27 January: bin four and winter flowers

Friday, 27 January 2023

at home

My shoes show how muddy yesterday’s garden was.

We’d had some rain.

I finished emptying compost bin four and got all the uncomposted material piled precariously onto bin three, thus achieving three empty bins. I slid some of the worms down the narrow back opening (due to poorly fitting lid) of the plastic kitchen compost bin, where they will find tastier food to eat.

I got some more rough compost for the woodsy south end of the garden. The one full load was so heavy that I took some in buckets on the rollator, lightening the barrow before moving it. Great news, my balance is now good enough that I can move wheelbarrows without either asking for help or transporting all the contents via rollator buckets.

Bin four, empty! The smaller bin five is 3/4 full of leaves.

Here is bin three from my west window a few days later, after I had added more fresh clippings from some winter clean up.

I can think of few views as delightful as my compost bins.

Allan helped me move a Cornus ‘Midwinter Fire’ from where I wanted to put a larger showpiece…

..to its new home next to the deep swale. (Note new name for the deep end of the bridged swale, which is not the same as the Deep Path.)

In its place, I planted a young Salix aquatic ‘Gigantea Korso’, a willow with an interesting story, from Forest Farm.

“Highly ornamental, particularly in spring when its very early catkins emerge a pretty, soft pink before turning silver, then the anthers make their wonderful golden-orange appearance, this large (to 50′) tree developed in Sweden features bright chartreuse spring leaves, the ‘Gigantea’ part of its name comes from its enormous 8-10″ leaves; when coppiced every few years, the branches are often used for baskets, furniture and firewood; it looks very elegant planted by waterside.” (Forest Farm’s description.) I also read that it was developed because its rapid growth makes a lot of biofuel.

I picture a tall and big leaved willow as a view blocker just to the left of the new bridge, with a new Salix magnifica (not yet planted) to the right (where the yellow shovel handle is):

I also did some smoothing and refinement of the edge of the seasonal stream.

Nearby, my very dark burgundy chaenomeles is just starting to bud. I got it from Cistus years ago after seeing it in their display garden. It’s a gorgeous rich colour that blooms for a long time in early spring. I wish I remembered its cultivar name.

Chaenomeles (Japanese flowering quince)

Next to that, a young Garrya elliptical ‘James Roof’ is showing some “silk tassels” (the shrub’s common name).

In the front garden, another apricot scented hamamelis is in full bloom…

…and an Iris unguiculara is just coming on.

Grevillea victoriae has been budded for a few weeks and the flowers are finally fully opening.

And a double white hellebore blooms in Allan’s garden. i

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Gardens, Sea and Art Tour: community garden

Saturday, 20 July 2019

Ocean Shores

From Markham to Ocean Shores was an hour’s drive.  Upon arrival, we were surrounded by water on three sides.

This tourism map hints at the complexity of roads and canals in the small city of Ocean Shores.

Gardens, Sea and Art tour

presented by the WSU Master Gardeners of Grays Harbor and Pacific Counties

We began at Garden by the Sea.

Peter and Kilyn awaited us there so that we could do the tour together.

I found it an excellent idea to have the plant sale at the first tour stop instead of somewhere in the middle.

Allan’s photo

Kilyn told us that in Richmond, British Columbia, community gardens are not allowed to have fences or even signs warning against plant theft! Nor can they have sheds.  I thought about how in the UK, each allotment plot gets a little shed of its own.

plant sale

Speaking of sheds…

We toured the garden beds of both flowers and food.

Wouldn’t it be nice to live in a place with a view of a community garden?

At the center of the garden stood a beautiful carved pillar. I could not make out what it said, lacking the patience to go round and round.

And there was compost….

…with a list of compostables.

Now the four of us were off to the first of eight private gardens.  To my delight, these were not designed gardens of the rich but gardens from the heart.  One of the missions of this tour each year is to show gardens that are created by the owners, often without big money.  Please remember that while reading and commenting, and especially remember that the garden owners might be reading the posts. There are blogs that criticize and review gardens.  This is not one of them.  I appreciate anyone who dares to open their garden for a tour.

