9 June: Ilwaco and Long Beach

Friday, 9 June 2017

getting ready for work and admiring my golden Fremontodendron. I just read it has little hairs that are a skin irritant.

We’d had lots of rain.

It had been raining hard for the first part of the morning.  We got a late start.

Our first little project was to replace some missing diascia in three of the Ilwaco planters.

Mike’s garden

A few blocks east, we did some string trimming, weeding, clipping, and planting (cosmos) in Mike’s garden.

An urgent need for strimming along the outer edge

These two sprawling conifers are slowly dying. Allan pulled lilac suckers out of one of them. Lilacs are bad that way.

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo. The one without the lilac problem is also dying out in the middle.

Oriential poppies (Allan’s photo)

Rain suddenly absolutely poured on us but we kept going.

Mike’s garden with a rain spot.

Port of Ilwaco

We weeded several of the curbside gardens and I added a very few Cosmos ‘Double Click’ to the port office garden.

Eryngium ‘Sapphire Blue’ by Ilwaco Pavilion (Allan’s photo)

my favourite bed (Allan’s photo)

curbside painting (Allan’s photo)

view to the south of Port Office garden

While Allan kept weeding, I got our check at Time Enough Books.

Scout, staff greeter

Bookstore owner Karla says she can tell if a friend is coming by Scout’s wiggling and wagging tail.

at the cash register

tomorrow’s author reading

When I emerged, I saw someone weeding with Allan.

It was Todd.  We had a chat about yesterday’s plant shopping trip.

plant talk

Long Beach

We did not have to water the planters or the street trees!

Feeling more confident by finding all the plants still living in the Sid Snyder Drive planter, we added a couple more.

squeezed some Cosmos ‘Double Click’ into Fifth Street Park; Captain Bob’s Cathy told me she saw me but could tell I was “on a mission”.

Allan planted a couple of Asclepias syriaca in the damp SW corner of the park, an area where it can behave aggressively if that is what it likes to do.  It can fight it out with the hesperantha.

I had meant to get to the police station garden before the farmers market opened to make sure none of the roses had flopped.

Oops, two hours after the market opened.  (Allan’s photo)

Vet Field (Allan’s photo)

Later, it was a little overwhelming to plant cosmos and to weed at Vet Field because the Columbia Pacific Farmers Market first market of the year (Fridays, 3-6 PM) was in session.  The corner bed still looks sad because of last week’s trampling.  The rain had delayed us so that we had not managed to make it there before market time.

trying to make a sad garden better

Later in the summer, the market will have enough vendors to encircle the field.

We bought a little sign from a little boy who was quite the salesman.

Allan’s photo, with the boy’s dad

The boy immediately turned his earnings of the day back into the local economy by buying a bag of kettle corn.

Allan’s photo

more rain while I added a plant to one more planter on the main street (Allan’s photo)

The rain is making me so happy.

We finally got out to weed the planters on the Bolstad beach approach.

I like the dark leaved sea thrift in a pool of golden marjoram.

The very blue grass is Elymus, which has been mostly pushed out by the plain green European beach grass which was planted to stabilize the dunes. (Allan’s photo)

We skipped this planter in a deep rain puddle.

lots of rugosa roses in bloom, pink ones and white ones.

one of the planters; out here, they have to be drought tolerant.

I hope soon to find time to weed out here again.

especially will enjoy weeding the emptier areas

And here will be a satisfying spot, especially because we can add some mulch.

Maybe next year the poppies will be more successful with some mulch added.

On the way to dump debris, we checked on the nice repair that the city crew had done on the Minnie Culbertson Park garden bed:

emergency watering LAST week with rotten rail road ties showing

today!

We pruned so the plaque shows.

at home

rain gauge

evening light

Acer campestre

 

 

Read Full Post »

7 March: working after all

Monday, 7 March 2016

Although I had every intention of staying home and working on the scrapbook blog, I did have an errand to run: delivering one of the scrapbooks to a friend who has access to good scanning equipment and wishes to scan the pictures that appeal to her most.  Just in case the weather changed, I asked Allan to put the work trailer on.

Three danes at the Beachdog office, where our friend works.

Wendy appreciates how cool the scrapbooks are.

love these doggies

Surprisingly, even though we had left the house in rain, the sun emerged, so we went to city works, filled all our buckets with mulch, and fluffed up the garden in the northeast quadrant of Fifth Street Park.

all fluffed up

Allan mulched in the SE quadrant.

More sun called for more mulch.  On the way back to City Works, we paused to weed the little monument garden at Culbertson Park.

More buckets of mulch improved the west side of Fifth Street Park.

Next came the deadheading of the Long Beach welcome sign.

before

I did the front side, and Allan the back (or the “welcome” side and the “thank you” side).  I had said to shear back the flowers.  Unfortunately, there was a misunderstanding.

Allan’s sheared narcissi, to the left

my version of sheared narcissi

This will be an interesting experiment to see if cutting the foliage all the way back will prevent the bottomed-out clumps from blooming vigorously next year.  Don’t try this at home.

I am thinking of moving a lot of these narcissi into a park, as they are too tall for the front and the old foliage wants to hide the new tulips that got planted behind.  Next fall I could replant with the shortest cultivars.

after, front

back (Allan’s photo)

after

Just as we finished (both doing the job and having an argy bargy re what it means to “shear” plants), the wind picked up considerably, so we headed home.

We swung round the port gardens to see how those narcissi are doing.

Ilwaco boatyard

The little area under the red sign has never looked better, although I did not want our van’s reflection in the photo.

Seeding some calendula in here did work!

Theron was just coming in.

Not many narcissi could be seen in the boatyard garden.  I hope people are heeding the “please leave the flowers for everyone to enjoy” signs.  Along the port was better, although still not as showy as I would like:

by Ilwaco Pavilion

by Wade Gallery

by the old Port Bistro

We got home with time to weed a bucket full of shotweed out of the center back yard garden.  (Allan scraped moss off the front sidewalk.) As I weeded, I had a revelation.  In her scrapbooks, my Grandma posted over the years several clippings showing ponds with stone edges.

I had shared this dream but, like my grandma, had never realized it.  My former Ilwaco garden had a lovely natural pond, and in this one, I had not been able to figure out a place to put a pond like any of the above.  Today came the revelation to put it in the center bed!

It would echo the water in the water boxes:

So should it go toward the end, where the sundial is?

Oh! The sundial could even sit IN it like in an overflow pond in my old garden.

lower pond in my old garden

Or should it be behind the sun dial?  I could transplant the Geranium ‘Rozanne’ stream to open up and encircle the sides of the new pond.

decision: set back aways or at the end??  And how to make it!???

Meanwhile, I have the water boxes and the bogsy wood rain puddle.

I also decided that I had to move that Hamemelis ‘Glowing Embers’ that I had planted too close to the Allan’s narrow grass path.  Brainstorm:  I moved the columnar silver Salix up there.  The Hamemelis went up by the front fence, after another one had been dug up and moved to under the purple leaved plum tree.

I hope Salix ‘Silver Column’ lives up to its name.

And then the rain came in earnest.

Smokey ran for the porch!

And out came a double rainbow.

looking east on Lake Street

The pot of gold was on School Hill.

Allan’s photos:

The weather calls for two days of rain…good days to work on scrapbook blog, I hope.  I have an MRI and an ultrasound scheduled for next week so…TICK TOCK!  I have all the scrapbooks set up in 24 pre-scheduled blog posts except for the last one which, because it is a cloth book of mostly baby photos, is of less fascination to me so will be just one entry.

