30 April: Ilwaco jobs

Tuesday, 30 April 2024

kitchen window view

Ilwaco Freedom Market

Oh dear, it looks looks like the weeding job that had started east of the Freedom Market has come to a halt. Later, we drove along the port and saw that many of the curbside beds are still unweeded. I wonder what happened? Some of the beds have been unweeded since June of 2022. It is simply ridiculous for public gardens to be allowed decline like this.

Fortunately, Freedom Market (the cannabis shop) hires us to do their curbside bed.

Libertia

a promising Eryngium giganteum, might bloom this year

an aquilegia that is showier than most of them in this bed

Ilwaco Fire Station

We weeded at our volunteer garden.

Allan saw that the California poppy seeds I planted have germinated on the east side.

Southwest corner, before a bit of weeding…

…and after a bit of weeding.

another promising Eryngium giganteum

Lily that I hope deer don’t eat

Dutch iris

West side:

Cerinthe major purpurascens

Ilwaco Post Office garden

At our other volunteer garden, Allan took out another section of the annoying pink geranium which arrived unbidden from somewhere and wants to take over…

…still leaving the part that is creeping along the neighbour’s fence to tackle next time.

I was disheartened to find that deer had nipped the tops of about half of the lilies. I left the ones that remain good but dug out the ones that are bitten off and replanted them at home. It is clear I am going to have to rethink this garden. Replacements will have to be from what I can grow or propagate for free. I am hoping for some successful cosmos to transplant into the garden.

The huge English laurel to the west, a plant that is disliked by many knowledgable gardeners in the Pacific Northwest, is not helping by overshadowing the garden and just being rooty and unfriendly to our plants.

not a great success, in fact, rather a public failure

The lilies were the showpiece of that garden, in staggered bloom from asiatics to late blooming orientals and oirenpets. Phooey on the deer.

Norwood garden

I weeded the little garden two doors down and enjoyed some Dutch iris that had been blown about by the wind…

…and a white lilac.

Allan mowed the lawns there, front and back.

at home

We’d had rain overnight.

I didn’t have much energy left so did some general and, as I write this four days later, unmemorable puttering.

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11 October: two LB sessions

Wednesday, 11 October 2023

I thought for sure I’d get to read for most of the day, was looking forward to finishing a Lisa Jewell suspense novel I started yesterday (one that I would have loved to read in one sitting). Instead, I woke early, to the sound of the forklift moving crab pots at a gear shed nearby, and to fine weather.

Long Beach

Despite a break in the day due to having scheduled our flu jabs, we finished a medium sized Long Beach task, pulling Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’ and cutting back some perennials north of the Long Beach Tavern. We finally got a parking spot right smack dab in front of where we wanted to work.

We also tidied the nearest street tree bed.

Note the damage done to the tree by a vehicle sometime this past summer.

We dumped a medium load of debris at city works.

The Planter Box

I had used all of my stash of potting soil bags at the Freedom Market on Sunday, so we made a trip to get potting soil, and a pumpkin which will be used in our Halloween decorations. Planter Box has quite a selection of pumpkins, smooth and warty.

On the way back south with potting soil, I had the idea that we could use the next hour to accomplish one more Long Beach job. And then some of the predicted rain arrived.

Ilwaco

So we went home, via the Doupe Building by our one stoplight.

At home, we unloaded soil and I admired my Acanthus sennii…

…and autumnal leaves of hamamelis.

We had our flu jabs. While I was waiting for Allan outside the pharmacy, I saw something suspicious at the Doupe Building.

We drove by to investigate.

“We don’t want evidence!” they said from on high.

As soon as we got home, out came the warm sun, so we hooked the work trailer back up and returned for another task in

Long Beach.

Allan pulled Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’ and bindweed from the mini park behind the Lewis and Clark Square wall. We had scored a parking spot right across the road!

I tidied up the big planter in the square…

…and then weeded and pulled bindweed in the mini park.

We dumped a large load of debris at city works. We never would have gotten it done in the slot of time we had had before our flu jabs; the project took two hours.

Ilwaco

We saw the result of the activity at the Doupe Building.

