2 August: Long Beach, Shelburne, Ilwaco

Thursday, 2 August 2018

before work…

Skooter followed me while I pulled up a piece of variegated iris for the Shelburne mini-bog garden.

I was thrilled to see my replacement rose, Ghislane de Feligonde, is blooming.

I love this rose and had quested hard for it when my previous one died.

Before leaving Ilwaco, we tidied up and weeded at the J’s across the street.

J’s, with one hydrangea behind the birdbath getting missed by the sprinkler:

Long Beach

Still no cosmos flowers at the welcome sign….

We split up to water the downtown Long Beach planters.

I found a painted rock, a rarity for me this year.

I pulled bindweed in a park

with a special rhododendron.

the meadow look

Cosmos ‘Cupcake Mix’

a nice batch of painted sage

Someone left a tip for cleaning up their ciggie butt.

But I usually just get butts (even though almost every planter has an ash tray receptacle next to it).

Some alliums have survived.

Allan’s photo

It was hard to squeeze through the crowds with hose and bucket. (Allan’s photo)

With only two planters left to water, a light rain appeared.  It has been so dry that the streets fogged up.

Allan’s photo

The rain did not last long enough to make any difference to plants.

one of the Basket Case Greenhouse baskets

We weeded and groomed in Veterans Field, which will see a crowd this weekend for the Jake the Alligatorman event.

Vet field Eryngium (Allan’s photo)

Vet field corner garden is even too messy for me. (Allan’s photo); it is not getting hit well by sprinkler water and it looks tired.

We tidied up this pocket park on our way to dump debris.

before

after: if only I had a silver santolina, because one has gone missing and its absence is notable.

We quickly tidied the Fifth Street Park gardens.

Allan’s photo

Shelburne Hotel

We watered, and I had to pull a lot of crocosmia and hops because it was getting rust and sooty mold, respectively.

To the right is the bad patch…too much shade, not enough air circulation

pulled out some crocosmia and trimmed out all the hops

I am going to transplant three small hydrangeas into that spot come fall (which will involve much digging to get rid of the hops and crocosmia).

It looks better without sooty hops leaves.

I pondered the views from the ramp to the back door of the restaurant dining room.

Joe Pye Weed

I so look forward to fall when I can do some extensive editing.

A frog has moved into the little bog garden.  Allan’s photos:

Ilwaco

Because of the Ilwaco art walk tomorrow night, when theoretically people will be strolling by the planters (although I think they mostly drive from downtown to the port), I walked the planter and street tree route checking on them all while Allan started his watering rounds.  I photographed every one except the two city hall planters that are not on my walking route; I don’t think I have done that before.

I don’t like the Art Walk signs to block part of my art, so I moved some of them to the back of the planter instead of in the middle.  Example, by the Sou’wester RV repair garage:

before

after

The worst planter for chickweed is the NW corner of the stoplight intersection.

before

after

another angle

by the former bingo hall; an old but still vigorous Erysimum ‘Bowles Mauve’ has moved itself sideways.

 

another angle (diascia in three colors)

around the corner on Spruce Street

That sign was a traffic sight blocker so I moved it down the block to…

planter by Queen La De Da’s

Queen La De Da’s

First Ave by Doupé Building (which has sold to someone who is going to fix it up wonderfully)

another angle

by the pharmacy

by empty lot before chickweed removal

and after

by empty lot, another angle

by empty lot, further south

by Driver Licensing

by Azure. The blue felicia daisy is in an off spell and maybe the trailing rosemary takes up too much room.

by antique shop

opposite corner

Those blue felicia daisies came through the winter.  They might have gotten too big!

Missing tree still not replaced and I do not care. I love this little patch of flowers.

by Col Pacific Motel

across the street, with gladiolus that someone stuck in

by Trav’s Place Café

by Wilcox and Fliegel oil company

First and Eagle. Old golden oregano needs to come out.

view of the Ilwaco boatyard

First and Eagle. This teucrium or whatever it is needs to go somewhere else. Too vigorous!

First and Eagle

First and Eagle

I then tidied the boatyard garden, especially the south end of it, and gave it a quick watering.

watering till dusk

Allan finished his watering rounds, and we went down to Howerton Avenue at the port and hand watered the several new Eryngium giganteum and Crambe maritima in the curbside gardens.

watering by streetlight (Allan’s photo)

A ten hour day—with the reward of three days off starting tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

Read Full Post »

10-11 August: 6 little dogs

Thursday, 10 August 201

Before we left for work, Devery brought us some of a big organic cabbage grown by a friend and told us that she had adopted a little Chihuahua pug dog, which I could meet at the end of the day.

our volunteer garden at the Ilwaco post office…needs more santolina in the front.  Next year!

Long Beach

We had had a trace of rain overnight, not enough to save us from the watering of the Long Beach planters.  Today, the job went faster because it wasn’t street tree watering day.

First we deadheaded at the welcome sign.  Allan ran the string trimmer around it.

Allan’s photo

front

I wish I had taken a photo before trimming the corner plant of Geranium ‘Orion’.  I want to show how much better Geranium ‘Rozanne’ is.

after trimming deadheads off of Orion

Rozanne does not need deadheading and does not have a plain green center to the plant.

Rozanne is bigger and bluer.

Rozanne, I let myself be tempted by someone else.  I wish I had nothing but you for the blue in the Long Beach welcome sign garden.  I regret that I strayed.

back of sign with Rozanne at the ends and Orion in the middle.

In the fall, Orion is coming out of that planter and will be replaced with all Rozanne.

We split up to water the downtown planters.  Allan went north and I went south.

One of my first planters was by the carousel.

The last two times I have watered the four planters within sound of the carousel, the music has been 80s—Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, You Spin Me Round (Dead or Alive), leading to almost painful nostalgia.  Today, the song was Karma Chameleon by Culture Club, reminding me intensely of the ten years that horror writer Wilum Pugmire lived in my attic.  We drifted apart after I moved (for a long time he did not even have email).  By leaving Seattle, I terribly disrupted his living situation (although it did turn out well in the end).