 

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28 Sept: mostly Shelburne

Friday, 28 September 2018

 

the temperature when we left for work

Last year I swore I would not work if the temperature was over 75.  But needs must…

Shelburne Hotel

We watered the Shelburne garden just in case the predicted rain did not come.  The hotel was hosting a big weekend of food and music with a band called The Super Saturated Sugar Strings.  One of the band members, a chef, was going to prepare the Friday dinner in the Shelburne Restaurant.  I like the name of the band and it all sounded very interesting but I had no energy to attend, just to get the garden ready for guests.

The Sugar Strings event sounds fascinating as I read about it now.  I have regret at not making the effort to dig deep for a bit of extra evening energy.

“5-course dinner and Parlor in the Round music featuring members of SSSS

Sugar Strings frontman Carlyle Watt will be crafting a multi-course dinner at the historic Shelburne Hotel in Seaview, WA. Carlyle studied at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone in California’s Napa Valley, and he is currently the head baker and executive chef at Alaska’s award winning bakery, Fire Island Rustic Bakeshop. In 2017, he was nominated as an outstanding baker by the James Beard Foundation. Carlyle’s ability to merge baking, pastry, and culinary techniques creates a unique and memorable dining experience. When the Sugar Strings go on tour, Carlyle brings his passion for food along, hosting pop-up dinners, guest-chef appearances, and generally keeping the band well-fed to sustain their high energy shows. 

Collaborating with Carlyle in the front of the house will be The Sugar String’s bassist, Kevin Worrell, presenting his hit Alaskan singer-songwriter showcase, Parlor In The Round. This dinner theater will feature local favorites Pretty Gritty and the Strings’ own Kat Moore, taking turns with songs and stories inspired by the evening’s bill of fare. As host, Kevin will select written submissions from the audience as prompts for musical improv games, and as fodder for his quick-witted banter.”

I don’t think I could have dug deep enough for improv energy, though.  As long as no audience participation was required, I would have been ok.

A different event was taking place in the pub tonight (the hotel has a pub and a dining room).  We think that is the event for which Todd was bringing flowers.

Allan’s photos

As Todd hurried off to another obligation, Allan and I had time, for once, to do a thorough job of weeding, deadheading, and tidying the paths without rushing off to another obligation of our own.

in the Shelburne back garden

front garden, 82 degrees F.

Japanese anemones

one of two matching planters at the front entry

Not only did we have time for a nice garden tidy (except for big projects like battling the aegepodium or houttuynia), we took time for a tasty pub lunch of two new menu items.  Because we rarely take a break for lunch during a work day, our lunch is usually some sort of home made sandwich scarfed down while we work.  This was a special reward for working in hot weather.

Allan’s photo

crab cakes with apple and fennel cabbage slaw and roasted red pepper aioli

beer battered fish and chips

and that oh so good blackberry cream cheese tart

looking north into the front garden as we depart

We thought because of the heat that it would be a good night for a campfire dinner.  Allan bought some hot dog buns at the grocery store across the street while I did a tiny bit more gardening.

Ilwaco

As soon as we approached Ilwaco, we decided the campfire idea was not a go.  Between Seaview and Ilwaco, we drove into a cool and breezy fog, so welcome after two days of heat.

I worked for awhile on the boatyard garden while Allan watered the Ilwaco planters, we fervently hope for the last time in 2018.  The Long Beach parks manager spoke this week of winterizing the LB planters because of rain being predicted, and yet the forecast only calls for slight chance of minimal rain.  I would love a good rain at last once a week now.  We are so tired of watering.

fog at the end of the boatyard

Allan’s photo

Cosmos in the boatyard that looks like ‘Happy Ring’ (which I did not plant this year).

I like Cosmos ‘Happy Ring’ very much, just have not seen it for sale anywhere lately.

solidago, sweet peas, lavender, Allium christophii seedhead

tall pink aster, possibly ‘Harrington’s Pink’

looking north

I walked home via the post office and the fire station to weed and deadhead those two small volunteer gardens.

Ilwaco Fire Department

This time, the day had been well planned enough that Allan was not out watering in the dusk.

