8 June: blissful rain

Friday, 8 June 2018

at home

The rain started last night around midnight and kept on and on.

breakfast time and no room for my food

In the midmorning, I went out into it to fill from the rain barrels all my little buckets and (with some help from Allan) all the green jugs.  The barrels had been completely empty and by end of day they were full even after all the dipping out.  I found this little guy floating in one as it filled.  He must have been on the bottom—glad I rescued him in time.

I do so enjoy dipping cool water from a barrel.

Skooter observes

buckets and jugs

I walked around the garden to enjoy its happiness.

the new ladies in waiting

back garden, east bed

Eryngium ‘Jade Frost’

more east bed

Mom’s copper rose

a new lily

Stipa gigantea and Rosa moyesii

cutleaf elderberry, Fuchsia magellanica, Rose ‘Radway Sunrise’

rain gauge as of half past noon

a bogsy wood clearing that needs clipping before it disappears

bogsy wood path that need weeding or mowing

The garden that was battered after last week’s weeding is all fresh again.

unweeded west side border

The white rambling rose below was grown from a cutting from Maxine’s garden…just laid into the soil in autumn till it sprouted…and then from another cutting when we moved from our old garden to here.

In the garden boat, snails ate my smaller cosmos.  And they keep attacking the dahlias so I have these thingies over some of the dahlias so I can put the bad slug bait inside without the cats stepping in it.

Rose ‘Paul’s Himalayan Musk’

from outside the garden

If I were walking by and looked down the Nora House driveway, I would be intrigued and excited.

Frosty watches me reenter the house.

Now for a reading and Gardeners’ World day.

while trying to read

I finished the book I’d been reading all week at bedtime.

third in an excellent series

In the book, Marie has a health scare.  I am sure most people who have had something that might be, or is, cancer, can identify with this:

I love Marie!  I read on anxiously to find out how she fared.  I was worried about a friend with a similar problem—that turned out to be a hernia, for which we were all oddly grateful.

Marie’s intake for an MRI amused me…

And I enjoyed her enjoyment of the MRI, since I found it most interesting and peculiarly pleasant when I had mine.

This is a rare occurence:

Marie, in her mid 60s,  writes, “I think of…

I think of my grandmother every day also, and am surrounded by her things (furniture, dishes, pictures).

Gene is her grandson, and Jack her son, in this passage that expresses how I feel about my house.

Marie joins Facebook in this group, and I must admit I share her cynicism about happy-all-the-time memes.

I can’t recommend these books highly enough.  As I write this, I have finished the fourth one and I hope there will be a fifth one.

I went on to have a wonderful time watching three episodes of Gardeners’ World.

I happened on an old one that was labeled 2017 but must have been from before Monty Don hosted the show from his own garden, and therefore must have been before he had a stroke and took a few years off from the show.  The setting was different.

My notes:

Rose ‘Souvenir du Dr. Jaimon’ likes some shade.

Stipa gigantea’s common name is ‘Golden Oats’.

Monty says, “You don’t get as many seeds to the packet as you used to.  But maybe that’s a truism about life.”

Thinning carrots attracts carrot fly.

In the evening, Allan and I agreed that we both would rather stay home than go to the Pride parade tomorrow, as we both feel we have so much to do here.  However, we WILL go…unless, as some forecasts predict, it is pouring rain and windy.

By the end of the day, we had had a wonderful 1.08 inches of rain, which will enable us to take Monday off instead of watering planters. Thanks to our having watered planters yesterday, the soil will stay damp even in the thickest of plantings.  The water barrels all were full again.

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16 March: mulching day

Friday, 16 March 2018

On the way out of Ilwaco, we dropped off and picked up books at the library.  Now I have an even bigger pile of books to read, which is problematical at this time of year.

Ilwaco Community Building

Community building garden with Ocean Beach Hospital and a salal I want to get rid of this year.

Supposing we do manage to dig out that tatty salal, what should we put in that triangular corner instead?  I am thinking.  The sidewalk is narrow and peculiarly designed there.

We began with a quick visit to the Basket Case Greenhouse, to give Roxanne some seeds to try growing for me.  If she succeeds, she will have some Eryngium giganteum ‘Miss Wilmott’s Ghost’ for sale eventually!

Two seedy characters (Roxanne and me)

Right now, the Basket Case has the excellent Eryngium ‘Jade Frost’.

