7 April: all Ilwaco

Monday, 7 April 2014

I do like an all Ilwaco work day.  If only we did not have several well loved gardens up past 220th Street, I would like to keep all the work to Long Beach and Ilwaco.

We began just down the block at Larry and Robert’s garden.  Seeing the old grass covered garden bed along the west wall of the house reminded me that clearing it was supposed to be one of our spring projects.  Oops.  We had not budgeted that much time.  While I weeded the rest of the garden, Allan got halfway through that neglected task.

before (noon) and after (1:15)

revealed: gravel and a nice brick edge

Possibly the gravel area that Allan discovered is supposed to be a spot for the wheelie bin!

Meanwhile, I weeded.

east side corner

I do hope that tree, Robinia pseudoacacia ‘Frisia. at the back of this sheltered area, comes back from the winter okay.  It looks a little peaked and lost two small lower branches. I’m worried.

I added a few violas and an Erysimum ‘Winter Orchid’…so fragrant!…to the garden boat.

Erysimum ‘Winter Orchid’

Before departing, I had to take a few photos of Tom and Judy’s “back forty”, the little sunny spot by their driveway.

Hornbuckle back forty, across Pearl to the east of Larry and Robert’s garden

Judy’s tulips

one of their 30? or so Japanese maples

artful rocks and driftwood

more tulips

The day, as you can see, had turned bright, sunny and warm.  When I went home (just half a block’s walk) to get some violas for the boat, I had to change into cooler clothes.   And yet, the whole time we were at Larry and Robert’s garden, we could hear the foghorns blowing and could see, between the port buildings two blocks away, white fog hanging low over the Columbia River.

We moved on to Don and Nellie’s garden just two blocks away.  Our goal was to get the rest of the garden weeded so that we can get a yard of soil for it later this week, and then move on to the boatyard garden.  It look longer than we thought.

tulips still blooming

shady bed against neighbour’s fence, before and after

enclosed garden, west side of house, weeded and raked

I also weeded on the shrub bed on the north side of the house and a couple of pocket gardens here and there.  The boatyard garden would have to wait for another day.

We did get to the Howerton Way garden, at the Port of Ilwaco, next to the Powell Gallery and Pelicano Restaurant.  While driving home Sunday after helping Jenna move, I had noticed some shockingly large shotweeds in there.  And then, pulling the shotweed Monday evening, I became increasingly irked by the last of the Howerton Way phormiums.

phormium (New Zealand flax)

So ugly!  So beat up by winter.  And planted right next to the sidewalk, where it will want to get big as a bus and poke everyone in the eye.  We did not do any of the original plantings along Howerton.  It seems no thought was given to pokiness of certain plants, or to sight lines for people pulling out of driveways.  Over the course of time, we have removed all but this one of the flax.  Last fall, we got the port crew with a backhoe to pull a huge one out of this very garden, along with a pampas grass and, further down Howerton, two other giant grasses.

I poke around the phormium with our best shovel, saying to Allan that NEXT time we weeded here, it had to go.  Imagine my delight when he went after it with the pick.

triumph!

Now there are only two horrible Phormiums at the port.  Ironically, they are ones we moved, with great difficulty, from the Time Enough Books parking strip garden to stand on either side of the bookstore entrance.  Back in the day, people could not bear to throw the darn things out, and always wanted us to reposition them somewhere else. Now they are each the size of a garden hut and we’ve called upon the port crew to remove them.  I no longer let myself get talked into saving any of that accursed plant.

As we gardened, fog rolled into the port parking lots.

looking west over the boat storage yard

We did a bit more weeding in the gardens by Don Nisbett Gallery and the Port Office.  I found four dead as can be santolinas, and I think I know why.  I had pruned four of them in the fall, since they had the most lovely rosettes of silver foliage down low.  I believe that exposed them to the frost, with no old foliage to protect them, and so they plotzed.  The ones I pruned in late winter all look fine…

I did not think to photograph the corpses.

Tulip ‘The First’ cheered me up.

We urgently need to get back to all of the Howerton (and the boatyard) gardens for more weeding.  I’m trying not to get all stressed out about work, and spring clean up is easier since we quit one big, one medium, and one little job since last year (and then took on two new medium jobs….but still….)

The rain has put us behind, and yet I have cherished all the good reading weather.

the lovely view to the east from where we dump our port debris

Tomorrow, we hope to do one north end job and then pick up a yard of Soil Energy and mulch Nellie’s garden.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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27 Oct: 2 friends, 2 gardens

Sunday, 27 October, 2013

Ah, a day off at home…After breakfast I started the breakdown of a big debris pile.  It began as Mount Sod when we dug up the front  lawn upon moving in here in October of 2010.  Then it became a spud hill.  Potatoes are said to “clean the soil” and they certainly did seem to help the sod break down in jig time.  Because it is in a spot convenient for  debris disposal from my own garden, and only somewhat inconvenient for hauling in clean garden debris from jobs, it has been growing, and sinking with decomposition, and growing again over three years.  I am moving the un-decomposed material to a new pile on the other side of the yard.

the former Mount Sod (with full wheelbarrow in the foreground)

I have a selection of evergreens that I bought from Back Alley Gardens. I have had the best of intentions of trying Pam Fleming’s advice that columnar evergreens would look great in the big flower beds.  And yet, I resist.  I worry that the ones I chose, especially a couple of Eucryphia, will not be columnar enough.  And I want to block this truly unoffensive view:

crab pots under silver tarp behind the next door gear shed

There is absolutely nothing wrong with crab pots under a tarp.  They are, of course, much more picturesque when first stacked there in late winter after crabbing season.

colourful crab pots in spring

But they have to be covered to protect them through three seasons of weather.   I do think a nice evergreen backdrop along that edge of the garden will look better than the tarped pots.

near the debris pile, cosmos as high as the fence

Nearby, in my usual easy distracted way (“something shiny syndrome”!), I started to dig out a great big Helianthus ‘Lemon Queen’.  I do like Pam’s idea of replacing it with a columnar evergreen.  But…it was hard work.