 

 

 

 

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25 Sept: easing back to work

Tuesday, 25 September 2018

Being the social director of yesterday’s tour, arranging to visit each private garden (all but one at a time when the gardeners would be home), trying to set a date when all who wanted to could attend, fretting over social anxiety and feeling out of my league with two Big Name Gardeners, turned out to be well worth it as everyone agreed it had been a wonderful tour day.  However, both Allan and I slept extra late this morning! I had planned an easy work day, mostly watering, with two small projects (or so I thought).

I met two darling dogs over the fence next door to the post office.

I don’t normally put my hand into a dog’s yard.  This one was clearly friendly with a happy circling tail.  I wish they were there every day; I have only seen them the once. The dog’s affection for its ball reminded me of Monty Don’s dog, Nigel, star of Gardeners’ World.

Long Beach

We removed a very woody and tatty lavender from one of the planters.  Its inside was dark and gloomy and devoid of foliage.

before

after, with replacement soil and lavender

Helichrysum italicam

I have told people that although this plant smells strongly of curry, it is not edible.  It appears I am wrong about that, according to this article.  Although it smells of the strongest curry, the taste is said to be not like curry.  The flowers are inconsequential yellow things that I usually trim off.  I love the smell of the plant and its silver foliage. The linked article says that the flowers taste of bleu cheese, which I also love!

We added two curry plants to the planter we had redone last week.

The Shelburne Hotel

75 degrees F as we arrived at the Shelburne.

Speaking of curry plants, here is one we recently added to a planter on the room four deck.  The dahlia is out of scale but it requested that I not move it to the garden till later because it is quite happy in the pot.

Allan’s photo

center deck nandina, Allan’s photo

room 11 deck (Allan’s photo)

We watered and weeded. I trimmed tall non blooming cosmos to better reveal the signage.

front garden, looking north in shadow

the back garden

wedding candles still hanging in the laurel

the pub deck

the back garden

The candles were the battery powered ones.  I did not know that would work in jars of water.  I googled; they seem to be a special floating kind.  That would be great Halloween decor.

Ilwaco

After the Shelburne, we tried clearing a small garden on Howerton Avenue at the port of the roots  where the port crew had pulled out a sightline-blocking escallonia with a backhoe.  Or maybe pulled it out by truck, with a chain.  I had a few plants ready to plant, but was thwarted by the job being harder than I expected.  The root mass was especially  thick around a CoHo Charters sign that had been skillfully undamaged.

roots and black plastic under the soil and lava rock

Although we got it almost done, my anxiety level was high because Allan had to water the Ilwaco planters, a two hour job from start to finish (including watering our two volunteer pocket gardens).  A friend stopped to give us a political campaign sign (the wonderful Carolyn Long for Congress!) and we ran out of time and had to stop the Howerton bed before we were done.

Allan took the water trailer and watered the planters.

Cosmos ‘Xanthos’ at city hall before he deadheaded…

and after.

I walked the planters, checking on them for weeds (mostly chickweed) and deadheads. I finished at the planters by the boatyard…

Aster ‘Harrington’s Pink’

…and then walked home, looking for the feral cats along Main Street.  I felt bad that I scared them off a chicken dinner that someone had left on a plate.

one of three storage lots where the wild cats live

waiting for me to leave so that dinner could resume

In the book I’ve been reading, Wind-Harps by Marion Cran, she learns that her new Siamese cat is actually related by blood to her beloved Tatty-Bogle, a Siamese whose death she still mourned.  I realized then that perhaps the soft looking and so shy grey cat who lives in the feral colony would perhaps be related to my late much lamented Smoky, who was born wild in Ilwaco just a couple of blocks from there.  I have only seen grey cat twice; he may be the shyest of all.

I deadheaded in the almost dusk at the volunteer Post Office and Fire Station gardens.  Allan was not happy that he finished up in almost darkness, dangerous in traffic.  The day ended on a stressful note. More like a medley of stress.  I will be so glad when watering season is over.  It is the one task that creates the most pressure because when the plants are dry, it must be done.  Shorter days make it harder to fit in an evening watering job like Ilwaco planters.