The leaves of Eryngium ‘Jade Frost’ eventually revert to green. So it’s worth refreshing with a new plant every couple of years.

Peninsula Landscape Supply

Our first work destination was the acquisition of some Soil Energy mulch.

When we drove in, I had a brief wave of anxiety because the bins looked empty and I had not called to confirm that Soil Energy was in stock.

When we pulled up closer, I was relieved to see enough for us.

The fish of Peninsula Landscape Supply

The Depot Restaurant…

…was our mulching destination.

Before: I wanted to improve this tight and rooty bed and to plant a start of Tetrapanax.  Chef Michael wants tall things in here.  I tried to transplant a start of Tetrapanax last year to no avail.

Allan’s photo, south side of dining deck

after

We used the remainder of the mulch on the north side of the dining deck.

filling in along the edge

Allan’s photo

We were making good time, so we went to the city works yard in…

Long Beach

….and filled all our buckets from the city pile of Soil Energy, enough to mulch the arc garden at the Veterans Field flag pavilion.

Driving to city works, I had seen two sets of narcissi that needed deadheading, the first by the Coastal Inn and Suites.  We took care of that and noticed that the inn now has a tulip bed.

Very nice; we hope the deer don’t eat them.

Allan’s photo

Next, we deadheaded the tree garden in front of Abbracci Coffee Bar.

Allan’s photo

Feeling weary after the usual night of semi-insomnia (and dreams when asleep about the film Ethel and Ernest, now one of my favourite films of all time), I had a craving for coffee and a Pink Poppy Bakery treat.  Just as we finished deadheading, the closed sign went up in the door of the coffee bar.  Dang it! It was already three thirty.

I guess it was just as well, because it gave us time to get more done; we went through the Great Escape Coffee Drive Through instead.

The Shelburne Hotel

Our visit to the Shelburne garden was a quick one, just long enough to plant some Eryngium and Dierama seedlings and a bit of variegated saxifrage.

The epimedium whose leaves (some of them) I cut back in the rain a couple of weeks ago is blooming.  The flowers would not show if the leaves were all still there.

Remember the hellebore whose flower got broken off to many cries of woe (and blame)?  It made a new flower.

Allan’s vindicating photo

I made a fun photo of the Shelburne with the Popsicolor app last night:

Popsicolor: Double Mint, Natural Focus, Top to Bottom Gradient, Inked: India Ink, Enhanced

Ilwaco boatyard garden

We tackled the last of the targeted (by us) clumps of the Pennisetum macrourum, where we had run out of time yesterday.

Allan’s photo, before…the horror

I went over the last area he had dug and picked over yesterday, and had not had time to finish.  There were so many deep roots, I despaired of winning.  But humans WILL WIN this battle.

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo: But what lurks beneath?

Yesterday:

looking north (the steam is from a boat engine that just got put in the water)

Today:

We had a look in the boatyard:

Right above the High Hope, to the left of the Starwest, is the spruce tree in the lower part of our old garden.

At home, Allan decided he had time to mow our lawn, and I unloaded and piled roots of the pennisetum for future wheelie bin disposal (it’s full now) until I ran out of steam, and then erased “mulch Depot” from the work board.

Skooter was sleeping on my go bag again.

Tomorrow, Saturday the 17th, is my birthday—not a big important one, just age 63, but worth a day off and (I hope) some garden accomplishments at home.

 

 

 

 

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29 June: the longest day

Thursday, 29 June 2017

Our plan to finish the port on Friday suddenly got changed when I saw an ad in the paper last night that Ilwaco Freedom Market was holding a BBQ in their parking lot on Friday.  Their strip of bark/would-be garden would have to be done Thursday, along with the curbside garden in front of their store.  I wondered if this would change up our schedule so much that we’d have to work on Saturday…

Port of Ilwaco

In this infrequently watered garden, the recent hot day and the wind had crisped up some of the dog daisies.

before

after

Some daisies were good enough to stay through the holiday weekend.

The curbside garden got a good watering, as did the garden next door at Salt.

Eryngium ‘Sapphire Blue’

Allan had the terribly boring part of the job (his photos follow): Running the string trimmer along the sidewalk to the marina:

and the tedium of weeds in a barkscape with tatty landscape fabric (which we are slowly removing; obviously it does not prevent weeds).

I hope that we can create more joy in this bed by next year.

