). How can potting soil be missing from the stock in winter? Surely people repot their house plants, at the very least. (There was one stack of potting soil bags of the fanciest and most expensive sort that is out of my league.)

However, the stop did reveal to us how terribly messy the two northernmost planters were.

Geranium ‘Rozanne’ gone all shabby

after

As I turned my attention to the planters across the street, Lezlie and I sighted each other.

Lezlie!

Just this morning, I had sent her the link to this delightful blog post with this hilarious bit about going to town: “Today we had a day trip to the big city, well a city anyway. We wore our best smocks held neatly in place with baler twine and caught the horse and trap into town.” Lezlie and I had a good laugh about it because “getting out the old mule and buckboard” is how we describe the effort it takes for her to come all the way south (about a fifteen minute drive) or for us to go all the way north to visit her in the Klipsan Beach area.

We got to pet this beautiful dog who was watching me work.

Allan’s photo

As for the second planter, if a santolina still looks good, I like to leave it till spring before trimming. But if it looks like this…

….I do this.

after

Meanwhile, Allan had sheared back a street tree garden where the BadAster has firmly insinuated itself.

While I would have liked to collect all those leaves, we did not have time.

The Planter Box

We drove on to The Planter Box for our mulch and potting soil.

autumn display

As we were leaving, Teresa asked if we could identify a plant from a customer’s phone photo. We could not. But in the course of the conversation with the customer, Heidi, we learned that her uncle was Frank Herbert (author of the Dune series, which i loved in high school). When I learned she is not on Facebook, we talked about the book I have been reading called Anti-Social Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy. She recommended a book called The Soul of Silence. It was a fortuitous introduction. (I wish she and I could be Facebook friends.)

The Red Barn

We did a thorough weeding of the narrow garden bed and mulched it with Gardner and Bloome Soil Conditioner. I had hoped one bale would be enough, as I had other plans for the second bale. The garden bed took both.

The main weed here is the annoying creeping sorrel.

Allan’s photos:

before

our good friend, barn cat Cosmo

in our van

after

I admired the way someone had decorated one of the planters.

pineapple sage and fall decor

Diane’s garden

Next door to the barn we did more fall cutting back at Diane’s garden. We were rather anxiously racing sunset. I had been unable to remember if I had clipped back the tall sanguisorbas. My own blog’s photos of last time had showed me we had not.

The roadside garden at dusk, after clipping the sanguisorba and some other plants:

I think I can consider the roadside garden as put to bed for the winter. There will be just one more visit to Diane’s to tidy her back garden containers if we have a hard frost.

in Diane’s back garden

Allan trimmed the bed next to the house.

Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’s dried flowers will look fine through the winter.

The work board tonight:

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23 July: making the rounds

Posted in journal, tagged Diane's garden, septic vault garden, The Red Barn on Aug 7, 2019| 5 Comments »

Tuesday, 23 July 2019

Tuesdays have become the day that we make the rounds of the small jobs and sometimes the Long Beach parks.

Norwood garden

Two doors down, we weeded and deadheaded.

My decision to weed turned out to be a good one. I had forgotten it was Oregon Tuna Classic in Ilwaco this weekend, a fishing tournament that benefits the local food bank, and the Norwoods had a lot of guests. I am glad the garden looked good!

The Red Barn

We watered and weeded extra well because the Long Beach Rodeo would be this weekend at the Saddle Club next door. I am sure the event spills over onto the Red Barn grounds with extra horses and riders getting ready.

I picked off this perfectly good flower.

That is pre-emptive deadheading. The flowers only last for a day, and more will come on for the weekend.

Diane’s garden

Of course, I felt sad because my very good, very elderly canine friend Misty is no more.

The septic vault garden:

The roadside garden:

The Planter Box

We made a quick excursion to The Planter Box to get some plants to replace the shrubs that we’d removed from Mike’s garden. I found some excellent lavenders.

Long Beach

We tidied the Veterans Field garden and noticed the clever way the city crew lawn mower moved the picnic tables.

We finished weeding the beach approach garden. The wildflowers did grow from seed but are awfully small.

Our very good friend Mitzu, former member of the Anchorage Cottages staff (as were we), came by to say hello.