He adored Boy George and his attire evoked both Boy George and his other beloved icon, Barbra Streisand.

me and Wilum almost exactly thirty years ago (1987) and Wilum in his full regalia

Sometimes the memories evoked by the carousel music are almost too much for me.

Moving on to the next set of planters, I was immensely cheered by these four fierce chihuahas.

first three.

Then a fourth one appeared.

As I watered the nearby planter, I saw many passersby amused by this quartet.  (The day was cool, almost cold, and the window was cracked open.)

I started thinking happily about my new neighbour, Devery’s chi-pug dog, whom I would soon meet.  I suddenly realized that he was the very same dog, Roy, that I’d noticed in the local humane society’s availability update.  He had appealed to me because I so like the Basket Case Greenhouse chi-pug, Buddy.  And now Roy would be my dog-neighbour! (Devery is calling him “Royal”.)

I looked Roy’s picture up on the humane society Facebook page.

A little further on, I admired the latest tigridia blooms and noticed their crown-like center.

Today’s tigridia

At the south end of downtown, a sign amused me.  I’ve looked at it every week and never noticed the missing letter till now.

I admired the excellent window boxes at Dooger’s Restaurant:

from across the street

and closer

And also the window box at Lighthouse Realty.

Moving along…

Gladiolus papilio

the wildflower meadow look

Lily ‘Black Beauty’ in Fifth Street Park

Lilium ‘Black Beauty’; note the green furrows

Helenium ‘Sahin’s Early Flowerer’ and catmint

Photos from Allan’s watering walkabout:

traffic jam

Agastaches in Lewis and Clark Square planter

Cosmos ‘Sonata’ and Geranium ‘Rozanne’

Coulter Park: two fallen cosmos on the lawn

Cosmos and Berberis ‘Helmond Pillar’

snapdragons and agastache

Geranium ‘Rozanne’

Agastache

Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ and santolina

Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’

With the planters all watered in good time, we took a break at Abbracci Coffee Bar.

Allan’s photo; we leave our gear on the tree bench

Maddy of Pink Poppy Bakery had just delivered a brown sugar cake.

flowers in Abbracci

all gone (Allan’s photo)

We finished up Long Beach with some clipping in Fifth Street Park.

I don’t think this garden is as good as usual this year.

The problem is the cosmos, which should be tall, are short.  It seemed to me earlier this summer that the beds were not getting as much water as usual.

In fall, I am going to divide and spread around the heleniums…

…even though they clash with the backdrop of insipid, mildewy pink Dorothy Perkins rose.

Allan sent this man to me for a plant ID.  It was, of course, for the tigridia (Mexican shell flowers).

Allan trimmed back this lady’s mantle…

Alchemilla mollis

…and noticed the interesting seedheads (or spent flowers):

I thinned this batch a bit.  It still has enough yellow to stay till next week.

We were done with plenty of time for our Ilwaco work tasks.

Ilwaco

We drove past our house to have a gander at the progress of the playground at the end of town.  Or so we planned, till I looked down Devery’s driveway and saw her with her new dog.  “Back up!” I cried, eager to meet a new friend.  Never mind the playground for today.

my new friend, Royal

He’s so soft and sleek.

Royal was rescued from a kill shelter in California and brought to our local no-kill shelter, where he was lucky enough to be found by Devery.

Allan went to water the Ilwaco planters, while I weeded at the Norwood and the J’s gardens.

our own front garden

the second of four beds that are outside the deer fence on the west side of the house

elephant garlic next to Devery’s driveway

I got back to work:

The J’s roses

I am pleased that the new hydrangeas in the Norwood garden are putting out new flowers (after I had to cut off the too-floppy flowers they came with).

Endless Summer hydrangea coming back into bud

Norwood garden Agapanthus and lavender

Just as I was leaving Norwoods, I saw Jay himself arrive…with a puppy, making the sixth darling small dog of the day.

eight week old Julius

At home, buddies Smokey and Calvin were snoozing together.

My last garden event of the day: harvesting cukes out of the greenhouse.

Meanwhile, Allan watered the Ilwaco street trees and planters and got the photos I wanted that show how the planters enhance the town, even though they are small and mostly located in a difficult wind tunnel straight up from the river.

The city hall planters are fancier because the staff gives them supplemental watering beyond our two times a week.

This one half died for some reason.  Has been recently replanted.  Allan thinks the trailing rosemary looks like a waterfall under the fish mural.

Our Jenna gives this one by her studio supplemental water.  Something is chomping the nasturtium leaves.

Erysimum ‘Bowles Mauve’

Now we have three days off and a garden tour to anticipate.

Friday, 11 August 2017

I mostly just finished a mystery I was reading, except for a pleasant interlude when good  friend Judy S. and her spouse Larry came to see our lilies and to examine our deer fence.  I did only a minimum of gardening (fertilized containers) and took no photos.

Judy appreciating the Stipa gigantea

and the Melianthus major’s peanut butter scent.

The J’s sent over some freshly cleaned and cooked crab that Jay himself had caught that day on his boat.  I so appreciate not being given a live crab!

before they were cleaned and cooked and turned into crab legs and shared

Allan, a much better householder than me, decided it was high time to defrost the refrigerator.  (It is old and frosts up quickly.)

The mystery was Double Booked for Death (Black Cat Bookshop Series #1) by Ali Brandon.  I liked it well enough to order the sequel, even though I much prefer when cats do not help solve mysteries.  At least this one was not a talking cat.

We had our weekly garden club dinner at the Cove with Dave and Melissa.

in the entry foyer at the Cove

rhubarb cake

Tomorrow: The Astoria garden tour, at last!

 

 

 

 

Read Full Post »

22 June: windy watering

Thursday, 22 June 2017

I’ll get my initial 25 mph wind complaint out of the way right here at the beginning, and get back to more fervent complaining at the end.

First, a watering of all the container plants at home.  I still don’t have the patio area tidied and arranged and it is almost July!