On the way out of town, even though we were feeling time pressure, we circled round the block to deal with this in a tree garden (Allan’s photos):

Fortunately, the sign-putter did not get mad about being told it just could not be in the tree bed, no matter how gently placed.

It’s not even a great patch of garden….However, the sign sets a bad precedent for future damage.

Long Beach

We checked on and did not feel the need for any work at the welcome sign.

The Fun Rides have now moved into a parking lot area near the center parking lot berm.  We felt the need to at least string trim said berm.  Allan dropped me off at Veterans Field to weed and took time for a bit of strimming there.

Before: a rough edge had been left.

after

meadowy look around the anchor

flag pavilion garden: am thrilled Salvia patens came back

Salvia ‘Hot Lips’ and Salvia patens

Eryngium ‘Sapphire Blue’

I think Sapphire Blue reseeded itself into plain old eryngium, left  ??maybe

Meanwhile, Allan faced the tedium of the boring and never watered center berm:

a string trimmer job, with some dandelion pulling

He found a dirty diaper as well as weeds. Unfortunately, used diapers are not an unusual find in the parking lot area.

I started the watering round earlier than Allan did so was able to do four blocks of planters to his two.  My walkaround:

I realized that the theme of most of my planters IS the meadow look.

cosmos and California poppies

Today, I had the hard task of carrying bucket water to the four Fish Alley planters…a long walk to the back end. I sometimes think this is the hill I will die on.

It was windy…again.

Basket Case basket

I am very disappointed in the Salvia viridis, painted sage, this year.  They are supposed to look like this:

pink dahlia, pink painted sage

But this year and last year they have been disappointing.  Everywhere I’ve planted them this year, they are just putting out one small disappointing bract on the top:

The bract (colored leaf) is the showy part and should be all down the stem! Why is this happening?

 

If these plants don’t shape up, I am going to go off them and not use them next year.  For so many years they have been the most asked about plant (many times per each summer watering session) in the planters.  Last year, when they were also dull, no one asked about them at all.

Allan’s watering walk around:

????? What have we here?

nice round lavender

a crab shell deposited in a planter

Cosmos and California poppies

So he saw this woman with a hat clearly decorated with planter flowers (Cosmos and Geranium ‘Rozanne’ and California poppy).  She told him her two year old had picked them, and she was perfectly happy to have her photo taken.

In other unrelated news, a local realtor told Allan that she had seen a woman picking a bouquet from under the trees.  When the realtor suggested the woman not do that, the woman (not the woman in the hat) kept picking, saying she “had permission”, which the realtor doubted.  Allan assured her that permission had not been given by us.

In better news, he saw someone taking photos of the flowers, as it should be.

We finished Long Beach by weeding in Fifth Street Park.  It is taking a long time to get interesting.

slow to be colorful; we are not allowed to let much of the garden be taller than the fence.

I cut off the spent stalks of Camassias.

Eryngium ‘Jade Frost’ and cerinthe (Allan’s photo)

Port of Ilwaco again

More watering of the Howerton curbside gardens was essential.  Allan started east of the Pavilion while I watered and weeded by the Nisbett Gallery, port office, Time Enough Books…

Coast Guard helicopter overhead (Allan’s photo)

Someone had braided a grass by Loading Dock Village. Allan thought a clever student from the driving school did it while waiting.  (Allan’s photo)

Eryngium and santolina (Allan’s photo)

Eryngium and yarrow (Allan’s photo)

Port office south side…which the office staff waters.

the marina

In the curbside gardens, I have found eremerus (foxtail lily) to be a big disappointment.  They just mostly dry up like this one:

in the center, all dried up and no flower

And only one looks like it should, so I may have to give up on planting them:

beautiful tall spikes of the one happy Eremurus

port office curbside

Artist Don Nisbett told me he’d given this little bed 11 gallons of water on the recent 90 degree day.  Thank you, friend!

I spent a lot of time grooming the dead flowers off of the sea thrift.

example: before

after

Allan caught up to me and dropped off the trailer at the boatyard, went home and hooked up the water trailer, and came back to help me finish watering at Time Enough.

veronica at Time Enough

Time Enough garden boat

Purly Shell yarn shop shares the Time Enough building.

I felt a strong desire to have a nice dinner at Salt Pub.  Not tonight.

Allan still had to water the Ilwaco trees and planters.  At 7:30, he dropped me off at the boatyard to weed.