Boreas Inn

I figured we would do some light weeding and deadheading and be home early.

Imagine my horror when I walked around just to look at the entry garden and remembered that, when we had visited with Kilyn and Peter last Thursday, I had promised to trim the hardy fuchsia that had gotten beaten down by rain. Susie appeared and had lots of ideas about pruning other plants, as well, so my big plan to get home and start blogging about the Ocean Shores tour went out the window.

We decided to have a reward dinner at

The Depot Restaurant.

After dinner, we had another look at Jessica Schlief’s gorgeous new plantings at the Sou’wester Lodge.

This poppy! I think it might be ‘Amazing Grey.’

It made me kind of sad that I had not taken on this job when I was offered it last year; I turned it down because the owner wanted mostly native plants! Clearly, Jessica is planting what she loves, not just natives. It would have been fun to make a garden at the Sou’wester again, because it was my first garden when I moved here. However, I also don’t have time, and Jessica is a local gardener I greatly admire so I love seeing what she has done.

We got home as the sun was setting.

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2 July: several jobs

Posted in journal, tagged Boreas Inn, Diane's garden, Mathiola longipetala, Red Barn Arena, Salvia 'Amistad' on Jul 13, 2019| 5 Comments »

Tuesday, 2 July 2019

At home, here is my rose ‘Veilchenblau’, proving that Allan’s improvement of the front garden deer fortification is working.

Not a clear photo. I almost missed this blue-violet rose this year. It is from a cutting from my old Ilwaco house… from a cutting from my Seattle garden…made from a cutting from the rose belonging to Louise Runnings, mother of Bryan with whom I lived from January 1982 to August 1986. So many memories. That rose goes back many years.

J’s garden

Yesterday evening, I had not finished pruning back branches that were hanging over the fence. We have a new tool for that, on the left, recommended to us by our neighbour, Scott. (He’s Cotah and Bentley’s dog-dad.)

The new pruner is great. It has clipper-type grips that you squeeze to get it to clip.

On the J’s path, thyme is in bloom.

The Red Barn

We weeded and watered.

Diane’s garden

We weeded, deadheaded, and watered two areas.

Holly, Whiskey, and Misty got biscuits.

I groomed the roadside garden, where the sweet peas are doing well.

The septic vault garden:

Long Beach

I tidied up Veterans Field gardens so we would not have to do it later in the busy Fourth of July week. I am not happy with the corner garden. I took some plants out because it was too dry. Now parts of it are wet and the horsetail is too happy. After weeding, the garden looks beat up.

I am happier with the flag pavilion garden.

Meanwhile, Allan used our new pole pruners to get blackberry out of Third Street Park.

The new pruners worked a treat.

The Boreas Inn

We weeded and did not have to water because we can count on Susie, owner and innkeeper, to do it.

Despite improvements, the sandy soil is a challenge, making the poppies at the west end quite small.

During the two years when we gave this job away, some Eutrochium (Joe Pye weed), which likes moisture, got planted in this challengingly dry (despite watering) garden. Here, it is knee height. In my garden, it is as tall as me. It wants rich, moist soil. In the fall, I will try to find a position for it closer to the inn instead of in the sandy lawn beds.

It can join Amistad in the Garden Suite bed, where Susie did go out and smell the night scented stock and agrees it is amazing.

You have to think carefully about what will grow this close to the beach. One of these days, I am going to make an educational blog page about the plants that I like best for beachy gardens.

Long Beach

We finished by doing a quick weeding of the little pop outs.

They never get supplemental water.

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21 March: sweet peas and daffodils

Posted in journal, tagged daffodils, Diane's garden, Hellebores, Ocean Park, Ocean Park Village Club on Mar 24, 2019| 11 Comments »

Thursday, 21 March 2019

Today, all of the photos but a few close ups of narcissi and of nursery plants are Allan’s.

At home, fortifications keep Skooter away from a birdhouse.

It has passed inspection and they’re remodeling inside.

Diane’s garden

I planted sweet peas along the picket fence, and we mulched with Harvest Supreme.

Last fall I cut back some annual sweet peas to the ground rather than pulling them. They’ve come back; I’m not sure what to make of this.

