7 May: GW, mulch, a garden tour

Monday, 7 May 2018

We have been taking recuperative time off before Annuals Planting Hell….I mean Time begins, and I finally woke up this morning not feeling like I had a cold.

I meant to watch only one…or two episodes of Gardeners’ World before going outside…or was it three? Or four? Allan had gone to get a yard of mulch for me, and he stopped by a garden on the way to pick up some plants from Melissa. I said I could not go because my garden was just a mess…so why was I just sat in my chair watching GW?

The garden that Allan visited used to be the Barclay Garden, and is now…

Deb’s Garden

…where Allan took some photos of the big projects that Dave and Melissa (Sea Star Gardening) are helping with.

entering the estate

new driveway borders being installed

refurbished and expanded borders up by the house (They did not used to go around that patio, as I recall).

Next door is Steve and John’s garden…glimpsed through the trees.

the walk through to Willapa Bay

looking west from the house

more new planting (green ophiopogon)

more new beds

This property, like Steve and John’s next door, was once part of the Clarke Rhododendron Nursery.

A large scale kitchen garden of raised beds will be constructed out of this juniper wood from Eastern Washington.  Allan tells me that juniper is considered a weed tree in Eastern Washington.  The wood is said to be long lasting.

This was the area where Ron Barclay had his kitchen garden:

A cleared field, which used to be part of the sales lot of Clarke Nursery, with Steve and John’s garden in the distance, will be the grand new kitchen garden.

On Friday of this week, we are planning to tour Steve and John’s bayside garden, and I look forward to seeing Deb’s garden progress on a work-day break.  My ideal day off is to not leave my own property, so I prefer to combine garden visiting with a work day.

Allan then picked up my Soil Energy mulch from Peninsula Landscape Supply.

plants at Peninsula Landscape Supply

at home

I had continued watching Gardeners’ World, till I saw out of the corner of my eye that the sun was coming out…

Oh dear, no more excuses.

The cats also wanted to stay in and listen, while napping, to the soothing voice of Montagu Don.

Skooter

Frosty

When Allan returned with my generous yard of mulch, I had to abandon GW and get busy unloading my new plants and emptying the trailer.

a generous yard (Allan’s photo)

starting to mulch where I weeded yesterday

Allan’s project was to fix the watering trailer:

before

after

After mulching:

Compare to yesterday:

looking north yesterday

I even got a bit of the daunting “debris pile” garden weeded.

yesterday

today

In the evening, at my request, Allan drove down to the port to check on and water some new plants.  They were not too thirsty.

Eryngium ‘Sapphire Blue’

With mulch spread along the driveway gardens and even into a low corner in the back garden, I returned to Gardeners’ World (and later an episode of Vera, and then more GW).  I am now on the year 2016.

This sequence reminds me of Sunday School:

Be still, my heart!

In an excellent episode, Monty collects a swarm of bees, and fifteen minutes in, we get a glimpse of a tour day of London squares. Eighteen-ish minutes in, in a tour of a productive kitchen garden in a narrow space on the roof of a restaurant, I learned of a new-to-me plant, “potato mustard ‘Red Frills’.  Tastes like potatoes with an overlay of mustard? Must have.  The chef claims that it really has a potato taste.

Monty, talking about turning his compost bins: “If I furtle around in there…”

I want some onopordum, the tall ghostly looking thistle that he grows in his Longmeadow garden (unless it’s on the noxious weed list here).

Tomorrow, I must have some discipline because it is my last day off this week and I must get many perennials planted here at home.

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13 April: mulching day

Friday, 13 April 2018

By late morning, the considerable overnight rain had stopped and so we went to get a load of Soil Energy at

Peninsula Landscape Supply.

Allan’s photo

one yard Soil Energy (Allan’s photo)

When I returned from the office, I just waited for Allan to drive out to pick me up.

Another rain gauge:

I browsed the pavers while waiting.

The Shelburne Hotel

A few people expressed surprise, beginning at Peninsula Landscape Supply and continuing at the Shelburne, that we were working on such a cold windy day with a forecast of heavy rain. Again, we were determined to get the back garden’s west beds mulched before the removal of the six square railroad tie beds next week.  It would be a circus with railroad ties going one way and a wheelbarrow going the other.

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

all nicely mulched

looking north

The totem creature garden, between building and fence, is going to be an ornamental shade bed.

I was concerned about the new fig tree bed; it seemed a little too soggy so we raised the planting  just a tad, with rocks from a handy pile nearby and some more soil.  I do not think we need to replant the tree; the soil is still at the proper depth on the trunk.

