Wednesday, 18 June 2014
It is worrisome to leave the Long Beach and especially the smaller Ilwaco planters unwatered from Thursday to next Tuesday, a day longer than I have ever left the Long Beach ones (without rain). My original plan had been to water them tomorrow and then leave for the Hardy Plant Study Weekend hotel. That sounded more exhausting the more I thought about it, so we did a thorough watering today. Allan showed one of the Ilwaco crew how to use the water trailer if the weather is hot. Fingers crossed! I think the Long Beach planters can hold up better.
First the compost bucket switch at Olde Towne Café and a new photo for the Facebook page to show the exterior with all of Luanne’s potted plants.
Olde Towne Café
with the garden tour poster in the front door window
As we were about to leave the Olde Towne and Ilwaco city hall parking lot, a powerful stench drew our attention, and there was the barnacle covered tsunami debris boat that had recently washed up on our beach.
It stank to high heaven!
We were told it was on its way to Peninsula Sanitation to be cleaned up and restored and will later be on display in Ocean Park.
We went to Diane’s garden to plant up the strawberry jar that we had forgotten:
with assorted hens and chicks and a diascia
And then over to Long Beach town to water and fertilize the planters. Rain, added to planters that had been well soaked, had saved us from watering them for over a week. Usually rain will not penetrate the foliage unless it happens at the perfect time, right after watering, as it did all last week.
There is a new shop in town, just opened, that looks intriguing.
Vintage Renew
I had time for a peek inside…
and a peek to the right of the door, and then had to get back to work without actually walking further in.
On to the planter watering. Allan walked the south blocks and I walked the north ones.
Lewis and Clark Square planter
Nigella in the big Lewis and Clark Square planter
and its intricate flower (reseeded from last year). Common name: Love in a Mist.
I photographed the planter, below, to show how boring it is. It’s one I have not added anything special to, and it has a dull spring blooming perennial around the lamp post. Of all the planters, this one gets vandalized the most. And yet, it does not look too bad in the photo. All it needs is to have that dull matt of early spring bloomer removed and replaced with something tough, perhaps lavender.
the planter by Scoopers
Some of the Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ that I cut back to prevent floppiness is making nice new growth.
I had been walking along thinking thoughts other than gardening, as I sometimes do, this time about the Facebook memes that are cropping up lately about not wanting any drama or negativity in one’s life. I pondered about the friends I have who are, a few of them, going through hard times. One has told me that when friends post the “stay away from other people’s drama”, her friendships with those people must remain on a superficial level, not a real heart to heart friendship. Life is drama, or “What is drama but life with the dull bits cut out?”. (Alfred Hitchcock) While it can be difficult helping friends who are suffering, especially about issues that we might feel (sometimes correctly) are so much less important than our own, just listening without being dismissive is the key. I deeply value my particularly close friends who WILL share with me their true selves, negativity, fears, and all. My thoughts ran: Friends, when something, even something that might be called trivial, is bothering you, you can tell me about it and I won’t roll my eyes about drama, and I will carry your secrets to the grave (how’s that for drama?). And then I found, blowing down the street, this note.
My heart ached for the writer of the note, and I would like to have had a nice long supportive talk with her. The last time someone pestered me about the way I look, I said something like “Don’t look at me, look at the beauty I create, just look at the planters, not me.” My thoughts digressed on how society’s emphasis on appearance has such an effect on self worth…and then a friend drove by and honked at me and (after my usual thought which is always “Don’t honk at me!” because it is so startling), I got back to just thinking about plants again.
Heart rocks last week, a poignant note this week…as surprising finds in Long Beach make the day more intriguing. (Recommended reading: The Obesity Myth by Paul Campos.
Reunited with Allan after all the main street planters were watered (glad that rain saved us from the much more difficult watering of the street trees), we groomed the Veterans Field garden and the Bolstadt beach approach.
The beach approach garden, narrow and several blocks long.
We have not weeded it at all this year. Parts of it look good at a glance, but really all of it is quite weedy.
clover entwining a rugosa rose
There is simply not enough time for all our jobs, and the beach approach, and having weekends off. It is not a skilled weeding job; a summer intern could do it.
The garden at Long Beach City Hall came next.
City Hall: Echinops ritro (blue globe thistle)
Echinops macro
Eryngium ‘Jade Frost’ at City Hall
In Fifth Street Park, we did the usual weeding.
The two year old E. ‘Jade Frost’ there is reverting to green, as it does.
I buy new ones every year because of its determination to revert.
I buy new ones every year because of its determination to revert. The flowers will soon turn deep blue.
The last task in Long Beach was the welcome sign. It plagues me this year. So much horsetail, and the Geranium ‘Rozanne’ is just sitting, not getting any bigger, despite fertilizing. Very frustrating indeed.
I suppose it looks moderately attractive.
But the blue from Rozanne is just not there yet.
Then: the Ilwaco planters. I walked the planter blocks, checking on them all, while Allan filled the water trailer and drove his watering route.
After a slow start, they are looking not too bad!
I may have gone “off” trailing rosemary though…too big and lopsided??
the non draining planter with mimulus thriving in boggy conditions
and its close-up
Mimulus: monkey flower
My route took me past the boatyard garden where I pulled only one bucket of horsetail and creeping sorrel and regretted the loss of the rest of the workweek.
boatyard garden with daisies and toadflax
reseeded candytuft
and its fancy flower
a new boat arrival
Around the corner and onto Howerton, I pulled a few weeds at the first curbside garden and saw that there is a new café in town!
Coastal Cones and Snacks
The fellow painting the building (very nicely, and it needed a paint job) said the snack shop will have seating, be open into the early evening, and have wraps at a good price. He asked about a certain plant in the garden that had caught his and his girlfriend’s eye:
Well, of course it had!
and another Eryngium ‘Sapphire Blue’, further down Howerton.
While Allan finished watering, I weeded many annoying little grasses out of the Time Enough Books garden and as I did so, flung rocks over to the river rock-scape on the other side of the sidewalk.
My goal is mulch instead of river rock; easier to weed, room for poppies.
How long will it take to fling all those rocks?
looking east over the port office gardens on Howerton
and the Port Office garden on the water side, overhung with hanging baskets
Agastache ‘Apricot Sunrise’
view to the west with the grass strimmed, must have been a hard job!
and to the east with the grass unstrimmed
And then, home to pack for the Hardy Plant Society Study Weekend. I am so tired I can barely think about what to take. Main things: camera, batteries, notebook for taking notes, pens, reading glasses…phone charger…
By the time you read this, because I am so far behind, we will have returned…if all goes well! My concerns regarding sleep deprivation and city traffic will have been countered by excellent garden tours (much blog fodder coming up!) and lectures.
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