Allan has decided that he will participate in a local book fair with his self published guide to paddle trips in SW Washington and NW Oregon.  You can find him on Saturday, Oct 6th, at this event:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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24 Sept: Peninsula garden tour, part one

Monday, 24 September 2018

When we went garden touring down to Manzanita in late August with Pam and Prissy, we had been joined by Beth Holland and Ketzel Levine,  When they learned we gardened on the Long Beach Peninsula, Beth and Ketzel were eager for a tour.  So today they arrived at our house at ten AM for a tour that I had arranged.  (We were almost joined by Ann Amato from Portland but she could not make it, and Pam and Prissy, unlike us, were working instead of skiving off.)

I had been pretty socially anxious about arranging the tour, having long been an admirer of Beth’s gardening from Cannon Beach to Astoria and having read all of Ketzel’s gardening columns when she wrote for the Oregonian.

You’ve seen hundreds of photos of our garden and our work gardens, so we will zoom through those.

our garden

Ketzel meets Frosty (Allan’s [photo)

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

You can imagine how pleased I was that they liked our garden.

Next, we drove past the boatyard and the Port of Ilwaco curbside gardens and then on to the garden at

The Shelburne Hotel.

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

from the pub deck (Allan’s photo)

Candles had been hung in the laurel for a weekend wedding.

We continued on for a brief look at Fifth Street Park in

Long Beach.

Allan’s photo

Darmera had seeded itself into the top of the Fifth Street Park waterfall.

Fifth Street Park (Allan’s photo)

Beth, me, and Ketzel

Allan’s photo

Ketzel was taking photos for a talk she was giving the very next day at the Nehalem Garden Club.  (I would have done my best to attend this previous talk at that garden club if I had known about it back in February!)

Ed Strange’s garden

We next went to our good friend Ed’s garden in Tides West.  Beth and Ketzel expressed appreciation for being taken to a garden on a small city sized lot as well as to parks and grand estates.

Ed was there to greet us.  Ketzel liked meeting Ed’s sweet dog, Jackson.

The day was perfect faux summer weather for garden enjoyment, not so much for taking photos.

Ed had recently cut back the huge leaves on his gunnera.

He described how he gets many seedlings by just laying the long seedheads down on the soil.

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

The placement and quality of Ed’s phormium was much admired. (Allan’s photo)

on the porch (east side of house)

agapanthus

between house and garage

Artistic upcycled plant stand

The back garden has recently turned from shade to sun from the cutting down of a substantial number of trees to the south.

south garage wall

west side of back garden

We then drove north toward Oysterville.  As we approached Nahcotta, everyone agreed that a lunch stop would be a treat. We were fortunate that one of the best cafés on the peninsula was open.

Bailey’s Café

Bailey’s, like the Depot Restaurant in Seaview, is housed in a former stop on the old Clamshell Railway.

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

The art on the walls was given a close look before and after lunch.

The tuna pita wrap is my favourite sandwich on the peninsula.  I don’t have it often because we don’t often pass this way.

the best!

With a burst of energy, we returned to our tour and headed on to see two gardens in Oysterville.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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24 July: Lily time, part one

Tuesday, 24 July 2018

at home

I had let some friends know that our garden was at its peak lily time.  While Allan went grocery shopping over the river, I stayed home, gardened, and had some visitors (11, if you count the dogs).

front garden lilies, middle

front garden lilies, east side

back garden with Sanguisorba ‘Lilac Squirrel’

pale yellow Lily ‘Conca D’Or’

center bed, Geranium ‘Rozanne’ river, full of bees

east bed

Clematis ‘Rooguchi’

Lily ‘Salmon Star’ (pretty sure)

Frosty and Skooter

I had decided to not worry about the garden being weedy (mostly the little scrimmy horsetail and the dwarf fireweed).

The lilies’ first visitors were Amy, April, and Tricia from the port office on their all too short half hour lunch break.  Like many visitors, they were surprised that the garden is bigger on the inside than it looks on the outside.

Everyone likes the passion flowers.

They loved the honeysuckle mixed with hops and roses.

After they left, I had little energy for actual garden work.  I did set myself a small goal of sifting the fourth compost bin.  Over the course of the day, it provided several wheelbarrows of good compost.

Tony and Scott arrived with Rudy and Bailey and did a thorough tour of the garden.

Scott, Rudy, Bailey

Before they left, I wanted a photo of them all by the copper (painted) heart.  They were such a cute bunch that I forgot to get the heart properly showing.

