Slow Drag and the gardens 2018

Friday, 7 September 2018

Every year we photograph the Slow Drag for the Discover Ilwaco Facebook page.  We posted 360 photos in this year’s Slow Drag album, because everyone who had a vehicle entered would surely be pleased to see a photo of it in the race.  Here I am just sharing our favourites, some with glimpses of the curbside gardens along Howerton Avenue.

Rule one is driver must be 18 or older. Rule 2 is brake lights must be in working order.  This is checked at each heat.

We walked down separately from home.  Allan got to pet a beautiful dog.

Allan’s photos

Allan’s photo

My favourite, Travis driving the Who Bus. He has won twice before, but not this time.

This driver is a friend of Travis and each year he is such a cheerful presence.

santolinas and, oh yes, vehicles

roped off agastaches (Allan’s photo)

We roped off our best garden.

The debut of the Joy Train from Astoria. Love it!

The Glam Tram, also from Astoria, a former mini bus from the Los Angeles Zoo

ready to race (Allan’s photo)

Allan’s photo

bubble machine (Allan’s photo)

petunia basket from Basket Case Greenhouse

Our Jenna, right, the event organizer, and her friend Susan.

The Church Ladies

pink bug, won the prize for most fun entry

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

vehicle with 2 dogs (black one is lying down)

Char, our favourite realtor, was one of the sponsors.

Allan’s photo

One of my annual favourites, little bug with luggage rack and a bubble machine

Glam Tram (Allan’s photo)

Sad to see the Glam Tram go; its battery died. (Allan’s photo)

Church Ladies lining up to race

finish line

Crocosmia, parsley, and santolina in our droughtiest curbside garden (and a vehicle)

lining up behind Gaura ‘Whirling Butterflies’ and santolina

Travis and son

winner of the “So Ugly It’s Cute” award

that bug again

artsy

and Allan’s artsy photo

cute doggies (Allan’s photo)

This lavender sacrificed its shapeliness to the sound equipment. (Allan’s photo)  It did revive.

Salt Hotel ready to drag

our neighbour Jessika rides along

Between heats, the vehicles drive down Waterfront Way (usually pedestrian only).

half a bug

By Time Enough Books

Allan’s photo

The direction of the race was reversed this year, with the result that the vehicles were not traveling slowly down Waterfront Way, because they could now line up two by two on Howerton and they drove much faster down the waterfront to get there.  So it was harder to get my customary photo of a red vehicle and the red Jessie’s building.

as close as I got to my usual photo

Allan managed to get this photo of rust with rust.

Waterfront Way (Allan’s photo)

Awww, the pink bug is out. (Allan’s photo)

Howerton Ave, the race source (Allan’s photo)

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

respectful feet (Allan’s photo)

Allan’s photo

Well, mostly respectful (Allan’s photo)

Allan’s photo

This little red MG was in the race to honor the driver’s father, Chuck, who had died unexpectedly in the November after the 2015 race.  He would have been proud of his family; the MG came in third.

winning an early heat

one of my favourites, and last year’s winner, at the finish line

The finish line is a fire hose filled with sand.

coasting

the classic door flapping method of trying to slow down

Salt Pub driver gets a meal at the finish line.

Eryngium ‘Sapphire Blue’ seedheads and a silver car

winning another heat

“rat rod” hood decor (Allan’s photo)

A light rain began.

Church Ladies (Allan’s photo)

hoping to get over the hump

checking out the competition

after the rain, here comes the little red MG

rainbow and amazing evening sunshine

Rusty bug is finally out.

Can’t get the rear tires over.

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo; the Who Bus, my favourite, got eliminated.

Allan’s photo

Meanwhile, on the race course:

Gaura ‘Whirling Butterflies’ and lavender (Allan’s photo)

Allan’s photo

And back to the race, which is coming to its final rounds.

one of the final heats (Allan’s photo)

Allan’s photo

Chevy van wins a heat, so big it reflects the entire Salt Hotel. “I LOVE this van,” says the driver.

The agony of defeat…but they got third place.

bravely onward, don’t look back

the final heat

and the van is declared the winner

Second place with their basket of prizes.