Helianthus ‘Lemon Queen’

I imagined Allan might come help dig it, even though he was busy constructing the framework for our annual Halloween Avenue of Spooky Plants.  At least I got it all loosened up.  It had gotten, in just two years, much too big for the space, crowding a nearby Enkianthus.  In fact, it may be that when Lemon Queen comes out, I should just leave that space blank….

I took a break and checked on Allan’s project along the front walkway.

constructing Spooky Plant Avenue

While in the front garden, I noticed my largest Melianthus major is blooming.  That is odd as when it does bloom, it is usually in very early spring.

the odd flowers of Melianthus major (and the leaves smell like peanut butter)

In early afternoon, Debbie Teashon of Rainyside.com came to photograph the autumn dishevelled garden.  We agree there is beauty to be found in late season dishabille.

Debbie at work…She has been a pro photographer for many years.

Allan had finished the Avenue of Spooky Plants framework so I began to add the plants while Debbie wandered without me dogging her every step to see what she was finding good enough to photograph.  When she was done, we walked four doors down to Tom and Judy’s garden.

The Hornbuckle “kids”, Towbeh, Stymie, and Beep wanted to join us in the front garden

Judy’s excellent patch of moss

two trees

The one in the background is right on the property line between two lots…

a hummingbird on Judy’s porch

I love Tom and Judy’s porch sign.  Their garden is pure evidence of their industriousness.  In the typical way of small town talk, someone new to town who must have observed through the window that Tom and Judy sometimes watch telly put about that they were lazy people….and within less than a day the story had gotten right back to Judy!  One of the first lessons learned, often the hard way, upon moving here from a city is that remarks like that zoom quickly through the small town grapevine.

After a garden tour and visit with Judy, Debbie and I walked back to her vehicle for her drive back north to her home near Heronswood Nursery.  On the windshield, next to a little pot of Ajuga ‘Pink Silver‘ that I had given her a start of, we found the oddest note.

Only the fact that it was on an index card, like we use for our daily time cards, tipped me off that it was from Allan.  I tracked him down weedeating in the back yard to tell him that we did not understand.  He said “It means if you don’t understand it, you don’t get any pie.”  Huh???   He had to give me a couple more hints before I got it…Pie on Porch!!  He had packaged some of his home made pumpkin pie in bite sized pieces for Debbie to snack on while driving.

(Judy’s review of Allan’s pumpkin pie:  “Allan’s pie is the best pumpkin pie I’ve had since my mom’s last which was probably 23 years ago. Excellent and more !”)

After Debbie’s departure, I moved a couple more wheelbarrows full of debris;  I had had no intention of finishing that project today.  It might get done on the next reasonably nice day off at home…or not until winter staycation time.

decreased pile

Now I can see the lower layer of good soil beginning to appear.

While collecting tall plants for the spooky avenue, I took some photos of the garden.

front garden rose

back garden, east bed

birdbath draped with fuchsia

another hardy Fuchsia

the spooky avenue, coming along nicely

Before dusk, I took a four block walk to photograph some Halloween decorations on Lake, Spruce, and Willow Streets.

punkins

skulls

at the scariest house…I bet this thing will be in motion on Halloween night

Willows Street

I love this old house on Advent Avenue:

What stories it must have…

Hocus Pocus

At dusk, I gathered the remaining Cox’s Orange Pippin apples from my little tree of that name.  The three orangey coloured ones were the ripest ones I had tried yet and oh MY!   I have never had an apple so good.  Allan agreed.  They have a citrusy overtone and put any other apple I have ever eaten to shame.

Cox’s Orange Pippin

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25 Oct: not much working

Friday, 25 October, 2013

Last July when Sheila and Debbie were here to have a pizza dinner during Peninsula garden tour weekend, I filled a cardboard box with papers from the dining room table in case the cold north wind inspired us to dine inside.  I did go through the papers as I boxed them to make sure I was not losing any urgent bills.  Three months later, ththat box still sits, unsorted, on the floor.  I might get the papers sorted when staycation finally arrives in mid-December.  Meanwhile, the cats enjoy assorted piles, to sleep on.

Mary and Smokey having a late October snooze

The workday started as usual with a little admiration of plants in the front garden at home.

Dichroa febrifuga

white sanguisorba

Just down the street, Allan had already started loading debris that our client Larry had cut yesterday on the edge of his property.

Allan’s photo of the rather large pile

It was a big pile; Allan got it into one load.

Meanwhile, I tidied up Larry and Robert’s garden by pulling some worn out Cosmos.

Their beauty berry still far outshines mine.

I think it is crazy that a hellebore is blooming now!

Larry and Robert’s, looking south

pineapple sage

I heard Judy’s voice talking to her dogs in her own courtyard and had to pop over to say hello and to photograph her gorgeous maples while they still had leaves.

over the courtyard fence

courtyard corner

This birdbath looks perfect, much more than a round one would.

Two weeks earlier, Judy had taken a photo of one of the courtyard maples in its full autumn colour:

13 October, photo by Judy Hornbuckle

back to 25 October: by the driveway

front garden

I walked the half block home as Allan finished loading, to get an empty bucket to make the compost bucket switch at Olde Towne.  While there the UPS man came with the first of the bulbs…fortunately, just the small box that comes from Colorblends.

and so it begins

I have resolved to start out by calling the sorting and planting of the bulbs “Bulb Time” instead of “Bulb Hell.”  We’ll see how long that lasts when the rest of the bulbs get here.

While Allan switched the buckets, I went into Larry’s shop, Antique Gallery, Too! and we made quick work of getting a couple of problems solved in setting up his new Facebook business page.

in Antique Gallery Too!, the sister store to the Antique Gallery

If you need a lamp…

During Allan’s bucket switching errand, he encountered a friend who urgently needed some assistance and so I waited for him at Olde Towne with a coffee while he helped with the crisis elsewhere.  (It all turned out well in the end.)  Who should I find at the window table but our visiting friend Debbie T, working on her novel.  Since she was taking a break, our visit passed the time till Allan returned.  Fortunately, it was a day with only two jobs definitely planned, both of which could be shortened if need be.