Earlier, I had noticed a large non-blooming cosmos front and centre at the post office which I felt looked just wrong. We stopped, Allan pulled it, and our volunteer garden looked better.

I have had the problem with tall, lush, non-blooming cosmos before, which I had pegged on Cosmos ‘Sensation’, so I have stopped growing that one. It therefore couldn’t be Sensation, so my prime suspect this year both here and in Fifth Street Park is Cosmos ‘Seashells’, a favourite which I grew from seed. I also grew ‘Cupcakes’ and ‘Cupcakes and Saucers’, which bloomed well, but I don’t recall seeing any flowers of the tubular Seashells form. Mr. Tootlepedal’s blog recently mentioned cosmos that would not bloom, and finally bloomed very late, in Scotland. We both find it notably frustrating.

I don’t know what happened to our predicted storm. Looks like tomorrow might be another dry day, so if we feel well enough, we might go to work again. Or not! We have two local-politics zooms to attend starting at four, so it would be a short day. (We have not missed more than two or three city council zooms since zoom attendance became available in 2020, and seeing the behaviour of two of those who sit behind the council table has definitely informed our upcoming votes. Zoom is an excellent innovation for recluses like me.)

The work board tonight:

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6 March: Sunday jobs

Sunday, 6 March 2022

Ilwaco Post Office

Our volunteer garden at the post office is one of two jobs we like to do on a Sunday when the building is closed.

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14 March: trimming santolinas

Thursday, 14 March 2019

During the cloudy morning, the species tulips in the scree garden stayed closed.

Skooter captained the good ship Ann Lovejoy.

When we arrived at the post office, I remembered that the quilt show at the museum would mean lots of extra foot traffic Friday through Sunday, so we spent about an hour spiffing up our volunteer garden. A before photo is lacking and would have shown that Allan dug out a big self sown red grass that was right by the sidewalk. The garden shows off better now.

The grass was just past the fifth stepping stone.

Then we could get on to our paid work, taking up where we had left off on Monday with the trimming of santolinas, vastly speeded up with The Toy. We worked from Salt Hotel to the Freedom Market.

Almost all the photos today are Allan’s.

I had been eager to get the Salt sword ferns trimmed before they started to unfurl.

Allan strimmed the grassy verge by the Freedom Market because no one else does. (It’s port property next to a sidewalk between businesses.)

Almost to the west end:

Some Hermodactylus iris in the curbside garden:

The Van Engelen bulb catalog says, “Commonly referred to as the Snakes Head Iris, this graceful 1597 Mediterranean heirloom has lightly scented flowers comprised of taupe standards with yellowish-green striations and taupe-edged purplish-brown falls. A terrific garden variety, its finger-shaped tubers can multiply underground, yielding more flowering shoots as it matures over time.”

We took a load of clipped santolina home to our compost bins. The tulips had opened more as the day has brightened.

Frosty told Allan which bin to use.

Our neighbours got their daily biscuits.

The entire front garden smelled of apricots from the hamamelis.

When we arrived at the boatyard garden, the free wood bin across the street (where last week’s dozens of pallets had been taken by someone) had a cool piece of driftwood that Allan snagged and took back to our place.

We trimmed the many santolinas and did some weeding all along the boatyard.

I planted some phlomis and some tall yellow achillea, dug up from my garden, at the boatyard and the curbside gardens.

I had had an absurd fantasy that we might also have time to plant Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ starts in all of the Ilwaco Street planters. Ha. Didn’t happen. Maybe tomorrow or Saturday.

Back at home, while Allan offloaded our compostable debris and went off to dump the weeds, I unpacked an exciting box from Annie’s Annuals. The packing from Annie’s is the best and easiest to unpack of any mail order nursery of my experience.

Box of healthy plants…

Each of the three plants has its own removable box…

And that box easily deconstructs to reveal the potted plants.

So easy, especially compared to that nursery whose order last year was packed in so much shredded paper that it was hard to not damage the plants while unpacking.

The Annie’s plants are beautiful. She sells perennials as well as annuals.

Here’s what I got. I am showing you the prices, too, because they are competitive with buying in person at nurseries, and the plants are such a good size.

I got the rose ‘Grandmother’s Hat’ because of the name. The rose I want most is ‘Special Grandma’, which I have seen in the Tootlepedal blog and which seems to only be available in the U.K.