These railroad tie beds will be removed to make room for a graveled open space next week, suitable for weddings.

That will give me an L shaped garden along the west and south fence to plant herbs and edible flowers, as requested.  I am concerned because the west side is rooty from a cedar in the SW corner (which I would remove) and only gets morning sun.  Some wheeled containers in the patio might be provided, too, for growing more herbs and flowers in full sun, and those could be wheeled to the side if space were needed for an event.  I think morning sun might be enough; if not, I will have to turn the west bed into a shade garden and find some other place to grow herbs. ( I used to provide edible flowers from my own garden to the Shoalwater Restaurant when it was part of the hotel.) Hardy fuchsias will definitely be added; they won’t mind some shade and their flowers are edible.

While Allan had wheelbarrowed the mulch, I had time to do some much needed weeding of tiny weeds in the front garden.

looking north

looking south from the north end

looking south from the entryway; we added some mulch under the rhododendron, left)

To celebrate getting done with what we hope is the last biggish project of the springtime, we had a late lunch at the pub.

Someday, there will again be dining on the south deck.

garden sandwich, French onion soup, a side of “fisherman’s potato salad” (with smoked herring, sounds odd but it is good), and some nice hot coffee.

After lunch, I longed to go have a look at Diane’s garden, one of our jobs that we had glimpsed, down her driveway, as we drove south with the mulch.  It now seemed too late, almost five, to go to a private garden, and the rain had begun along with an even colder and stronger wind.  So no visit there until Monday or Tuesday; I hope all the flowers that I glimpsed from the highway last until then.

I was able to cross a project off the work board:

I have a feeling that we will not be working this weekend.

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2-3 April: mulching and a post script

Monday, 2 April 2018

I woke to the realization that the day had workable weather and that we should mulch the port.  But wait, my next thought was that the zillion pound concrete bench was still in the trailer; it has been riding with us for a week now while I wait for a chance to pounce on someone strong for a favour (helping Allan move it).  I had the brilliant idea then that he could back the trailer up to the soft grass outside the back garden and just push the bench off and leave it there.  It worked!  (We will still need some help to actually set the bench up, eventually.)

Allan did not seem best pleased to have a work day suddenly sprung on him.  I was eager to mulch because the weather forecast looks dire later in the week.  Calvin was so much better—purring and playful— that I decided to wait to take him for an asthma shot.  It is not good for his heart or liver, and it had only been about six weeks since the last shot.

Cal, perky and playful

His previous human, who had him from kittenhood to age seven, had not fed him regularly.  He was obsessed with food and after moving in with us, he soon looked like he had swallowed a beach ball.

All the day’s pieces fell into place with a couple of phone calls and messages.  I had a taker on the rugosa roses, who came to pick them up before we left.

The veterinary clinic can see Cal tomorrow, or this afternoon if he got to feeling poorly again, and just enough of the mulch we need was in stock at Peninsula Landscape Supply.

Gravel was being loaded while we were there.

Soil Energy mulch (Allan’s photo)

Back to the Port of Ilwaco we drove with a yard of Soil Energy, which we applied to the curbside garden at the east end of Howerton Avenue; it had been looking battered and low since we removed drifts of tired old Nassela tenuissima grass.

before:

sad and beaten down

after: I hope the poppies I planted not long ago won’t be buried too deep.

Before:

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

An irksome cold wind blew right across the parking lot from the marina.

Brrrr.

Our work was high pressure and aerobic so that we would have time to get a second load of mulch before P.L.S. closes at three o clock.

after:

Allan’s photo

 

Allan’s photo

That bed only took half an hour to mulch, and we had enough left to begin on the curbside bed at the west end of Howerton.

Allan’s photo

We got this far at the west end. (Allan’s photo)

Back to Peninsula Landscape Supply for a second load:

Allan’s photo

On the way south again, we made a social visit to the Basket Case Greenhouse.

with Roxanne

daphnes and hydrangeas

violas

and more violas

We returned to the west end of Howerton at the Port and mulched two sections.

before

before

Muscari ‘Ocean Magic’

two kinds of muscari and some sea thrift

I must confess that we buried some weeds: grass and creeping sorrel.  Out of sight, out of mind for a couple more weeks.

before, with dog daisies (Allan’s photo)

While I raked, Allan ran the strimmer down the sidewalk that goes to the marina.

looking west

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

looking east

Some more mulch went on the beds by the Ilwaco pavilion.