Since our next stop was to head north to dump debris, we made a detour to check out a boat for Erin’s garden.  Oh yes, this will be perfect!

measuring a garden boat!

I will be able to fit a lot of bulbs in that, and am working on an arrangement to get it delivered to Erin’s garden before the end of November.

Then the actual workday resumed.  Upon arriving at Peninsula Landscape Supply to dump our debris, my heart warmed to see a good friend of mine.

the neighbour dog, Bob

Bob has a wonderful personality.

In Peninsula Landscape Supply’s u-pick dahlia garden

Finally, at 3:30 PM we started the workday I had originally planned for today, before Larry emailed about the pile of debris, and before our friend had a need for help.  I am so bored with deadheading Agyranthemum ‘Butterfly’ that I did not at all mind having to do a rather slipshod job of it!

a cute rig at Andersen’s RV Park

(Note the blue sky; it is quite sad that a certain blog reader I know came to the beach for just one day earlier in the week, hoping for the sunshine we were having here, and the day she was here was the one cold grey day this week.)

Then I helped Allan finish up his weeding project…a really tough one with lots of horrible white rooted couch grass.

before and after….

It is such a ghastly area that we reset the rock to make the garden area smaller, so some of the grass can just be hit with the strimmer when it pops back up.

We got to The Anchorage Cottages shortly before five; that did not give us much time.  Fortunately, there was not a lot that urgently needed doing.

shrubs at The Anchorage

While it is normal to see the Arbutus (lower right, above) blooming now, I find it surprising that the three ceanothus are all in bloom.  In October.  That seems unusual.

One of the Anchorage guest’s cars had a bumper sticker with a message that I much appreciated.

next to “One People One Planet”

faded bumper sticker

As someone who strongly dislikes nationalist slogans like “God Bless America”,  I appreciate the sentiment “God bless the whole world; no exceptions”.   I would probably like that guest a lot; I first met my friend Patt through appreciation of her marriage equality bumper stickers.

At 6:20 we stopped off at Crank’s Roost to leave a housewarming present for Lisa and Buzz.  I had to take a photo of Allan’s wrapping paper job; he used some blue bubble wrap to represent the blue tile roof of their new home on the bay.

the box

Inside was a book of which Allan is fond:  The Caliph’s House by Tahir Shah.  The true story would make the move into almost any house look easy in comparison.

I took a photo of Crank’s Roost in the dusk:

my photo

Allan took a better one:

Allan’s much better photo

At 6:30, we met Debbie Teashon of Rainyside Gardeners for dinner at the Depot Restaurant.  Here is a good example of the power of internet forums.  We had “met” on her Rainyside forum as early as the year 2000, then occasionally met in person at Joy Creek/Cistus Nursery “Rainyside get togethers”.  In 2005, Allan and I gathered with her, Sheila and others in Portland for a Rainyside weekend.  This past July, she came here for the Music in the Gardens tour, and this weekend she stayed at the cosy Arcadia Court Hotel,  belonging to someone she had “met” on another forum.  Meanwhile, my cash mob co-organizer, Michelle, just “met” Debbie on Facebook through me and comped her two nights in a suite at the Breakers resort, enabling her to stay through the entire weekend.  I have warned Deb of the danger of falling in love with the Long Beach Peninsula…and five days here of perfect weather and great food and good accommodations could be very seductive.

We talked for so long and with such enthusiasm that the restaurant had closed, all the other diners had left, the chef and his wife were having their own dinner,  and the staff was cleaning up around us when we finally stood to leave at 8:30.

Depot after closing

Next: a social art and garden weekend…

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gardening and art

Friday, September 27, 2013

With much rain predicted, I was sure we could get the entire day off.  I had various computer projects in mind, mainly sorting out and deleting some of the 16,000 plus photos I’ve taken since my old computer crashed last February.

I walked down to Olde Towne in the wind while Allan continued to snooze.

strawberry waffle

He joined me after awhile because I had gotten thoroughly soaked by sideways rain and buffeted by wind on the way to breakfast.  While he took the opportunity to go to a shop in Seaview to have new shocks installed in our van, I got a ride home from Queen La De Da and told myself I would put ten things away before I booted up the computer.  After maybe thirty things had been properly dealt with, I proceeded to sort cerinthe seeds that I had collected over the summer.

Cerinthe chaff

Out of that pile of chaff (in a bowl made by my friend Sheila (New Leaf Plants and Pottery), I got over 150 seeds.

Cerinthe seeds

They are large and each plant produces so many that I am amazed at how expensive a packet of Cerinthe major purpurascens seeds is.

Allan returned from his errands and told me that, as the rain and wind had slowed, he had seen the Port of Ilwaco crew out removing (with a backhoe) some of the tall ornamental grasses we had tagged earlier in the week.  We waited long enough to give the crew a head start and then went out…leaving the cats snoozing.

Smokey and Mary

The crew had done a wonderful job of tidying up after themselves after removing grasses to the north of the old Port Bistro building.

where once were grasses

We had just a bit of cleaning up to do so we also clipped the big, woody old lavenders.  We may replace them next spring.

before (Sept 25)

after

I am a big fan of ornamental grasses; the problem with those is that they blocked the oncoming traffic sightline of people leaving the nearby parking lots.

Just to the west in the next curbside bed, the removal of another large Miscanthus had pulled the root mass of a Ceanothus in a way that reminded me of the ruching up of a rug.

root mass out of place

Allan managed to get it back where it should be with the pick, and I did some pruning on the Ceanothus and pulled as much soil as possible into the hole where the grass used to be.   We’ll get more soil but we want to wait till the removal of the rest of the tagged plants because we will have more holes to level off.

by the tuna club…I’ll plant something smaller in this spot.