I hope the new sweet peas do as well as last year’s.

The raised bed in the back yard got some sparaxis, tigridia, and seeds of night scented stock.

The violas have reseeded into the gravel in front of the raised bed.

Allan saw my good friend Misty while I was still in the front garden.

That was our only job today. We had an appointment with our accountant way up in Surfside and so we made two nursery visits on the way.

The Basket Case Greenhouse

Roxanne has a broken ankle at a most unfortunate time of year, every gardener’s nightmare.

We discussed seeds and I bought some granular Mycorrhizae fungi for planting in my own garden. Just spelling that correctly made me realize I have been pronouncing it with an extra R. (It’s not micro.) The trick (per Gardeners’ World) is to rub it on the roots when planting, which is why I have been seeking the granular or powdered form.

I tend to have poor success with seeds. Roxanne will try to grow a few for me that I long for, among them Nicotiana sylvestris, Nicotiana ‘Only the Lonely’, and Eryngium giganteum.

Penny said hello with doggish vocalizations.

The Planter Box

I got some barley straw to fight off pond algae, and a proper leaf scooping net.

Lots of gorgeous spring bloomers are available right now.

Ocean Park

After our accounting session, we took a slight detour to admire the massive planting of daffodils along Bay Avenue, which runs west to east from the ocean to the bay. The planting runs almost a third of its length and was accomplished by the newly formed (last year) Ocean Park Village Club.

It is breathtaking.

Salt Hotel and Pub

In the evening, Allan attended a Salty Talk with dinner and a view of the Port of Ilwaco marina.

Smoked tuna melt

I stayed home because I had an overwhelming desire to watch more of Gardeners’ World 2013 on Inside Outside TV.

With rain due tomorrow, we intend to take a couple of days off and get back to sweet peas after the weekend.

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5 March: more wake up calls to gardens

Posted in journal, tagged big pop out, Diane's garden, Hellebores, Red Barn Arena on Mar 7, 2019| 5 Comments »

Tuesday, 5 March 2019

I persist in using my phone for photos instead of my crisper new (used) camera. This must change, soon. It all has to do with the lazy desire to blog from my comfy chair rather than my computer desk.

Before work:

I asked Allan to take some photos of his black hellebore. He took all of these in his garden:

We began the workday with our first call of the year to

The Red Barn.

I was pleased to see Cosmo the barn cat…

…and Junior the dog.

Next door at..

Diane’s garden

….we trimmed perennials in the garden beds and the raised box garden.

My good friend Misty woofed a greeting, and got a belly rub.

The raised septic bed:

Allan’s photo

Allan trimmed the Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ and more in the roadside garden:

Long Beach

We polished off two little jobs by trimming the Salvia ‘Hot Lips’ in Veterans Field…

Allan’s photo

…and then, in the big pop put, trimming lavender and the regrettably vigorous rugosa roses and some of the so-called dwarf pampas grass (now on the noxious weed list).

At home, the work list is getting streamlined. With rain mixed with…snow!…predicted, we may have a few days off, not least because my friend of 40 years is coming to the peninsula for three nights.

Work board tonight

I will be taking a break from working and blogging while she is here.

In garden show news, I discovered that a website called Tubi has the entire series of Glorious Gardens from Above AND that the DailyMotion website has a wealth of Love Your Garden shows that I haven’t seen. I’m thrilled to have more Love Your Garden to watch. So far, Love Your Garden has played without ads, but an episode of Monty Don’s Paradise Gardens had an ad every three minutes. It’s fair for a site to support itself with ads…but every three minutes makes my head spin.

Soon it will be daylight saving time, time to put my all-consuming British garden show addiction aside for gardening season. I have been greatly moved and inspired and given new energy by my hours of watching. I’m sure I will still be watching some (especially if BritBox has the new Gardeners’ World). But it is almost time to leave the comfy chair for the long days of spring and summer.

Yesterday evening, one of the glorious gardens that Christine Walkden took me to was Powis Castle, of great interest because of course I grow lots of Artemisia ‘Powis Castle’.

My year of plans for my garden are much smaller but are quite exciting to me.