Ginger’s Garden Diaries

from my mother’s garden diaries of two decades ago

1997 (age 72):

March 7:  I started using the wood in the shed.  Instead of using wheelbarrow and piling it on the porch, I’m bringing in an armload right into the house.  The wood burns good but it also burns fast.

1998 (age 73):

March 7:  1:00-3:00  Cloudy and cool.  I moved the containers of spring bulbs over to the RR ties along patio path.  They were so heavy (the tall ones) that I had a headache in just a short while.  I shoveled the soil (mud) from the plastic into the empty containers and pulled plastic over the mushroom compost in back.

 

 

Read Full Post »

23 Feb: all Ilwaco

Wednesday, 23 February 2016

Before leaving for work, I received this lovely photo of the Wiegard Gallery garden. 

 

photo by Todd Wiegardt. crocus and old lavender

Meanwhile, at home: 

deliciously fragrant daphne right by where I get in the van in the morning

front garden tulips, crocus, Erysimum

Tulip Kaufmanniana ‘The First’

Mike’s garden

We began just a few blocks east at Mayor Mike’s garden.

It should be time to cut the buddleia, but I liked its shape so much that I did not.

Allan clipped the pampas grass

Allan’s photo, weeding, before

and after (north side)

a lovely red Pieris (that looks like it needs fertilizer—yellow leaves on top)

front path after tidying

The soil, well mulched 15 months ago, is battered by all the rain and needs more.

The back yard narcissi show is not as grand as I had hoped.  The ivy trees are on the adjacent lot.

Allan’s photo: Sally feeling shy on the back deck

Port of Ilwaco

The big plan for today was to do a few more curbside gardens along Howerton Way, finish there by 3 o clock, hightail it up to Long Beach and weed and clip the two “little popouts”, dump debris and then get some mulch moved to Fifth Street Park.  Har de har.  It was but a dream….

First gardens: the old Wade Gallery, and further east in front of the old Port Bistro Restaurant (much missed by me even years later; their Napoleon of Ahi Tuna was so good).

after

Allan’s before

and after

Gardeners know that some ornamental grasses get cut back and some just get combed out.  How do we know the difference?  We just do.

narcissi, with ceanothus about to bloom

Allan’s photo, by the old Port Bistro.  Weeding on these rocks kills my knee.  But my back is powerful!

I grumble to myself when I weed the garden by a cannery, because of the dang blang landscape fabric ineffectively covered with bark.  The cannery owners  chose and prune the escallonias.

The underwear is showing!

One of these days, me and a good pair of scissors might have to remove that fabric.  Mulching it with a thick coat of gravel would have worked better.

Allan pruning wax myrtle at Craft 3 Bank

Allan’s photos, before

and after

more would-be tall shrubs to prune (not planted by us!!) and coppiced red twig dogwood

Allan’s photos: before

 

before

and after

A drizzle began.  “WHAT??” said I, “It was supposed to not rain after 10 AM!”

I asked Allan to get a photo of the Top Cat.  (Another boat in the marina is named the Fat Cat and is famous for having been stolen by the Barefoot Bandit).

Top Cat

Here comes the Cutting Edge (owned by a fella with last name of Cutting).

crab pot gardening backdrop

By 3:15, after finishing three more curbside beds, I realized we were NOT going to get to Long Beach in time to accomplish the mulching of the park garden.  Instead, I decided we could finish the west end curbside beds and then we could at least cross the Howerton Way gardens off the work board.

The westernmost bed, before

and after

We dug out some Elagrostis curvula (“weeping love grass”) that was pitiful looking because of last summer’s drought.   This year, this particular bed will be my NO WATER test garden since it’s the one where the adjacent business will not allow us hose access.  We are tired of hooking up three hoses from the port dock to water this one, and so it will become an interesting Beth Chatto-esque drought test rather than asking the port crew to run a hose line for us here.  I wouldn’t want to go that way on all of the beds, because a drought garden does tend to look dusty and tired in a long dry spell, especially with our salty sea wind.  The many businesses who like having a more spectacular garden can have the more exciting plants.  In fact, I moved a couple of plants out of this garden down to the Time Enough Books garden today.

another inspiration for no water gardening

the next bed to the east, before

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Back when that particular building was occupied by our dear friend Queen La De Da’s art studio, I had planted some extra special plants in that garden.

Iris hermodactylus tuberosa (Allan’s photo)

Iris hermodactylus tuberosa (Allan’s photo), snakes head iris

after weeding and clipping till we could no longer see the little weeds very well

 

We barely finished by dark!

This old doggie was catching up to her guy, who had turned back to wait for her.

Then I got to pet her.  What a sweet heart.  Her name is Brandy, she is 16, and a fine girl indeed; her guy has had her since she was small enough to fit into his hand.

fishing boat lights

fog to the west

As we quit for the day: Just 24 hours till our weekly dinner at Salt Pub!

A day spent stepping back and forth over the curb into and out of the gardens had made my knee thoroughly seize up by dusk, and I had a time bending it enough to seat myself in the van.  For a few minutes of my leg being locked straight and refusing to bend, I wondered if I was going to make it home (because I doubt I could have walked it, either.)

I did manage to get into the van eventually, and at home was able to cross two things off the work board, and add one (mulching Mike’s).

Jo’s is the last of the single garden spring clean ups left!  Next week, I hope.

So tomorrow, supposedly a sunny day, I am determined to do the little pop out gardens and one section of beach approach garden in Long Beach (at least cutting back the roses) and mulch Fifth Street Park.  And yet we must get home in time to mow the lawn before rain returns.  Again I may be living just in hope.

Ginger’s Garden Diaries

from my mother’s garden diaries, two decades ago

1995 (age 70):

Feb 24: Continued sieving compost.  Now one half of compost box is sieved so I placed board in center and have 1/2 box filled 1/2 deep of lovely sieved compost.  Only have about 1/4 of box left to sieve.  There are hundreds of worms which I’ll toss back into box when its empty.  I am throwing the coarse stuff out into garden area to be tilled in when it’s dry enough to till.

1998 (age 73)

Feb 24: 12:30-4:30  Sunny and cool.  I finished sawing the branches next to shop and the ones Skyler pulled over to the “raspberry” path.  I got all the cut firewood into the shed and raked the area.  I also moved some of the pieces that Don [a neighbour] put into the wood box so I could close the lid.  Next chore will be to clean up the patio area and “under Bruce’s window” [her husband who died in 1995].  After that maybe later this week I’ll start bringing up the new wood.

Read Full Post »

22 Feb: Bring on the cupcakes!

Monday, 22 February 2016

Last night at 2 AM, I finished a novel that I’d been pecking away at for several bedtimes.

I especially liked this description of what it feels like when rain comes after a long drought.

That is very much how it was when rain finally came here after last summer’s drought.

Port of Ilwaco

We had time from midmorning till very early afternoon to weed a few more curbside beds at the port.

Time Enough Books/Purly Shell curbside, before

after clipping santolinas, grass combing, weeding

Tulips and Narcissi foliage in the garden boat

a big old santolina, before

and after; could have been cut even harder

Port Office garden, after some clipping and weeding

Port Office, south side, before

after clipping santolinas

Narcissi, Lavender, and Lambs Ears

across the lawn from the port office

Meanwhile, Allan weeded and clipped the Salt Hotel curbside garden.