I had an exceptionally special grandma.

I was able to erase two santolina tasks from the work board. My hope is to get Long Beach santolinas done by the end of this week. I’m trying to remember if there are any left at the Boreas Inn that might need doing.

Soon (I hope) nothing will stand in the way of starting the beach approach weeding.

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14 Nov: work and work memories

Wednesday, 14 November 2018

We had an errand before work that took us near a former job of ours, so we took ourselves on a brief tour of

Discovery Heights,

a series of entry gardens that we planted and maintained from 2005 through…I can’t quite recall when we stopped gardening there.  As these photos show, the job entails a lot of climbing up onto raised, boulder-edged beds, something that became difficult as my knee got worse.  The garden is now in the capable hands of Terran Bruinier of BeeKissed Gardening.

lower garden, south side

The middle garden:

All montbretia in the gardens were brought in with the soil (not my choice of soil, not sure where it came from).

Salal, to the right, most definitely not planted by us!

Some of “my” ceanothus still survive…

…including this large one.

When we first began this job, I asked if the community was going to be gated and was told no.  I have a preference of not working in gated neighbourhoods, but I was fully invested in the job when the gate went in.

Driving back down the hill to where the Discovery Heights entry road intersects with the 100 Loop road that goes to Cape Disappointment State Park:

lower garden, south side, am pleased at how the plants drape the rocks as planned (cotoneasters, and I think some prostrate ceanothus)

lower garden, north side, on heavy clay

Escallonia ‘Pink Princess’ pruned into balls (left)

I regretted having planted the escallonias at the front of the top tier.  Terran’s solution to their height works.

Salal…snuck in!

Rugosa roses (left) are finally outpacing the deer.

from the loop road

It is pleasing to see the garden full grown.  The first flat terrace was always a problem because of such heavy clay and a break in the irrigation line.  My camera failed to get a driveby of the back of the garden where some rhododendrons, once quite small from the Clarke Nursery going out of business one gallon sale, are now full sized.

We went on to work at

Mike’s garden.

Our task was the last of the fall tidying, along with pruning an Escallonia iveyi that was hanging out into the sidewalk area…or the area where a sidewalk would be if there were one.

My preference with escallonia is to have them thick and shrublike all the way to the ground, so that it looks like this (same escallonia, this past July).

Escallonia iveyi

However, it was now growing well over the property line and Mike wanted it pruned. Cutting it back to the line revealed a tree like rather than shrub like form.  I had to work with that, and also had to reduce the height, because that is what people generally want when they ask for a shrub to be pruned.  Given what we had to do, here are the befores and afters:

before

after

The lilac to the left is going to be completely removed…by someone else…because it is pestering a sewer line.

before

after

It is rather shocking how much had to be cut to get it back behind the railroad tie edge.  At least I managed to save a layer of foliage that will give privacy for the deck.

before

after

Poor thing!  It should fill out again quickly next year.  It is now possible to easily walk the path behind it, also, which was party blocked before the pruning.  If it had to be done, I would rather it be done by me that someone else who might have just leveled it off halfway down and left nothing but shrubs.

We left Mike’s and turned our attention to the

Ilwaco planters and street tree gardens.

I was not sure if we would get through them all.  Rain was predicted.  The sky was so dark for awhile that it felt more like dusk than midday.

The city crew (a much smaller crew than that of Long Beach) was installing the cords for the lighted crab pot holiday decorations.

Allan made quick work under the trees with The Toy (our new Stihl rechargeable trimmer).

before (the truly horrible perennial sweet pea)

after (Allan’s photos)

That darn invasive pea under one tree has swamped all the “winter interest” plants, as have the BadAsters in the other tree garden pictured above.

Here is a before with no after…

The blob of blue felicia daisy got cut way back because it looks silly.

I got distracted from taking an after photo by my thoughts about the post office garden. I’d been asked by the crew if a crab pot could go IN the garden and had said yes, if they would just avoid tramping around with their boots.  I suddenly decided we had better go to the post office and make some clear space.

before

after

We had pulled all the cosmos.  The Toy worked a treat trimming the Stipa gigantea (the tall airy grass in the center).