Allan’s photo, as we began to mulch

an interesting boat nearby (Allan’s photo)

Then we had some deadheading to do along the port.  As I suspected, the most deadheads were on the south side of the port office where we don’t see them on a drive by.

Along the curbside beds, I was annoyed to find that a lot of narcissi picking had been happening….and this, by the ArtPort Gallery:

picking AND pulling out (Allan’s photo)

We planted so very many narcissi over the last few years that we should have a much better show, if flower-jackers would just leave them alone.

species tulips (Allan’s photo)

In the Time Enough Books curbside garden, I was thrilled to see a new-to-me bulb that I planted last fall.

“Bellevalia paradoxa is a bulb forming plant in the genus Bellevalia of the Asparagaceae family, formerly classified in the Muscari genus, under which name it is commonly sold as Muscari paradoxum.”

Bellevalia paradoxa and muscari

Bellevalia paradoxa and muscari

Bellevalia paradoxa

Bellevalia paradoxa

Bellevalia paradoxa (Allan’s photo)

I am very taken with it!

We finished the work day with a tidy up at the J’s cottage.

Bug’s Eye view of the pocket lawn before mowing (Allan’s photo)

And at home, I got my own sweet peas (and some poppies) planted at last while Allan mowed the lawn.

Frosty greeting us (Allan’s photo)

The work board got some satisfying erasures.

Next up, two volunteer gardens, the fire station (a new project from scratch and the post office (just a tidy).

In the evening, Calvin seemed well, played with his most vigorous toy, a set of three balls in slots that go round and round and make a lot of noise, usually during the most serious part of the evening’s telly watching.  He tossed his catnip Kitty Karrot into the air and seemed like his old self.

Tuesday, 3 April 2018

Tomorrow, I’ll share the Tuesday work day.  But I do not want to spin out the hope that Calvin is better.  Tuesday morning, he again seemed just fine, purring, the usual morning greeting and pets.  I decided that despite his seeming recovery, he had better have his shot today, to avoid a relapse over the weekend.  I made an appointment for 2:15 and we went to work on a project near home.  At 12:15, we came home for a bit to close the cat doors and confine him to a room so that he’d be easier to wrangle into his box later.  (That is never an easy thing.  He hates the box and wails and cries.  He is so afraid of people that I think that Our Kathleen is the only friend who ever managed to briefly get near him.)

In the house today, he walked up to me panting.  This is an emergency sign with cats so within minutes we had him at the veterinary clinic.  His condition had worsened so suddenly that he was whisked into the back to be given oxygen.  We were asked to leave him for a couple of hours for treatment. I still thought he would be ok, like the last time he had a sudden panting attack a couple of months ago.  Not this time, though.  Within an hour, we had a call that he was failing fast and we left wheelbarrow and all behind and rushed back in.  We had to make the hard decision.  Based on what happened with Smoky and how last minute efforts for a very sick cat just prolonged his misery, we decided it was Time for Calvin to go.  I will spare you the details about how hard he was breathing and…. just…it was time.  I think it was time.  Was it time?  Animal guardians never know for certain, do we?  Nor will I ever know if I made a terrible decision to wait for the shot instead of taking him in yesterday.  Would he be with us tonight if I had?  It might have bought some more time, or not.  I had no idea how fast respiratory distress to that degree can come on in a cat.  I could maunder on about this for paragraphs.  Instead, I will just leave you with this dear photo of Calvin and his bestie, Smoky, last autumn.

 

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5 October: Ilwaco and KBC

Thursday, 5 October 2017

While divesting ourselves of the Ilwaco street tree branches that we had pruned yesterday evening, we  admired of the east end of the marina.

I found out later that the floating enclosure is a pen…

…for young salmon, used in a recent study of some sort.

Butch, the owner of Coho Charters (the red building) is my go to person for fishing questions.

We headed north, with a brief stop at the Basket Case Greenhouse.

Allan’s photo, getting rady for Halloween

a selection of new plants at the Basket Case

including nice Euphorbia ‘Glacier Blue’

Next stop: picking up a yard of Soil Energy at Peninsula Landscape Supply. We were worried because the Soil Energy pile had been way low last time, and might be all gone.  When we arrived, we saw a truck and trailer ahead of us.  Who were these people competing with us for the last of the pile, I thought anxiously….until I saw they were our good friends Judy and Larry.

Allan’s photo

Larry, Judy, me: friends with similar goals

We were glad there was enough in the Soil Energy bin for two loads.

