5 July: Long Beach and Ilwaco

Thursday, 5 July 2018

at the post office

our post office garden

matchy matchy Asiatic lily (probably ‘Landini’) and a sanguisorba

Depot Restaurant

weeding and watering…

Dierama (Angels’ Fishing Rod) is blooming.

Eryngium ‘Sapphire Blue’, Agastache (‘Blue Boa’, maybe) and Cornus ‘Hedgerows Gold’

Long Beach

Allan string trimming around the welcome sign

We watered the Long Beach planters downtown.

busy tourist town (Allan’s photo)

Cosmos ‘Xanthos’

We will crisscross the street to do the other three planters in a group of four while waiting for a large crowd to move on.  Still, we do end up having to ask people to move so we can water.

Only once years ago did someone get angry and ask me to come back later; I said gently that we were on our way to water all the Ilwaco planters after Long Beach so no, we could not come back later—and she did move.

Sometimes, even though Long Beach is fun, I get tired of the noise and traffic in summer and end up counting off how many planters I have to do before I am done watering.

Sanguisorba ‘Pink Elephant’ persists in a planter even after I decided it was too tall and moved it to Fifth Street Park.

One of the shop workers arrives to work on this. (Allan’s photo)

Allan’s photo

Fifth Street Park (Allan’s photo)

Allan’s photo

We tidied up the gardens in Veterans Field for the Friday farmers market.

Brodiaea ‘Queen Fabiola’…and a white one.

Due to sprinkler problems, the monarda looks stressed. I think I don’t want it in this bed anymore. (Sprinkler probably blocked by too many plants—typical of our gardens.)

Port of Ilwaco

We watered some, but not all, of the curbside gardens.

my one pitiful eremerus (Allan’s photo)

by Ilwaco pavilion

A pleasant fellow stopped to ask about santolinas; he liked them.

My favourite bed is still marred by finger blight.

The lavenders may not heal up. Certainly not by the big fireworks show on July 7th.

The santolina will heal…eventually.

Don Nisbett’s signs have been installed!

Eryngium ‘Sapphire Blue’ gets the most comments and queries nowadays.

We were tidying because of fireworks show crowds on Saturday and Art Walk on Friday.

This is what a properly pruned santolina looks like.  It will flower later.

This is the only one I forgot to clip!

We got the watering done from David Jensen’s architecture office all the way to Time Enough Books; then I did a walkabout of the Ilwaco planters while Allan watered them.

downtown window

before chickweed removal

after…it lurks beneath though

Diascia ‘Blackthorn Apricot’ (top) is my favourite. I was worried people would not find it bright enough.

matchy!

Good citizen Ethel was string trimming and then raking along the sidewalk for art walk night.

Ethel’s efforts to beautify the town were a perfect example of action instead of big talk and complaints.

While Allan continued watering the planters, which takes an hour and a half minimum, I watered the boatyard garden.  It used to take us half an hour or forty five minutes to water the planters back when we bucket watered them, before the water trailer.  But we are just no longer up to hauling what was literally 800 pounds of water twice a week.

view from behind the boatyard fence; the shadow is of a boat prow that was above me

While watering, I pulled some horsetail and grass away from the back of the fence.

I was daunted by huge slugs hiding down there.  I had not brought to the far end of the fence my slug disposal tools or a pair of gloves.  I was just pulling with bare hands.  I do hate touching a slug.

Afterwards, I looked at my particularly arthritic finger and for a creepy few moments I felt like it was just going to break right off at the joint.

horrific, depressing old age

I walked down to the other far end of the boatyard and the hose was not there.  (I use a series of hoses that lay around by the faucets…usually.)  I simply could not hobble all the way back to the middle of the other stretch of fence and drag a hose back.  Fortunately, Allan, who has no arthritis that we know of, showed up in the nick of time and watered the south end of the garden while I sat in the van in a state of collapse.  So glad to be home at dusk.