Back to the planters, I left a few of the healthier nasturtiums just out of curiosity about how long they will last.

We are said to be due for an extra mild “El Nino’ winter.

trailing rosemary in a planter (Allan’s photo)

That rosemary is in one of the two planters on Spruce Street, out of the First Avenue wind tunnel that damages the ones I have tried there.

With the planters done, Allan went to dump the debris while I used The Toy at the Norwood garden, two doors down from ours.

before; I scored some of those leaves (left), too.

after; Allan helps clean up in the dusk while I weeded the north bed.

before (twilight)

after

The Toy made what would have been tedious clipping into a less than five minute shear!

We just had time before dark to check up on and pull some montbretia out of the J’s back garden, leading to some happy erasure on the work board.

I am hoping for semi-staycation to begin in two days.  I am calling it semi this year because we cannot completely neglect the Shelburne and Long Beach for two and a half months.  Post frost clean up—if we get frost—will be necessary in a few locations.

I had a nice cuppa tea at home.  Only one Builders tea bag remains and I am saving it…

Allan’s photo

As we watched an amusing show on telly, I was astonished by a city street scene. I had to hit pause in amazement.

Look at that overhead tram, and all the traffic, and bridges.  I reflected on my 38 years of city life in Seattle and on how much quieter my last quarter century has been here at the beach.

 

 

 

 

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8 Nov: mulching week, day 3

Thursday, 8 November 2018

First, a postscript to Halloween and the 6×6 art auction.  Wendy Murry is the artist on whose 6×6 piece I always bid.  Some of her work from the past, that I am so glad to own:

and my favourite:

my favourite Wendy art of all

She told me that she would not be in the art auction this year because of being so busy but that she had made me a piece of art anyway.  On Halloween, she brought it to me, and this morning I remembered to photograph it for you.  It is a depiction of Dead Man’s Cove at Cape Disappointment.

Here is a real life view.

I am pleased and touched and grateful.

Ilwaco mulching

Today we began by loading all the buckets of mulch and applying more buckets-full to our volunteer garden at the Ilwaco Fire Department.

before, with mulching to the right hand side that was done last night.

The velvety verbascum that had placed itself right on the edge had to go.

after

and the long, narrow west side, too.

I think there might be a narrow bed on the east side that is just nothing; I should have a look and maybe put more Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’, of which I have an endless supply, into it.

Next, we mulched our volunteer garden at the Post Office, where we used up the rest of the load of 25 five gallon buckets and 17 four gallon buckets.  That’s 193 gallons; 201 and a bit equals one cubic yard, according to my calculations.

I removed some under-performing Helianthus ‘Lemon Queen’ to make room for a bulb of my Lily Conca D’Or.  Look how big it is after several years in the ground!

It went in the back corner.

I have mixed feelings about all that grass in the front.  I asked the opinion of a passerby, who said she liked it.

clearing out plants while mulching

post office garden after mulching

back home, this much left (Allan’s photo)

Mike’s garden

Back at home, we reloaded all the buckets and applied them at Mike’s garden, a few blocks to the east.

ready for Mike’s garden (Allan’s photo)

autumn leaves

Mike’s front garden

mulching thickly at Mike’s, where the soil is clay and fill.

Someone else is going to remove this tatty old lilac:

And we will return soon to prune the Escallonia iveyi behind it.

Back home…

Now this much is left. (Allan’s photo)

I was in suspense whether filling all the buckets for the Shelburne would use the mulch up, or whether we would have enough left for Diane’s garden.  I was so happy that some was left over.

The Shelburne Hotel

We delivered another full complement of buckets to the Shelburne.

ready to mulch (Allan’s photo)

We usually leave the right-in-front parking spots for guests.  Not today, when we had such heavy work to do.

We not only mulched but also moved some hardy fuchsias and a hydrangea to more eye-catching locations.  I planted two of my Lily Conca D’Or, some violas, and some starts of a white veronicastrum.  Three big clumps of white astilbe that had appeared in full sun got moved to happier shady spots.

