Tuesday, 13 November 2018
Port of Ilwaco
We got up early (for us) to help with decorating the Crab Pot Tree at the port, with gratitude that the weather forecast of a quarter inch of rain and 20+ mph wind was completely wrong. Mostly, as I told Jenna when we showed up at 10:15, my “volunteering” meant that I had volunteered Allan to help while I worked on the nearby boatyard garden. I can’t do heights, and there were other folks to hand things up to the people who can do heights.
Last week, a couple of volunteers had put the strings of lights on. Allan and I were at home that day because we had arranged the delivery of mulch before I remembered it was a Tree Morning.
the tree today when we arrived
Here comes a decorated crab pot from the boatyard.
Crab Pot volunteers
Allan heard one of the volunteers say, “Our corgis thought they were going for a walk!”
Allan’s photo
hanging floats on the tree
This year, some floats are marked with the names of the crabbing fleet.
Two floats represent the Coast Guard…
U.S.Coast Guard Station Cape Disappointment crab float signed by the station personnel and Auxiliary Flotilla 6-2 members.
And one float, to be installed later, will honor the names of two local fishermen who died while crabbing, Luke Jensen and Kevin Soule.
Jenna and a volunteer installing lights to mark the observation field
This year, to avoid folks walking in traffic and being all crammed in around the base of the tree, the watchers and carolers will be across the street in a large parking lot.
When I met Allan, he was an 18 year old who enjoyed climbing the scaffolding of bridges for fun (as I recall).
Allan’s photos:
U.S. Coast Guard National Motor Lifeboat School crab float signed by the staff and students.
Jessie’s Fish Company in the background
For the next two Tuesdays, volunteers will gather at 10 AM to complete the decorating.
Meanwhile, between walking back and forth to take these photos for Discover Ilwaco, I did the fall clean up for the south section of the boatyard garden.
I love our lightweight and efficient new shearing tool, the one recommended to us by Pam Fleming.
Stihl Shrub Cutter
It is ideal for trimming lavender, armeria, santolinas, and also worked well trimming the ceanothus so it is even with the edge of the sidewalk. By late afternoon, I was calling it “the toy” because it is so much fun to use. The question is, if you pay $150 for a tool and spare battery, and it cuts your shearing time in half, who profits financially?
Stihl will profit again because we both like the tool so much that we must get a second one before spring clean up.
I am sorry to tell our California reader(s) that Stihl says “We apologize, but we can no longer sell or ship to CA as a result of PROP 65“. I cannot figure out why, unless it is that the battery is considered toxic. It seems like an environmentally friendly and delightfully quiet little tool to me.
Here is my ultra-cool fasciated Euphorbia characias wulfenii.
I am leaving perhaps a dozen cosmos in the boatyard garden till the frost takes them down.
south end of boatyard garden, done
Allan joined me to finish the north stretch of the garden.
Allan’s photo
I am not a believer in flattening a garden in autumn. I leave a considerable amount of it standing for winter interest and for the birds to get seeds.
We removed the “please leave the flowers” signs and must remember to reinstall them when the narcissi buds appear.
Allan used The Toy on one of the Ilwaco planters and a street tree garden, to flatten the golden oregano. The first hard frost will blacken it, so this is pre-emptive and will also help small bulbs like crocuses show up.
before
after (Allan’s photos)
Sad erysimum may be pulled next spring or sooner.
We next did our last fall clean up all along the port from east to west.
east end looking west
It was so much fun to shape the santolinas and trim the sea thrift with The Toy! In the late winter, we will cut the santolinas much harder. I wonder if The Toy will be able to handle that.
It did a wonderfully easy trimming of the wax myrtle, which I keep low because of traffic sight lines.
before
after…so easy and quick!
My favourite bed by the Ilwaco pavilion…
…is the only one that will need post frost clean up of a couple of cosmos that I grew from seed.
Seed success is thrilling!
At the recently mulched Time Enough Books garden, I was pleased to see lots of poppy seedlings.
dark areas are where some grass weeds came out
poppy seedlings around my new dwarf Stipa
While I moved on to beds further west, Allan cut back an elderberry, as we do each autumn to make it easier for holiday lights to be hung.
before, “someone” forgot to take an after!
Allan said the stems of the barberry will “work well in the Pencil Sharpener”, and I realized we now have a pet name for our one-branch-at-a-time chipper-shredder.
Meanwhile, crabbers were buzzing around with their crab pots all afternoon.
in the parking lot, pots from the gear shed next door to our back garden (Allan’s photo)
finishing the westernmost garden at almost sunset
It had been my dream to get the 22 Ilwaco planters and 10 street tree gardens all done today, as well. I enjoyed the last hour of work at the port better when I let go of that dream.
At 4:30, with half an hour before dark, while Allan dumped debris, I popped across the street to pull cosmos and weeds out of the J’s front garden. Just look who I found over there asleep in the garden.
a big stretch as he emerged from his nap
He has made himself a little nest.
We are now four days away from semi-staycation. J’s will take half an hour more, the Norwoods will be a short job (although I plan to trim some lavender with the toy), pruning Mike’s escallonia is really all there is left to do of fall clean up there, and the planters will take just a couple of hours. A day to quickly finish the Red Barn and then do the LAST EVER fall clean up of Klipsan Beach Cottages garden, and one more session at the Shelburne to prune some of the wisteria and a few perennials…
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Fellow gardener Joseph and his daughter Bella passed by.
Port Office garden finally filling in
from above
view from port office deck
ceanothus pruning at Time Enough Books
Eryngium ‘Sapphire Blue’
west end of marina
looking east
looking south
David Jensen office, before and after:
Removing some weedy catmint from a bed by the Don Nisbett art gallery; I put some small, clean pieces back in:
The good mulch (Gardner and Bloome Soil Conditioner and/or Harvest Supreme) that we added to the Time Enough Books curbside garden has been well worthwhile. The garden is full of poppy seedlings, and the plants are now much more vigorous than before.