Artist Don Nisbett at his t shirt booth, with helpers (Allan’s photo)

Rusty bug got “so ugly its cute” award. (Allan’s photo)

Pink bug got “Most fun”. (Allan’s photo)

Third place

third, second and first (Allan’s photo)

Allan’s photo

Third place winner, in honor of his dad, Chuck Schussman..

Here is his dad’s last Slow Drag in 2015. Chuck is on the left, I believe.

Our Jenna, in sunglasses, and some of her helpers (Allan’s photo)

After the vehicles and crowd left, we took down our plant protecting poles and tape and then admired the sunset at the marina.

sunset over the bogsy woods

 

 

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5 Sept: some prepping for Slow Drag

Wednesday, 5 September 2018

We did part of the usual Wednesday route, this week without Klipsan Beach Cottages, which will be every other week now.  (This is only because of two reasons: one, the job is ending at the end of autumn and two, I am tired.  A third reason, specific to this week, is that having Labor Day Monday at the beginnning of the week and Rod Run Friday at the end limits the time for working on public gardens.)

The Depot Restaurant

We deadheaded and watered.  I picked some unsightly leaves off of the hops at the entry to the dining deck.

Depot dining deck entryway from the restaurant

south and east side of dining deck

North side; the white flower is Boltonia asteroides.

The Red Barn Arena

The garden had been watered so we only needed to do a few minutes of deadheading.

Red Barn garden

I got to pet Cosmo the barn cat.  Oh, how I want him to be the one I take home to be my best friend cat.  He is darling.

sweet, soft, loves to be petted

I want him to be mine.

Allan’s photo

Diane’s garden

My very good friend Misty

roadside garden (Allan’s photo)

perovskia (Allan’s photo)

In the roadside garden, white sweet peas and Cosmos ‘Cupcake’

the raised box garden

shadows of statice

shadows of bachelor buttons (cornflower)

Allan’s photo

I had to cut down one aster because its foliage had rust or some such.

before, with brown foliage (the other such aster is green)

after (the base of the plant got sprayed with fungicide)

Allan managed to get a photo of puppy Holly between her running around and jumping.

The Shelburne Hotel

We watered, weeded, deadheaded, dead-leafed.

looking east down the bocce ball court

back garden; Sunset runner beans in the trellis pots are getting tired.

Allan was able to get into the three south balcony rooms (you can see two of the balconies in above photo) to check on our succulent planters.  He had not checked on them since we planted them. (They cannot be accessed when the rooms are occupied.) Red clover had infiltrated two of them.

before, room 12

room 14

I planted the lovely Sedum ‘October Daphne’, which in my garden and elsewhere always gets chomped by snails.  Here, it is snail free.

But one stem was broken, maybe was getting too much water…

Room 15, a fine October Daphne…but with red clover.

That’s better.

Room 4’s cosmos container needs way too much deadheading.

before, definitely a mistaken choice of plant

I remember now, I had some extra Cosmos ‘Xanthos’ and wanted a place to put them.  Ooops.  This planter is getting a re-do this very month.

Guests can charge their electric cars on the north side of the Shelburne.

Allan’s photo

watering in front (Allan’s photo)

Mary Norwood stopped to chat and I gave her a little sweet pea bouquet.

Just as we left, we saw Scott of Scott and Tony and had a little natter.

I must show you Tony’s photos of his night blooming cereus.  He has had to come to their beach cottage two days later than Scott because he simply had to see his plant bloom (in their city home) with a multitude of flowers.  How does he do it? I am lucky to get one a year.

photos by Tony!

Meanwhile, Scott and his beloved car are in the biggest photo of this year’s promo article for the Rod Run.

Allan is going to get to go hang out with them at the event because we are skipping the Cannon Beach Cottage Tour this year.  (I want to stay home in my own garden.)

Port of Ilwaco

We watered all but the two east end gardens (and one other that is just escallonias and bark that we never water).  Allan drove in six posts that we are going to use for roping off my favourite garden bed during the Friday evening Slow Drag.  It has delicate plants.  Other gardens can hold up better to being walked and sat upon, although there are a few other plants that I want to safeguard with some individual protection.  All photos at the port by Allan.  I was out of steam for photos.

stake pounder, a great tool. No stakes were broken.

plus a big metal pry bar to make holes with and tamp them tight afterward

We will rope it off tomorrow night.

Must protect my agastaches!