I went back to my compost sifting, ever so slowly.

found a compost resident

finally got the bottom of the bin

I shifted the next bin over.  It had no good stuff to sift out.

In the late afternoon, Mark and Joe, two local gardeners, came by with Joe’s daughter Bella.  (I have visited Mark’s garden twice and blogged about it here.)  Bella, 9 years old, was a treat to observe in the garden.  She noticed everything and would say “I’m going to try to get lost now!” and run off to the bogsy wood, or through the door to the meadow to the west, or around behind the shed.  We would hear her voice from afar calling, “I’m lost now!”  I wish I could experience my garden as a child would, between age 4 and 10.  I am sure it would be as memorable as a few gardens I visited with my grandma as a child.

Skooter let her pick him up and lug him around—twice! He won’t let us do that.

Allan came home before they departed and was amazed to see, out the back window, Skooter being carried:

Allan’s photo

Allan and I got to hold Joe and Bella’s tiny dog.

Later, thinking about Bella’s reaction to the garden, I had some childhood garden memories: Lying on a hammock in a flower filled garden while Gram visited with friends.  The sky a bright blue overheard; I was sure I was looking at the very center of the sky.

And going down a flight of steps next to a pond in a garden on Phinney Ridge, a garden belonging to Gram’s best friends, May Lancaster and Addie.  I would love to be able to find that garden again.

And getting “lost” in the big woodland driveway circle bed—probably small in reality—at my uncle’s house in Shoreline.  How big was it, really?  Here it is now; my cousin who inherited the house seems to have tidied and landscaped it.  Pretty big, really. Those big trees may the the same ones I played under.

via Google street view (with Puget sound in the background; house valued at $1,717,700. !

I wish I could find May and Addie’s old garden to look at online. Maybe the pond is still there.

 

 

 

 

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11 July: KBC and more

Wednesday, 11 july 2018

Red Barn Arena

The garden had been watered! (Yay!) So we only had a bit of deadheading to do.

Our good friend Misty was there (with her human, Diane).

and our good friend Rosie

the first tigridia of the year in one of the barrels

Diane’s Garden

Next door to the barn, we added a few perennials to Diane’s garden.  We are going to just call the septic box garden the raised box garden from now on.  Sounds so much nicer.

Allan deadheading

Cosmos ‘Pop Socks’

also Cosmos ‘Pop Socks’

also Cosmos ‘Pop Socks’!

It is quite variable.

drumstick alliums

Basket Case Greenhouse

We stopped for a few Gaura ‘Whirling Butterflies’.  I could not resist some echeverrias, as well.

still lots of healthy annuals and baskets for sale.

green fireworks display

and a really big healthy blue agastache

Klipsan Beach Cottages

We spent an hour tidying and then I took photos for the Facebook page.  We skipped KBC last week because of the holiday and company.  Mary says she could get by with us just every other week, which would be great, but she says “Not yet, though!”  This is now our only north end job, and it is a long drive for one hour of work.  The cottage cleaning staff also like to weed the paths and beds, so we can be somewhat dispensible, for which I am grateful.  It is an odd feeling to work there knowing this longtime job ends in the late autumn, when Denny and Mary retire.

Allan had stood on a bucket and deadheaded the roses over the arbors.

Nicotiana ‘Fragrant Cloud’ with sanguisorba, probably ‘Pink Elephant’

Clematis ‘Rooguchi’

Timmy (Timothea)

All these years I thought Timmy, Sarah’s sibling, was a boy!  Mary and I talked about how I might take ten year old Timmy and Sarah if Mary and Denny move to Arizona.  I would love to have them.

more Timmy

I want to take her home right now!

Shelburne Hotel

I had had a wee brainstorm.  In the back garden, we took the variegated mint out of a low pot and put it into the pot that does not drain well.

Then we made a succulent pot out of the low pot for the one deck that had no plant container.

I laughed when I found myself thinking, “I wish there were some river rock to decorate these pots with.”  Of course, the front garden has river rock all along the edge of the path!

no shortage!

lavender and thyme pot in back garden

front garden

71 degrees on the way home at the early hour of 5 PM.

I did no evening gardening at home other than watering all my pots and running one sprinkler because the north wind was a ridiculously strong and miserable thirty something miles an hour.