At home, the cats were still snoozing but Mary welcomed some attention.

waking up

At five PM we walked three blocks down to the museum for opening night of “Charles Fitzpatrick: Pen & Photo”.  On the way, I admired a stunning gazania in Judy’s garden.

Gazania

The rain held off for our walk to the museum, and the snacks were excellent.

refreshments

Peninsulites examine the photos.

One panel of photos was especially interesting to me as it showed a lot of old hotels, including the Grandview Lodge…AKA The Sou’wester.

enlarged

Back in those days, the beach came right up to J Place in Seaview and was at the Sou’wester’s front door.  Now it is half a mile to the west because of dune accretion.

Every November, the museum has a lively auction of small pieces created by local artists and craftspeople.  The display was up for preview and I now know which ones I am going to bid on.

preview of 6×6 art auction

Unfortunately, so do a number of other people.

art collectors plotting

We were able to walk home without being rained on.

heading home past Larry and Robert’s garden boat, with Judy and Tom’s house in the background

Soon after we were cozily indoors, the rain returned with force and remained for most of the next two days.  As it was only 6 PM, I had a good head start on writing the blog post about the wonderful bayside garden I had seen the day before.  What with getting the photos in the right order and side distractions such as messages from friends, it took four hours to complete the entry after all.

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another working week, part one

In my continuing quest to catch up to the present day….

Monday, September 2, 2013

The day began inauspiciously with the discovery of a broken glass ball in the garden by the front steps.  It had been tucked into that bare spot by the pot of water….How it rolled so far is beyond me.  Allan blames cats.

There was no fallen apple to explain it…

Before we left for work, our friend and fellow garden businessperson Ed Strange stopped by and what with sitting around schmoozing for awhile, all of our days got off to a late start.  No wait, Ed had probably been working since eight AM and was taking a late morning break!

We accomplished a one-off weeding job that had been on the schedule for a couple of weeks.  Last week’s rain put it off because it is not a job we would want to do in bad weather.  Too many people driving on busy Sandridge Road would feel sorry for us.

helping out at The Basket Case…before and after

Next, Jo’s garden, where we have been working once a week to keep it up to the perfection it enjoyed on garden tour day.

Jo’s garden

Jo kept saying how sad it was to see the garden going down…and it is, even though many of the flowers keep blooming.

the northwest side

A pair of doves or pigeons (I’m not much of a birder) cooed in the tree by the birdfeeder area….

And I wondered if they caused competition for the little birds.

Pine siskins I do know! (I think.)

That was not much to accomplish for one day.  A weekend off seems to make it hard to get revved up on Monday, and added to that the fact that it was the Labour Day holiday Monday seemed to sap our will to work into the evening.    We remembered that the Depot Restaurant was having its annual Labour Day ribs special and were lured into an early dinner….at 5:30!   We usually eat at 11:00 PM at this time of year…after I am done with a blog entry (and thank goodness Allan cooks or it would be cold cereal for me).

inside the Depot

Gazpacho soup

Just imagine:  “Gazpacho Seville: Traditional Cold Spanish Soup with Plum Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Sweet Bell Peppers, Smoked Paprika topped with Grape Tomato Salsa ”

Oh my, it is my favourite summer menu item.

Outside, the Solidago ‘Fireworks’ put on an excellent show even though last week’s rain had somewhat knocked them over.

‘Fireworks’ goldenrod and cosmos in the Depot garden

When we got home there was still enough light to cut out another strip of lawn to fill the wheelie bin.  I continue my internal debate about whether or not to turn this whole area to gravel paths and a scree garden.

it’s not the prettiest lawn….the concrete to the right is my neighbour’s driveway

Tomorrow we would have to get cracking on work again, but for now…dusk is peaceful at home.

back garden at dusk

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

In the morning watering of the greenhouse and patio plants, I noticed that my miniature cattail was in bloom.

cat tails

I would never make the mistake again of planting them in a natural pond (as I did at my old house) but they look great in a water tub.

The Sugar Magnolia pea that Nancy Allen gave me is blooming and making pretty purple peas even though I planted it quite late.

Sugar Magnolia pea

garden boat in the morning

front garden looking east: still pondering whether to make gravel paths

As is convenient when I dawdle while Larry and Robert’s garden needs watering, Allan had left for their place five doors down across Pearl Street.  I walked down and joined him.

Past Tom and Judy’s house, heading west

the Larry-Robert garden boat, looking south

sad little squirt on this side of the three river rocks

While we have been watering pretty regularly, the state of this Coreopsis ‘Flower Tower’ (should be at least five, if not eight, feet tall! rather than about six inches) shows that it is not enough.  We will be mulching this whole garden with cow fiber as a fall project and it will hold moisture better next year.

In concern over the weightiness of the new this year Robinia pseudoacacia ‘Frisia’…..seems to be leaning way too much…I pruned it a bit and hope I don’t regret it later.  Allan brought the tree back from Seattle.  I wish it had started out smaller and more upright.

before and after

Next we drove to Casa Pacifica, a garden near Wallicut Farms.  It had been three weeks or so (more?) since we had been there.  It has water problems so nothing grows much in summer, not even the weeds.

the two shy dogs, Darcy and Spook

two indoor kitties watching from a screen door

Even that bit inland the day was hotter.  We deadheaded the twelve whiskey barrels of annuals.  A daisy had made its way into one of them.

There wasn’t much to do in the garden borders.   Spider season has begun and they are all over the gardens.

Right after I took the above photo and then had to deadhead the buddliea to which the spider had attached its web, it ended up on my wrist trying to crawl up my sleeve.  My cries of “NO!” were more gutteral than shrill and seemed to scare the spider away.

Next we deadheading the Long Beach welcome sign…hundreds of dead little blossoms of Agyranthemum ‘Butterfly’.

Acidanthera just started to bloom at the welcome sign

yellow Bidens along the edge is self cleaning….