 

 

 

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19 June: port watering

Tuesday, 19 June 2018

Ilwaco post office with Asiatic lilies and Stipa gigantea

Mike’s garden

My plan for today had been just to water the port curbside gardens.  However, I had seen on the Plant Idents Facebook group that the little geranium which had recently started running rampant in Mike’s garden is on the noxious weed list, common name Shiny Geranium.  So I pulled a bag of it while Allan worked some more on Mike’s back garden.

The red is Geranium lucidum.

suddenly all over the narrow north side of the garden

later

The geranium went into a tied shut garbage bag.

The north side of the house is a dry and drab area that is mostly used as a path.    I have not tried to do much of anything to make it better.

Today, however, I realized that the buried path (because of some construction) was not going to reappear by itself.

We moved an entry area sideways to get away from a big Escallonia iveyi…

Allan’s before…

and after

And Allan brought the rest of the path back after I moved an H block and found the pavers (and moved some of them sideways for an easier route).

during

after

We both worked on making dirt paths reappear in the woodsy back yard.

Allan’s before…

and after

A path circles the tree again.

Port of Ilwaco

We watered from one end to the other, randomly because the Pavilion was being pressure washed, which threw us off our proper order.

I must remember to be on the lookout for some good semi shade plants to re-do these pots at OleBob’s Café.  The pampas grass, mostly dead, was not a wise choice.

We did not do it!

Another vandalized Eryngium at the Riverszen garden:

Allan’s photos

trashed for no reason other than the will to damage beauty

an undamaged Eryngium ‘Sapphire Blue’ (Allan’s photo)

At the west end, the oxeye daisies in the driest spot are starting to die off, so time was spent clipping them back.  (Often I just pull them.)

I applied fish fertilizer to the Time Enough Books garden, which does worst of all even though we have done it longest and with much love.  It was terrible soil under river rock.  We removed a lot of rock, added mulch, and yet…it struggles.  It probably gets the most water, too, because sometimes bookstore owner Karla waters it.

We weeded the curbside garden at the former Shorebank, which is going to be a hotel called At the Helm (with a pub!).

Allan went on to water the east end, while I went home to try to get ready for our trip.

east end garden (Allan’s photo)

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

at home

I was home soon enough to garden for a short while.

back garden looking south

Sunday I got seven or eight barrows of compost from compost bin one.  Today, this was all I got by getting to the bottom of bin two.

It was almost all dried up ornamental grass stalks.  I had not been able to properly mix green and brown, due to a shortage of green in early spring.

I noticed that the leaves of the golden hypericum that I pruned radically not long ago have turned splotchy and ugly.

I had to cut it down again, and in the process snapped off a new lily.

Call the WAHmbulance over the poor lily.

Now I wish ever so much I had just left that golden shrub alone in the first place.

Once you cut it, you can’t put it back.

There were consolations.

Mermaid rose on the arbour

Paul’s Himalayan Musk rose

pink and yellow rose whose name I have forgotten

The rose that was here when we bought the place.

close up; it is fragrant and once blooming

with Clematis ‘Etoile Violette’

I do not want to leave my garden even for a trip to see other splendid gardens.

 

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12 June: Ilwaco, Long Beach, Shelburne

Tuesday, 12 June 2018

at home, an allium about to doff its cap

J’s garden

We weeded and watered.

Allan used his new blower to remove the rhododendron leaves from river rock, something otherwise difficult to do.

Allan’s photo

Ilwaco Fire Station

We checked up on our three month old volunteer garden.  I wish it would fill in faster.

Mike’s garden

More weeding.

Dianthus ‘Charles Musgrave’

Alan worked on the woodsy back garden area, which we have neglected due to lack of time.  His photos:

after

Long Beach

We collected another bucket brigade of Soil Energy mulch from our pile at City Works and mulched one of the 13 sections out on the beach approach.

rugosa roses

 

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

single rugosa rose…

and doubles (Allan’s photos)

After coveting (again) the stone troughs of the Oysterville garden, I had cast my eye covetously on these old concrete thingies at city works that were removed when the water meter system in town was changed to something more modern.