 

 

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26-29 June: a whole work week

I am trying to get this blog to be only one, not two, weeks behind before the next garden tour which is, in my garden-tour-experienced opinion, the best of the local tours by far, and so reasonably priced.

**Tuesday, 26 June 2018**

Our main mission was to water.  Fortunately, the weather had been cool and occasionally misty here at the beach so no plants were distressed by our five day absence.

Ilwaco Post Office

Ilwaco post office

Long Beach

Lots of people asked me to ID Allium christophii.

Allium chrisophii

California poppies, Geranium ‘Rozanne’, Cosmos ‘Pop Socks’, Agastache (Allan’s photo)

Brodiaea ‘Queen Fabiola’ and Geranium ‘Rozanne’

Alchemilla mollis in flower reminded me of how Riz Reyes defended it as a good plant.

sign of summer: a WSDOT (Wash. State Dept of Transportation) traffic counter (Allan’s photo)

I found out that a big healthy hydrangea had been removed and this area rocked over because someone thought hydrangeas were invasive.  It made me think about the Hardy Plant lecture about the book Planting in a Post Wild World and about how important green spaces are rather than heat reflecting paving and rock.  I was sad. Also flummoxed because who thinks hydrangeas are invasive??

Gunnera reflected, Fifth Street Park

I was disappointed as we drove home to catch someone we sort of know, who often passes by our gardens, who has agreed with us that picking and stealing is damaging, picking herself a big bouquet out of the Long Beach parking lot berms.  When I asked her to stop, and she turned, I knew who she was, and I was sad.  She said sorry, but I realized she was the same person that the city manager’s wife had seen picking.  How disheartening.

To go on watering required a dose of ibuprofen and tylenol.

Shelburne Hotel

elephant garlic

Eryngium ‘Jade Frost’ (Allan’s photo)

the first sweet pea (Allan’s photo)

Ilwaco

I watered the boatyard while Allan watered the street trees and planters.

audience (Allan’s photo)

Allan left me the trailer for weeds.

Eryngium ‘Sapphire Blue’ and santolina

When we got home, we found that our dear friend Tony Hofer had toured the garden and left us a watermelon.

Thanks, Tony!

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**Wednesday, 27 June 2018**

The Depot Restaurant

watered

The Red Barn Arena

The “water me!” sign has been working.

audience

Diane’s garden

Allan’s photo (showing the house next door and the big Red Barn horse trailer)

Diane wanted more flowers in one of her containers that just had subtle hardy begonias and a heuchera so we went to

The Basket Case

a welcome rain as we left the Red Barn (where we leave our trailer to go to Diane’s because her driveway is tight)

Basket Case greeters

my buddy, Buddy (Allan’s photo)

Greeting is hard work.

Basket Case co owner, Darrell (Allan’s photo)

Diane’s again

some filling in on the septic box garden

The new roadside bed is taking a long time to fill in….I should have planted more. (Allan’s photo)

Must remember, re perennials: “The first year they sleep, the second year they creep, the third year they leap.” But I should have filled in with more annuals.

The Planter Box

I was on a quest for some plants for a restaurant friend.

The neighbour’s cat was visiting Teresa.

Klipsan Beach Cottages

We got there pretty late, but we did get there!

birdbath view

The garden is full to overflowing, the way I like it. Beloved friend and KBC manager Mary likes more space between plants, likes some ground showing.  Now I have Planting in the Post Wild World to cite!

The tall plant is Thalictrum ‘Elin’.

Cosmos ‘Xanthos’ (with ‘Seashells’ in the corner)

Tetrapanax papyrifer ‘Steroidal Giant’

OleBob’s Restaurant, Port of Ilwaco

In the evening, we redid some pots for our friend Chef Laura of OleBob’s.  They had been full of dead and dying pampas grass, of all things.

before, June 15th

Someone had pulled the pampas grass out, which saved us some time.

working on it

after, with pancho. Lemon balm and lemon verbena included for Chef Laura to garnish her tea. (Allan’s photo)

At home, I found THIS MANY snails on one cluster of lilies.  They went for a long walk.

my cute little nemesis

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**Thursday, 28 June 2018**

Ilwaco

I do love an all Ilwaco day.  Our mission was to water as many of the port curbside gardens as possible.