I walked down to the north end to begin.  There, the weeds were the worst with lots of tall velvet grass.

taken while Allan watered planters at the boatyard intersection

a trio on a walk (Allan’s photo shows two out of three dogs)

8:15 PM

I was thrilled to find some sweet peas, planted from seed, prevailing against the horsetail.

tree garden watering where the sign had been (Allan’s photo). I do not like that wild sweet pea in there. He does.

 

boatyard: I had got this far by 8:50 PM.

I was getting close to the stretch that had been partly weeded earlier this week.

I have planted a few lilies in the boatyard to test if deer will eat them. I think a human picked some of the flowers off this one.

I love heleniums.

8:55 PM

I started to wonder when Allan would show up, as the song lyrics “Gettin’ dark, too dark to see…” ran through my mind.  I pictured slowly pushing my wheelbarrow home in the dark.  The odd thing was I still had loads of energy and could have weeded for another two hours (by headlamp?), thanks in part to my Unloader knee brace.

At last Allan drove up to the trailer at the other end of the boatyard.

what I got done

The whole stretch has to be weeded reasonably well by Saturday.

It was 9:30 at home before the trailer was unhitched and parked.  Allan saw this disturbing sight on the roof next door:

Not good news. Raccoons severely damaged the shake roof on my old house…

They are bold and unafraid.

I didn’t know I still had it in me to do a ten hour day and was well chuffed.

 

 

 

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8 July: chicken interlude

Wednesday, 8 July 2015

Ilwaco

Ilwaco post office garden, on our way to work.

Our volunteer garden at the post office is still a bit gappy in the front where it got fallen upon.  Plus I want to pull that red poppy in the front corner, as it looks rather sad and tippy, but someone said she wants to collect seeds…

The leaning tower of lily is blooming.

Allan’s photo

post office cosmos

It’s all quite satisfactory except for the languishing sweet peas along the fence.

We saw this pedestrian on the way to put a cheque in the bank.

Golden Sands Assisted Living

Our garden in the courtyard at Golden Sands is showing more flower colour every week.

Golden Sands: in the courtyard, four quadrants of flowers with an oval concrete path

NW quadrant

NE quadrant

My mom did not like white flowers, so I did not have those daisies outside her window when she lived there.

SE quadrant

SW quadrant

orange lilies and Eryngium ‘Jade Frost’

Nicotiana langsdorfii (left), pink Agastache (lower center)

finally a really good clump of dahlias

and another dahlia

This is the first year that we seem to have the snails knocked back enough, with weekly applications of Sluggo, to successfully grow some dahlias at Golden Sands.

pink annual bachelor button

“black” bachelor buttons

daisies and sanguisorba

white astilbe

pink astilbe

The Geranium ‘Rozanne’ river is paltry compared to mine…but at least it is flowering this year, thanks to the sprinklers working.

One task we do here is to use the hose to water the hydrangeas (outside of the sprinkler range) and fill the three birdbaths.

Klipsan Beach Cottages

our KBC gardens: the pond garden is the green circle at the V of two gravel roads

the pond garden at KBC, our favourite job

refreshing pond, beloved of birds

across the driveway from the pond

clam cleaning shed and picnic area, with cottages on the ridge

hydrangea in the woodland swale

Mary’s philadelphus was in bloom.

Mary was thrilled at the fragrance.

more hydrangeas

inside the fenced garden

agapanthus

dierama

clematis

rose

bench

My big idea: This fall, take out the Helianthus ‘Lemon Queen’ behind that bench so we can move the bench back, so the Tetrapanax ‘Steroidal Giant’ will hang over one side of it, and there will be a better view of the ‘Polka’ rose that has gotten lost back in there, and there will be room for a table.

outside the deer fence

the lawn bed

We skipped Marilyn’s this week, as it is way up north and her daughter Nancy is doing a great job keeping it watered.  We drove south again, past Andersen’s RV Park, still not knowing for sure that it had sold for sure, to The Anchorage.

Anchorage Cottages

Innkeeper’s assistant, Mitzu

sweet peas in the office courtyard

sweet peas

the office

annual lobelia matching the sign. (I’ll claim it was planned that way.)

trilllum seeds ripening; sent this photo to Todd a week later to remind him to collect them, and he had already been.

On the way home, we stopped to get another garden tour poster from Garden Tour Nancy.

Nancy’s garden

Nancy’s beloved flock of chickens have scratched up her perennial flower border.  She has a fencing plan for that next year.  Meanwhile, the soil has been well aerated and the weeds chicken-controlled.