Allan’s photo

Shelburne Hotel

Today we had time to give the garden some thorough attention.  I have realized while working here that it is the only place where I get the same sense of peace, kind of a floaty feeling, that I get in my own garden.  Not quite as much peace, because I cannot check on it every day, but almost as much.

a Shelburne frog (Allan’s photo)

A blog reader named Tina came up to me and introduced herself.  I always find that surprising and pleasing.

looking south from the north end

Eryngium ‘Sapphire Blue’ and ‘Jade Frost’, beloved of bees

Allan’s photo

callas with fallen rhododendron flowers (Allan’s photo)

the old rhododendron (Allan’s photo)

looking north from the entryway

In back, the totem pole garden

front garden, from the sidewalk as one approaches from the south

Port of Ilwaco

Because we did not have to water, we were able to work along a good long stretch of the curbside gardens just weeding.

east end of Howerton Ave

Eryngium ‘Sapphire Blue’

CoHo Charters

Allan weeded the Coho lava rocks.

passersby (Allan’s photos)

 

They were on their way to the store about ten blocks away.

Ilwaco Pavilion

The cry of outrage disturbing the evening peace of Ilwaco was me upon seeing that someone had stolen all the flowering stems off of one of the eryngiums in the newly planted area.

finger blight

Those plants were moved from the south side garden of the port office, which now looks like this:

Time Enough Books is doing a good job with their little planters this year.

More curbside Eryngium photos by Allan:

It was a ten hour day.

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31 May: not enough Shelburne again

Thursday, 31 May 2018

I was so hoping to get a full afternoon at the Shelburne Hotel garden today, to give it a thorough weeding and de-bad-astering (the removal of annoying running asters).

We began in Ilwaco at

Mike’s garden

a path needing raking

better (Allan’s photos)

Port of Ilwaco

We then watered more of the curbside gardens on Howerton.

deer are eating the columbines (Allan’s photo)

I’ve managed to get a few things to grow along with the roses in the Freedom Market parking lot garden.

Libertia (Allan’s photo)

Ilwaco boatyard

We had to do a weeding session all along the boatyard garden because on Friday night, there would be an art walk featuring businesses and galleries from downtown to the port.

I made a friend through the fence.

Allan did some string trimming and some digging by the fence along the inside.

before

Folks were working on their boats.

Allan’s photo

In the garden:

Allan’s photos:

Allium christophii and lavender

baby cosmos

poppies and lupines

Geranium ‘Rozanne’

my photos:

I stuck a lot of artemisia cuttings, many of which took, so will have way more of the silver texture when the little ones start growing.

reseeded nigella (love in a mist)

Boatyard foreman Mark told me that he had caught a woman (who had a red Ford pick up truck) with a milk crate full of flowers AND an arm load of flowers.  She was picking early in the morning when he arrived. She was told to STOP PICKING and she then claimed she had gotten them all from inside of the fence…not possible! And still off limits.  I want every flower to be there for everyone who passes by.

I have spent a lot of time at the boatyard lately thinking of The Little Red Hen, a story my grandma loved.  The little red hen asked for help planting wheat, watering it, harvesting it, processing it, and baking bread.  She got no help at all until the delicious aroma of the bread got her lazy “friends” to say they would help eat it.  But no, they did not get to “help” at that point; she and her chicks ate all the bread themselves.

I’ve noticed that all these flower pickers never offer to help weed or water.  They just feel entitled to the results.

I also thought of a friend of Rhone Street Gardens who had commented on a Facebook post that he felt that horsetail was another “textural element” in a garden.  I hope so, because we left quite a lot of it behind.

A brief stop at home revealed Skooter in the garden.

Allan’s photo

I was anxious to get to the Shelburne, but before we could get out of Ilwaco, I got a call from the port.  The port manager had emailed me two days before and I had not seen it.  (Text me!)  The garden on the south side of the port office had to be undone because the south wall is going to be rebuilt.

We hared over there, and were able to salvage quite a few plants. I did not even try to save the big old lavenders that would not transplant well at any time of year.

I cut the allium flowers for a bouquet which may or may not last, and saved the bulbs to go back in.

2:45 PM

3:28 PM

Some of the plants went into pots that we had brought from home, on the deck of the business next door.