As we drove off to work, we saw that Dave and Melissa were working on a former garden we had created several years ago.  We quit because of…reasons.  I wouldn’t say it bothered me to see that garden fill with weeds; however, for the sake of the remaining good plants, I was glad to see them working on it.

Sea Star Gardening doing a great job releasing plants from weedy smothering.

Long Beach

We weeded and tidied at the welcome sign and made sure the water was on, because the temperature for this weekend is predicted to be 90 degrees.  (I’m going to complain about that for sure.)

Welcome sign…seems lacking without the high maintenance Agyranthemum ‘Butterfly’ that I decided to forgo this year. Also, no one had echibeckia available. Agastache ‘Summer Glow’ is not making a good background show at all.

I hope the cosmos get taller soon.  Must remind self many plants have been slowed this year by cold weather.

Despite the wind, our next project was to start a methodical end to end weeding of the beach approach.  We’ve been jumping around to the sections that need mulch the most.  Today, I did not think we had time to get mulch from the works yard, so weeding took priority. (All Allan’s photos:)

starting at the west end

sand and clover

These big flat yellow clovers are satisfying to pull because they come out easily on one main stems and clear a big area when gone.  (Allan’s photo)

After: We got two out of 12.5  sections done, with probably another whole section or more done earlier this week in mulched areas further on.  Only took 1 1/2 of hours for two sections, compared to about 3 hours (meaning 6 with two people) per section on the initial spring weeding. (Allan’s photo)

My goal is to get through the whole garden by July 4th and then to do the complete mulching of all low and/or open areas by mid July’s Sandsations event.  The garden will be a little wild but will, I hope, not have tall weed grasses or vetch all through the roses.

after

passersby

We usually eat lunch by holding a peanut butter sandwich with one hand and taking bites while weeding with another hand.  Often I forget to eat lunch at all. Today we rewarded ourselves for our good work with a Pink Poppy Bakery treat and coffee at Abbracci Coffee Bar by Fifth Street Park (east side).

In the words of Madeline of Pink Poppy Bakery: “It may look plain but don’t judge a bundt by it’s cover! Pecan brown sugar pound cake will remind you of Grandma’s kitchen.”

In Abbracci Coffee Bar

Next, we weeded in Fifth Street Park.

I had petted this friendly little doggie named Woo Woo.

Allan weeded an annoying scrim of horsetail.

Allan used the string trimmer to clear this area that goes behind the restroom.

Someone years ago planted “dwarf” pampas grass on the L shaped “behind the restroom” area.  It is infested with weeds. I made it clear a few years back that it was no longer our problem.  In my opinion, it needs to be totally removed…by someone younger and stronger.

Woo Woo and her guy having lunch from Captain Bob’s Chowder. (Allan’s photo)

Northwest corner before weeding horsetail and trimming stems that had gone cattywampus in the wind. Forgot to take an after.

With the park pretty thoroughly weeded, we set out on our watering walkabout.  I went north and Allan went south on Pacific Way (the main street).

Allan’s photos:

starting at the carousel

I’m amazed that allium has not been bothered.  If they would remain unbothered, I would plant a lot more of them in the planters.  In previous years, they did not last more than a few days before being plucked.

yellow bidens

the recently re-done southernmost planter

ending across the street from the carousel

my photos:

In Fifth Street park, east side: Eryngium and starry Brodiaea ‘Queen Fabiola’.  The latter is starting to make up for its rampant, floppy foliage.

A young woman tourist stood by this Basket Case Greenhouse basket….

and said “This is just what my baskets look like at home…” and then laughed and added, “Not so much!”  I could have said “You can get one just like that at the Basket Case on Sandridge for $29.99!”

Looking across the street, I thought the Stormin’ Norman planter looked great…..

…with lots of red to tone with the building.

When I got there at the end of my rounds, I found it full of chickweed and fireweed and the dangnable ornamental wire plant that we have tried to eliminate.

Agastache ‘Cotton Candy’

Dianthus ‘Charles Musgrave’

Dianthus ‘Charles Musgrave’

Because I was all out of photos for the NIVA green Facebook page, I stopped in there to take some.

NIVA green

I peeked into the plant section at Dennis Company and saw this list of deer resistant plants.

I have found they do eat Astilbe and Gaura, and I am sorry, but this needs a spell check.

Ilwaco

I walked around all the planters and street tree gardens and groomed them (especially the deadheading of the older and larger Erysimum ‘Bowles Mauve’, most of which are rocking back and forth a bit after the recent windstorm).  The wind was horrible…so cold, and so strong it was like a bully almost knocking me over at times.

a business’s planter on First Avenue

First Avenue window

Allan watered and fertilized all the planters with the water trailer.

Since the last thorough go-round, a lot of big weeds had appeared.

under one of the street trees! (Allan’s photo)

the orange lilies someone planted in one of our planters. (Allan’s photo)

one of my favourite tree beds blowing in the wind

A friend drove by on the way to birdwatch at the port and said “It’s late, you have to go home! I saw you can hardly walk across the street!”  I said, “I can’t; this has to be done!” And it did have to be done; we could not quit with only two thirds of the planters watered and cared for.

old Erysimum, before

after

boatyard

boatyard garden (will get plenty of weeding next week)

picotee poppy at the end of the boatyard garden (Allan’s photo)

We finished by watering and some weeding at our post office garden, by which time we were both cold and wet and miserable and windblown and squabbling after a 9.5 hour day.

Tomorrow, I have some local weeding to do and Allan has some volunteering at the playground build project. That will make for a short work week.  We will be making up for that with many hours next week.

 

 

Read Full Post »

20 April: project day

 

Wednesday, 20 April 2016

My Tulip ‘Leo’ at home.

It took me awhile at work to realize I had a big spot on my camera lens.

Red Barn Arena

Allan did a project with some edging blocks provided by Amy.

before

Using a curved beam for a straight edge

Allan’s photo as he gathered tools to fill in a depression

I borrowed this wheelbarrow from the barn to wheel some soil from one area to another and fell in love with the handles.  There is none of that letting go and moving of one’s hands to a different position when dumping; one’s hands just slide around the loop.