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9 Nov: mulching week, last day

Posted in fall clean up, journal, tagged Diane's garden, fall clean up, The Red Barn on Nov 14, 2018| 8 Comments »

Friday, 9 November 2018

the very last of the eight yards of mulch

Allan filling buckets while I went to unload yesterday’s Shelburne garden debris from the trailer

mulch all gone!

We were able to fill almost the full array of buckets with the last of the mulch pile and spent the day doing the first complete end of season clean up at

Diane’s garden.

parked in the Red Barn pasture next door….with this many buckets. (Allan’s photo)

Holly got so excited she dragged the chair a little bit after getting petted.

Allan’s photo

Our first mission was the roadside garden, where I cleared while Allan brought mulch from the trailer in the pasture next door—a long haul that required using the wheelbarrow to transport the buckets. There is not enough room by the road to maneuver dumping a wheelbarrow full of loose mulch.

Just as I started, my friend Terran of BeeKissed Gardening pulled up in her distinctive honey-yellow truck (during a lull in traffic). I was pleased to see one of my three favourite chefs was spending the day with her, Chef Jason. And, of course, I was even more thrilled to see two of her dogs.

Allan’s photo

Terran is my top recommendation for gardening jobs.

I will apprise you when Chef Jason opens his new food truck in Astoria. That will get me across the bridge for sure.

roadside garden before (Allan’s photo)

I hated to cut down that sanguisorba, but I did, because it would have been silly and floppy on its own.

starting to pull the cosmos

Even though I had told Diane last week that we’d be at her garden early this week, I was glad we had waited till Friday. A frost had damaged the cosmos last night and so we were able to clear them all out instead of getting sentimental about them still looking ok.

The bad foliage of one of the leftover plants of the Agastache catastrophe was revealed.

It never had gotten better.

More Agastache thoughts: I was pressured, by the person who had sourced these plants, to see if they would just grow out of their disease. I left one here in the roadside bed, being an isolated garden, just to see. No, it did not grow out of it. I was also chastised at the time when I discarded all the other diseased plants that throwing them out was like “having a cat put down without knowing what was wrong with it”. The plant-sourcing person knew I had had to do that with my poor darling suffering best beloved Smoky, so that remark did not go over well with me. In fact, looking back now….. [Redacted…This is one of many times in the Agastache Castastrophe and later that I wrote about my full feelings about what happened and decided to delete it!]

I never did get the plants tested. During the peak of gardening season, I simply could not allow such ugly looking foliage to stay on view in public gardens. (Some of it was even worse, with black patches on each leaf.) Expert nursery friends assessed the plants as being bad and dangerous enough to other plants to require wheelie bin disposal. (“And then throw out your gloves”, said one, and “remove every fallen leaf!” said another, and a third said, after viewing the leaves, “Don’t get that plant anywhere near me!”.) Another gardener had the best advice, to just move on and not spend any more time than necessary fixing the painful problem, which was a personal as well as a monetary loss.

Yet agastache remains one of my favourite perennials, so I will try again next year. I have read that the Kudos series is highly resistant to disease, and all of those that I used this year have done beautifully. The catastrophic ones were Acapulco Salmon and Pink, Cotton Candy, Estella Indigo, Golden Jubilee, and Sangria….some of my very favourites, unfortunately. Only one batch of the above cultivars was bad; the ones I had gotten earlier in the year were pristine.

Today ended the bad episode, with the very last of the bad agastaches going into the wheelie bin. The bigger showy ones often behave as annuals around here anyway, not coming through the winter. I am glad to be at the other end of the saddest plant experience of my life!

starting to apply soil after clearing and clipping

A little bed by the front porch deck is one we have neglected. I am hoping we can finally improve it next year. It is full of valerian, which is just fine, but also has an awful lot of creeping buttercup and terrible soil. We ran out of mulch for it. Allan got the plants cut back.

before

after, ready for some bagged mulch later on

The equipment shown in the photo is part of the septic system and includes the septic alarm box that sounds if something goes wrong.

We turned our attention to the raised box garden in the back yard.

before

during

after

after mulching (Allan’s photos)

The center had been mostly cosmos, and three of the Agastache ‘Salmon and Pink’ that I do not trust, whose leaves still looked suspect, so we treated them as annuals also and discarded them (no composting for them!).