I removed a lot of badasters. and must remember to put some divisions of good asters in for autumnal beauty in 2019.

nice thick layer of Soil Energy

In case you are wondering what Soil Energy consists of: “Soil Energy combines composted wood products, aged screened sawdust, screened sand, composted chicken manure, lime, fertilizer and iron. (pH 6.2, brown tan in color, 38.9% organic matter).”

We finished after sunset.

brushing footprints out of the mulch

sweeping the path

The windows of the pub (left, below) glowed so enticingly that we went in for a work reward.

Jambalaya (ordered with no oysters, please!) with a side salad, fried chicken sandwich and small chopped salad

At home, the work board reflects that Diane’s is the only mulching job left.

 

 

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9 August: dog day in Long Beach

Thursday, 9 August 2018

Long Beach

As we got our hoses together to water, I heard the Ramones’s song I Wanna Be Sedated coming from the Fun Rides.  My favourite band; it made me happy.

I pulled bindweed in Lewis and Clark Square park and at the police station before I started to water my half of the Long Beach planters.

I wonder if Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’ has crossed with orange crocosmia to make a short red one.

little fig tree with one fig

I met some darling dogs…

and then they multiplied.

And I got to give Sophie the bulldog a nice drink of water.

And I often have an audience of passing dogs.

The planters are looking fine.  Next week I will do the planter reference post for August.

Allan’s photo, Geranium ‘Rozanne’

Allan’s photo

The Rides are being remodeled. (Allan’s photo)

inside (Allan’s photo)

I trimmed some crocosmia at the Wind World Kites planter.

after; there is a difference

In the planter by Funland I saw a hole…

and when I looked to the other side I realized someone had stolen one of my nice santolinas, which I cannot replace now.

Damn it all.

I thought, You might as well take them both, you evil selfish yobbo.  Having the symmetry destroyed till next year is so upsetting.  This is why I plan to quit Long Beach in two years.

Allan trimmed the lady’s mantle in Fifth Street Park and we both deadheaded the roses.

before

after (Allan’s photos)

I would cut the foliage back harder on the alchemilla.  Later. Maybe with a string trimmer.

Basket Case basket by the restroom (Allan’s photo)

On the way south, we passed a cute beach cottage.

At the welcome sign, the cosmos are still not blooming and yet were so tall I had to trim back the foliage.  There are no flower buds.

I hate to but I must give up on cosmos…or must I?  I might try Cosmos ‘Cupcake’ which bloomed so well this year.  The sign has ‘Sensation’ which has been a bust.  I resolved to give up using ‘Sensation’ mix cosmos.

Shelburne Hotel

We got there earlier than usual so had more time to garden as well as watering.

the totem garden

I forgot to return with big loppers to remove a dead blackberry cane from next door that is draped on the totem pole’s beak.

This bed, infested with houttynia and with montbretia returning, will need a lot of digging this fall:

bocce ball patio

beans

They are Sunset runner beans.

Agastaches from the first batch I got from That Nursery (the one whose second batch of agastaches were so very bad) are still looking great.

Agastache ‘Golden Jubilee’

I was unhappy to find that the hops on the shady side of the pub deck railing were developing sooty mold.  Lest it be worse by Monday, I trimmed a lot of leaves, leaving my hands blackened with the mold.

I read that you can spray the leaves with soapy water and then later with clear water and the mold will wash off, leaving clean leaves.  I don’t have time for that, though. (Of course, I disinfected my clippers and hands before touching any other plants.)

after

Allan’s photo

I think next year I might do like hops growers do and just let there be a few of the vining stems.

back garden dining (Allan’s photo)

Just as I was finishing this and feeling morose, a blog reader appeared and cheered me up immensely.

Bartender Juan jovially asks, “What happened to my hops?” and a darling blog reader stands by to chase away my hops gloom.

making life better; thank you.

It takes a lot of deadheading now to keep the sweet peas going.

Ilwaco

I watered the boatyard.  For the first time this year, a hose was going up into one of the boats…

…but I managed to find another hose.

After watering, I walked home, admiring our volunteer post office garden…

…and I deadheaded our volunteer garden at the fire station.

…and finished by weeding the Norwood garden, where I admired the new paint job.

such a pretty blue house

hydrangea bed weeded

Meanwhile, Allan had watered the Ilwaco street trees and planters and the post office and fire station gardens.