These work great!! Must find!

almost done (Allan’s photo)

Diane’s garden

While Allan worked, and when I ran out of weeds and deadheading and deadleafing of bulbs, I went next door to work on Diane and Larry’s garden.

My good friend Misty (camera shy)

Misty under the back porch

Tulip ‘Green Star’

lovely small cupped narcissi

Stipa gigantea

I do believe the stipa is blooming extra early this year.

Red Barn

all done

Basket Case Greenhouse

Up Sandridge Road at the Basket Case, we got some plants for the next project.

Me and Basket Case Nancy

our good friend Shadow

Anchorage Cottages

Next project of the day: to plant up the new summer window boxes that Beth had built.  The window boxes with the early spring display of bulbs will be stashed behind the office for the summer and then put back out in winter.

Much to my delight, Beth has made two new sets of boxes, so that we don’t have to use the little plastic liners anymore.  They were too small.

bulbs are going away

The brackets will be replaced tomorrow.

The project was unexpectedly complicated by two things:  The brackets are going to be redone (as they are pretty awful), so we could not set the new boxes in place, and the other set of two window boxes still had tulips blooming, so we left for the weekend guests to enjoy.

new boxes (Allan’s photo)

We also redid two old terracotta planters into new green lightweight ones.  Our good friend Mitzu supervised.

the variegated vinca had gone down through the planter hole and INTO the pavers.

I have totally gone off planting variegated vinca anywhere due its rampant behavior!

after

after

I salvaged the excellent Agastache ‘Acapulco Salmon and Pink’ for the center, and used the violas and orange diascia which had been intended for the second set of windowboxes…and was very glad it worked out that way or I’d have been short of plants.  We left two newly planted window boxes in tones of blue flowers (to go with the blue sign) sitting on the patio to be installed when the new brackets are up.  I got to take home the old terracotta pots (with the tops falling apart, but still a good three fourths of the pot useable) to live out their last years in my garden.

Long Beach

Long Beach city hall and some planter deadheading and deadleafing finished out our work day.

city hall, west side (Allan’s photo), Erysimum ‘Bowles Mauve’ and Tulip ‘Greenland’

The planters are in that awkward stage when there is lots of ugly dying bulb foliage and yet it is too early to plant most annuals.

Tulip ‘Green Wave’ in a planter

Our friend Wendy walked by and told us she had found a little fairy door on one of the Bolstad approach planters.  We went to check it out.

Allan’s photo

someone’s brilliant gift to a planter! (Allan’s photo)

Allan realized later that the “flower pot” is a piece of broken beer bottle and pronounced it genius.

beach lupine (Allan’s photo)

an allium (?) emerging (Allan’s photo)

The Depot Restaurant

Because Allan had a social engagement on Thursday, we had our weekly dinner with Dave and Melissa tonight at burger night at the Depot Restaurant.  The day of projects had taken its toll on our energy, and the conversation kept us entertained and so distracted that neither Allan or I thought to take a photo of the tasty occasion.

from the Depot website

Ginger’s Garden Diaries

from my mother’s garden diaries of two decades ago

1998 (age 74):

April 20:  11:30-5:00!  warm  I finished planting all the berries.  After I put stuff away I found another flat of plants.  I added them to the last row.  I have worked 17 hours planting 11 wide rows of plants.  I replanted the onion plants that I dug out so that Ron could till that area.  After all the above I washed more than 30 trays.

Read Full Post »

8 Oct: calm before storm

Thursday, 8 October 2015

Because a big storm was predicted, we did not go to our north end jobs this week.  It seemed a waste of clients’ money to groom gardens for a weekend when guests would be unlikely to be in them.  So we focused on Long Beach, which always has tourists walking by the gardens no matter what the weather.

The Planter Box

First, we took a summer worth of pots to The Planter Box for re-use.  We must have the garage clear for Bulb Time soon.

clematis for sale

I bought three pumpkins and found this little fella under one.

Suddenly a gardening convention began when both Dave and Ed Strange showed up.

Dave, Jackson, Ed

Ed, Jackson, store owner Teresa

pumpkins! and bulb food

Long Beach

The big mission of the day was to dig out two daylilies from Fifth Street Park.  They are a lovely big maroon colour, but since we only do the park once a week, they don’t get deadheading often enough.

Fifth Street Park before (Allan’s photo)

after (Allan’s photo)

before (Allan’s photo)

after (Allan’s photo)

While Allan did that, I checked the planters that I had not attended to yesterday.

I got to meet a sweetheart of an 8 month old Malamute, which was an extra treat since I have been reading Susan Conant’s Dog Lover’s Mystery series with two malamutes as recurring characters. 

a darling!

Cosmos and painted sage…amd a bee caught by a spider.  The spider was gently deposited into the grass behind me.

The last day of lush planters if the storm comes…

Salvia patens

This tree garden looks moderately nice. (I still compare them so unfavourably to Pam’s Seaside gardens.)

gunnera in Fifth Street Park (east side)

Fifth Street Park waterfall pond

big hydrangea at the back of Fifth Street Park

northeast side of Fifth Street Park

lots of Gaura ‘Whirling Butterflies’ and another of those non blooming cosmos!

The carousel is further dismantled.

We headed off to the city works yard to dump our debris and get some soil, attending to the northernmost block of planters on the way.

Geranium ‘Rozanne’ will be battered by the storm.

So pleased my Dianthus ‘Charles Musgrave’ came back. (with Erysimum ‘Bowles Mauve’)

my favourite planter of the year

(Two days later, when we drove through town, the storm had battered the planters so much that this was indeed the last day of a beautiful flower show for 2015.)(Or so we thought!)

Next: getting some soil from our dwindling pile at City Works yard (Allan’s photo)

after filling the holes (Allan’s photo)

(Allan’s photo)  More room for cosmos next year!

One of the daylilies, which originally came from my garden, will go to Debbie for her Master Gardener plant sale.  The one that got infested with orange montbretia went right into the city debris pile.