While we watered the Long Beach planters, I considered that the reason that people sometimes thank me for working is that they think I am volunteering.  Even though we took over all the planters several years ago, some of them still have signs naming a business or individual who used to maintain them.

Some of the business names don’t even exist anymore, like The Rocket Diner and Las Maracas Restaurant.

 

One of my planter favourites: Salvia patens

While I watered the main street planters, Allan was bucket watering the Bolstadt beach approach planters and hose watering the street trees.  I still had nine planters to go (of 37 plus six whiskey barrels) when I looked north and saw him watering his last tree.

He’s so far away you can’t see him in the photo…but I could.

Just about then, I looked in the planter just showing at the bottom of the photo and saw three gleaming jewel cases.  CDs, I thought; what could they be?

not very hidden

I am sorry to say they turned out to be three porn movies.  Particularly creepy ones purportedly featuring teenage girls.  They ended up broken in the garbage but I had to wonder….I have often found empty beer cans and liquor bottles in the planters near bus stops, but….Wouldn’t someone have to be pretty drunk to forget their porn when the bus came?

the bus stop from across the street

I’m glad I found the discs before someone’s child did.

Shaking off that weird experience, we finished the day with Allan watering the Ilwaco planters while I weeded the boatyard.   The port and boatyard gardens needed to be perfect for the annual Slow Drag at the Port, coming up on Friday.

boatyard garden

a good section with Gaura ‘Whirling Butterflies’ and cosmos

Solidago ‘Fireworks’

I can think of a few gardens we do that do NOT have Solidago ‘Fireworks’:  Boreas, Ann’s, KBC and The Anchorage.  What an oversight!

We then dumped our debris in the peaceful boat trailer parking area at the east end of the marina.

I love this view and am sad there is going to be a building and parking lot put here, or at least that’s the word around town.

The words “paved paradise and put up a parking lot” come to mind.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Aug 22-23: working and skiving

Aug 22, 2013

On our compost-bucket-switch stop at Olde Towne, we walked right in, noticed the nice sign for lentil stew, switched buckets and were leaving when Luanne asked if we had seen the new sign.

inside

outside

I hadn’t looked up! (If you look to the right above, you will see our new van next to Chester and Allan.)

by local signpainter Chris Jacobsen

And then….Andersen’s, since we had not gotten there yesterday.

Payson Hall at Andersen’s

still some poppies

Staffer Al was giving Chewie a bath in nice warm water from the outdoor shower hose.

Chewie

such a face!

Next, back down to north Long Beach to the Anchorage Cottages garden. I re-thought a thought that I had had the previous week there. For some reason I had got it into my head that we would cut down the Virburnums under the window of cottage 8 . Had I been mad? I had not liked it when the rhodo was cut down by the cottage window to the left, and have said it must be allowed to grow up and make a green dappled light inside that room again. Surely the guests prefer to look our their window and see green Virbunum instead of the car park!

What was I thinking?

I still like my new idea I had of putting ferns on the right side of the walk where there is a mishmash of plants. The problem of overwork means we often just weed and prune and water without having time to really think about the less important areas of various gardens. I’m having a little more time to think now that it is the slightly slower time of August.

I think limbing up the viburnums is a better idea than taking them down and letting them grow back thicker and short!

I would much rather be behind rhododendron foliage than have a view out one of these windows…(unless it were a window facing toward the sea. Which is not the case here.)

green is better…although the number 8 has gotten hidden again!

Anchorage window boxes

Next, we watered some of the Long Beach planters…

a clear yellow Tigridia (Mexican Shell Flower)

and walked briefly out to the kite festival booths. By the time we got there, the kites were all down from the sky so we didn’t go all the way to the beach. I was hoping to find the vendor from last year who had very inexpensive reading spectacles. Did not find her but did find total confirmation that the Rugosa rose takeover of the Bolstadt beach approach garden is indeed about the only thing that would hold up to kite festival foot traffic.

looking west

a newly worn path

This wasn’t bare last week.

That’s what happens.

What happened here?

Rugosa roses standing up for themselves.

Gaura lindheimeri ‘Whirling Butterflies’

When we work on the beach approach garden in late summer, we often get asked if the rose hips are tomatoes. One of the common names for Rugosa rose is the Tomato Rose.

good for rose hip tea, rich in Vitamin C

just a very few flowers left…The leaves are rugose (wrinkled, corrugated)

While walking through the vendor area, not only did I meet our friend Donna M, but I also got a thrilling phone call from Golden Sands, informing me that the courtyard garden sprinkler system had been repaired: Raymond Millner from The Planter Box had found and fixed the leak!

To the east of the arch, I admired the signs for the new coffee shop which will feature treats by the delectable Pink Poppy Bakery.

It just occurred to me to Google the meaning of Akari: “light” or “glimmer”

The Starvation Alley folks live next door to us and produce organic cranberry juice from their cranberry bog (which is not next door to us!). Pink Poppy Bakery is associated with the gorgoeus Pink Poppy Farm. The new place will be a pleasant stop on Long Beach workdays if I follow my resolve to actually take breaks.

Back downtown, I returned to watering. I admired one of the four Knautia ‘Thunder and Lightning’ planted in two planters near the Cottage Bakery and Funland. Four Knautia in all, two on the outer edge of each planter….

Knautia ‘Thunder and Lightning’

But wait!! Where one of the four should be, there is nought but a creeping succulent…

NOOOOOO!

Finger blight has struck and I did not even notice the theft till the sedum had filled back in. (I have to plant low things on the inner edge of this particular planter because, being next to Funland, it gets seriously sat upon.) I cannot even find more of the Knautia to plant a replacement this fall, and that makes me mad.

One of the remaining Knautias mingling nicely with a California poppy.

After watering, home….

I tried to get a good photo of the mysterious looking hardy gladiolus papilio…

looking up from underneath in the garden boat

further back by the bogsy wood…pink turtlehead

My Nicotiana langsdorfii is still going strong!