Allan’s photos:

darling Queenie at Azure Salon

swallows nest in a doorway

He finished by watering our new little plants down at the port…

…where he applied Sluggo to protect the Crambe martima.

A nine hour day for me, nine and a half for him, and we now have three days off.

 

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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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16 May: APT* and a birthday

 Wednesday, 16 May 2018

Looking out my window (over the storage/water trailer/garbage area), I saw that the driveway was wet, oh joy!  Such a relief to know the gardens got some water.

Ilwaco Fire Station

I planted some assorted sunflower seeds at the fire station.

Ilwaco Post Office

I wanted to quickly plant 12 cosmos in our volunteer garden at the post office.  Quickly was not the word because of how weedy it had gotten.

It took an hour to make space and get the plants in.

While we were gardening there, someone from the port office came to get mail and told us that yesterday evening, she had seen a man and a boy picking an armload of flowers from the boatyard garden.  When she asked him not to, he was argumentative and said “No one is going to take care of them and I’m keeping them from dying.”  (“No one is going to take care of them”!!!!!!) She and I had a good conversation that I fervently hope will result, and soon, with some official “Do not pick” signage from the port.  Our polite little “Please leave the flowers for everyone to enjoy” signs are not working.

I thought of a few more things to say so I went to the port office while Allan planted cosmos in the office garden (south side).  The baskets from Basket Case Greenhouse had been hung.

Couldn’t get a long shot because the port truck was there.

curbside gardens on the south side of the port office

I did not want to look at the boatyard so we went on to add more to the planters in

Long Beach.

I am tired of planting.

I asked Allan to make room for a blue felicia daisy by the blue painted Benson’s restaurant.

before

after

The golden variegated vinca in that planter is beautiful but much too aggressive for my taste.

Allan was entertained while planting by motorcycle tourists.

taking pictures of their bikes

They asked a Long Beach crew member to take their photo with the frying pan.

The south east quadrant of Fifth Street Park:

Gunnera and Darmera peltata

Later, Allan photographed a hole where a trailing plant had gotten stolen.

I am upset. And tired of this.

We added a few cosmos to the west side of city hall.

Shelburne Hotel and Pub

Today was Melissa’s birthday.  Allan and I worked on the Shelburne garden for 45 minutes until the birthday dinner at the pub began.

the back edible and shady totem pole garden

front garden looking north

and south

In the pub:

avocado toast

chopped salad

pub burger

cranberry curd tart

Melissa declared her chocolate pot du creme the best ever.

Allan took an amusing group photo.

We stayed till well past closing time (with permission from bartender Juan).

On the way to our van, after Dave and Mel had left, we went into the back garden to see if the tiny daisy flowers of the Zaluzianskya (night scented phlox) were scenting the courtyard.  They were, intoxicatingly.

the lawn by night (Allan’s photo)

Allan’s photo, pub deck

At home, I was able to make the work list shorter by erasing Long Beach parks and planters.

*Annuals Planting Time AKA Annuals Planting Hell

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3 April: volunteer projects

Tuesday, 3 April 2018

Anyone who read yesterday’s post script knows that today turned out to be a sad day with the loss of our thirteen year old cat, Calvin.

This morning, Calvin seemed fine.  I made an appointment for him to get his asthma shot in the mid afternoon just to prevent him having an attack over the weekend. I felt I was being a good cat mom to get it taken care of today instead of later in the week.

Meanwhile, Allan noted this view from our garden:

crab pots being stacked next door

The work side of the day:

I had been thinking for a few years about imperializing adopting a spot at the corner of the fire house and turning it into a little garden instead of weedy mini-lawn.  Once upon a time, it had been a garden, evidenced by the remains of a Siberian iris.  Various things got in my way: First, the onset of having a bad knee, and then having just too much work to find time, and then the news that someone else was going to adopt it (but that did not come to fruition due to busy life of the other potential volunteer).  Finally, this was the time to bring the idea into being.  Our town, like the towns of Long Beach and Ocean Park, have volunteer fire fighters.  A wee garden bed with an orange and red and yellow theme seemed like a good way to give something back.