Ilwaco

We drove along the port gardens just to check on them.  They must be weeded next week for sure!

at the boatyard

All we did today was pull the cosmos out of the Port Office garden.

at home

I realized at the city works yard that, since the wind had not yet arrived, we could have a campfire.

evening light

I hope not the last one of the season. (Allan’s photo)

Smokey enjoys a fire.

He likes his own chair.

I thought the sky promised a good sunset. Instead, it just turned to grey.

how I love a campfire! (Allan’s photo)

Smokey in his chair.

toasted hot dogs followed by buttered corn roasted in foil

Allan’s photo

 

Read Full Post »

2 July: Long Beach and Ilwaco

Thursday, 2 July 2015

We began our work day with a quick stop at the boatyard.  The planter on the corner is not draining, and before Allan realized there was a problem, the Erysimum in the center had rotted away.  We don’t want to dig the planter out till fall, so I put in one of my many extra Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ to fill it out.  That won’t like wet feet either, but I have an endless supply of them.

the boatyard garden

The Depot Restaurant

We did our weekly watering and weeding session at the Depot.  A truck had knocked over one of the parking area timbers.  We were awfully glad that it had not been one next to the garden.

oops

the newest area of the Depot garden

It would be bad if one of these timbers got knocked out of place.

Eryngium ‘Sapphire Blue’

Dierama pulcherrimum

common name: Angel’s Fishing Rod

Nicotiana langsdorfii and Eryngium ‘Sapphire Blue’

Long Beach

The welcome sign garden has popped into full colour and now needs deadheading weekly.

front

Agyranthemum ‘Butterfly’ and Cosmos…not low maintenance

back

Next: watering the Long Beach planters.  They must feel privileged to get watered just three days after the last time.  That’s the way it works out, because we would have a hard time even moving in town on the coming busy weekend.

Long Beach traffic, Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

California poppies and carousel

hydrangea in a city park

a reseeded Eryngium at the base of a planter (Allan’s photo)

police station bulletin board and Basket Case basket (Allan’s photo)

Allan’s photo

Tis the season of Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’

Most business owners don’t like really tall plants in front of their buildings, The Wind World guy loves the Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’.

over about half of the planters…big baskets from The Basket Case Greenhouse

Good for Scoopers Ice Cream for weeding and planting against their building.

This planter, which gets a lot of wind, is doing well this year.

My favourite planter this year is the one we re-did from boring old vinca.

Agastache, Fuchsia ‘Golden Gate’

The planter is protected from wind by the wall of Dennis Co.

by lawyer’s office: Geranium ‘Rozanne’ and golden oregano

Rozanne is swallowing an agastache. (I see some cerinthe, too.)

The Dennis Company planter from across the street.

the delicious daphne by the Elks building

I popped into NIVA green to garner a few more photos for the shop’s Facebook page.

NIVA green: magnifying glasses

funny little clocks

By the pharmacy: Eryngium variifolium under a street tree.

Lucifer again behind Lewis and Clark Square

From all the way across Fifth Street Park, I saw a splash of pink that surprised me.

looking northwest

I went to investigate: It was sidalcea, purchased last year at The Basket Case.

My grandma had sidalcea in her garden.

It looked so healthy.  I’d pulled the one at KBC out because it got rust.  I think the rust was caused by that particular plant being too dry.  Here, it is close to the sprinklers.

the NW quadrant of Fifth Street Park

Because so many people would pass the beach approach planters for the Fourth of July, we checked on them all.

Allan’s photo at the beach end of the approach road

Allan’s photo

Eschscholzia californica ‘White Linen’ (California poppy) doing well in drought

Some yobbo had pulled out a sea thrift and let it sit there and die.

The planters go all the way out as far as the dunes.

(telephoto) This guy had been walking around all over town.

The planters were slightly damp.  The water truck city crewman must have watered them.  However, the shasta daisies planted back in volunteer days were a goner.  Perhaps the watering had only started recently.

These daisies have simply got to go, this fall. Wrong plant for the dry conditions.

At the end of the Sid Snyder beach approach, Back Country Horse Rides have volunteered to do a planter, and they must be watering it daily because these annuals would otherwise not do well in full exposure to beach conditions.

fantastic job by Back Country Horse Rides (Allan’s photo)

Allan’s photo

Ilwaco

In Ilwaco, I walked around and checked on all the planters, which I have been leaving to Allan for last couple of months.  He’s been going a good job and I found very few weeds.

Erysimum ‘Bowles Mauve’ by the Doupé Building

nasturtiums by Queen La De Da’s; Jenna gives this planter extra water.

Allan had the usual problems with his collapsible hose. After four patches with electrical tape, this one finally got the toss.

I spent the next couple of hours weeding the boatyard garden, as lots of folks would be walking by it for the Ilwaco fireworks display on the evening of July 3..

boatyard, with Clamshell Railroad interpretive sign

boatyard poppies and white lupine

We watered the new plants at the Bruce Peterson Gallery….

…and the new plants at Time Enough Books.

The Cove Restaurant

At 7:30, we met Dave and Melissa (Sea Star Landscape Maintenance) at the Cove for our Thursday night tradition, which they’ve become a regular part of.

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

the Cove garden

Allan’s photo

We all had the fish tacos tonight, being of like mind (and the ahi tuna was sold out).

At the end of the evening, Sondra gave us a piece of her apple cake, her mom’s recipe.

after dinner, Melissa and me (Allan’s photo)

Tomorrow: more garden tour previews with Garden Tour Nancy

 

Read Full Post »

27 May: four north end jobs

Wednesday, 27 May 2015

Ilwaco

First, the Ilwaco post office planter…

And then the Ilwaco boatyard…

Chaos floating over the boatyard garden

…where we filled up enough buckets to water half of the Ilwaco trees and planters.  We fertilized with Fox Farms Tiger Bloom, easy to mix into a bucket.

The tree that was vandalized by a weedeater is looking better with new plants.