Allan’s photo

The rest went to the curbside garden by the Port Pavilion.

before; the area where a mugo pine had come out still needed plants.

after; it was all rather fortuitous (Allan’s photos)

4:14 PM: Jenna stops by to admire the plants

We had another brief stop at home, during which we had a quick chat with our new neighbour.

Allan’s photo

Shelburne Hotel

Finally, we got to the Shelburne, not for a lovely long afternoon but only a short time of hurried weeding.  I asked Allan to reveal the Melianthus major by the pub deck.

before

after

If I had known I would not be able to find an Antenow’s Blue melianthus, this one would have gone in the front garden (where I now have a little baby one from my own garden).

callas with a rhododendron flower

A woman was crouched taking a photo of this Agastache ‘Cotton Candy’.

That is the kind of plant appreciation that I like to see.

Ilwaco again

I went home to start the tedious task of the the monthly billing.  Three hours later, I was still at it.  Meanwhile, Allan had watered the easternmost curbside garden at the port, completing the whole stretch of beds that we have watered over the course of the week.  If we don’t get some rain, it will be the same next week.

the CoHo Charters lava landscape got watered, too.

I’m slowly infiltrating it with some new plants.

watering till dusk….

An eight hour day for me, followed by three hours of spread sheets, and a ten hour day for Allan, followed by making dinner.  If he did not make dinner every night, there would be no blog writing time for me.

 

 

 

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30 May: round 2 done

Wednesday, 30 May 2018

The Depot Restaurant

We checked on the watering, although not the window boxes because we were in a hurry with much planned for today.

camassia and rodgersia (Allan’s photo)

The Red Barn Arena

This little pot by the barn door looked good.

The first section of garden looked good.

But further on, Helianthus ‘Lemon Queen’ was drooping from lack of watering.  The same thing happened last year, and I this year I decided it had to go.

I give up on the idea of yellow sunflowers by a red barn.  I have to rethink and plant only the most drought tolerant plants here.

I left a little bit of it by a barrel.  They get watered a bit more regularly and so some water might spill over.

Cosmo the barn cat

Allan’s photo

in the barn (Allan’s photo)

thirsty coreopsis by the barn

I need to remove that coreopsis and replace with something that needs minimal water.  This particular barrel used to get watered more regularly…

We then went next door to…

Diane’s garden

Allan’s photo

our good friend Misty

back yard containers

talking with client and friend Diane by the septic box garden (which still needs more!)

Eryngium ‘Sapphire Blue’

Allan potted up a new calla lily that Diane had brought home.

the roadside garden

verbascum

valerian and catmint against the house (Allan’s photo)

 

Basket Case Greenhouse

It’s hard to drive by without stopping.

Penny  (Allan’s photo)

Deb’s garden

We took a break to tour two gardens: Steve and John’s bayside garden and the work going on at Deb’s garden (formerly the Barclay garden), where Dave and Melissa (Sea Star Gardening) have been working hard for the new owner.

future farmers’ market produce garden

planting trees in new berms along the driveway

North Beach Garden Gang

the way to Willapa Bay

Next door is Steve and John’s Bayside Garden.  We walked through it before returning to work.  That self guided tour will be our next post; their garden always deserves its own space.

Steve and John’s garden from Deb’s (Allan’s photo)

Klipsan Beach Cottages

This year, we did not get around to cutting back a native grass on the edge of the woodsy swale.  I asked Allan to just dig it out, which I have thought of doing every year.

before

It was big.

after (Allan’s photos)

elephant garlic (Allan’s photo)

Sarah (Allan’s photo)

There is some talk that if Mary and Denny move away after retiring, we might take Sarah and her brother Timmy.

After grooming the garden, I took some photos for the Klipsan Beach Cottages Facebook page.

Tetrapanax

bearded iris

Allium bulgaricum

also known as Nectaroscordum

Agastache ‘Acapulco Salmon and Pink’

birdbath view

Tiger Eyes sumac

corokia cotoneaster

On the way south, we stopped at…

The Planter Box

I sought and acquired a pineapple sage.