Nancy’s chickens scritchy scratching around the garlic beds

The fenced veg patch is chicken-proof…

Nancy’s purple flowered and podded edible pea.

(She gave me some seeds of that pea, and I am growing it, although not as well, but I have forgotten the name.)

The hens WANT to get into the veg garden.

 

They are friendly and interested in having their photos taken.

Nancy showed me the plants she had gotten at Dancing Oaks, including this rhododendron….

and this sarracenia, which made me mad with envy.

On the way home, we photographed this classic yellow on yellow garden in Long Beach.

yellow glads

Ilwaco again

I watered by Salt Hotel and the two gardens west of there and gave Salt owner Laila a garden tour poster for their window.  Allan filled buckets for the east end garden, the one no hose can reach.

Allan’s photo: filling buckets at the community building. (The boatyard water was turned off.)

in the easternmost bed on Howerton Avenue (Allan’s photo while bucket watering)

Then, home.

Melianthis major in the front garden (with lilies)

elephant garlic (and more lilies)

in the back garden: passion flower (Allan’s photo)

I found a gift bag hanging on our door…

a present from our friend Queen La De Da (Jenna) who had just returned from a visit to her home town.

It pleases me to have “Texas pecan” flavoured coffee (even though I think Texan right wing politics are nuts!) because one of my favourite cozy mystery series, by Susan Wittig Albert, is set in the fictional Texas town of Pecan Springs.  Thanks, Jenna!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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27 June: HPSO Study Weekend—Wright garden

Saturday, 27 June 2015

Hardy Plant Society Study Weekend, Portland 2015

Wright garden

from across the street

Allan’s photo

The garden provides privacy from a busy street and a bar and other businesses.

in the curbside garden

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Every time I go garden touring in Portland, I remember that of all my Eryngiums, I still do not have giganteum.

By the time I remember, it’s always gone from the nurseries I visit.

(If anyone wants to send me seeds, my address is Tangly Cottage, PO Box 278. Ilwaco, Wa 98624 😉  )

curbside garden

Eryngium ‘Jade Frost’

I think Todd told me what this is, but I have already forgotten.

plant appreciation

between sidewalk and house foundation

at the garden entry

Allan’s photo

arching fronds over the entry way

Allan’s photo

entering the garden (Allan’s photo)

(Allan’s photo)

Allan’s photo

into the garden

by the back deck

Allan’s photo

A roughly circular path guides people around the garden.

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

at the back of the garden

 

to my left: the center bed

further along

To my right, I spy a little work area tucked in, always of interest.

the corner with the pagoda

hosta in the shade

looking back from the pagoda

by the pagoda, against the fence, just the kind of bamboo that I want…

with fabulous stripes…

that seem to alternate with each section.

densely planted

overhead

another shady corner

another perfect hosta

coming up the other side of the path

Allan’s photo

on the back deck

looking out into the garden from the deck

I decide to take another stroll around the garden.

Allan went up onto the front porch that overlooks the street.

Allan’s photo

outside:  city streets

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

back to the sidewalk garden

another eryngium

by the stairs

looking back from the corner

used to have this alstroemeria, saw it at Xera yesterday, did not buy it, wish I had…

I could happily have gone all around this garden again, but we had three more gardens to see and time was ticking away.  Next:  We revisit the JJ De Sousa garden, which we also saw during last year’s Garden Bloggers Fling.

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24 June: the shortest workweek (almost) concludes

We want to double our thanks to Salt Hotel which is now letting us water TWO curbside gardens that do not front their own business, so here is a special promotion for them; it would be awesome if more of you local people “bought a square” to help them along in their mission:

Here is a link to their fundraising community loan and we hope you will participate because I can tell you from our experience that these are good, community minded, generous and caring people:

The Salt Community Sourced Capital Campaign

I am going to buy TWO squares to support Salt right now.

Five minutes later:

Now back to our orderly narrative:

Wednesday, 24 June 2015

Because we leave tomorrow for Portland for the Hardy Plant weekend, and had to take Monday off to be at home for a plumber, we crammed a lot of work into two days.