Then off we went along the Columbia River and through the woods to see Dr Gwen at the Naselle Clinic.  I was pleased and surprised when all my blood tests came back good…good cholesterol, liver and kidney function, and no diabetes.  Perfect glucose.  I was surprised and pleased to learn that I don’t have to give up Pink Poppy Bakery cupcakes.  The astonishing thing was that I was quite low in Vitamin D.   How can this be for someone who is outside all day?  Our sunshine here is weak.  Dr Gwen says I will feel much better when I have boosted my D.

From the waiting room of the clinic, we saw this fellow getting into a vehicle:

I am in love.  (Allan’s photo)

All the good news was tempered with the unsolved mystery of problems not explained by perfect blood tests, thus the neurologist still looms in the near future.  As does a knee doctor, as the interpretation of my knee X rays says that my left knee has “mild degenerative changes” but my right knee has “severe degenerative changes…with complete loss of the normal joint space.”  Well, ow.  I share this not that the world should give a hoot about my knee, but because it is an interesting plot twist in a gardening blog.  By the way, I don’t kneel to garden…The way I bend over while working puts more weight on my left knee than my right, so it is mystifying to me that the right one went kaflooey first.

I used to run.  A lot.  For years. On concrete in the city.  I blame this for some of my knee problems, as the pain started back then and I “pushed through it”.  I think if I had not been obsessed with weightlifting, running, and aerobics for ten years, I would be a stronger gardener now.

me, 1987, age 32, running around Green Lake (about 3 miles), photo by Allan, who used to run with me on occasion. I was slow but determined.  Exercise addiction is not always good for the body, no matter how much praise one gets for the results.

To celebrate today’s good blood tests, we dined at…

The Depot Restaurant

Depot Restaurant (Allan’s photo)

wilted spinach salad and clam chowder (Allan’s photo)

won the best chowder award at the 2015 Razor Clam Festival (Allan’s photo)

char grilled Ling Cod with Tuscan bean and tomato stew and garlic parsley butter

Allan’s photo

chocolate espresso pot de creme to celebrate a good glucose test!

I am also celebrating that I have two weeks to catch up on all the spring clean up before more appointments.  I had been so afraid that something medical and scary and sudden would happen today that would interfere with the rest of the work week.  It was a nonsensical fear, but a strong one.

Ginger’s Garden Diaries

from my mother’s garden diaries of two decades ago:

1995 (age 70):

Feb 22:  Planted new Stark raspberries (10).  Heeled in new Stark strawberries (75) and put in greenhouse under lights.  Then I started sieving compost box.  I’m throwing all stuff not decomposed on garden area to be tilled in later.  A good day’s work!!

1997: age 72

Feb 22:  Worked about 1 1/2 hours bringing firewood up to porch.  Finished all wood from west side of shop.  I put the wet ones on pallet boards behind shop and covered them with the tarps.  Also covered were the huge pieces of that tree Mac sliced in half.

Read Full Post »

16 Feb: a surprise work day

Tuesday, 16 February 2016

I hadn’t expected to work and slept as late as I might choose to on a rainy day, as did Allan…only to find it neither raining nor windy.  I’ll just say that, as often noted in my mom’s gardening diaries, we got out the door to work at 1 PM. The forecast still threatened rain so we decided to work in Ilwaco and stay close to home.

First, I had to photograph a few scenes from my own garden:

early tulips

narcissi

crocus

Crocus under Corylopsis pauciflora

crocus and Euphorbia characias wulfenii

narcissi and crocus

Then, our volunteer garden at the Ilwaco Post Office, before….

and after…

post office garden weeded

Next, we weeded and tidied the Ilwaco planters and street tree gardens.

We are not happy about the one that is always used as a cigarette butt ashtray and wish the nearby businesses would do something about it.

seems to be from the driver licensing place.  Makes me so frustrated.  (Allan’s photo)

butts gleaned from one planter (Allan’s photo)

I’ve spoken with a merchant with some clout to maybe get an ashtray receptacle put on that block, so fingers crossed.

an Erysimum that had been pulled out and let sit on top of the soil.  Grrr.

Allan’s photo.

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

I wonder if this tree is going to go over; amazed it made it through the past winter’s winds.

Looks ominous at the base.

Allan’s photo

A project for Allan: Thin out some golden oregano:

Allan’s photos: before

after

There’s still too much but I don’t want all the bulbs to come out with the oregano.

north side of the Ilwaco boatyard today

finishing the last planters on Spruce Street

With the planters done, we got started on the Howerton Way curbside gardens at the Port (with no hope of finishing them today).

east end, looking west, before

after, with santolinas clipped

We skipped over a few sections to get close to the restrooms, and finished up in that area, running out of daylight before we ran out of weeding and clipping.

Goodbye to the last of the tatty Pacific Reed Grass

better, with some santolina starts stick in

Ilwaco Pavilion garden, before

Susan Spence stopped by at dusk and pulled a few more weeds.

At home: the work board list has reappeared:

and got slightly reduced today

I would love to finish the port gardens tomorrow; however, Klipsan Beach Cottages must be our next work day.

Allan went off to dump while I went home.  He brought me back a present from the debris pile area:

He mentioned that most people would not be thrilled to have a snake in a bucket brought into the living room.  I am thrilled because they eat slugs.  (Later I thought, oh dear, they eat little frogs, though.)

I hope it prefers small delectable slugs to frogs.

in the back garden

Ginger’s Garden Diaries

My mother’s diaries from two decades ago have entries for today:

1995 (age 70):

Feb 16:  Finally got a nice enough day so I planted my new Stark Brothers apple tree in back.  Also planted replacement rose bush at northern end of bulkhead.  Finished trimming WPFB.  [West Patio Flower Bed]

1998 (age 73)

Feb 16: Doctor’s appt today.  I’ve gained 8# since my last appt.  Glucose test ok so I don’t need to resume taking the diabetes medicine.  When I got home I changed into my garden clothes and worked outside 3 hrs.  I removed the tarps from the garden area to use on wood to be delivered tomorrow.  Then I got the recycle stuff ready.  Then I weeded the bulkhead area and planted most of the bulbs that came out of last year’s containers.  They have been in boxes in the greenhouse all winter.

Read Full Post »

15 April: all Port of Ilwaco

Wednesday, 15 April 2015

Some garden admiration while loading the trailer for work:

a black tulip by the driveway, maybe ‘Black Hero’ returning for several years in a row.

a Hebe next to Erysimum ‘Winter Orchid’ (right) that filled the air with fragrance.

looking east at the front garden which I so hope to weed soon.

Port of Ilwaco

After a quick check on Spruce Street to see if the two street planters have been shifted to their new positions (they haven’t), we started weeding and fertilizing at the east end of Howerton Way and worked our way west.  One day was not enough time to do a perfect job. We got the biggest weeds and a lot of small ones and left a few more hidden areas unweeded for lack of time.    It would have been a great day to “Map my Walk”….if I had remembered.

Curbside gardens run from east to west all along the landward side of the buildings.

easternmost garden, before (Allan’s photo)

after (Allan’s photo)

The easternmost garden bed with lots of Armeria (sea thrift).

looking west from Howerton and Elizabeth

While we were weeding that long bed, Mayor Mike stopped by, and over the course of the conversation I agreed to take on the community building garden.  What?  We are supposed to be cutting back.  My affection for Ilwaco won over good sense.  I have always said I would not do that garden with its bindweed, horsetail, and (in my often disagreed-with opinion) too much heather planted on level ground.  I am fussy about heather and only appreciate it on a slope.  Also, there is salal which I cannot abide in a garden.  (A fellow CPN later said to me, “Salal gets mowed.” So we’ll see if I can live with weeding around heather and salal.  We have two fewer private gardens in Ilwaco this year, and I said to Allan that the amount of work time will probably come out about the same as last year by adding the community garden.