I planted some Brodiaea ‘Queen Fabiola’ bulbs in this bed.  I have read that they are drought tolerant so I want to try them in these “hellstrip” gardens.  Maybe they will be less floppy that in more cushy gardens.

Later in the watering, Jenna stopped to show me some signs she has made for Slow Drag, “Please keep off the gardens and plants”.  I appreciate that very much.

J’s garden

Allan mowed and I did some deadheading and borrowed his camera for two vignettes:

elephant garlic, tied up by the J’s, well done!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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30 August: not quite all Ilwaco

Thursday, 30 August 2018

Before work, dignified and self-possessed Rudder from next door strolled by and I got to pet him in passing.

At age 16, he was on a mission to go to his front lawn and slowly lie down for a nap.

Mike’s garden

At former-mayor Mike’s garden a few blocks east, we had a brief mission: to mulch two beaten down areas.

before, one of the two

after (with a conifer that is slowly dying)

Ilwaco boatyard garden

We spent about an hour, with me pulling many of the old poppies and putting them in the MaryBeth Wheelie Cart for seed collecting, while Allan weeded.

before pulling poppies

cosmos

santolina and pink yarrow

catmint, santolina, California poppies

Shelburne Hotel

We digressed from Ilwaco to Seaview to spend some time extra time at the Shelburne.  This gave Allan time to give the boxwood square a bit of a trim.

before

after

Meanwhile, I had in mind to dig out three boring old Stella D’Oro daylilies that were languishing in the shade.  Boring though they are, I thought I would find a spot for them in the back garden so that Chef Casey Venus would have more daylily flowers.  Boring though she is, Stella does reliably rebloom.

before: Stella way back against the fence, and lots of horrible aegepodium.

Maybe I just need to ditch Stella so I don’t move aegepodium into the back garden.  I will carefully separate out some daylily roots.  It was a moot point because I could not even get my shovel into the ground, so this project will wait for another day.  I did manage to get out several of the noxious-weed Iris pseudacorus.

before

after, not the most successful project!

A future project will be to have Allan get on a small ladder and try to get some of the green reversion branches out of the golden privet at the north end of the front garden.

It wants to go green.

Joe Pye Weed and white phlox before…

…and after I ran my hand over the phlox just to knock off the spent blossoms and leave an interesting green shape.

In the back garden, I noticed something on a table and realized it was a message.

I love this place.

I love it, too.  Working here is my happiest job this year.

the back courtyard

Sunset runner beans

bocce ball court

west side, back garden

south side semi shade garden next to the al fresco dining

We also watered the whole garden so that it won’t have to be done between Long Beach and Ilwaco tomorrow.  Allan wants to get home before dark on Friday to load up his boat for a Saturday trip.  This means we will have to water the Shelburne again on Sunday.

deadheads from watering the Room Four deck’s containers (Allan’s photos)

Remember when last week we spotted the KING 5 news van at the Shelburne after work?  We figured they were there covering the kite festival, and they were.  Here is the kite festival segment.  But they also did a segment on the Shelburne itself with LOTS of photos of the flowers.  It is short and sweet and right here.  Not only does it flatter the garden; it also gets across the improvements over the old, rather stuffy look inside the inn.  The historic feeling of the inn is still strong and now the rooms are spacious and airy in feel.

Port of Ilwaco

We went home for the second long hose. I got to pet Rudder again—twice in one day!

This time, a small piece of cheese might have been used as a lure.

Back to our not quite all Ilwaco day, we did our usual watering of the curbside gardens, except for the east end one which we only do every other week.  (It is our drought tolerance test, or else we just get tired.)

by the soon to be new At The Helm hotel, formerly Shorebank

By Ilwaco Pavilion

I fretted while watering about this garden possibly getting trampled during Slow Drag and thought, I MUST find out where the finish line will be this year.  I have implored that it not be by this garden.

a new and delicate area where once was a mugo pine

I managed to grow this coreopsis from seed and I want to see it bloom!

Other beds, like the drive-over garden, are much tougher.

The finish line used to be at this bed by the ArtPort Gallery.  I wish it still was.