At almost all my jobs, the Nicotiana is dried and not blooming much….I credit my high water table, great soil, and lots of supplemental water because of being on a garden tour…

August 23, 2013

First thing the next morning: Because I thought Larry and Robert’s garden had gotten a bit too dry earlier, Allan went down the block to water it while I tried to get me arse in gear for work. I followed him down there after awhile and had the pleasure of walking past Tom and Judy’s garden.

¯

Hornbuckle garden, looking west along the fence

and further west

Judy’s poppies

When I joined Allan, I told him something had happened to my resolve about work. The previous day I had noticed on Facebook that Jane and Dirk of the English Nursery were off to the county fair…

Hmmm…

And then this morning, our client Ann had posted “Heading out to the Pacific County Fair and just found out it is Senior Citizen Day!! I get in FREE!!” Huh. Could we be missing something? The fair was an annual event in the town of Menlo about 26 miles away. We had a nice new van for a comfortable drive. I had never been to it and started to think we should go, and Allan agreed. But we would have to hustle to get some work done first.

At the Depot Restaurant garden, I finally got around to planting the rosemaries and garlic chives in the herb garden behind the kitchen. Allan went down the block to give Crank’s Roost garden another splash of water to hold it till its (soon to be former) owner returned home.

The Depot flower garden

Depot: Cosmos backed with hops

The garden idea is to attract people’s attention from the main highway half a block west to the Depot…

More bright dahlias would be good at the Depot.

Solidago (goldenrod) “Fireworks’ is just starting to explode behind the Cosmos.

We deadheaded the Long Beach welcome sign and then went back to Ilwaco to weed Ann’s garden. I had planned for us to spend several hours there, but instead we spent an hour and a half.

Butch’s nice new entry arbour dressed up with bamboo

As I entered the back garden, a hustle and bustle of swiftly moving animals skittered from Ann’s garden into the yard of the neighbours to the west.

next door

Before I pulled the bindweed, I just had to photograph more wildlife:

two tiny baby Pacific tree frogs

so very small

looking over Ann’s veg garden, deer proof

sunflowers

While the veg and raspberries are protected from deer, we must choose deer resistant plants for the open flower beds. I intend to bring some starts of Shasta daisies to add to the bed below, and run the golden marjoram all along the edge.

The clay soil has been vastly improved with Soil Energy mulch and dairy manure but needs another application of a couple more inches of mulch to help new plants along.

After removing three wheelbarrows of weeds from Ann’s front and back flower beds, I left her a note on her porch saying that, sadly, SOMEONE had influenced us to go to the fair. I added that we would be back next week (little knowing that stormy weather would intervene)…. and in the midafternoon, we skived off work and headed north to Menlo.

Next: evening at The Pacific County Fair!

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Sunday touring, 7-21-13

On Sunday, July 21, I had the pleasure of arranging a private garden tour for my friends who had come from out of town for the Music in the Gardens tour the day before.  We met, of course, at Olde Towne Coffee Café.

(l-r) Debbie, Kathleen, Luanne (Olde Towne Owner), Sheila, me, photo by Allan

9 AM required an early rising for me but it was not a problem with such a great day to look forward to.

We went first to Tom and Judy’s garden just down the street.  The day might have seemed grey to some, but to us it was perfect weather as the light was ideal for Debbie to take photos.  Below, Judy shows off her latest of 30? Japanese maples.  Or is it 31?

Tom, Debbie, Judy

Along the fence, Debbie found a perfect specimen of Eryngium ‘Jade Frost’ to photograph.  And I find, looking at my photos later, that it was so interesting to watch Debbie’s choices of what to photograph with her handsome professional camera that I sort of forgot to take many pictures myself!  The Eryngium might attain fame some day on her website, Rainyside Gardeners, or in a gardening magazine.

a vignette in the Hornbuckle garden

Next we went to the Boreas Inn to have a look at the west side gardens which are exposed to ocean salt wind.

Boreas: Path to the beach is just past the arch

I had been very mildly appalled when owner Susie bunged some gladiolas into “my” mixed borders.  How declassé!  What, I wondered at the time, would famous NW gardener Ciscoe Morris think when he came there to stay (as planned for June).  The week after, I saw on his telly show that he loves glads.  Now, with this dark plum coloured set looking so grand, I can see why.

glads at the Boreas

Next, we converged on Andersen’s RV Park.  I forgot to explain that the white petunias in the whiskey barrels are a favourite choice of owner Lorna’s.  (The petunias are looking bedraggled with all the wind we have been having.)

at Andersen’s, looking NW

Debbie took lots of photos, I think of the poppy garden.

Deb and the poppies

Meanwhile, Sheila and Allan were intent on something.

on the path through the poppy garden

AHA!  Sheila was collecting seeds!

Busted!   She even had a little plastic bag at the ready.

caught redhanded

My plan to keep viewing gardens from south to north was kiboshed by everyone being hungry, so we skipped the three Klipsan/Ocean Park gardens and went straight on north to Nahcotta to have a delicious lunch at Bailey’s Café.  I became a little anxious about the time, as usual, but forgot to fret when our food came.

An absorbed Kathleen, and Sheila at Bailey’s Café

After lunch, we went further north to Rita’s amazing garden on the bay.  First we stood and marveled at a bad boxwood pruning job that had been hired out.  When Rita herself prunes her boxwood entrance it is perfect, not like this at all (and this is after two months of growing in).

Rita, Kathleen, Debbie, Sheila

Gardeners can discuss something like this for a long time.

garden west of house

The garden is green on green on green and meticulously maintained.

garden east of house

Rita and Ken laid every rock of that wall themselves.  When Allan and I used to work there, she had me trim back draping cotoneaster so it would not hide the work they had done.

west side porch

upper pond

From a pool on the west side of the house, a stream runs to a waterfall pond in the lower, east side garden overlooking Willapa Bay.

boulder by path going to bayside overlook garden

the lower pond, east side of house

I was so interested in my friends’ reactions to the spectacular garden that I did not take any photos of the bay view.  Here’s one taken in early spring from when we used to work in the garden (which we did for a year until time constraints forced us to let it go).

view in spring 2011

After a good long visit with Rita, we departed back southwest to Ocean Park to see two gardens created by neighbours.  This duo of gardens was on the Music in the Gardens tour in 2010 and I had remembered it fondly.