At least I had the sense to tell Mike that we would not be able to get to it for a couple of weeks.  Lawdy, we don’t even have the Long Beach beach approach garden weeded yet and that usually takes us 6-7 days.

Ceanothus by the Loading Dock Village building (Allan’s photo)

Allan’s photo

with ornamental grass (Allan’s photo)

At the Ilwaco Pavilion garden bed, I had the urge to do some alteration.  Out came two clumps of Pacific Reed Grass and in went a Hebe ‘Boughton Dome’ and a couple of golden variegated lemon thyme and some seeds of ‘Twister’ California poppy.

before

after

one bed further west, my favourite, full of Narcissus ‘Baby Moon’ and beautifully round santolinas

An orange helianthemum is blooming already. How I love these and wish they bloomed for longer than just springtime.

I added one Agastache ‘Cotton Candy’ to the garden on the south side of the Port Office.

port office garden

As we went along all these gardens today, I fertilized selected plants rather than casting the fertilizer all over the beds.  I fear the latter approach would get loose dogs to digging.  I’m worried already that dogs will get into the port office bed and break off my precious alliums.

Allium albopilosum already almost blooming

and another cluster of big fat buds

If dogs were drawn in by fertilizer smells, at least it would be unintentional damage unlike human finger blight; I also fear people finding the alliums irresistable to pluck, not realizing that each bulb is expensive and only produces one flower per year.

Other than a bit of wind and sun too bright for good plant photos, the weather was exceptional and not too hot.

We did a thorough weeding of the beds on the north side of the port office and Don Nisbett Art Gallery, despite a little argy- bargy about whether we were going too slow (so quoth Allan) and me wanting to achieve something like perfection because the Saturday Market will be open with people walking past the gardens.

before

after

before

The bed above is proof that even though narcissi perennialize, they sometimes have to be replenished.  They have petered out completely here so we must plant more next fall.

As we weeded those beds, a fellow engaged us in conversation and gave us his attractive business card.  He will have a booth at the Ilwaco Saturday Market this summer, selling varieties of cherry tomatoes and (I think) some sort of condiments or sauces.  His items sounded delicious.

I like his business name and think his biz card is gorgeous.

By the time we reached the next bed, adjacent to Time Enough Books, I was having to sacrifice perfection for speed.  If we did not get the boatyard done today as well, we would not have time to do our north end jobs this week.  We got most of the weeds and I hoped that the river rock and many beach strawberries would disguise the little grasses that we left behind.

Time anxiety ruled and some little weeds had to be skipped over.

While we were weeding somewhere along this stretch, someone from a passing car yelled out “We love you!” or maybe “I love you!”  By the time I uncricked my neck and looked up, the vehicle was two blocks away.  If indeed the words were directed at us, it was much nicer than being honked at.  The honking, while usually from friends, is jarring and startling when one is working along a busy street, especially in Long Beach.

I deadheaded the tulips in the Time Enough Books garden boat; they are yellow to catch the eye of passersby.

Tulip ‘Akebono’  is my favourite this year.

Tulip ‘Akebono’

Tulip ‘Akebono’; note the thin red petal outline

lily flowering Tulip ‘West Point’

The Time Enough Books garden area with blue ceanothus is easy right now.

Narcissus ‘Baby Moon’ blooming in the garden by the old Harbor Lights motel.

By the time we got to the two westernmost garden beds, I had despaired of getting to the boatyard at all, and while weeding I brooded about which jobs we would have to skip in order to get Ilwaco and Long Beach completely groomed for the clam festival on Saturday.  As one might expect when one is running out of time, the last two beds proved to be exceptionally weedy.  We had filled almost every bucket with weeds, so Allan drove off to the east end of the port to dump the debris.

By the dump site, he had an audience.

He’s sorry this photo came out blurry…but look at that strut!

At this grim hour, as I kept slogging along on that exceptionally weedy westernmost garden bed, who should track us down by Todd Wiegardt, newly moved back to the Long Beach Peninsula.  (You may recall that he has been mailing us cool plants since last summer.)  As we talked, he couldn’t resist weeding. With his expert help (he used to be the curator of the display garden for the famous Plant Delights Nursery in North Carolina), we got the last Howerton Way gardens done well enough to move on to the boatyard.  Just have a look at this photo album of the Juniper Level Botanic Garden of which he was curator and you will see why I had no worries that he might pull out a good plant.

second to last Howerton Way bed, done well enough

Allan and Todd weeding the last Howerton Way bed.

Todd’s weeding technique impressed me in that he has speed and the knack of removing the weeds without disturbing the soil very much.  (Turning the soil over encourages more weed seeds to germinate.)

On to the boatyard!  All the nasty big horsetail had started to poke out of the soil.  With less than two hours till sunset, we just tried to get most of it broken off (said to be more effective than pulling it) and the larger weeds and bindweed pulled.  The littler weeds will mostly have to wait till the week before the May 2 children’s parade.

at the boatyard, with horsetail (Allan’s photo)

after (Allan’s photo)

before (Allan’s photo)

after (Allan’s photo)

I had planted Narcissus ‘Baby Moon’ all along the edge thinking how cute it would be all in flower for the parade.  Of course, as regular readers have heard me saying for weeks now, it is blooming WAY EARLY.  I doubt it will last till May 2nd.

Narcissus ‘Baby Moon’

two weeders (Allan’s photo)

I finally had to call uncle as it looked like Todd could keep going; I had hit the wall.

One of us was indefatigable and it was not me.

the man who saved the day! (Allan’s photo)

Thanks to Todd, we got the three block long boatyard done well enough to call it good for the early Saturday Market opening.  (The Market’s official opening day is May 2nd; this week is a sneak preview in association with the Long Beach Razor Clam Festival.)

The Perserverance.

Read Full Post »

8 April: further fertilizing

Wednesday, 8 April 2015

Ilwaco

We had an ambitious agenda today, starting with deadheading some narcissi that I noticed during yesterday evening’s drive by of the Howerton Way gardens. (I simply had no energy then to get out of the vehicle and pick off the dead flower stems).

By the Loading Dock Village building, I found room in the garden for three Agastaches (hyssops), which I hope will do well with minimal watering.  In his excellent book High and Dry, Robert Nold warned that they need more water than most people think, so this is a test of their endurance. 

three hyssops added

I do wish we could just weed all along the port this week.  I saw little creeping sorrels coming back, and pulled some.  However, fertilizing elsewhere must take a priority as a good rainy (reading! I hope!) day is due on Friday and would nicely wash it all in.

same bed: Blue Ceanothus, blue sky

same garden bed: narcissi

Further west by the Ilwaco Pavilion and restrooms:  Oh how mildly infuriating to see all the ‘Baby Moon’ narcissi blooming now, when in other years I have always been able to count on them being in bloom for the parade on the first Saturday in May.

my favourite of all the Howerton Way garden beds

Narcissus ‘Baby Moon’ and santolinas, dianthus, etc

I will be curious to see what IS in bloom for parade weekend in Ilwaco and Long Beach!  One glimmer of hope is that this California poppy was already flowering in this same little garden:

California poppy (probably ‘White Linen’)

reseeded from last year

If the ones reseeded from last year start to bloom this early, and the ones I sowed this year come on later, we should have a long lasting poppy show.