As I worked my way along the gardens, I expressed my worries to a merchant friend, who said the rumor is that the race will run the other way and end at Salt Hotel.  That would be awesome; the Salt garden bed is sparse, with river rock chunkier even than the ArtPort bed, and would stand up better to trampling.  (I can reveal this rumour because, by the time you read this, Slow Drag will have happened days before.)

by Salt Hotel

also by Salt Hotel

The west end beds would get some trampling, too.  I don’t have anything precious and not easily replaceable in here:

I checked on our planters at OleBob’s.  Wish we had time for a lunch here!

Geranium ‘Rozanne’ climbing into a crab pot at Time Enough Books

We learned that a friend of ours had an encounter with an elk, on a foggy road. She’s ok, but does not know about the elk.

reflective high tide at the port

Before going home, I remembered one last thing.  We went back to the boatyard and Allan pried out this tatty old blue oat grass.

well past its prime

home

Skooter and Frosty were pleased to see us home by 6 PM.

I had collected enough green clippings this week at work to start layering green and brown compost into bin three.

green and brown plant material and some shredded paper

evening light on the garden

Allan and I moved a sign that had gotten hidden behind an escallonia branch.

I am now am waiting for a loooong time to have my Pittosporum ‘Tasman Ruffles’ grow up here.  I am tempted to move it again and plant something bigger.  But I won’t, poor thing has already been moved so many times, which is why it is now four inches tall instead of the four feet it had achieved before the second-to-last move severely set it back.

As for the sign, it applies to my life now but not to everyone’s.  “Why keep a garden account and reckon the cost of pure joy? Is it not cheap at any price?” (Mirabel Osler)  I choose my garden over travel and other luxuries (most home remodeling, for example).  Some people on an even more limited budget have to choose groceries over garden, as I did when trying to get out of debt; during one of those years, I bought one six pack of cosmos for my garden and that was all.  Even now, I cannot afford “any price“, yet that quotation still speaks to me.  Maybe it justifies what I do spend.

 

 

 

 

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6-7 August: watering rounds

Monday, 6 August 2018

Long Beach

When we stopped at City Hall to pick up our check, I saw a pruning job to do on the rhododendron in the north garden bed.

Long Beach City Hall

before

before

after

Allan had been pulling weedy evening primrose from one of two little popouts a block to the north.

before

after, then ran out of time

We watered the street trees and planters.

tigridia

I ran across one time consuming situation in a planter with two clumps of variegated bulbous oat grass that had rust.

I removed the grass, so now the question of whether or not it looks weedy there is permanently solved.

Shelburne Hotel

We watered, weeded, deadheaded.  Allan was able to get to the Room 4 deck…

…where the Cosmos ‘Xanthos’ looked nibbled….

…and he found a sneaky dandelion.

No more cosmos up there next year, too high maintenance. The dahlia will also go down into the garden.

The rose that got moved from the porch above the pub deck to the Room 4 deck has proved to be a pretty one.

on the middle upstairs deck

In the garden, because of rust, we pulled all the Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’ along the north porch.

North front garden: I prefer the way that railing looks without the hops and Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’ in front of it.

looking north from the entry

south front garden

more south front garden

I pulled more crocosmia from the south side of the entry and then had to fuss around to get the dead leaves picked off the base of the helianthus.

pretty much tidied up

sidewalk garden looking north

and south

Ilwaco

I watered the boatyard.  The evening was grey and pleasant, with very little wind.

I have been lucky this year, with hoses readily accessible.

Allan watered the street trees and planters.

more yellow glads that someone else planted

and in another planter, yellow glads whose flowers had been stolen

At the fire station, Allan decided it was time to pull these crocosmia.

I walked home, hoping to see some of the Main Street feral cats, and was rewarded by sighting three at once.

Tuesday, 7 August 2018

We had the morning off because of a 2 PM appointment to take Frosty and Skooter to the vet for new flea collars and for a toenail trim for Skooter.

a garden admirer at the post office

Skooter did not like riding in the cat box. (Allan’s photo)

When we got home, we found our neighbour, Rudder, coming out from the Nora house next door.

our good old friend Rudder (Allan’s photo)

At four, we went down to the port to do our watering along Howerton Avenue’s curbside gardens.  The wind was so strong and so cold that I wore my winter scarf.

foreground: the escallonia bed that is maintained by one of the canneries

pearly everlasting at what will soon be a new hotel called At the Helm (formerly Shorebank)

from Waterfront Way (Allan’s photo)

cold and windy by the Ilwaco pavilion

I had planned to trim the dead flowers off many santolinas this evening.  The cold wind daunted me, so the only one I did was the vandalized, damaged one by the pavilion.

before

after

by Don’s gallery

Ilwaco, town of trucks and boats

I was so pleased that the port office has its south windows back so that our friends on the staff are no longer working in a dark cave.

last week.

today

The garden there will return some time this fall.