In the empty lot/carpark next to that tree, I found this, which of course I want to share: some yobbo had just dumped their whole ashtray out next to the sidewalk and driven on.  I did not pick them up.  Too nasty.  I also did not pick up the dirty rag on the curb by a business.  Two days later, the dirty rag was still there, and so were the butts.  (Then, I disposed of the rag by picking it up with my clippers…but not the dang blang butts.)

what the heck?empty  ciggie pack and all.

Today, after the bucket watering, we headed north to begin our weeding day at…

Golden Sands Assisted Living

As I walked down the hall to the courtyard, I saw that Anna, plant loving resident, had a nice little display on the shelf outside her room.

She loves to start baby plants.

Here is her collection of African violets in the courtyard entry foyer, on the lighted plant shelf that we lent to her (used to be my mom’s).

Anna’s volets; my mom would be pleased.

Allan’s photo: Anna sharing her love of flowers

Now I feel all verklempt that my mother and Anna did not overlap in their time at Golden Sands.

The courtyard garden is still poised for ultimate bloom time.  The sprinklers were not on yet (we were promised tomorrow…if it doesn’t get forgotten…so we put in another request and reminder when we left).  Allan had to water with the hose, just in case; that meant less weeding time.

SW quadrant

Ceanothus by the SW quadrant

NE quadrant

a lovely pale California poppy

Allan’s photo; he was wielding the water hose so couldn’t help weed.

As I exit the courtyard, Allan looks for one more handful of weeds.

I do hope the sprinklers are on next time so that we can both focus on weeding….

On the way out, I was impressed with the staff’s little vegetable garden in a box that used to be all Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’.  (The crocosmia had been acquired from my castoffs and planted by a volunteer whose mum no longer resides there.  I think the veg are a better idea.  The box to the other side of the sidewalk has a handsome stand of peas coming up.)

healthy looking veg

We were pleased to see that the facility has a brand new bus to take residents on outings; the old one has been giving trouble for awhile.

My mother would not ride on the bus because she was too proud to use the lift to get up there.  I told her that I would use the lift if my knee hurt and mimicked how easy it would be to ride up.  She said she would not do so because she had been a Marine.  I think I had just about talked her into it being not too much of a sign of weakness when she suddenly died.  How I wish she were still here to enjoy the new bus.

Just ten blocks north was our next job…

Klipsan Beach Cottages

The rhododendron by where we park….

still blooming strongly

and popular with bees

By the pond, Rhododendron ‘Cynthia’ has finished blooming and dropped another drift of flowers.

Bella, who will otherwise wander, was tied up by Denny so that she supposedly could not get to her favourite resting spot under the rhododendron, because she gets sticky with blooms.

Bella

Allan’s photo

me and Bella, Allan’s photo

Mary moved the lead to a tie-out in the lawn so that Bella wouldn’t drag her leash into the garden.  Pretty soon….

all in the sticky rhododendron flowers

Rose ‘Jude the Obscure’

Jude the Obscure: I simply must remember to get me one of this rose.

the lawn border

detail

the weekly view, looking southwest from the north east gate

Anthriscus sylvestris ‘Ravenswing’

one of Mary’s roses

Mary’s brother had provided a start of Peony mlokosewitschii (“Molly the Witch”) for Todd, in thanks for the day he helped weed before the Rhodie Tour.  Here it is, in the evening at our house.  It looks sad and got its top broken off on its ride home from Kingston, Washington….but if anyone can revive it, Todd can.

(He picked it up on Friday; it had recovered and he said it would do just fine.)

Allan rescued the buddliea that had grown through its pot into the ground.  (It had belonged to someone else who did not retrieve it in time.)

before

after cutting the pot away

Mary was diligently weeding gravel outside the east gate.

We left Mary to the rare enjoyment of spending time weeding (a task she loves but sometimes does not have time for) to go on up the road to…

Oman Builders Supply, Ocean Park

We still had a bucket of water enhanced with Fix Farms Tiger Bloom fertilizer.  I wanted to and did give it to an Eryngium at the north end of the garden bed.

Pretty soon this Erysimum ‘Bowles Mauve’ will need extensive deadheading.

Agastache ‘Summer Glow’

OBS garden

Next, we drove considerably further up the road to

Marilyn’s garden

Allan worked on clearing the walking path around the east side and back of the house.  I wished I had thought to photograph the Siberian iris by the back swale last time we were here:

They were all in bloom two weeks ago…

Weeding and hose watering took all my time; I left a reminder to start setting up the sprinkler.  I’ll be glad when everyone’s watering becomes as reliable as Andersen’s RV Park and Klipsan Beach Cottages.

the view north; weeding the path is my ongoing project

the cosmos planting filling in

Allium multibulbosum nigrum

Allium bulgaricum

bunny tail grass, and Allan weeding

After clearing overgrown shrubbery and strimming the grass around the non garden side of the house, Allan weeded by the driveway.

east side of driveway, before

after

While wheelbarrowing a load of debris to the trailer, he surprised someone:

iPhone photo

curiosity

The deer went around the house to the north, and ambled on east down the road.

view from the road

Ilwaco again

We ended by planting two David’s Penstemon (so labeled) in the Time Enough Books curbside bed.  I have realized it is a great spot for scree garden plants, and want more of such little treasures.  The garden boat got a dose of Fox Farms fertilizer.

street view of part of the Time Enough Books garden

At home, I had a few moments of garden appreciation while watering the ladies in waiting.

east bed

looking southwest across the center bed…with HUGE Geranium ‘Rozanne

Allium albopilosum and schubertii

The very first flowers on ‘Paul’s Himalayan Musk’ rambling rose

There will be hundreds of flowers on this once blooming rose.

the white rambler from a cutting from the garden of Maxine, Jo’s mom

Rose ‘Gloire de Dijon’ in the gloaming

 

 

Read Full Post »

28 March: many missions accomplished

Saturday, 28 March 2015

Empty Bowls event

Strangely, I found myself in bed and falling sleep by 1 AM instead of 2 last night so was awake at the bright hour of 9 AM!  This would have been a shock to Allan so I checked my email and Facebook for half an hour.  Thus, we were at the Empty Bowls event by 11 AM.  From the event page:

“This annual event brings handmade bowls created by local artists and elementary students together with handmade soups and bread made by local restaurants to help fund local food service organizations. Each year bowls are made and at the event are sold for $10 each. With that donation you get a lunch of soup and bread. After the event you keep your bowl to remind you of all the empty bowls in the world. Open to the public.