I long for a day to weed the boatyard; I will fertilize lightly as we go, when that happy day arrives, to work it in well so loose dogs don’t dig in it (or not too much, one hopes).

We drove by with no time to weed. This cute boat caught my eye enough to get her photo taken out the van window.

At the post office, I got an exciting small box from Bluestone Perennials so we paused at home so I could free the plants.

photos from Bluestone Perennials….wowie zowie, eh?

And Sambucus ‘Lemony Lace’, makes my mouth water.

In the garden, I took one photo before we headed back to our work day.

a deep red primula given to me by Jayne of Bailey’s Café in Nahcotta.

The Depot Restaurant

The day’s fertilizing began at The Depot Restaurant in Seaview.

Depot garden with some narcissi and tulips

I wish we had time today to severely edit the ajuga.  Soon its day of doom will come. 

Ajuga (bugleweed) creeping forward from the back…

and backward from the front…

On the way to run two nursery errands, we paused long enough to photograph the tulips at the welcome sign.

The Planter Box

We needed to buy several more bags of Dr. Earth fertilizer.

Limonium Suworowii, for sale as you walk in.

The Basket Case

After planting three Agastaches at the port, I had gotten anxious about running out of them, so back we went to The Basket Case to snag some and some more Gaura ‘Whirling Butterfly’ and ‘So White’.

more, more more! (Allan’s photo)

Fred totals up.  (Allan’s photo)

Now we could get back to fertilizing.  Because we had skipped Klipsan Beach Cottages yesterday, we headed there.  I am trying a new plan, just getting through as many gardens as possible without getting anxious about how far along we are.  It worked yesterday….sort of….

Klipsan Beach Cottages

At KBC, owner/manager Mary helped rake the fertilizer in, and that helped speed things along.  Allan and I did some weeding and deadheading and then took some photos for the KBC Facebook page (which I help run, along with many more).

boxwood and Euphorbia

Clematis (Allan’s photo)

Clematis over a deer fence gate (Allan’s photo)

In the fenced garden, two pots of Angelique tulips

Tulip ‘Angelique’

Tulip ‘Formosa’

multi flowering tulip ‘Florette’

(Allan’s photo)

a tulip which has come back in the ground for over five years now

(Allan’s photo)  (taken without each other’s knowledge)

one of two yellow tree peonies

tree peony flowers

I was thrilled that this year I was there during their bloom time!

Pieris by the lawn garden

more Clematis (Allan’s photo)

detail (Allan’s photo)

Joseph’s Coat rose (Allan’s photo)

shadows by the A Frame woods

Narcissi in the A Frame garden (Allan’s photo)

cool plant from Mary’s brother (Allan’s photo)

One of Mary’s brothers lives near Heronswood and is quite the plantsman.  He’s the one who gave her the yellow tree peonies and also the Cardiocrinum giganteum that bloomed last year, a choice plant with which his own garden abounds.

the garden below the house deck

As we left, I lazily asked Allan to photograph two things that I spotted from the vehicle’s passenger seat:

a container planting by Mary by the office door (Allan’s photo)

Easter decor

a narcissi with a darling tiny cup

The smaller the cup, the more I like them.

Anchorage Cottages

I had brought four window box inserts to see if they would fit.  They are too short to fill the length of the windowbox frames.

not gonna work

Manager Beth said she would order more of the kind that the bulbs are planted in.  Two of those in each frame fill up the whole length.  The bulb ones are sort of narrow which is why I was hoping the terracotta ones would work.  Oh well.  So…we fertilized and I planted Agastaches and Nicotiana langsdorfii.

My good friend Mitzu was there.

trying a new thing: Agastaches added to containers. I think they will bloom most of the summer.

Across the street: a classic scene of beach clothes drying in the sun on a white picket fence:

Boreas Inn

Allan was tormented when we drove up to the Boreas Inn’s west gardens to see Susie’s whirligig garden sculpture madly twirling.  He had bought himself one at a close out sale at Fred Meyer and his has never agreed to spin despite tinkering and oiling.

Susie’s taunted him by whirling rapidly in very little wind. (Allan’s photo)

We fertilized and planted some Agastaches and some Nicotiana langsdorfii.  On the future work list is the task of  edging the lawn beds.

looking west

some stray narcissi in the long grass

Long Beach

We had eight plants to plant in Long Beach:

two Champion hebes by the little monument in Coulter Park

three nicotianas at City Hall, where the red rhodo has popped into bloom overnight.

City Hall

City Hall…I love the foliage of the Aruncus (goatsbeard); I rescued this one from our old road when it was widened, years ago.

and three nicotiana in Fifth Street Park, where I am determined to have them even though it was hard to squeeze them in.

home again

I managed to cast fertilizer around the front garden, and get magnesium sulfate on the roses front and back.  (The deer are still coming in and nibbling the front garden roses, hopping the low fence.)

(Allan’s photo)

(Allan’s photo)

I was quite excited to find, inside the front fence, a runner from the Tetrapanax!

(Allan’s photo) It’s to the left, next to Melianthus major. I may be sorry later but for now I love that the Tetrapanax ‘Steroidal Giant’ is spreading.

I did not have time to work the fertilizer in and only looked at the weeds.  It will get worked in by rain and later by me when I can finally have some weeding days at home.

Tomorrow: If we can spend most of the day at Andersen’s and get its gardens fertilized and weeded, I will feel we have put in a very good six days of work.

three jobs erased, and a couple added

Further accomplishment:  We finished watching the latest season of Doctor Who tonight and will be able to return it to the library on time.

 

 

 

Read Full Post »

27 March: Another sweet pea mission

Friday, 27 March 2015

If we could get the sweet peas planted at the Boreas in today, the only sweet pea mission left would be mine at home and at the Ilwaco Post Office (our volunteer garden).  I also have the Ilwaco boatyard on the list, just in case the sweet peas sprout well everywhere, and the slugs don’t get them, and no second planting is necessary, and there are some left over.  It might be fun to have some growing on the chain link fence there.  Or it might not be, as they would need more watering than the rest of the garden.

Today we had to start down along Howerton Way at the Port, deadheading narcissi.  The weather looked chilly, and light rain was predicted.  I would rather have stayed home with the cats.  However, getting the work list whittled down is an irresistable goal at the busiest times of the year.

Ilwaco

Tulip clusiana ‘Peppermint Stick’

small and exquisite

must plant more narcissi in these three beds next fall

Time Enough Books garden boat

Allan’s photo (includes, to the left, the tool he had “lost” and I found)

Allan’s photo

(I did not boastfully have that little boat named after me; it was the idea of Karla, who owns the fine bookstore in whose landscape the boat sits.)

Allan’s photo: tulips in the westernmost bed

Allan’s photo: tulips and Artemisia…I forget the name of this low one….”Silver Brocade’ I think

When I deadheaded the small bed on the south side of the port office, I had the idea that gravel along the back would be so helpful for a maintenance path and to keep water from splashing up onto the building.  So we collected buckets of gravel from the port’s pile and fixed it.  I think we’ll add another batch of gravel before we mulch the garden (which is high on the work list).

As workers, we get to drive down Waterfront Way to get the port office.

after: This should keep dirt from splashing up on the building.

Rain water falls through from the deck above with enough force to splash the dirt up along the back of the garden.