We started at the fire station where I was furious that someone had stolen a cheap little silly celosia.  Stealing from a volunteer garden and even worse from the volunteer firefighter’s garden!

There used to be three.

Fire Station garden (Allan’s photo)

We went on to weed and water along the port curbside.

the only eremerus of many that bloomed, and it is short. (Allan’s photo)

Let it be known that except for Time Enough Books and the Freedom Market gardens, we do the curbside only (left) not the business properties (right).

one of my favourite beds

When I got to my most favourite bed to take my usual photo, I yelled.

Someone had put great gaping ugly holes in my photos.

The santolina will recover. The lavenders might not.

I was livid.  I went to the port office, where I have been mildly agitating for some signs at the boatyard, and waved my arms around.  Of course, the office staff was supportive and upset on my behalf because they all love the gardens.  I posted the photos on Facebook, too, with an accompanying rant, and our dear friend Artist Don Nisbett spotted it.  He emerged from his gallery with this, which by the time he found me watering nearby he had already shown to the port; they just wanted him to add the word please.

He is going to laminate signs and the port will get them installed in my most favourite curbside beds and at the boatyard.  The number is the non-emergency police number.  I know they have better things to do than go after plant thieves…but…it was a brilliant idea to add that.

I am not a hugger, but Don got a big hug.

When we got home, Allan dug out a sickly hypericum stump for me, the one I cut back and later regretted…

I had time to sift out a couple of barrows of compost for the now empty spot.

looks like bin four is full of good stuff

I got one of my new ladies in waiting planted in one of my new troughs.

tag by Dan Hinkley, I do like that sort of thing.

At the end of the day, Don came over with a present for us.

T shirts!

Oh, why the crab, you might ask? Ilwaco is a fishing community and one of its biggest fisheries is crab.  Don had already made this “crabby gardener” art.  I don’t know who he was thinking of when he painted it. 😉

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**Friday, 29 June 2018**

I woke up feeling like a cough or cold was brewing in my lungs.  This worried me because I am a hypochondriac AND because I am obsessed with getting to the Grays Harbor garden tour next weekend.  I canceled our Garden Gang dinner because of feeling poorly.

Skooter behind the garage

J’s and Norwood gardens

We started at the J’s, kitty corner across the street.  I heard meowing and looked at our house and saw Skooter watching us.

He is to the right of our driveway.

Blackberries that were coming from next door got cut.

Allan’s photo

Weeded the Norwood shade garden, too (two doors down)

our post office garden

Long Beach

Welcome sign finally has some colour, but is no Withey Price masterpiece…sigh.

We checked to see if the rugosa roses had been machine-trimmed on the beach approach, which I was hoping for.  They were not.  I felt very sorry for myself as I started to shear them.  They were out onto the road a few inches and this will not do for the heavy traffic of Fourth of July.

poor pitiful me

I sheared and Allan picked up. After, Allan’s photo

There was no street parking downtown, so we parked in the big parking lots.  I wondered if we are going to have to string trim the big center berm…and when?

We watered all the city planters in town but not the ones on the beach approaches.

I was grumpy because a new fence is blocking an alley where we have ALWAYS walked through with our hoses when there is no main street parking.

While working, I met a nice blog reader named Peggy, which cheered me up considerably. She offered to bring a crew of friends to help us put up our heavy cement bench!  I demurred because the garden is a mess and I have to focus on weeding for company next week.  It was awfully sweet and I may end up taking her up on it in August.

Allan’s photo

The nice Wind World Kites owner took my heavy bucket of water and walked it to the far planters in Fish Alley.  His greeting is always “How’s the hardest working girl in Long Beach?”

Thank you!

Shelburne Hotel

We watered.

Salvia ‘Black and Bloom’ in the back garden

Allan went up to water the sad rose on the balcony above the pub deck.  I was watching because it worried me; if it gets too much water, it will overflow onto the deck where people are dining.

casting a suspicious eye

It was going well, with the drained water from the rose pot going into the gutter.  Then it turned out the end of the gutter was missing and whoosh, a small waterfall went onto the deck, just missing a diner.  Thank goodness she was a cheerful and understanding sort.  I was so mortified I cried out NOOOOOOOO as the water fell, and then went and hid in the van. fretting that the episode would end up on Trip Advisor.  “I was dining on the deck and the gardener poured water on me and the other gardener was in the garden yelling NOOOOO and it was not a pleasant dining experience.  One star!”  We will NEVER water than rose again when anyone is dining.