We finished up the mulching of the roadside garden with four bags of a product that Diane had bought for it during the summer.

I am glad it was brown and not red bark!

not a big fan of bark, me…

Allan found a frog living behind the bark bags, along with a worm and a slug.

With the bark spread, it did look sort of reddish…

Allan’s photo

Most people see this garden at 20 miles per hour.

after

Almost all of Diane’s summer garden got loaded into our trailer to go home to our compost bins:

One more wheelbarrow load was added after this.

Diane’s garden now gets erased from the fall clean up list, and added to a new list on the workboard called “Post frost check-up”, which will be the final clean up of annuals either after a hard frost or in mid December, whichever comes first.

Helichrysum ‘Limelight’ climbing into a barberry, according to plan.

The Red Barn

We had an hour before dark to weed the narrow bed at the Red Barn. It is not quite ready yet to erase from the fall clean up list.

Lots of sorrel weed appeared after we pulled the old California poppy foliage.

not quite done….but running out of daylight.

I don’t like using horse manure; it is too weedy. However, I’ve decided we will add some to this gravelly garden bed when we return to finish the clean up job. It needs something, and the Red Barn has a great big pile of horse manure always at the ready.

sunset over the Red Barn

At home, we unloaded the compressed trailer load of debris onto a tarp till I have time to enter it into the compost bin three. Mulch week is over, with eight yards of soil moved in about 20 hours of very hard work. The last two days, I was running on Doans Back Pills. Yesterday, I frequently had to stand with my back against a wall to just straighten up. The wall at the post office was especially good because it was warm from the sun. I heard some pained noises from Allan, too, as the week wore on.

I hope to revive by staycation time and order eight yards of mulch for my own garden.

We now are entering serious fall clean up mode and hope to plug on through it without a day off until it is done or until rain comes, whichever is first. Then: staycation preview till the first hard frost.

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10 October: to and from KBC

Posted in fall clean up, journal, tagged Diane's garden, fall clean up, Lonicera 'Baggeson's Gold' on Oct 16, 2018| 12 Comments »

Wednesday, 10 October 2018

The Depot Restaurant

Lonicera ‘Baggeson’s Gold’, Geranium ‘Rozanne’, pink gaura (Allan’s photo)

We did nought at the Depot but a light deadheading and window box watering.

Diane’s Garden

The weather for the first part of the work day was almost uncomfortably warm.

I pulled over half of the tired sweet peas off of the roadside picket fence.

The big trucks passing by were extra scary to me today because I do want to live long enough to finish reading my Marion Cran books.

In the back garden, I used to plant Helichrysum ‘Limelight’ to scramble through the barberry. The shrub has gotten so big in its barrel that this year I planted Limelight in front in a separate pot.

Diane likes these two plants together.

That barberry predates my time on this job.

For the record, acidanthera is blooming.

Allan deadheaded the raised box garden and counted over 1200 deadheads along the way.

so many cosmos deadheads!

In my own garden, I have quit deadheading the cosmos weeks ago.

Holly watched Allan at work.

Allan’s photo

The Red Barn

I was relieved to see (and pet) Cosmo the barn cat.

inside the dark barn

garden view from the barn

The Planter Box

We stopped in to purchase some more potting soil and some bulb food. The pumpkins have arrived!

Klipsan Beach Cottages

We did a couple of hours of serious fall clean up. After maybe two more sessions, we will have the garden all cut back and plants somewhat labeled for the new owners and new manager. It feels odd to know this year is our last fall clean up here.

looking in the east gate

inside the fenced garden

Next time, we will dig up some lilies for Mary and Denny to take to their new home. Many of the lilies came out of my mother’s garden when we sold her house in 2010.

the birdbath view

sit spot under the tetrapanax

autumnal blueberries

by the greenhouse

Tiger Eye sumac

cobwebs by the basement entry

my good friend Bella in the basement

I will miss Bella, and the sister cats Timmie and Sarah, and Mary and Denny, much more than I will miss the garden. Fortunately, it looks as if they might be living just half an hour from Ilwaco, only ten minutes further (in another direction) than they are now.

At home, I unloaded three wheelbarrows of compost debris from our trailer—but first, I shared a snack of cheese with a friend.