We stopped at home to pick up a plant I’d forgotten and the garden lured me in for a short while.

front garden thick with flowers

Pieris backed with Tulip ‘Gavota’

How I love the small cupped narcissi!

Geranium macrorrhizum

another well behaved hardy gernanium, and a white bucket where the BLUE bucket should be.  ???!!?

Pulmonaria in Allan’s garden

fresh new growth from the floppy hellebore; we can cut the outside part back now that the flowers are fading. I wonder if it will bloom again?

black hellebore

Smokey appreciated our brief interlude at home.

Epimidium

Smokey in Allan’s garden

The plant that we picked up went into the planter by the Portside Café; it’s a variegated Erysimum with some yellow on the leaves.

Portside Café at First and Main

Allan deadheaded nearby planters and noticed someone had plucked and dropped some good narcissi flowers. Fie!  That’s Narcissus bulbicodium (yellow hoop petticoats) with golden marjoram

Finally, we were done with Ilwaco and continued on our mission to get the Boreas Inn.  However, on the way north I realized that we had better stop to check on the deadheading at…

The Depot Restaurant

The deadheading was not extensive; the window boxes in front were DRY (but we had a bucket of water with us), and I planted ten more oriental lilies.

The Depot garden

‘West Point’ Lily flowering tulips

Allan’s photo

Long Beach

On the way toward Long Beach, Allan suggested we should check the welcome sign.  It also was not in need of much deadheading.

It’s unfortunate that there is chopped narcissi foliage in front. (They never grew that tall before.)

The garden looks better on a drive-by than under close scrutiny.

The back side narcissi did not give me a problem like the front did.

I suppose when we plant annuals, we’ll dig some of the too-tall narcissi out and plant them into a park.  We made one more Long Beach stop: planting some white Dutch iris in the Veterans Field Garden.

Finally, the Boreas Inn!

I weeded and planted sweet peas in window box liners along the north fence, and for the first time, all along the south picket fence, below.  It was no fun as I had to get underneath the deer netting.  A few weeks ago, we half-moon edged the other side of the picket fence to clear this area for sweet peas.  Planted some lily and Dutch Iris bulbs, too.

There’s netting at the height of the crossboards, making for awkward working.

Meanwhile, Allan worked on weeding the west lawn beds to prepare for poppy planting.

Allan’s photo, before

Allan’s photo, after

Allan’s photo

The garden suite deck

We found a bag of garden compost to use to fluff up along the picket fence where I had planted the sweet peas.  It was wet and heavy, so Allan put it in a couple of buckets and top dressed the sandy soil along the fence.  Susie was home and said it is her favourite garden bed.

I sure hope the sweet peas do well there.

A light drizzle and considerable wind had me thinking that I would not be able to plant the poppy seeds (as I don’t want to get the seed packets wet).  The rain stopped just long enough to plant some different colours of California Poppies in the west beds…Copper Pot, Dusky Rose, Tequila Sunrise, Tropical Sunset, Thai Silk and Jelly Beans mix.  Fingers crossed, as I always say about seeds.  I don’t have as much faith in seeds as I do in bulbs.

As we worked further on the weeding of the west beds, the wind got worse and the drizzle returned and I finally couldn’t stand it anymore.  (I am usually the one to decide it is time to bail out.)  I realized that these beds really need mulching, and that the Depot garden doesn’t after all, so I need to switch that task on the “projects” list.  The lawn beds here look low and I want to build them up.

Boreas lawn beds

Long Beach again

As we drove back to downtown Long Beach in the rain to pick just a few deadheads that I’d seen earlier, Allan suggested we stop at the Peninsula Art Association show, so we did!  The location was the old clamshell railraod Depot in Coulter Park. (The Depot Restaurant is also an old train depot.)  We walked through the back entrance of the park and I admired the Pieris and the Ribes sanguineum (flowering currant).  I wonder if very many people walk back to see this display?

Ribes bracketed with Pieris

But ACK, there is an unclipped sword fern!

Another Pieris; one year, all three Pieris started to die.  I gave them Dr. Earth rhododendron fertilizer and they recovered.

I also saw an unpruned hardy Fuchsia.  The park needs some attention….later.

Entering the building, the first thing I saw, straight across from the door, was a gorgeous painting of irises.  It was by our former client, Eric Wiegardt.  Next to it sat a bouquet of pottery flowers by Karen Brownlee.

Wiegardt Irises and Karen Brownlee flowers.  I was totally gobsmacked by this painting.

Once again, we had accidentally timed it perfectly to be there at the opening reception for the art show…snack time!

wine, crudités, dip, crackers, cheese, hummus…

and the most amazing huge and delicious chocolate dipped strawberries

I admired the view of the restful park while I noshed.

a tulip bouquet

artists and admirers

The woman to the right in the group above, in a mellifluous British accent, told me how much she loves all the gardens we do and that we add beauty to her life.  I wanted to ask where she was from but it seemed a bit nosy to me at the time.  Now I wish I had; she was ever so nice.

I especially like the painting of orange flowers, upper right

and this glorious flower painting, here with the artist, Carol Couch. She told me the flowers “came out of her head”.

On the way home we did stop and deadhead some narcissi, not many as most were holding up well.  It required only one parking spot.

Long Beach planter vignette

I briefly toyed with the idea of going to the port, despite the wind, and getting more buckets of gravel to apply to the port office garden, just to have it done.  Then the rain increased and I decided no.

23 MPH had been pretty miserable while we were working at the Boreas.  Look at the gust of 49.5 on March 15 when I was at the Sylvia Beach Hotel during the storm; biggest gust so far in 2015 at the weather station partway up Sandridge Road; we probably get more wind than that at the port.

Soon after we were home and cozy with a cup of tea, the skies thoroughly opened with an impressive downpour and I was awfully glad we were not moving gravel in the fiercely pelting rain.

rain from the east window

and the north window

The rain is supposed to stop by noon tomorrow., and I want to get a lot done.  I hope we will be able to get the Boreas Inn mulched. First, we will go to the Empty Bowls event even though I feel anxious about a slow start to the work day.   I do treasure the bowls I’ve gotten the last two years.  (You pick a handmade bowl, pay $10, and get soup and bread for lunch…or in our case, breakfast at 11 AM, and you get to keep the bowl; it benefits local food banks).

treausred bowls from previous years

Allan pointed out that I need a bigger bowl for my Earl Grey tea:

Earl Grey birthday gift from Kathleen

The work list is getting whittled down slowly.

decreasing work list…need to change “mulch Depot” to “mulch Boreas”

Read Full Post »

13 March: another difficult day

Friday, 13 March 2015

It started out well, with me getting Montana Mary’s birthday presents wrapped and sent.  At my request, Allan took a few photos of the garden just out the front door….

Wow! My second favourite tulip, ‘Leo’, is blooming and I almost missed it. (left, red)

Hmm.  That might not be the spectacular Leo after all, as the petals don’t look fringy enough. Here is Leo in the past.

The real Leo is very fringy.  (from  2013)

flowering currant

closer

We did a little weeding and I planted some California and other poppy seeds at the Ilwaco post office.

our volunteer post office garden

seeds planted (Buttercream, Dusky Rose, Rosa Romantica, Falling in Love

Snails have badly chewed the beautiful Iris bucharica, dang blang it.  You can see sluggo has been liberally applied.