11:30 AM

The garden bed is L shaped but we only did the square, not the narrow bed.  It might be where people step if they park where we parked today.  I might decide to dig it up the L and plant something there later on.  It is a troublesome mess of sod and dandelions right now.  (I know, dandelions are so good for bees, but these are string trimmed to the ground.)

First, the half moon edger.

Next, the ho-mi and the double tool. (Allan’s photo)

The mayor, also a volunteer firefighter, stopped by.  We learned from him that the old sprinkler system does not work any longer and is turned off (too many leaks) but that the firefighters do sometimes water the garden areas.

12:30 PM

At this point in the project, all our buckets were full of weeds and sod and so Allan went to dump them while I went home (two blocks away) to dig a few plants for the new garden.

the first gathering of sod and dandelions

Before going inside, I admired a few flowers.

Muscari macrocarpum ‘Golden Fragrance’

I forgot to smell that yellow muscari to see if it lives up to its name.

Muscari latifolium ‘Grape Ice’

window box with Tulipa sylvestris

In the house, I found Calvin in a sudden and shocking state of respiratory distress (he had seemed fine just one hour before), and we rushed him to the vet as soon as Allan returned.

While he was taken into the inner sanctum for treatment, we were advised to check back in a couple of hours. We went back to work, because that’s what we do, with the phone close at hand.

An hour later, after a phone call from the vet, we were back to the clinic because Calvin was failing fast, and, as I wrote yesterday, we made the decision to let him go because he was suffering so.  We will have him cremated, and so we just had an empty crate to bring home.

We then went back to work….because that is what we do.  The first thing I did was walk next door from the vet clinic to the Depot Restaurant and deadhead a few narcissi.

Tulip at the Depot

We went home for a short while so that I could dig up some plants for the fire station project….

the empty cat box 😦 (Allan’s photo)

…and then returned to the station to plant them.

4:30 PM

Allan’s photo

Ilwaco fire station and new garden

What I planted, quickly gleaned at home: Miscanthus variegatus, Helianthus ‘Sahin’s Early Flowerer’, and some Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’ (one place where they will be quite perfect!), Eupatorium ‘Pink Frost’ (just because I had a clump ready to go, might not leave it here because the color will sort of clash, don’t you think?), lambs ears, Solidago ‘Fireworks’, Oregano ‘Hopley’s Purple’, an eryngium (plain old blue), some bachelor button seeds, some red annual poppy transplants, some Sedum ‘Autumn Fire’, Helianthus ‘Lemon Queen’, some stuck-in cuttings of santolina that will probably “take”.

The whole time I was thinking if only I had taken Cal to the emergency vet when he was coughing on Saturday–or taken him yesterday even though it seemed he was better–he might still be alive. I felt I had been too focused on work (because that is what I do).

While Allan dumped the second load of weeds, I moved to our other volunteer garden at the post office.  There, we encountered the boatyard manager who was able to assure us that the digging for the boatyard project will likely cross the garden at some point but will not require much more in-garden digging than that.

The post office garden has been looking messy with the annoyance of wild garlic and some low weedy grass and some shot weed.  As I was contemplating the disapproval of tidy gardeners, a postal patron said “Your flowers are so wonderful; I have lots of photos of this garden.”

before

after

Ipheion uniflorum

Bellevalia pycnantha (Muscari paradoxum); the bells are olive green inside.

muscari (Allan’s photo)

a painted rock in the post office planter (Allan’s photos)

At home, I picked a bouquet to take tomorrow morning over to the J’s for a guest who is there.  Here it is in a not very elegant kitchen sink photo.

It had been a sad day, so not much joy was taken at erasing two more projects from the work board.

We are expecting several rainy days. Usually, I’d be relishing the prospect of reading days. But now I think it would be preferable to have the distraction of work. On the other hand, the joy of work is sapped right now because it had removed my focus from where it should have been, on Calvin’s every breath.

I have gotten reassurance from many friends who’ve had similar experiences. We all wish our cats had been able to tell us exactly how they felt. “I’m still feeling a bit under the weather even though I played with my toys and ate my dinner.” “Ok, let’s get you to the vet right away.”

Frosty was a comfort while I wrote yesterday’s postscript about Calvin.

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