Rudder

Later, Rudder hoped Allan might also have some cheese.

Along with dinner and our far from highbrow Wednesday shows (Survivor, Modern Family), I almost finished Marion Cran’s Gardens of Character. I was just too tired to make it through the last three chapters.

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3 October: work and a visit

Posted in fall clean up, journal, private gardens, public gardens, tagged cosmos, Depot Restaurant, Diane's garden, fall clean up, Shelburne Hotel on Oct 11, 2018| 8 Comments »

Wednesday, 3 October 2018

One of my Eryngium giganteum (Miss Willmott’s Ghost) is going to bloom. I wish it would have waited till next year.

Miss Willmott jumping the gun

The very big spider had a meal.

I had organized the day around being home to meet some out of town blog readers who were passing through in the afternoon.

Long Beach

We worked some more on straggly Geranium ‘Rozanne’ and other tired plants in the planters.

police station planter

Police Station last week

today

I hope I will be able to get my mitts on the six planters that remain hanging about town, two of them here on the police station, for my compost.

cosmos by the stoplight

santolina ready to be clipped…not today

The planter with wire vine (below) needs to be completely dug out. I might not have enough mulch left in my Soil Energy pile to fill it back up again. This time, ALL the soil must go. Two years ago, we thought we could sift the roots out. Nope.

Muehlenbeckia axillaris up in everthing

When I planted it, I thought it was a cute little house plant that would last one summer.

This is what it wants to do:

before, three years ago: a great splodge of Muehlenbeckia axillaris (wire vine)

Cosmos ‘Cupcake’ in Lewis and Clark Square

Pacific Tree Frog in Lewis and Clark Square planter

Some planters in sheltered spots still have excellent looking Geranium ‘Rozanne’

my favourite planter by Dennis Company

windier planter by Dennis Co parking lot, before

On the way through town to our next job, The Red Barn, we saw one of the Red Barn horses and rider and good dog heading for the beach.

Allan’s photo

Soon Amy and a friend from The Red Barn rode by.

Allan’s photo

We pretty much skipped the Red Barn garden today; rain had taken care of everything.

At the Red Barn

Still no Cosmo the barn cat to be seen on our short garden check up….

Diane’s garden

In Diane’s garden, we managed to get the deadheading done in 45 minutes.

roadside garden, a nerve-wracking deadheading job

a peaceful moment

Allan deadheaded the raised box garden.

The nasturtium is pale yellow ‘Moonlight’, because Diane likes soft colours.

Allan’s photo

at home

We got home in time to offload the compost debris and then to spend some time with Debbie and Alan, who stopped by on their way to Cannon Beach. Debbie and her sister Dawn read this blog daily, and are good commenters, which all bloggers much appreciate.

me and Debbie and a bouquet for their room in Cannon Beach

garden touring

We learned that before his career as a scientist, Alan had been a guitarist in a series of Northwest rock bands.

I found online an old photo of a band that predated one called Shiloh.

Debbie and Alan brought us a little birdbath for which Debbie had sought a good home.

(right) at home for now in the cat garden, destined for the fire circle area

Allan’s photo

Dawn sent this beautiful plate, based on the book The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady, a book that I have and love.

The stanza around the edge is part of a long poem by Jean Ingelow.

An empty sky, a world of heather,
Purple of foxglove, yellow of broom;
We two among them wading together,
Shaking out honey, treading perfume.

Crowds of bees are giddy with clover,
Crowds of grasshoppers skip at our feet,
Crowds of larks at their matins hang over,
Thanking the Lord for a life so sweet.

Thank you!

I learned that Dawn was probably the mystery woman who had met our friend, gardener Prissy at The Waves in Cannon Beach after reading about her on this blog!

Alan and Debbie went on their way to a three day vacation. Allan and I got back to work.

We had considered returning to the boatyard. A chilly little wind had suddenly come up, and the shelter of the Shelburne Hotel seemed much more appealing.