The Door House

I have always believed the local legend that this house was made from shipwrecked doors, but its owner enlightened us that the doors came from an old building, a large lodge of some sort which had many doors.  The walls inside the house (and we were all thrilled to be invited in to see) show the insides of the doors!

a house made of doors

on the garage wall

between garage and house, looking north

To the south of the Door House, a gate leads into the neighbour’s garden.

a friendly gate

Through the gate is the garden of the Greutter family.  The Door House dog felt very at home there.

in the Greutter garden

patio with interesting containers

I especially like the very raised up Phormium, which is the only way I like to grow them myself now (in rustic old garbage cans).

patio containers and recycled glass

glass bottle edging

fire circle

How I love this little garden!

nautical corner

looking north to the Door House

From Ocean Park, we drove south to Klipsan Beach Cottages where Debbie took photos in the fenced garden and the three-waterfall pond by the entry drive.

Debbie in the courtyard

Debbie was on a mission to get lots of seaside garden photos;  Sheila and Allan and Kathleen and I had a great time just walking around and talking with Mary and Denny.

in the fenced garden

This robin had just been seen pilfering blueberries.

For our last stop we visited Patti Jacobsen’s Seaview garden.

Allan and Patti; Debbie photographs a little pond

Patti’s puppy Stella in a rare moment of almost repose

Patti told the story of how some years ago, someone found her this driftwood, perfect for a bench, in the mud of Willapa Bay.  It is one piece of wood, and she had recently polished up to gleaming finish.

driftwood bench

Stella flattening an ornamental grass

entry to Patti’s edible garden

back deck and door

bouquet in Patti’s kitchen window

So our tour day which had begun at 9 AM ended at 6 PM and Kathleen and Debbie departed from Seaview for their homes in Olympia and Kingston.  I had one more social evening with Sheila because she was staying till early Monday morning.  We had dinner at the always delightful Pelicano Restaurant at the Port of Ilwaco and then she returned to her nearby motel and I had that poignant feeling when good friends have all left.

[Edited to add:  Here is an article Debbie wrote using some of her photos from this day.]

The next day, the regular round of work would begin again, but I had the Gearhart garden tour to look forward to at the end of the week.

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Post Office>Larry>Nancy>Jo

We are coming to the end of annuals planting hell.  The dregs of it will drag  into next week with the planting of a few six packs of cosmos here and there but today we finished a couple of jobs that can be crossed off the annuals list now.

First: two six packs of Cosmos, one of painted sage, and a Gaura ‘So White’ went into our volunteer garden at the Ilwaco post office.

cosmos installed

Two partial buckets of weeds came out.  Reminder:  do not plant the charming Euphorbia ‘Fen’s Ruby’.  The bits that came in with plants from my mom’s garden, even though I had tried to eliminate every root, had marched halfway back into the post office garden.

beware; nurseries still sell this bad guy

Next we planted Cosmos, painted sage, a Thalictrum ‘Black Stockings’, Phygelius ‘Snow White’ and a new Echinacea (coneflower) called ‘Green Jewel’ in Larry and Robert’s garden.  Green Jewel is supposed to keep its colour without fading the way Green Envy does.

We took the Heucheras and primroses out of the garden boat and planted them under the triangle of trees and put Cosmos ‘Cutesy’ and ‘Happy Ring’ into the boat for summer, along with one Salvia patens.

the boat garden

all cosmosed up

front porch

The tulip viridis is STILL in bloom.   I love the green tulips more than any others and yet this is the first year I have realized that they are also the latest to bloom.

Tulip Chinatown and Green Wave

watering aprés planting

I’m liking the new gold tree (Robinia pseudoacacia ‘Frisia’).

Here’s how Larry and Robert’s garden relates  to that of our good friends Tom and Judy:

Lake Street sidewalk

looking east: Hornbuckle garden is across Pearl Avenue.

The Hornbuckles were home and showed me the new improved water feature in their courtyard.  I snuck back to get a photo.  With a wider basin and more rocks around it, bathing birds won’t splash all the water out.

a better bubbler

Tom and Judy also redid their “back forty” to replace some junipers (I think? nice ones, not hideous “tams”) that passing dogs had sprinkled on.  Lavenders have taken their place.

the back forty

Next, we replanted the Ilwaco planter that we had emptied of soil due to bad drainage.  I had emailed city hall to remind them to have a hole drilled in the base.  Turns out the hole HAD been drilled.  It was just so small we did not see it.  I forgot to photograph it from inside before Allan put the soil in, so I stuck my camera under the edge of the planter.  The hole is on the side and so small that Allan could not put his little finger in it.  Hmmm.

I couldn’t see where I was aiming the camera under there.

newly planted and hoping for adequate drainage

It now has an Erysimum ‘Bowles Mauve’center, three painted sage, three Diascia, a Calibrachoa, two Sanvitalia and a trailing rosemary.

Next we went to Nancy’s home in Long Beach to deliver some Cosmos and painted sage to the new flower border we helped install last October.  She organizes the Music in the Gardens tour and we think next year her garden will be ready to be on it.

I am very impressed with her vegetable garden:

Nancy’s potager

lilac in bloom

looking from the veg garden to the new flower border

Viridiflora tulips still hanging on

Design hint I learned from Ann Lovejoy:  always figure out the flow of your garden.  It was clear a path would be needed to the neighbour’s garden so we left two passages unplanted, one for garden access and one for neighbourliness.

flower garden coming on

Eryngium ‘Sapphire Blue’

I had been so smitten with Nancy’s veg patch that I forgot to take a long photo of the whole flower border.