This is part of a national outreach to educate and empower communities through art and understanding.“

Empty Bowls is held at the Peninsula Church Center, which has a tidy garden outside.

The rose garden must be lovely in summertime.

Inside, bowls were still being added to the display. It was hard to choose!

Many of the bowls at this event are made by grade school children.  I asked local potter and event organizer Karen Brownlee if that is unusual, and she said yes, most of the similar events around the country have more “grown up” bowls (my words).  There are plenty of “grown up” bowls mixed in to the choices at our local event.  The children’s bowls add a great deal of charm and are a great way to introduce kids to this mix of art and community.

picking a bowl

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Several local restaurants donated soup.

Just last night on Facebook, I saw Karen put out a request for a donation of butter to make the bread better.  The butter arrived, and the bread was rustic and delicious.

bread and butter

Our bowls (you can buy more than one).

In the background, above, Karen’s spouse is bringing our soup, as the event includes table service.  It was later pointed out to me that the two green and yellow bowls that I chose are in the colours of an Oregon sportsball team.  One even has the letter O in side!  The completely went over my head as I don’t follow sports.  I believe our good friend Susie is a fan of the team known as the Oregon Ducks (but I won’t part with my pretty green and blue bowl!)  Allan always likes to get one with a bird’s head.

Our soup arrives!

Allan’s egg drop soup and his bowls. I wanted the red one so he got an extra as well as his usual bird selection.

We were graced by the presence of local artist Rose Power, who sat with us.  I had figured out (by asking around) that she was the woman at yesterday’s art event who had such nice things to say (in a delightful English accent) about our gardening.

We had to tear ourselves away from the good company in order to begin the workday. As we left, we met a most handsome dog who was just quietly lying outside.  He stood up and licked my hand when I sweet talked him, then wandered off so I guess he had just come to visit where a crowd of people gathered.

a handsome boy

The Basket Case Greenhouse 

Our second pre-work stop was at the Basket Case Greenhouse, which was on our way to stops three and four.  I needed just one thing, a bag of potting soil for planting sweet peas at home, and also took the opportunity to snag some new photos for the Basket Case Facebook page.

Walter: Allan’s photo

red Geum and Erysimum ‘Bowles Mauve’

Papaver ‘Wonderland Orange’

Fred and me…somehow I ended up buying a few plants.

I didn’t get much, just a red Monarda for Jo, and one for the red white and blue Veterans Field garden.

When we looked over at the van, we could see Shadow the poodle all the way inside, and Walter had been thinking about getting in.  This is not surprising for Shadow, as this used to be “his” van before we bought it from Fred and Nancy (thus VASTLY improving our lives) in autumn of 2013.

Shadow is in there.

They’ve been called back to the greenhouse by Fred and Nancy.

The Bayside Garden

Next, we went a bit further north, past our first actual work destination, to deliver a lovely spider azalea which we’d gotten at Monkey Business Nursery for Steve and John.

At Monkey Business 101: I got two of these spider azaleas, one for me, and one for Steve and John.

Here it is in bloom, and here’s an article about it.

near the front door to the bayside house

the drainage swale between the wings of the house with Acer palmatum ‘Shishigashira’ behind a Chamaecyparis obtusa ‘Sunlight Lace’.

Rhododendron pachysanthum, in a bed of Arctostaphylos uva-ursi (Kinnikinnick)

by the front door

When Steve and John invited us in for coffee and a slice of a peanut butter and chocolate “Elvis” cake, we could not resist.  (They make an excellent and flavourful cup of coffee and John is an accomplished baker.)  We then had a brief tour of part of the garden.  You may notice some lines of dug up soil, as an irrigation system is being installed by renowned local landscaper and rhododendron expert Steve Clarke’s capable team.

by the driveway

Rhododendron campylogynum Myrtilloides.

detail of Rhododendron campylogynum Myrtilloides.

Rhododendron ‘Capistrano’ (has a yellow tint that the camera ignored) 

a prostrate form of taxus backed with a Daphne, still blooming (as it was on our last visit three weeks ago)

There’s that stunning white variegated Euphorbia ‘Tasmanian Tiger’ gathering the light.

Hostas just emerging.

Steve and John had recently visited The English Nursery in Seaview, whose owner, Dirk Sweringen, sells an impressive variety of hostas.

a garden of well defined shapes

Waterlogued

Pittosporum ‘Tasman Ruffles’

the woodland, which Steve and John have painstakingly edited for beauty

a natural cup of moss

Have I told you that this garden is going to open for touring on May 2?

We had to get to work, and Steve and John were off to the art show in Long Beach.  Our first work destination was just a couple of blocks to the south, where we got a yard of Soil Energy mulch and headed to our first job.

Peninsula Landscape Supply

Peninsula Landscape Supply: Mike bringing us a scoop (Allan’s photo)

They have some handsome heucheras for sale.

The Boreas Inn

I had one major goal for today, to get that yard of Soil Energy spread at the Boreas and then to plant two plants and some poppy seeds in Long Beach.  While Allan got the mulch moving, I delivered the red bee balm plant to Jo’s, had a brief visit with her and little dog Coco, and then hightailed it back to the Boreas to get to work at last.

It went swimmingly and by the time we were almost done, my ambition for the day had increased.

Allan’s photo

and weeding some of the horrid creeping Jenny out (it’s too invasive)

hard at it.  Soon weather will permit the cushions will be brought out for guests to lounge.

Boreas lawn beds yesterday

and today, raised up with mulch

I always wish for these beds to be level with the lawn, if not raised a little higher.  We might finally have almost achieved that.