I dared to emerge again and did some weeding along the front and was soothed by guests enjoying the garden.

sweet peas

front garden

Ilwaco

Allan watered the planters and street trees and the post office garden while I watered and weeded the two west beds at the port.

before

after, with many oxeye daisies cut back or pulled.

I met two lovely people who just moved to Ilwaco.  I was so sure I’d remember their names, but have forgotten now.  I had pulled some elephant garlic out of this part of the Freedom Market garden…

…because people use it as a walk through. The new folks and I agreed that it is unexpected that people would walk and jump over the log.  But they do.  I gave them the bulbs to either eat or replant in their new garden.  I was so tired I was not up to finding a spot for them.

Meanwhile, Allan had been watering.

watering at the post office (Allan’s photo)

sanguisorba at the post office (Allan’s photo)

We finished at sunset.

Allan’s photo

 

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Hardy Plant Study Weekend 2018: Hampton Garden

Friday, 22 June 2018

Hardy Plant Society Study Weekend

presented by the Northwest Perennial Alliance

Hampton Garden, Redmond

going in

We were pleased to see more flowers bordering the large expanse of front lawn.

Allan’s photo

I recognized painted sage in the planter in front of the porch and went to have a closer look.  Like mine lately, it was not colouring up in a showy manner.

Salvia viridis (painted sage); I wonder if it will show more colour soon?

painted sage, not what it used to be; the bracts don’t seem to colour up as in days of yore.

rose garden by the front porch

lawn border

more metal alliums—I want some! Sign says Allium metallica.

Allan’s photo

Allium schubertii seedhead with water bottle for scale

Allan’s photo

burbler

looking across the lawn

flower beds at the end of the lawn

Allan’s photo

a gorgeous iris

I like flowers.  I prefer a garden with perennials and annuals mixed with shrubs, even though it is more maintenance.

This made me happy!

This made me envious.  (I can’t seem to grow delphiniums.) Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Behind the flower beds, a fenced kitchen garden:

further along the side garden, pots of dahlias

another angle on the handsome delphiniums

We thought this might be a clever upcycled…something…to keep the strawberries off the ground.

By the side porch of the house, we found the chicken topiary with eggs.

On the porch:

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

the catio

Allan’s photo

garden shed in the side yard, next to a chicken coop

I have that same set of chickens, and they fall over all the time.  These were wired into the ground to stay put.

real chooks

a rose petal snack

vigorously digging a hole

Allan’s photo

After the chicken coop came the shade garden.

a courtyard off to the side as one goes toward the back garden.

at the center of the paths

a perfect hosta

Allan’s photo

I looked beyond to find the work area, always of interest.

horse poop, I believe

how so perfect??

Behind the back garden was a barn and pastures.  One dark grey horse walked away from having its photo taken; another was being groomed.

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

an enormous climbing hydrangea

behind the house

I love this cat sculpture.

more of the garden along the horse pastures

plates in a bike wheel

Coming around the house, another border featuring perfect hostas…

Allan’s photo

By looking hard, Allan found a few tiny holes in hosta leaves, just to make me feel less inferior.

Allan’s photo

the house from the hosta bed

perfect…how?

We had taken a long time touring this garden and admiring all the flowers and those perfect hostas.  We still had one more garden to tour today before the tour time ended.

 

 

 

 

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Hardy Plant Study Weekend 2018: Guthrie garden

Friday, 22 June 2018

Hardy Plant Society Study Weekend

presented by the Northwest Perennial Alliance

Guthrie Garden, Woodinville

Allan’s photo

Magazine articles and a photo album made for good reading at the entryway.

So I only saw the top level of this garden, and the view from the deck.  I will start with my photos and then switch to Allan’s.

Tour guests were asked to ring this gong on the way down the stairs.

looking down from the deck

on the deck

Now for Allan’s photos.

You can read more about this garden here and here (which has just the sort of walk-through description that I like in a tour post).

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