Cutest thing I saw today was a little brown bird climbing up the Salt Hotel steps by hopping up one step at a time.

After we had done all but the east end, I went home to water while Allan watered the east end bed; he needs both hoses for that.

east end garden

He finished his day by watering at the Ilwaco Community Building.

the shady entry bed at the ICB

 

 

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31 July: all Ilwaco

Tuesday, 31 July 2018

How I love an all Ilwaco day.

We started at the volunteer garden that Allan did not have time to water yesterday evening:

Ilwaco Fire Station

Out of all the ammi majus seeds I planted, I got these.

the ornamental corn, all two of them

Mike’s garden

after we watered

We finally pruned all the dead branches off the conifer in the front…

It is part of a matched set; the other one is also very slowly dying back.

I would like to see them both gone, but neither Allan’s wonky ankle or my wonky knee inspire us to try to dig them out.  I’m hoping Mike will find a strong person to do this.

Ilwaco boatyard garden

We weeded thoroughly all along from the north end to the gate.  South of the gate does not get as much horsetail.

(I did not download photos for a week, so it took me that long to realize I had a spot on my lens.)

my usual audience

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Chickadee, Doreen, Stipa gigantea

a boat on its way to the water

Allan’s audience

Port of Ilwaco

We accomplished our long weekly watering of almost all the curbside gardens.  (We skip just one that is just escallonias, landscape fabric that shows, and a thin coat of bark mulch.)

In my favourite bed by the Ilwaco pavilion, the three plants vandalized earlier this year are trying to heal themselves but are still bringing down the tone.

Santolina had the best chance of healing itself.

One lavender is trying….

…and the other one is not succeeding much at all in getting better.

Eryngium and achillea (Allan’s photo)

by the port office

lavender abuzz with bees

weeding while watering

On one of my recent days off for Lily Time, a young woman and man came walking by the front garden and the woman called out, “I love your lilies!”  Quite out of character for a recluse, I brought the two of them into the back garden to see the really tall lilies.  Today, the woman (who works at the port) brought me her new puppy to hold.  (At least, I hope it was her, because of my face blindness.)

Annabelle, 8 weeks old, best moment of my day

I admired the Salt Hotel courtyard.

Then I went home because it was the night of the dreaded monthly billing.  I had two big clients and some small ones that I had not even billed for June yet.  It was difficult and took four hours.  Allan went on to water the east end garden bed (the hardest one) and, as always, to make our dinner.

 

 

 

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18 July: the north day

Wednesday, 17 July 2018

I call the day we go to Klipsan Beach Cottages our “north end” day out of habit, because it used to include Marilyn’s garden up in Surfside.  KBC is north, but the peninsula goes on considerably further north.

You can see above Grayland, on the other side of the mouth of Willapa Bay, where we had such lovely garden touring on the weekend.

We started at

The Depot Restaurant

with the usual weeding and no watering.  Although the sprinkler system does not hit the whole garden, last night’s rain had it wet enough.

Direama (Angel’s Fishing Rod)

I deadheaded and checked on the watering of the plantings on the north side; the window boxes and barrels were planted up by Roxanne of the Basket Case Greenhouse.

Just west across the street is the Sou’wester Lodge and RV park, where cabins and vintage trailers are for rent.  All sorts of interesting artistic and musical events happen there.  For the last almost two years, I have been too tired to go to them; it’s not that I have lost interest. The energy to get out and about in the evening is not there, especially if it involves socializing with new people.  I get too tired to make words (although Allan might disagree about how many words I make).

I advise you to check The Sou’wester out, maybe stay there when you visit our area.

At the Depot, I keep picking away at the escallonia that wants to block the sign.  Yes, if it were mine, I would cut it all the way down.  But I can’t here, so I keep thinning it to try to get new growth all the way through, and then I can cut it way back.  It was not such a problem before that sign about the Clamshell Railway went in.

We stopped at Sid’s Market, across the street from the Shelburne, for some milk for a friend.  With no cars parked in front, I had a great view of the Shelburne Hotel.