Mission accomplished.

The garden suite garden also got mulched.

Allan’s photo

The lawn beds, finally level with the lawn (for now, at least)

Buddha had snail earrings today. (Allan’s photo)

and then….back to

Peninsula Landscape Supply (again)

Colleen scooping Soil Energy

and dumping it into our little trailer, which holds just a yard and a bit.

Instead of planting two plants and some seeds in Long Beach, my goal had changed to mulching the Port office garden and an area in my garden and then finishing the little gravel project at the Port office garden.

Ilwaco

On the way to Ilwaco, I added to my goal the planting of sweet peas at our Ilwaco post office garden, as having some mulch to add would help them along.

post office garden, before

after

I DO hope I have some luck with sweet peas in this spot.  The last two years I have tried and failed for various reasons: lousy soil, not enough water, snails.

Post office garden today, after some work

with Tulip ‘Green Star’

With that done, we drove to the port office and added soil to make the garden fluffy and happy.

Port Office before

after mulching

just across the lawn from our mulching job

Next, we applied the rest of the Soil Energy at home…

on a mulch mission at home

raising an edge by the bogsy wood

every last scoop of precious mulch; Allan kept the wheelbarrows filled.

And then we went back to the port, got some gravel from their supply, and finished making the backsplash for the office garden.

view from near the gravel pile

gravel and mulch both applied!

After all that, I declared tomorrow a day off.  I had been able to erase more from the work board than I had expected.  And perhaps while walking around my own garden, I had been so horrified by the amount of weeds that I just had to have a day off.  I just hope I get more done than just “piddlefarting around the garden.”

plants need to be planted

The shotweed is shocking!

Horsetail is popping up all over!

and I must pull the dangblang touch-me-not!

Pretty things soothe my anxiety about the garden:

a marmalade Heuchera

epimidium

Smokey walking with me and flopping down in front of me

fringed tulip ‘Cummins’

the garden boat

The Ann Lovejoy

Waterlogued

Oh!! A lost ho mi in the mini scree garden!

tulips and gold acanthus

a sentimental hosta given to me by Mary Fluaitt before she moved away

Where Allan found the energy to mow our lawn AND Nora’s tonight I just cannot imagine.

But he did.  I went inside and caught up on the Tootlepedal and Miserable Gardener blogs.

Mission accomplished: a new red bowl for tea bags!

and a much decreased work list. Tomorrow if I do my own sweet peas, I can erase sweet peas altogether.

Read Full Post »

Oman Builders Supply garden in 2014

While I’m posting slide shows of north end gardens, I might as well add a short one for the little entry garden that we do at Oman and Sons Builders Supply in Ocean Park.  This is our one and only truly low-maintenance garden and shows what a great “doer” Erysimum ‘Bowles Mauve’ is almost year round.

That’s all for today!  It must be a nice break from long-winded posts.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

 

 

Read Full Post »

13 Nov: bulb time day six (part one)

Wednesday, 13 November, 2013

Now, having sorted many the bulb last night, I have time to share the photos of the lovely workday that preceded the bulb sorting frenzy.

We began with blue skies and warmish weather at The Wiegardt Gallery in Ocean Park.

Wiegardt Gallery

What a contrast to last week’s weather when we got stormed out.  Our mission this week and next week is to get bulbs in the ground without too much distraction.

Quite a few went into this newly cleared area.

a late Cistus flower

rhodo blooming early (or late)

glorious autumnal grass

Then we planted some Narcissi at the Oman Builders Supply garden.  I was pleased at how well it continues to look; on our last two trips north we have only had time to look at it while driving by.

looking south

looking north

Erysimum ‘Bowles Mauve, Hebe, Gaura ‘Whirling Butterflies’

The only bothersomely empty spots are two areas where three gorgeous Eryngiums were stolen early in the summer.

lacking Eryngiums

By then, I could not acquire any to replace them with.  Or so I thought.  I remember now that The Planter Box may still have some Eryngium ‘Jade Frost’.  Perhaps if I acquired and planted some now, they would root in and be harder to steal next year.

Not brooding overmuch about the theft, we went on to the garden at Klipsan Beach Cottages where we had some plans for more than just bulb planting.   Allan got to the task of removing the big rambling rose canes that were tangled in the bay tree.

before

after

He cleared more wild violets and Schizostylis from the lawn border and planted Narcissi.

bulbs placed to go in, before weeding

It was backwards to put the bulbs down before he got the weeding done;  I should have laid them out on the lawn instead.

My task was to sort out the bulbs from 16 seasonal window box liners, all small species narcissi, tulips, crocus, snowdrops, Fritillaria meleagris and Iris reticulata, all blooming before May.  The window boxes have been removed from the cottages for the sake of trying to streamline the care of the gardens somewhat as we are all getting older.

delving into an old window box

a treasure trove of minor bulbs

I lavished them all around the gardens outside the deer fence since most will be deer resistant, and even the occasional species tulip might be too short to be tempting.

I had been especially looking forward to meeting the new dog that Mary and Denny are fostering and may adopt.  Like the dear departed Misty and Debbie, she is a Great Pyrenees.  If she and Riley (Mary and Denny’s Doberman) get along ok, she will join the family permanently.  Riley is feeling jealous so I was careful to give him more pets and attention than the new dog…

Here she is!

The poor girl was used as a puppy mill and is over 20 pounds underweight.

In the garden, there is still much beauty to see.

Fuchsia ‘Debron’s Black Cherry’

bird bath of stillness

Rose ‘New Dawn’

the pond island bed

two of eight cottages

dusk in the autumn garden

orbs

The fall clean up sessions we have been doing have inspired Mary to put one of her winter signs in the garden:

And then, straight on home where I plunged into five straight hours of bulb sorting (as described in yesterday evening’s hasty blog post).  Before I entered Bulb Central (the garage), the reflection our neighbour’s upstairs window alerted me to take a look at the sunset.

moonrise over our neighbours’ roof

sunset over Lake Street

Read Full Post »