We parked off to the side and the mulch came to us. (Allan’s photo)

Klipsan Beach Cottages  

Our first actual job of the day was a tidying and some cutting back at KBC.

Allan dug out a daylily, the same kind that he dug out for me in my own garden recently.

It is prone to daylily leaf streak. (Allan’s photo).  The flowers are hardy fuchsia.

before cutting back Thalictrum ‘Elin’

and after

The thalictrum will come home with us for Halloween decor.

Allan cut down one part of the rugosa rose.  The whole shrub is going to come down later.

After. Now you can see through to the lower fenced garden.

As you can see, the day was (too) warm and bright.

view in the east gate

the birdbath view

the inner bench circle

a huge bud on the Tetrapanax ‘Steroidal Giant’

fall colour on hamamelis

Allan captured the moment when Mary noticed the leaf colour.

We didn’t see Denny today.  He had had a knee replacement (his second) on Tuesday and was at home napping.

                           Long Beach

On the way south, we checked up on the beach approach gardens and the Long Beach city hall garden.  This weekend’s two days of clamming will generate a lot of passersby.

the foyer at city hall (Allan’s photo)

MaryBeth stopped by when she saw us at City Hall.  She gave us a present that she had been carrying with her for the next time our paths crossed.

After checking on the Sid Snyder approach planters…

the westernmost Sid Snyder planter (Allan’s photo)

…we made sure the World Kite Museum garden looked good, because their annual One Sky One World event is this weekend.  The philosophy of One Sky, One World is needed more than ever now.

Pleased with the new containers at the kite museum.

Ilwaco

The south third of the Ilwaco boatyard garden was our destination for the yard of Soil Energy that we’d been hauling with us.

looking south from the gate, before

soil applied by bucket

cutting back Pennisetum macrourum from the sidewalk

and after….I had suddenly realized the garden should start where the paved sidewalk starts.

The dredge has been at work lately, clearing mud from the channel which is so necessary for the marina to thrive.

scooping up mud

and depositing it on a barge.

boats

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

We still have sweet peas blooming on the fence.

sweet peas all the way to the top

bright red sweet peas

We had run out of Soil Energy about twenty feet from the end of the garden, so another load will be necessary.  The end needs such a small amount that I sort of cheated and erased boatyard mulching from the work list, changing it to mulching at the port and Time Enough Books.

The summer is long gone and I still have not accomplished one thorough, end to end good weeding at home.

At home: The garden gift from MaryBeth.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

El Compadre Mexican Restaurant

We had this week’s North Beach Garden Gang dinner with Dave and Melissa (Sea Star Gardening) at El Compadre.

hard to get a good photo of the inlaid tables that I admire so much.

Allan’s photo

tiled window frames

As often happens, we were the last to leave.

Now for an extra long weekend, during the quiet time before fall clean up and bulbs.  My goal is to not leave my property for four days while I accomplish some gardening.  Allan has some boating goals.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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27 and 29 Sept: a short work week

Wednesday, 29 September 2017

Allan was sad to see the painting of the shed gutter had not worked.

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo: Paint had fallen into a spider web.

This spider, who had likely entered the van on some plant debris, had made a web inside my van door.  I did not let her come to work with us.

These garden spiders don’t scare me.

We stopped at Dennis Co on the way to work to get some paint for the window trim (which you have seen in yesterday’s post).  Allan was also able to repaint the gutter successfully.

Anchorage Cottages

The weather was just too hot to do any of the pruning projects we had planned.

These viburnums can wait for another day.

arbutus and hydrangea in the center courtyard

On the way to our next job, I was appalled at the temperature.

Klipsan Beach Cottages

We stayed only to do the most important deadheading and tidying.  The heat was just too much.

bird bath view

roses

the other bird bath with Persicaria ‘Golden Arrow’

Japanese anemone

hardy fuchsia

autumnal hamamelis

Peninsula Landscape Supply

We picked up a yard of Soil Energy.

bird baths by the pond

We learned that starting next week, PLS will be going to their off season hours, open till three on Tuesday, Thursdays, Saturdays.  This will require us to be less spontaneous during mulching season. We will have to make proper plans and schedules.

signs available in the office

On the way back to Ilwaco, we decided we had to delay our boatyard mulching project till early evening’s cooler weather.

Ridiculous weather! What happened to our nice crisp autumn?

home

This is the handsome gate of our “Starvation Alley Cranberry Farm” neighbours to the east.

At the base of the ornamental plum in our front garden (a tree I did not plant) is a hamamelis glowing with autumn colour.