Port of Ilwaco

We took up where we left off yesterday, planting seeds (me) and weeding (Allan) along Howerton Way at the port.

my reference for seeds planted by the Ilwaco Pavilion

and in the other Ilwaco pavilion bed, my favourite one…

Dusky Rose and Thai Silk mix

For the first time, I seeded California poppies in red shades and Legion of Honor poppies into the river rock (which blissfully for us does not have landscape fabric underneath) by the Powell Gallery.

red shades (Carmine King and Red Chief), and then I added some mixed “Jelly Bean’s here and there

Marie Powell gallery garden

The small square garden bed closest to Don’s gallery got some Artist’s Glory.

seeds for Time Enough books garden….also river rock over dirt rather than fabric (Thai Silk pink, Rosa Romantica, Dusky Rose, Buttercream, Ivory Castle, and Legion of Honor

the boat tulips are coming on….

The ceanothus hanging over the sidewalk is about to bloom, so I don’t want to prune it now.

I weeded the small garden on the south side of the Port office, noticed it needed a couple of bags of mulch, and added to the day the dream of getting said bags at Dennis Co in Long Beach and applying it at the end of the day.  (This did not happen…it was only a dream.)

After planting some poppies in the westernmost beds, which had some coming up already, while Allan used to pick to hammer four santolinas into the river rock bed that does have landscape fabric underneath (by the old Harbor Lights motel), we planted a couple more santolinas at the boatyard…

boatyard garden with Euphorbia

and then we were on our way to Long Beach with one drive around the block because I’d seen some narcissi deadheads in an Ilwaco planter.

On the swing around I was struck by how well these ornamental pears show against the Shorebank building.

Long Beach

We tried to deadhead at the Depot on the way only to find the little restaurant getting a new roof.  It looked like there might be ladders on top of my alliums.  I felt philosophically sad, and we drove on.  After some deadheading at the welcome sign, I left Allan weeding Fifth Street Park while I walked around grooming the planters and street trees.

a park supervisor

Fifth Street Park before

before, or rather during, with lots of infuriating wild alliums that look like grass to most people, probably

First thing when I get back after my trip to Sylvia Beach Hotel (which starts tomorrow) will be to plant sweet peas along where Allan is weeding out those bad alliums and some shotweed.

As I walked around the planters, I felt the time stress level mounting; we really hoped to be done by five thirty to allow time at home for paperwork, packing, and blogging, and some telly.  Here is some work stream of consciousness:  must be out of my mind scheduling such a long trip to Sylvia Beach during almost spring work season…so what if 60th birthday…will love it when I get there but so behind on work…wish could weed beach approach garden and berms…still have not done the damn big pop out! but Allan says he will do it when he returns (he’s coming back four days before I do)…bless his heart.

primroses under a street tree..good…

a sign in the building by that tree..Thai food? New?? Soon????

love the colour of these tulips

The owner of the smoke shop says a Thai restaurant is indeed opening very soon.  Better weed a little harder under that tree in front…I went back and did so… . Also she told me her cute little dog loves to patrol for snails around the base of the planter.  I offered him a job, but he already has one as mascot of the shop.

from the Herb ‘N Legend smoke shop brochure

species tulip…saxatalis

The southernmost planters are getting visited by deer now!!

Heading back north now…lugging my bucket, my ho mi and clippers. I get rid of some weeds along the way in the garbage cans.

Even the planter by the bus stop is nibbled a bit (leaves tulips leaves bit in half). This means deer are dining on planters for the entire southernmost block. Bodes ill for tulips there.

At least they don’t eat narcissi.

street tree narcissi; each tree needed a bit of weeding to look ok for another week

I paused Fifth Street park, where Allan was making great progress, and told him that I would do the two block to the north, as far as the stoplight and back, and that we would end the day by driving to the last two blocks of planters that are north of the light.  My legs hurt too much to walk that far.  I told him I hoped to be back to the park by four thirty so we could finish and get home early.

Tulip ‘Gavota’ came back; originally planted because it goes well with the Hungry Harbor colours. It’s a pretty good repeater.  (With yellow Tulipa sylvestris)

Lily flowering tulip. Look, the carousel is getting assembled for the season!

The carousel in winter: Just last week, it looked like this.

lily flowering tulip bulbs are cool

a viridiflora tulip beautiful in bud

The tulip foliage is looking so healthy this year compared to previous years when it was spotted and battered with rain.

The afternoon turned to misery when I found the tree garden by Long Beach Tavern absolutely thick with chickweed.  I filled my bucket and had to call Allan for help dealing with the debris.

a hellish sight

Allan comes to the rescue from half a block away

As I walked on, I hoped I would not run into any more chickweed messes.  My lower back was all wonky from carrying a heavy bucket and I had a sudden brainstorm.  I need an upright shopping cart, bucket sized, with a holder for all my hand tools.  I must make this happen.  I wonder if I have my mom’s old one anywhere around.  A wheelbarrow is too wide and blocks the sidewalk, but a little cart….must have…or maybe I could use a rolling walker with a seat for the bucket!

MUST HAVE; carrying a heavy bucket is killing me.

onward…the big planter in Lewis and Clark square

got this many snails from inside just one of those pretty tulips…argh

I cannot kill a snail (except discreetly with sluggo).  I threw them behind the wall in a weedy area.  And looked over the other side of the wall at a park which we so need to weed and clip but we don’t have time…

A fuchsia needs cutting, etc etc etc etc etc  Happy to see the city crew barked it, which is hiding some weeds…

further north…a Cerinthe major purpurascens in bloom

old Erysimum ‘Bowles Mauve’…gnarly and woody, needs replacing, but not today

mint tryng to take back over in the planter by the Pharmacy…MUST be pulled but not today (planted in the past by a volunteer)

I found another chickweed nightmare under another tree, and then a third chickweed nightmare in the planter by gazebo park, and called Allan to tell him I would not be back to the park by five.  He had already started to work his way north along a line of planters to meet me.

All day much stream of consciousness about too many jobs…should quit Long Beach…private jobs the most lucrative…but Long Beach is my right livelihood, my life’s mission…my legs hurt…too old…knowledge is worth a lot…must get little shopping cart. …a big cold 20 mph wind had come up and was making work a battle… Crossing a street with cars waiting, remembering a younger woman, a regular at the coffee shop I used to frequent, laughingly telling me I looked like a red faced old drunk when I was working in the wind.  Remembering that other woman telling me (while she tugged at and fidgeted with her tight uncomfortable outfit) that I shouldn’t be allowed to work in public because I looked like a homeless hobo.  And recalling my mother asking me “Why does Long Beach hire you, with the way you look?” And wondering  why I get completely stymied for a response to the astonishing things people say.

At-home gardeners, especially women, often write about the shabby, comfortable old clothes that they put on for a day in the garden (except for Katharine White, who was renowned for going out in her work dresses and heels the moment she got home from the New Yorker).  There is a reason why people prefer to garden in old, soft, comfy clothes: because it is COMFORTABLE.  Pretty much any couture would be beat to hell by the end of one of our workdays. I am not going to change wearing the most comfortable layers of clothes possible for getting through a long day nor will I apply any potions other than sunscreen and soothing hand lotion or lip balm.

Would any of those women who critiqued me to my face dare to question an old fisherman or male farmer about his personal style?  No. They would not. (Except for maybe a husband or son.) I’ve never been comfortable being defined by gender expectations. If I were younger I would adopt the wonderful new term Non-Binary or Genderfluid (which wouldn’t even be a thing were it not for rigid gender expectations).