And a couple more tomatoes and some cukes.

Shelburne Hotel

Allan screwed some wire between trellis and big flower pots to help mitigate the windsail effect on the trellises.

Allan’s photos

I trimmed back the big sanguisorba that I had transplanted from KBC last week; it had just kept on looking a bit wilty around the edges.

Allan’s photo

Port of Ilwaco

We watered several of the gardens along Howerton Avenue.

on Waterfront Way (Allan’s photo)

in a curbside garden (Allan’s photo)

Montana Mary had asked why we call one little garden “the driveover garden”.  Here it is, a tiny bed between big parking lots and driveways.  Big trucks drive over it sometimes.

Another tiny bed by the port office:

Linaria purpurea (toadflax) seeds itself around but is not really up to the harsh conditons:

The Depot Restaurant

We had our North Beach Garden Gang dinner tonight.  On the way in to the restaurant, I saw that the window boxes were not getting watered.  (Roxanne from The Basket Case plants them up and we care for them, relying on the sprinkler system to water them.)  This led to a flurry to Allan watering them with a jug of water that we carry for emergencies, me fretting over them, and texts to various people.

Finally, dinner.  It was burger night.  We are thankful at this time of year for restaurants that let us dine at eight.  Restaurants that close at eight are no good to us now.

Allan’s photo

chocolate pot du creme

Annuals planting time is over except for at home, where I soon have to plant in my garden two six packs of painted sage and tomatoes and cukes from the Planter Box.

 

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24 May: not enough Shelburne

Thursday, 24 May 2018

Spending all day at the Shelburne doing a thorough weeding and editing of the garden was not to be.  We had two jobs to attend to in Ilwaco first, right on our block.

The J’s garden

getting started

Allan pruned all the dead branches off the arborvitae.  I do not know what is causing it, or whether this will stop it.  Google has an assortment of theories about it.

When we started caring for this garden, one of the balls along the driveway was dead in the same way.  Last year, another one showed signs and I clipped the bad part out, which seemed to work.  Now another one might be getting it….

so… I clipped the bad part out again.

The ball had a nest of baby spiders.

They dispersed when disturbed…

…and then formed themselves back into a ball again.

Allan’s befores and afters:

The old plum tree looked sickly, too.  We cut out one branch.

before

Spraying trees is not a job we are even licensed for.  It takes a special license to apply sprays in Washington state.  Not something we want to get into at all.

after

roses in the back yard (Allan’s photo)

As I write this several days later, I realize we did not go back and set up a hose and sprinkler as I meant to.  Our watering responsibilities are way overstretched. (Now on Monday night, with Allan just back from boating, as it is getting dark, he is going across the street to hose water it and the Norwood garden.)

Port of Ilwaco

We had another curbside garden to water at the port and decided to do it before evening because the evenings have been cold and extra windy.

To water the east garden bed, Allan has to snake three hoses across the parking lot all the way to the docks.  It is time consuming and always makes me wonder how exactly did the former powers that be at the port, during the time when these garden beds were being installed, think they were going to get watered?  Did they really think that several blocks of public gardens could be completely drought tolerant with no watering at all?  In the almost constant salt wind from the marina? Really?

Allan’s photo

I tackled a bleak little spot of vetch and the dreaded Fen’s Ruby euphorbia.  (On the following Sunday, I watched a Gardeners’ World episode in which Monty Don, saying, “I was warned”, was removing Fen’s Ruby from his garden.  Take heed.)

I know how it got in here.  In seeking free plants, I moved something from my mother’s garden to this one years ago, and the Fen’s Ruby hitched a ride even though I tried to prevent it.  I put some wee starts of Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ in the empty area.  Good luck to it starting out during dry season.

A big chore awaits: The Armeria (sea thrift) is going over and all the little balls will need clipping off.

After watering, Allan coiled his hose like a highliner coiling rope.

Freddie on Deadliest Catch

We picked up our mail.  Allan noticed the short lilies growing at the back of the post office garden.  I meant to move them last year…and the year before.