The Depot Restaurant

I remembered that we needed to deadhead at the Depot (and water the window boxes).

north side of the dining deck

Coreopsis ‘Flower Tower’

in one of the window boxes

The Shelburne Hotel

Allan checked the pots on the second story decks.

the middle deck

We continued with some fall clean up cutting back and cosmos removal. I made the big decision to remove all but one of the sweet pea tangles.

sweet pea on its way out

Three clumps of peonies in the garden had been planted too deeply sometime in the past. Allan lifted them all and grouped them together.

Allan’s photo

just one left now

looking north

Have I ever mentioned that the front garden is on the east side? So it does not get all day sunshine.

looking south

I dote on this garden.

one more sweet pea clump that can stay for now (lower right)

A huge job awaits Allan this winter: pruning the wisteria. It is so overgrown you could hardly see the flowers. He will have to do the pruning because I get dizzy looking up; I will do the hauling to the trailer. Probably this will happen at the very beginning of next February, except for some clipping back this fall before we go on staycation.

The pub called to us, and so we had an early (for us) dinner at 7:15.

fish and chips

the view from our table

How about that, we had another very good day.

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27 Sept: doggy kitty day

Posted in fall clean up, journal, private gardens, public gardens, tagged Basket Case Greenhouse, dachshund puppies, Depot Restaurant garden, Diane's garden, kittens, Klipsan Beach Cottages, Ocean Park library, Ocean Park Meeting Tree on Oct 7, 2018| 7 Comments »

Thursday, 27 September 2018

We admired a sunflower cottage in Seaview on our way to work. This is a garden I toured a couple of years ago, but I cannot for the life of me dredge up that old post.

The Depot Restaurant

With no watering necessary thanks to rain, we just weeded and deadheaded. Chef Michael expressed his satisfaction with our rhododendron pruning job from last week.

Sanguisorba ‘Dali Marble’

I found a rock.

from Nevada!

A mole had made three hills back by the rhododendron. I snagged the nice sifted soil to even out a patch of lawn at home by the bogsy woods.

On our way to our next task, we had confirmation that the weather was much too hot.

Long Beach

We checked the welcome sign, deadheading the four agyranthemum, and I wondered why I continue to live in hope that these cosmos will flower this year. It is time for them to go, but not on such a miserably hot day.

We tidied the corner garden at Veterans Field. I want to make it shrubbier. More shrubby, less fussy. Cistus, maybe.

Diane’s garden

I got to pet my very good old friend Misty.

a patch of shade

Allan’s photo

Deadheading took an hour!

raised box garden

Allan’s photo

a mole in the raised bed?? (Allan’s photo)

Allan’s photo of a reseeded pansy in the gravel

roadside garden

We deadheaded the barrels next door at The Red Barn and once again did not see that darling orange barn cat, Cosmo. I think it has been three weeks now.

driving north

The Basket Case Greenhouse

We stopped in at The Basket Case for a browse and to say hello. The family cat had a litter of kittens 12 weeks ago. (Like me with a cat long ago, the humans had not known how early one must get a cat spayed.) The homes for these little darlings had fallen through. By the time you read this, they will be up for adoption at the South Pacific County Humane Society.

I was sorely tempted and probably was only saved by having had another vet bill for Skooter yesterday.

tiny mama kitty

kittens

Allan’s photo

I resisted. If I had been on staycation, I probably would have taken two.

Back in the greenhouses, I petted both Penny and Buddy.

Allan’s photo

My buddy, Buddy

Darrell (Allan’s photo)

Darrell and Roxanne (and some Geranium ‘Rozanne’ for the LB planter we re-did last week) (Allan’s photo)

tin goats

Ocean Park interlude

We had a gardening themed t shirt to drop off at our friend Terran’s house. She has just started her own gardening business, BeeKissed Gardening, and we recommend her highly.

Terran’s front door window (Allan’s photo)

Terran’s work trailer, on the same base as our trailer.

Because of the Timberland Library meeting last night, we wanted to take a look at the Meeting Tree by the Ocean Park branch.

Ocean Park Library

inside

The Meeting Tree goes back to when Ocean Park first came into being as a church camp.

a community meeting spot since 1883

Allan’s photo

This property south of the library is for sale. Last night at the meeting a woman said it used to belong to her family and she intends to buy it back, build her house at the other end and preserve this historic tree.

There I met a friendly dog named Daisy Duke.