Monday, 20 November 2017
We have a guest photo today from Steve of the Bayside Garden.
“The “Lion’s Head” maple (Acer palmatum ‘Shishigashira’) putting on quite a (late) show”
Today’s work photos were all taken by Allan except for one puppy picture. My mind was completely obsessed with getting as many tasks erased from the work board as possible.
Allan loaded a second wheelbarrow for today’s first job.
I think our yellow rain gauge is broken.
fallen willow leaves in our garden on Willows Loop East.
We intended to start today by applying six large bales of Gardner and Bloome mulch to the Ilwaco Community Building garden. Usually, parking has been good there on Sundays and Mondays (when the library is closed). Today, the lot was all parked up so we drove on to our next job. This made for extra heavy work for Allan, who had to shift the heavy bales around to make room for loading and later offloading debris.
It wasn’t till a library visit the next day that we were reminded that the alternative high school is now housed in the community building, so it will likely be a full parking lot on all school days.
Diane’s garden
We were so pleased to have a good weather day to get Diane’s garden clean up done before Thanksgiving.
raised septic bed before
after clipping Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’
Next year, the sedum won’t be as leggy because we will prune it halfway down in late spring to make it more compact. I also transplanted three potted chrysanthemums and a couple of white California poppies into the raised bed. While I tidied up all the potted plants, Allan clipped the Stipa gigantea and some perennials in the roadside garden and pulled the cosmos.
before
after
We left this handsome stand of Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ till spring clean up
clipping perennials in the side garden
after
We had perfect weather except for one heavy rain squall that we sat out in the van.
At that moment, Diane came walking over from the barn with Holly.
Puppy Holly is dog sized now.
The Red Barn
Next door at the Red Barn, we did just a bit of tidying and clipping in our very small garden there.
in the pasture
The Erysimum ‘Bowles Mauve’ in the barrels just might bloom all winter.
World Kite Museum
We had just a bit of clipping and cosmos pulling to do in the little garden. Recently, we had recommended Sea Star Gardening to prune the long escallonia hedge, and it looked spiffing. Patty emerged for a chat; we told her we will be back after a heavy frost to tidy up the six new blue containers.
after
I am pleased with how well the big purple penstemon is doing in two of the blue pots. I figured the penstemon would have only a short period of bloom and then get moved into the garden. Instead, it has been a do-er.
Penstemon Admiration Society
Even though I was getting concerned about time, we next went to
Coulter Park, Long Beach
to trim around the monument and to pull Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’ next to the ramp to the old train depot building. The ramp remodel has made that garden hard to get at.
before
after
We dumped our almost overflowing load of debris at City Works. Allan had to shift the bales again to do so. With one hour to go before dusk, we started mulching at the
Ilwaco Community Building.
We used the Mary-of-Klipsan-Beach-Cottages method of dumping each bag into a wheelbarrow and breaking up the clods, then wheelbarrowing to our destinations.
The ICB parking lot is a steep one with weird angles. The story is that the engineering was wrong by some inches, so the pitch is awkward for driving and walking.
The little red wheelbarrow was also in play.
the tiered garden, before
This garden got the old fashioned dump the bag and cut it open method.
after mulching
In previous years, we have used bulk mulch from Peninsula Landscape Supply. However, this autumn, that business is closed Sunday and Mondays, the days that we are able to do this job. We decided to go with the bagged mulch, which is easier to use and also a little bit richer (and costlier). It fluffs out a lot from a big compact compressed brick, and covered enough ground to make a difference. Because it takes less time to acquire it and to apply it than applying loose mulch, it saves on labour costs and might factor out about the same as bulk mulch for a smallish job.
Soil Energy has “composted wood products, aged screened sawdust, screened sand, composted chicken manure, lime, fertilizer and iron. (pH 6.2, brown tan in color, 38.9% organic matter).”
Gardner and Bloome Soil Building Compost is “Recycled forest products, arbor fines, composted chicken manure, gypsum, oyster shell & dolomite limes (as pH adjusters), vermicompost, bat guano, kelp meal”.
We buried some maple leaves in with the mulch.
shade garden at the entry to the library
We got done just as the street lights came on.
home
I had the satisfaction of erasing much from the work board. I even put a question mark after the beach approach task; it is not that importan,t although we will do it if we have a nice day before the end of the month. Most of what’s left has to wait for a heavy enough frost to make another go-round necessary. That might not happen till mid December, if at all (and if it does not, the go- round will happen anyway).
In the evening, I read the brief and harrowing novella, Of Mice and Men. When I added it to my Goodreads list, I found this perfect review:
We finished watching Ken Burns’ The Dust Bowl documentary, including all the special features. I recommend it highly.
I wish we could have one more nice day before the end of the month to polish off the pre-frost work list.