As we left this morning, a sprinkle of rain was falling.

just some drops

California poppies at the Ilwaco post office

The Depot Restaurant

just a little light weeding and watering today…

north side of deck

colouring up at last with some blooming cosmos

Weirdly, there are some cosmos that look like ‘Seashells’.  I was unable to find any ‘Seashells’ to buy this year.  Perhaps they reseeded from last year.  Also, they don’t look quite whole.

a funny looking seashells, maybe

just a bit off

east wall with Lonicera ‘Baggeson’s Gold’

Nicotiana langsdorfii and Eryngium ‘Sapphire Blue’

front corner with plantings by Nancy of The Basket Case

Just to the west, I saw a garden-y thing at the Sou’wester’s RV Park.  I did not have time to look closer so I just took a telephoto.

nice looking raised beds at the Sou’wester

TCH! TCH! stands for Trailer Classics Hodgepodge, a joke by the former owner about how some snobby people made a disapproving noise about trailer courts.

Long Beach

The welcome sign is suddenly floriferous enough to need deadheading.

back side

Allan found a June bug in the welcome sign planter.

June bug

I gently touched its back so Allan could hear the hissing noise it makes.

In town, we started our walk around to water the street trees (Allan) and planters (both of us, as there are more planters than there are trees).  We had tried a scary experiment of not watering them from Friday (last time we watered) to Wednesday.  I knew they would have to go from Wednesday to Monday between waterings while we are gone to Portland.  I did not want to be worrying while in Portland about whether or not they could make it.  We did check them yesterday to make sure they were not looking stressed.  Today: still no wilting, but I could tell they were thirsty indeed, and it took a long long time at each planter to get the water to soak in well.

It was worth it; I won’t be fearing disaster while I’m touring gardens on Sunday.

I weeded this little border at Fifth Street Park’s NW quadrant.

It is sort of a hodgepodge….

Allan headed north and I headed south.  If we water on the same side of the same block, we cut down on each other’s water supply.

Allan’s photo: Lysimachia punctata under one of the street trees

our watering bayonet (Allan’s photo)

Someone else sowed some tall poppies under the street tree by Long Beach tavern. (Allan’s photo)

The Basket Case baskets got many compliments and questions from passersby today.

Who makes them (Nancy Aust), who waters them (city crew), how often (every day), where can I get one (The Basket Case on Sandridge) best planters we’ve ever seen (agreed), etc!

By the smoke shop, Coreopsis ‘Star Cluster’ came back from last year.

Coreopsis ‘Star Cluster’

overhead

The wind was gentler today than that flag indicates, and not cold at all.

The nasturtiums in the planter by the Coastal Inn on 7th Street are getting nibbled by deer.

across the street from Coastal Inn

now heading back up the other side of the street from the smoke shop

outside Herb N Legend smoke shop

‘Copper Pot’ California poppy under a street tree; this is the tree where I am doing weekly battle with creeping sorrel.  I will prevail.

The only finger blight of the day was a bad one: an Eryngium pulled out of the big Lewis and Clark Square planter, roots and all.  Perhaps the thief was interrupted.

Finger Blight of the Day

The top was dry and wilted. I cut it off and put the root back in. I live in hope.

I weeded a bit over at Veterans Field.  The Friday farmers market will be here and I need the garden to look good.

The new bed looks dry, and yet the soil is moist, so it must be the wind giving it a slow start.

I’m glad the ‘White Linen’ California poppies are doing well.

Wind World Kites owner likes this planter to be full of Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’.

Cosmos ‘Sonata’

I rejoined Allan where he had been weeding in Fifth Street Park, since he got done watering sooner than me.  He pointed out this good clump of Eryngium ‘Jade Frost’ (which has half reverted to green, as is its wont).

Eryngium ‘Jade Frost’

Allan’s almost identical photo: sturdy and unstaked

Rose ‘Super Dorothy’ in Fifth Street Park

Allan weeded along there…before

after, a combo of weeding and string trimming gives quick results

Ilwaco boatyard garden

We finished a short day of a short workweek by watering the boatyard garden.

Allan’s photo: the watering obstacle course

Allan’s photo

Allan’s telephoto showing our work setting

looking south

Eschscholzia californica ‘Rosa Romantica’

a poppy close up

looking north

poppy shadows

We then drove to the community building and dumped the water from buckets and containers that we carry with us, onto that very needy garden.

community building reflected in next door hospital window

at home

At home by six, I ran through all five oscillating sprinkler areas in our garden, one by one, and set up some watering cans for J9 to water our greenhouse tomatoes, and packed, and felt like there was not enough time to go away because I’ll miss time in my own garden.