Allan’s photo

Finally, hours later than I wanted to be there, we made it to the garden at the

Shelburne Hotel.

Three more pots had appeared by the bocce ball court.  I knew they were imminent so was carrying plants for them….but they had no holes so Allan had to go home for the drill (and more potting soil).

He also redid a white pot that was in an obscure spot and dry and full of an odd combo of mint and stunted helianthus.  It came around to join its brethren by the pub deck.

Allan’s photo; no one took a photo once it got put into place.

new pots (Allan’s photo)

Allan says it is better to drill four holes than the one that most people do.

As requested, no flowers (except thyme and lavender will have flowers)

I could have done something ultra sophisticated with succulents, but we are trying to carry out the “edible” theme in the back garden.

pea gravel mulch on top, very Monty Don

Finally, I got to work on the front garden.  We took out a clump of phlox, too slightly diseased to put anywhere else, and replaced it will a nice Sanguisorba canadensis (pink feather flowers later on) that I got for free from Klipsan Beach Cottages.

out with one of too many phlox

sanguisorba in (Allan’s photo)

As I write this on Monday night, I am worried that the sanguisorba might be wilting, even though Allan watered it whilst grocery shopping on Saturday.

I did not have time to do any editing along the sidewalk garden.

still lots of orange montbretia at this end (Allan’s photo)

under the big window

I was thrilled to find two of my old Allium christophii still here after ten years

looking south from north end

I had hoped to get into the corner but did not.

This zaluzianskya (night scented phlox) was scenting the whole garden deliciously in the evening.

looking south from the entry

and looking north

a ghost in the stained glass window?

I do love this building.

As happens at this time of long days, we have been working till too late for our garden club dinner.  So on our own, we repaired to the pub for dinner after another nine hour day.  (These nine hour days do not include a lunch break; we scarf down a sandwich while working.)

From the pub deck:

Dinner at last.

cranberry cosmo

avocado toast

Caesar salad

fried chicken sandwich (Allan’s photo). Deconstruct to eat the tasty chicken.

oyster stew (Allan’s photo)

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21 May: Port of Ilwaco

Monday, 21 May 2018

I had fantasized about taking today off. That was impossible because of lack of rain in the forecast; we had too much watering to do.  Allan began by watering the Norwood garden….

Mary N’s Dutch iris

the little north shade border

and he watered the J’s across the street:

roses in J’s back yard; I think those leaves have rose mosaic and should be picked off.

Meanwhile, I did some necessary watering at home of the ladies in waiting and the cosmos I had planted on Sunday.  In the back garden, I found one more agastache catastrophe, a Acapulco Yellow with really weird looking mottled leaves.  I pulled it and added it to the big bag of lost plants in the garbage can.  As I was closing the bag over its brave yellow flowers that wanted so much to keep blooming in my garden, I burst into tears and went blubbing to the driveway where Allan was hooking up the work trailer.  I could hardly bear the thought of all the plants expiring in the big garbage bag.  I still find it almost unbearable to think about, as if they have a fear of death.  In fact, I am all teared up while typing this five days later.  So that and this time were the only times I have wept over this very expensive and time consuming catastrophe.  I miss each and every one of those agastaches and the pictures I was trying to paint with them and the beauty that I had hoped for with such happy anticipation just a week ago.

At the post office, the Stipa gigantea was at its prettiest time, when the flowers are spangled with gold.

Long Beach

We then went to Long Beach to fill in some empty areas in planters, where agastaches had succumbed and where a lovely little diascia had been stolen.

Allan’s photo; will the planting never end?

And then, in midafternoon, back to

Port of Ilwaco

where we worked for the rest of the day.  I helped Allan get started on a big pruning job for Coho Charters and Motel by candling their curbside mugo pine.

I got bored and so tried to get into the spirit of author Leslie Buck and her great memoir about pruning, Cutting Back.

Allan sheared the pine by the building with the hedge shears instead of painstakingly hand clipping it (my suggestion).

before

Coho Charters owner Butch likes his shrubs squared off, not only the escallonias but the little variegated box in the curbside garden, which he likes flat topped like his grandfather’s haircut.