The Red Barn

We did our usual weeding, watering and deadheading.  The deadheading of shasta daisies has begun.

our good friend Rosie and the garden

by the main barn door

It’s a small garden.

I like seeing the horses.

by the side barn door

Tigridia

Diane’s garden

When we arrived at Diane’s garden, I saw a big hanging basket with a card sitting on the back steps and immediately knew that Larry, who had been very ill, had passed away.  The garden today was cared for with sadness.  Every galvanized container, large and small, in my garden is from Larry, who used to collect them for us.  He had a saw sharpening business in the past and made a special little rig (my word) to sharpen the blades of Allan’s little rechargeable chain saw.

I had decided to plant one of my three Teucrium ‘Purple Tails’ from Markham Farm along the roadside garden, because it is a tough plant. A bee discovered it while it was waiting in the parking area.

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

in its new home (Allan’s photo)

roadside garden

the raised box garden

Cosmos ‘Pop Socks’

Nasturtium ‘Caribbean Cocktail’

The Basket Case Greenhouse

Roxanne had grown me some Eryngium giganteum from a seed packet I bought.  I am terrible at growing from seed.  They look good.

I bought them all.  She also gave me some agastaches and other plants that she grew from seed as a gift to comfort me for the earlier Agastache Catastrophe of 2018. Please note that her nursery had nothing to do with said catastrophe; she was just sympathetic because I kvetched a lot to her about it.

Roxanne and a bouquet

Fortunately, Allan realized before we drove off that I had put the flat of eryngiums on the trailer hitch and forgotten to load them into the van. Otherwise we would perhaps have had an eryngium catastrophe today.

Joe’s Place

We had two things to deliver to our friend Joe, whose truck was broken down: a maritime history magazine from the Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum and a half gallon of milk.  I have written about Joe’s place before, here.

Joe, a veteran, is flying his flag as a distress signal because of his concern over the Trump-Putin connection.

Joe creates and sells “Dangerous Toys”.

driveway partly made of crushed china

fence; I share Joe’s liking for old Spartan trailers.

Klipsan Beach Cottages

Just our usual summertime hour of tidying the fenced garden and surrounding areas.

outside the fenced garden

elephant garlic with little paper hat on

dierama

lily

and lily

and lily

and lily

rose

rose

And what do I see in the photo above but a bunch of bindweed that I missed while I was there.

agapanthus, much deeper blue than the bright sunlight shows

Allan’s photo

our good friend Bella (Allan’s photo)

Shelburne Hotel

We would be watering and tidying tomorrow.  Today, we just had a little project, putting a canna in the bog garden that Allan cleared of blackberries last time.  Even though it won’t get enough sun, I hope it will look ok for the rest of the summer.  My plan is to put some darmera peltata starts in there in the fall.

Last time:

This odd little nook had the native blackberry in it.

Today:

Allan’s photo

A big plastic tub is in the basis for this; maybe it was once supposed to be a pool.  It is by the ramp where one enters the north side of the restaurant dining room:

Or one can walk this way to the front door.

In the back yard, I found that the Sunset runner beans (grown from seed by Roxanne) have beans now.

front garden: sorry to see the goatsbeard flowers fading to brown

Nicotiana ‘Fragrant Cloud’

Port of Ilwaco

We did the watering of the curbside gardens.

telephoto at midway

Allan had bought a new hose (because of the one that got its end driven on yesterday).  I am pleased that it is long enough to reach the drive-over garden…if I shoot the water at it from five feet away.

Allan dragged the heavy hose for me past the garden he was watering to the next one.

by ArtPort Gallery

I delegate most of the weeding of that one to Allan because I find it painful to walk on river rock.

my view while dumping some garbage in a port wheelie bin

A bit of our old garden is trying to survive the construction (new wall and windows) at the port office.

Hang in there, garden will be back soon.

pots at OleBob’s Café and fish market

Eryngium ‘Sapphire Blue’

Eryngium (Allan’s photo)

Allan’s photo

I think that when Sapphire Blue reseeds itself, it turns itself into this basic, beautiful, smaller flowered eryngium.  Is that possible?

If we can polish off the rest of the week’s tasks tomorrow, we will have Friday off. I want to enjoy my own garden in the peak of my lily season.

 

 

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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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