That wilty plant in the middle is a white sanguisorba.

It is so needy. I must transplant it this fall to a damper place. I said that last year.

one of the tall alliums

I remembered to load some buckets for burbling plant purchases at the hotel, so I don’t have to use their little trash can!

a burble bucket, a bucket to drain the plant into, and a dipper

a box to step on in case we go somewhere with Todd in his truck. I might find it quite tall.

Yes, Todd is going, too, and I hope to see some of the bloggers and some Seattle garden friends there.

Allan loading some water jugs, also for burbling. (I thought of it after we had dumped all our water out.)

Thursday, he has to finish the short workweek by watering the Ilwaco planters.  If he had done them today, I think they would have wilted by Monday.  And then we’re off, and I hope to return with lots of garden tour photos.  The temperature there is supposed to get to 103 F and Portland friends say “A hell front is approaching”; oh dear!

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4 April: parking lot garden, day one

Before we begin, let me remind you of an event happening on Saturday April 11, of particular interest to vegetable gardeners:

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Saturday, 4 April 2015

We had a plan to start weeding the so-called berms—the parking lot gardens in Long Beach.  Several other things had to come first, most especially a trip to ….

The Basket Case Greenhouse

….as they had just gotten in their first big perennial order of the season from Blooming Nursery.  Let me recommend a few of the most awesome plants now available (although since I am publishing six days late, some might be sold out, especially if I have gotten back there again!)

Eryngium ‘Jade Frost’; the foliage tends to revert to green so I plant it anew every year. The flowers are gorgeous whatever the foliage colour is.

Eryngium ‘Jade Frost’ in early summer

Eryngium ‘Jade Frost’ after it has coloured up into blue

Erysimum, three kinds. This is ‘Apricot Twist’. In front is ‘Winter Orchid’ which is stunning right now in my garden from one I planted last year.

On the east wall of the Red Barn last year: Erysimum ‘Winter Orchid’

I bought two of the golden “Lemon Fizz’ santolina after taking this photo. A great perennial for the beach.

two kinds of pineapple sage: to the right is “Golden Delicious’

My good friends Shadow and Walter

Allan’s photo: Shadow

Allan’s photo: the greeters

Allan’s photo

There is also a good selection of assorted Agastaches (hyssops), one of my favourite perennials.

Agastache ‘Summer Glow’

an Agastache. I like spikes.

[Edited to add that by 7-9-15 I had bought all the Cotton Candy and Summer Glow Agastaches (hyssop) but some other colours remain.]

Enough rhapsodizing about Basket Case plants!  We next had a small planting mission at

The Anchorage Cottages

where I had recently noticed an empty-ish large planter.

Chamaecyparis trees by the road at The Anchorage

I bet those trees were chosen by Dan Hinkley, because his sister in law used to own the Anchorage, and he and his spouse, Robert Jones, designed and planted part or all of the Anchorage garden, or so I was told years ago.

This container with Tulip ‘Angelique’ got some ‘Bowles Black’ violas from the Basket Case.

And this big container got a pink Agastache ‘Cotton Candy’.

Camassia in the entry garden near the office

There were lots of little children running around, and I wondered if that explained the small tragedy by the center courtyard:

bearded iris broken before it could bloom

Allan’s photo

[Edited to add:  I later learned that a company, who shall be unnamed, who came to perform a task, dragged some of their gear through here and whacked off those irises.  The childrens’ reputation was redeemed.]

Leaving the Anchorage, we headed to Long Beach town…but when I checked my phone, I saw that I had a voicemail from Fred at The Basket Case.  I knew immediately what had happened…some plants had surely been left behind.  Remember that photo above of me with the greeting committee? When  Allan took it, he was standing right over the flat of plants in question, and that is all I will say about that.  So back we went…

Basket Case, again

I took a photo of the arbour of glorious pink Clematis montana…another plant that they carry for sale.

The plants that had been left behind had been placed on this ladder. (Allan’s photo)

Allan’s photo

This leaving behind sort of thing happens at least once a year, and it might be a good thing it happened on the first big day.  I am reminded to keep my mind sharp while I am there.

Long Beach

We began by planting in the Veterans Field garden three each of white Gauras ‘Whirling Butterflies’ and ‘So White’, another plant that is excellent and available at the Basket Case.  [Edited to add:  It was, till I bought them all, but surely Fred will order more.  Some of the pink foliage variety of Gaura is available at The Planter Box.] Two Phygelius ‘Cherry Red’ replaced the two tatty blue oat grasses that I hoiked out of the curved Vet field bed a few weeks ago.