As you can tell, this curbside garden is not my design.  I have convinced Butch to let me add a few things (Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ so far, and a heather, white, to match some other white heathers he has.  I feel that any other colour would look wrong with the lava rock.)

I will say lava rock is easier to walk on than the river rock that three of the curbside beds have.

On the south side, the escallonia outside one of the guest rooms:

While Allan worked on that job, I started, at 5 PM, dragging hoses westward along the port to water as far as I could get till he was done.  I did not even try to do the easternmost bed; it requires hooking up a series of hoses from down by the docks.  It can wait till Thursday.

eastern garden, looking east

eastern garden, looking west

I skipped what used to the the Port Bistro restaurant (and is going to be a bakery/coffee shop one of these days) because their water is probably not on, nor have I met the new owners.  My first watering was of the curbside garden north of David Jensen’s architecture office, newly moved from Long Beach to the port.  No longer do I have to rely on the good nature of the Tuna Club to provide water for the garden that is next door to them; I can now hook up to what is now the Jensen building. (All last year, it was empty with the water turned off.) The hose that used to be attached to the faucet and that made it easy was gone so I had to walk around the building three times to get our hose dragged under a locked gate and back to the faucet.  I think we have a ratty old hose we can leave there to make it easier next time.

Jensen curbside garden, looking east

big ceanothus in full bloom; this has a sort of prostrate instead of upright form.

Next, I dragged hose down to the Ilwaco pavilion, where I can reach half of the old Shorebank building (which is going to be a boutique hotel soon).  I skipped the most wind protected area; I think it will be fine till next week.

area where big shrubs came out last fall, looking east

The California wax myrtle that I asked the port crew to cut to the ground but not pull is finally leafing out.

I will be able to keep it pruned to a low, non-traffic-sightline-blocking mound.  The missing shrubs were would-be full sized arbutus.  I had finally rebelled at having to shear them so that they never flowered.  Ridiculous plant choice for the spot.

next bed, looking west, with sheared wax myrtles and santolina.  Hebe ‘Boughton Dome’ at lower middle-ish

pink California poppies

and creamy white ones

same bed, different view

Ilwaco pavilion, my favourite bed, looking west

looking east over the end that had a too-tall pine pulled not long ago, so glad to no longer have to butcher prune it

It is exhausting to drag this much hose on hour eight of work.

the drive-over garden

I was thrilled that my asclepia, after sulking in its first year, looked so good.

I took a bucket of mixed trash and weeds to dump in one of the big port wheelie bins.

looking west

looking east

Because I was weeding (for the first time in awhile) while watering, I dragged my hoses for quite some distance past the one garden whose adjacent building owner won’t let me use their water.  Which begs the question, how exactly did the powers that be think, when these gardens were installed in the late 90s, that they were going to be watered? WHYYYY was no faucet hook up installed in each one, like the Long Beach planters have?  Why does the gardener have to be at the mercy of changes of mind or changes of ownership of adjacent businesses?)  If I cannot water a garden, I find it soul crushing to weed among the thirsty plants…and I do not have time or strength to fill and haul buckets from another source. But I digress (inspired by annoyance).

Next, I hooked up to water at the port office.

port office and Don Nisbett curbside gardens, looking west

looking east

Purly Shell and Time Enough Books, looking west

OOPS, I forgot to trim this one big santolina. Maybe the only one, of many, that I missed.

the trimmed ones look round, like this, and will still flower

This Korean lilac by Time Enough Books was wafting delicious scent out to the sidewalk.

another big ceanothus, low both because it grows that way and also because I prune it after it flowers.

That is as far as I got, with the east end, Salt Hotel, Skywater Gallery, and Freedom Market gardens still to water later this week.  Allan came to get me at eight after finishing his big CoHo pruning job.

Time Enough Books from across the street

This was the first of a week of nine hour days.

Skooter greeting us at home:

Late last night, I was considerably perked up to see that Scott Weber of Rhone Street Gardens had posted this on Facebook.

Just what I needed to give me back some confidence after my agastache depression.

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