Next we went through downtown heading for Jo’s.  As I do every time we drive through town, I eyeballed the planters all the way looking for any problems.   I would be wealthy if paid for the amount of time I spend thinking about work!  The weather did this:

passing through Long Beach

But not for long.  It was fairly pleasant working at Jo’s.  I did the planting while Allan weeded.  In went 18 godetias, 6 or more six packs of snapdragons, a few perennials.  It is a beautiful environment in which to work.

the best use of annual geraniums ever

While planting in the newly revamped colourful entry area, I had a sudden brainstorm.  I was so excited I forgot to take a before photo, so dredged up this one from earlier this year:

before

I suddenly realized that one of the two red flowering azaleas had to go.  We had thought of this earlier but had decided to wait.  Now I was convinced.  Jo and Bob returned from an outing just then and agreed, and by then I already had my loppers and saw and just cut it to the ground.  A big fern came out as well.  It made a wonderful improvement as the focus is now on the new perennials and annuals.  The root mass can come out later or perhaps be kept as a very low shrub.  (I would definitely get rid of the oxalis too; it is very invasive.)

enormously better (The blue pot is where the azalea was.)

When we were done…Well, not quite done, as we have more weeding to do that must wait till next week….I walked through and took some photos.

entryway, container by Basket Case Greenhouse

guest house windowbox

middle courtyard

to west garden

wiggly Coco

and some birds for you know who:

With that, we decided to quit work early (seven!) and have dinner at the Depot Restaurant.  On the way we did stop to bung seven plants into a couple of Long Beach planters, and after our delicious dinner (slightly work-related when we realized we must go back tomorrow to deadhead the last of the Depot tulips!!), we loaded the car at home with all the assorted plants we will need to finish the Long Beach planters tomorrow.

Annuals jobs finished today:  Jo, Ilwaco planters, Larry and Robert garden, Ilwaco post office!

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a visit to Tom and Judy’s

I did take a break from weeding yesterday to visit my gardening friends four doors down, but only for a very few minutes to admire the improved mini-stream in their courtyard.  Tom cleaned the pump and the water runs more vigorously through the miniature landscape.

tiny stream

with tiny dog head

Towbeh wanted her picture taken.

Beep had to be asked to pose.

Stymie was a bit of a curmudgeon.

Judy and Tom have been planting out some pretty new plants:

Dianthus

another Dianthus

a row of Dianthus (Tom likes them)

one of the three new maples recently acquired from The Planter Box

and another

and the third

a salvia?

I have that same plant and it came thr0ugh the winter but is just barely budding.  Hm, three of those might be good in my Veterans Field garden…

I also visited Eryngium “LB”, so named because he was supposed to go to Long Beach but Judy snagged him first!

It turned out I did not need him..

LB will be even more gorgeous when his flowers turn ‘Sapphire Blue’.

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Sunday (mostly) off

We are trying to take Sundays off even when anxious about work and even when having been rained out on other days.  I began the day at midmorning wondering whether or not I will be able to resist at least getting a few things planted at the port.  But one work thing that must be done today is sort out the two car loads of plants that I have acquired from The Basket Case Nursery.  A few go to each client because I wish them all to have the choicest of my favourite plants.

a car load

Everyone we know thinks we need a bigger vehicle than our small two door Saturn, and at plant buying time I heartily agree.  The fantastic gas mileage and our inherent frugality about everything except for plants and (sometimes) restaurants steps in and keeps us small for another year.  It is a struggle with the plants and tools, though.

By 11 AM, I’ve accomplished two other self imposed task:  Uploading photos to two of the several (well, many) Facebook pages that I maintain:  The Basket Case Greenhouse and Klipsan Beach Cottages.

And now: let the plant sorting begin.   It is much easier than in our old place where I had to schlep plants up and down stairs and long pathways to load them for work days.  Here, I can work in the comfort of the garage.

later:   Two hours of sorting resulted in the car equally packed but ready tomorrow with the flats of plants, one hopes, in the right order for easy access.  I easily resisted going out to plant anything for work.

Over the course of the afternoon I decided to focus mostly on pulling as much shotweed as possible before it seeds.  (The seeds shoot sharply into one’s eyes when ripe, perhaps leading to its other common name of “Jumping Jesus!”)   I filled the large wheely bin in a couple of hours because I would not compost the stuff….too likely to pop up in even more places.

by the bogsy wood, before

in the bogsy wood after

When I have time to get after the creeping buttercup, I will really see a difference here.

a shade area, before

and after: satisfying!

Allan worked on measuring and mapping his shade garden but was kind enough to plant about twenty new plants for me.  I do not enjoy planting.  Weeding and pruning I love.  The season of much planting is now on us till June, and I am grateful he saved me from the planting chore today.  Okay, I offered him money, but it was well worth it!

We both took an intermission from our projects to walk four doors down and see the progress in the Hornbuckle courtyard.   Over the last week, Tom and Judy have redesigned their water feature so that it is now the world’s shortest (and cutest) stream and smallest waterfall.

new design: tiny stream

the smallest waterfall

and a new burbler

Because detail in this garden is so important, each rock got washed before being used in the new arrangements.

The emerging leaves of the many Japanese maples in the Hornbuckle garden could make a gallery…

in the courtyard

However, I took photos mostly of the tulip tour around their garden.

by Tom and Judy’s back gate

I love that dark red one.  It came in a mixed bag.

inside

swirly

front garden

I don’t know how Judy has the discipline to not cram the garden full of plants.  The result is that each plant gets its own pride of place and is offset by Tom’s green and perfect lawn and the fine bark mulch.

We took a further break from our garden by sitting in comfortable chairs in the secluded patio and having a good natter while admiring the dogs.

Stymie

Towbeh

Towbeh

Beep

Perhaps the weed free perfection of the Hornbuckle garden is what inspired me to go home and really work hard on those two shot weed infested areas that I accomplished in the early evening.

Next:  a review of plants this past week in our garden.

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