Gaura last summer; Allan planted three in the new garden on the other side of Veterans Field and three more in the curved bed by the flag pavilion.

The weather had become so miserably cold, with a whipping icy wind, and the sky to the west was so dark that I said that, as soon as the plants were in, we would abort our work day and go home till dinnertime.

Allan’s photo of the flag pavilion…BRRRR!

While Allan did the planting, I walked over to deadhead some spent narcissi that I’d noticed in a planter on the main street and used the opportunity to check on the four barrels in Fish Alley.

I was glad I checked Fish Alley because I found a huge dandelion in one of the barrels.

and the center plants had died…

and some edge plants were gone and the soil was low.

I am quite sure that people help themselves to the “hens and chickens” that we have planted in these barrels. It would be thoughtful if they did not take them ALL!!!   We want to go as drought tolerant as possible here because we have to bucket water these barrels and it is a longish slog.

It is a long walk with two buckets of water to get to the westernmost barrels.

I deadheaded and weeded the planter by Campiche Gallery at the stoplight…

Tulip ‘Formosa’ in that planter…

And then walked back to join Allan.  Still thinking we would go home soon, I decided to pop a pink-leaved Gaura (from The Planter Box) into the planter across from the police station; one of two had died over the winter, and I like a matched set.  Some pleasant tourists were admiring and photographing all the tulips.

They especially liked these Tulip ‘Akebono’, and so do I.

We still thought the weather miserable enough to go home.  We had one indoor errand to run first.  Heather Ramsay of NIVA green had a book to lend to Allan:  River Horse by William Least Heat Moon.  I took the opportunity to top up my stash of photos for the NIVA green Facebook page.

NIVA green

a cool whirly light

beachy tea towels embroidered by local artisan Shellie Thomas

beach in a box

and a chance to buy a sympathy card for Susie and Bill, whose beloved cat Spanky had died a couple of days ago.

As we walked back to Veterans Field, we noticed that the wind had died down and the sky had turned blue to the west.  So we set up to weed the north parking lot garden, our main mission of the day.  The city crew and we call them “berms” even though, because they are level, they are not berms.  I will now regale you with our befores and afters.

before

before

after

before

after

Allan’s before

and after

I added some seeds of red poppies to the sunnier bare areas.

after

many buckets filled

We did not get the whole north berm done and hoped to have good enough weather to return on the next day.

After dumping our debris, we met Kathleen at the new Thai restaurant.  Dinner at 5:30 meant that we stopped work earlier than we might have otherwise.  The town was so full of tourists that we wanted to beat a potential dinner rush, and a rapidly dropping air temperature meant we were happy enough to quit early.

in the restaurant: Allan’s photo

The fresh rolls were crispy, tasty and beautiful.

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

a salmon salad delicate and light…

Allan’s photo

yellow curry for Allan

Pad Thai for Kathleen was not quite as al dente as we all prefer.

The food tasted just fine and yet it lacked the intense spice and the four flavours that I associate with Thai food.  In the words of wikipedia:  “Thai cooking places emphasis on lightly prepared dishes with strong aromatic components and a spicy edge. It is known for its complex interplay of at least three and up to four or five fundamental taste senses in each dish or the overall meal: sour, sweet, salty, bitter and spicy.”   The names of menu items at the new restaurant’s menu were mostly Americanized and we felt that the spiciness had been toned down to appeal to everyone.  For people who usually find Thai food too spicy, these preparations would be ideal.

Our discussion beyond Thai spices was of books, and Kathleen recommended several that are now on my to-read list:

Lies my Teacher Taught Me

Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919

The White Cascade

The Care and Management of Lies

The Language of Houses

My book list is laughably long.  I need more reading days.

Since The Care and Management of Lies is about WWI in the UK, I recommended the Regeneration trilogy by Pat Barker, and in fact Kathleen picked it up from me to borrow the very next day on her way back to her workaday world up north.

home

At home, I remembered to photograph my Akebia that is right by where we park, in full fragrant chocolatey bloom.

Akebia quinata

front garden path

Tulips and Anthriscus ‘Ravenswing’

I spent the evening blogging about my lovely reading yesterday, which I am so glad I took, as tomorrow we hope to finish weeding the “berms”.

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