Still, knowing that I’ve been judged and found wanting, my will to live today was getting seriously sapped by the horrible windy stream of consciousness, critical voices in my memory,  and increasing age-related physical pains that were making me hobble in front of the cars with my bucket and my work clothes and imagine those people judging me, too. (I used to move fast enough to get out of their vision quickly.) It was not being a good day.  Here’s something new and fresh instead:

Here are the new benches in Gazebo park for which we pruned back rhododendrons.

This small leaved rhodo looks dead like this sometimes in spring and then revives, but now I think it has to go…by the city crew, not me.

Allan and I met up and went back to the van, and I was able to admire his work.

after shot of his project

He had found time to weed this bed, also…

The next half hour was a frenzy of grooming the two north blocks of trees (only two trees there, thankfully) and planters (fewer per those two blocks than the other blocks).  Then home to do the work spreadsheet and back and blog…Usually my back is not a problem but it hurt enough when I sat down to make me yowl loudly…and finally at ten PM there will be dinner and telly.

Leaving tomorrow for Sylvia Beach Hotel with no worries about blogging as I am over ten days ahead.  Scared because might have to cross the big bridge to Astoria in wind and heavy rain.  Hoping to survive to turn 60 on the 17th.  Hope to come back with some sort of enlightenment that I always seek by reading the room journals.  And maybe some brilliant thoughts about what to do about work.

 

 

 

 

P.S.  Two days later, typing this from my phone: I’m at the SBH and all is well, even though I haven’t found complete enlightenment yet.

Read Full Post »

11-12 March: day off, difficult day

Wednesday, 11 March 2015

at home

Rain and wind provided a blissful day off.

snoozy Mary

Smokey waited for me to settle down to read. (Calvin, not Smokey, is the one who claws this chair.)

I read a gripping mystery from cover to cover.

I did not do the things I had instructed myself to do: pack for my trip and wrap Montana Mary’s birthday presents to mail on Friday.

Allan, inspired by the orange beef recently served at lunch by Steve and John, made a tasty orange chicken dish.

At the end of the day, Mary and Frosty were again snoozing together. A new trend.

Thursday, 12 March 2015

The work list is growing, and the beach approach weeding has not even made the list yet.

After a night of inexplicable insomnia (no particular worries, just could NOT sleep well), my big plan was to get some cow fiber mulch, shop a bit at the Basket Case, mulch Mayor Mike’s garden back here in Ilwaco and then do some mulching at the port and plant poppy seeds there.  I was hoping for two easy days to close out the week.

As we were leaving Ilwaco I checked my phone messages and found I had missed one from Monday.  Yikes.  It was from Parks Manager Mike in Long Beach and the beach approach garden needed to be pruned of some branches sticking out a bit too far, not into the traffic lane, but just hanging a bit over the curb to where someone who had to swerve to the side might run into them.  The whole day’s plan got upended; we postponed the mulch pick up and headed straight to the Bolstadt beach approach.  Allan took the photos:

I got right down to pruning and Allan came behind picking up and hauling and clipping anything I missed..  You can see behind me not that much was sticking way out.

Fortunately, mugo pine wood is soft and easy to lop.

looking west at the neatened edge

Maddeningly, this job had not even made it to the work list yet, at which time, when we actually schedule it, we will remove some of the rugosa roses from along the edge.  That will last for a year or so before they creep back.

trying to do as neat a job as possible while in a frenzy.

lots for Allan to pick up

getting closer to the arch

a trailer load of prunings

looking west from the arch

I was in a state of “We have way too many jobs for two people” semi-misery.  Finally, we were done; I walked to city hall, a block east, to check on the garden there while Allan picked up the last pile.

Who should I see but my neighbour, Rudder! (His people, of Starvation Alley Farms, have their business HQ by the arch.)

Allan’s photo of Rudder

City Hall, north side

Narcissi and weeping love grass

The hellebore is darkening as it ages.

same hellebore on Feb 14

I do love small cupped narcissi.

Leaving the city works yard, after dumping debris, we were finally back on track for my original plan.  Near the works yard, I saw a flying bird for Mr. Tootlepedal.

 The Planter Box

a cute driver outside the Planter Box garden center

a lovely flowering quince

Dicentra spectabilis (bleeding heart)

Raymond ready to scoop

I told him there is nothing handsomer than a man with a scoop of cow manure.

in the store: assorted abodes for bees

and some pertinent information

The Basket Case

We swung up and over Cranberry Road to get to the Basket Case, in order to pick up a few more violas for the Ilwaco and Long Beach planters and some more santolina and lavender for the port gardens.

The Basket Case Greenhouse

a shipment of clematis, passion flower, and climbing hydrangea; I got myself a Clematis viticella ‘Polish Spirit’.

Fred waits for me to make up my mind about how many more plants to buy.  Foreground: the fragrant Viola ‘Etain’  (Allan’s photo)

Mike’s Garden

We returned to Ilwaco in a big hurry to get mulch onto Mayor Mike’s garden and the port.

mulching at Mike’s: Allan’s photo

When we had weeded there a couple of weeks ago, I thought that the soil look hard and tired.

mulch being added

all nice now

We had to scoop around the edges of the trailer to get mulch that was cool to the touch, and Allan hosed it down to cool it all the way.  You can’t pile hot mulch on plants without making them very unhappy.  Speaking of hot, the weather had turned warm and I was kinda miserable but did not have time to think about it much.  I knew it would be cooler when we got to the port gardens.

Mike’s garden

Narcissi ‘Thalia’, one of my favourites.  Bulb foliage has speared an old leaf.

Mike’s garden; the little table is to put a sprinkler on in summer.

a red pieris

Port of Ilwaco

By a little after four, we made it to the east end of Howerton Way at the port, a block east and a block south of Mike’s garden.

The east end bed has never gotten a nice mulching and I think it will be happier now and hold water better.  Allan took the photos of this project.

before, looking northwest

 

before

after, with me planting California poppy seeds (mixed colours) and Legion of Honour poppies down the center

My dream had been to get poppy seeds planted in some of the gardens the whole length of Howerton.  I ran out of steam after planting some at the next bed that had room.  (Allan planted six santolinas and two lavenders.)

the next bed to get poppies (and last one for today): Dusky Rose, Tropical Sunset, Buttercream, Copperpot.

The bed is by the Loading Dock Village building

flowering pear street tree in that same bed

We had collected some river rock from the east end bed and now we dumped them into the rock bed by the old hotel at the west end.

more rocks to help hide the landscape fabric

Other public gardeners will recognize how dogs like to leave a deposit right on top of a plant.  (Second grass clump)

We added Viola ‘Etain’ and some more variegated lemon thyme to a few more of the city planters.  We found a cute surprise in the one by the Portside Café.

Allan’s photo

By 6:45, we were done and even though we were tired after a difficult day, the appeal of some delicious ahi tuna at the Cove Restaurant was too hard to resist.

Cove Restaurant

the garden outside (Allan’s photo)

behind the counter (Allan’s photo)

the ceremonial photography of the food (Allan’s photo)

We had dived into a caesar salad with anchovies before remembering to take a photo…

ahi tuna

bronzed scallops with lemon butter

I got to erase two thing: mulch Mike and mulch Port…(Marylin for poppies should be Marilyn)

Tomorrow….I so hope for an easy day, but it will have to start with packaging Montana Mary’s presents (I’m a lousy wrapper; my friends are used to sloppy packaging but I do struggle each time to do better) and then finishing the poppy planting at the port….and then some tidying in Long Beach and (I hope) finishing the big popout, and then packing for a trip to the Sylvia Beach Hotel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Read Full Post »