Look to the left side of the tree trunk.

 

Tiger Eyes sumac

another hamamelis

I retreated indoors from the heat and was joined for a bit by our neighbours to the west, Devery, and her dog Royal.

It was Royal’s first time in our house. He was excited.

Ilwaco boatyard

After five o clock, we mulched 1/3 of the boatyard.  I think my estimate that three yards will cover it all is pretty close.

before (Allan’s photo)

after (Allan’s photo)

Allan sweeps up

Aster ‘Harrington’s Pink’

leveling mulch with a broom

looking south from the north end

As we had begun our mulching, a Londoner on a bicycle had stopped to ask the location of Salt Pub.  I had to tell him the sad news that it is closed on Wednesdays.  Where could he eat, he asked, after returning from a two block jaunt to make sure Salt was closed.  I was sad to say that the only option was our little local market.  In an ideal world, we would have invited him to come to our house for a campfire, with sausages, and then driven him to his campsite at Cape Disappointment, but our conversation took place just as we got stuck in to an hour of unloading mulch.

After work, we went to the little market ourselves in search of some fancy sausages, and found him outside.  He had managed to find an apple for his dinner, with some cheese that he already had.  I was afraid that “Disappointment” might sum up his feelings, and I did so wish he had been here on a night when Salt was open.

the Londoner

I was able to guide him to having breakfast tomorrow morning at the Portside Café, where his quest for pancakes should be well satisfied.

We had a good chinwag about politics.  He said he almost bet £5000 on Brexit not passing, and woke up in shock that morning (and relief that he had not made the bet). He had experienced the same shock and dismay last November 9 at the result of our election.

I told him that I used to be married to a Leedsman.  “Oh, that must have been tough!” said he.

Allan and I did not succeed at the local in our quest for fancy sausages so drove on up to Sid’s Market in Seaview, where we met with success.  We also met again a nice RVing couple who had asked us at the boatyard where to shop for groceries.  They, too, had met with shopping success. We then went home to have a campfire on the one of the warmest evenings of the year.

Nicotiana by the campfire

the moon just caught in the trees

Allan’s photo

coals

When I looked at the temperature at 1 AM, it was still 72 degrees outside.  That is just unheard of here at the beach.

Friday, 29 September 2017

After taking Thursday off so Allan could finish painting the shed, we slept late.

Skooter slept late, too. He puts his feet over Allan’s head like earmuffs.

We had believed the forecast of a half inch of rain.  The rain came overnight rather than during the day, which turned out so fine that tourists would be looking at our public gardens.  While we did not have to water, we certainly had to tidy after all.

This much rain overnight!

By the post office, we saw the first sign of Ilwaco Halloween.

And so it begins.

The Depot Restaurant

just some quick deadheading

Coreopsis ‘Flower Tower’ towering

Long Beach

the welcome sign

We tidied the gardens at Veterans Field while the Columbia Pacific Farmers Market was in session.

Allan’s photo

I found a home for a duplicate plant of mine in Fifth Street Park. I had bought in, then realized it was the same white sanguisorba I had acquired at a Hardy Plant sale from Dan Hinkley, back when it just had a number, not a name.

Allan planted it in here, toward the back.

Needing energy, we got coffee to go.

at Abbracci Coffee Bar

We did a walk around town just to deadhead the planters.

passing by the farmers market again

I stopped it at NIVA green to take a few photos for their Facebook page, and for some reason I had to buy this little stove.

It spoke to me somehow.  Now it is mine and I don’t quite know what to do with it.

Allan pulled Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’ from under the street tree near the pharmacy.

before

after

Here is a sad thing: The old, peeling cranberry mural on the south end of Dennis Company is now almost covered.  $58,000 has been spent to try to restore it five different times, and it is now too far gone to save.

Goodbye to a Long Beach icon. (Allan’s photos)

The paint peeled badly after a restoration just a couple of years ago.

Here it is in better days.  I will miss it.

We then drove up to Peninsula Landscape Supply for another yard of Soil Energy.

The shaved ice booth was heading down to Ilwaco for Saturday Market.

Ilwaco boatyard garden

We got another third of the garden mulched, all the way to the south side of the gate.

Unfortunately, we have to cover a multitude of poppy seeds.  In my own garden, I might dig and replant them.  No time for that here.

I’ve saved seeds and will re-sow.

To finish our relatively short day, we deadheaded the cosmos at the port office and Time Enough Books gardens.  I took some photos of the marina from near the port office.

someone else enjoying the view

an hour before sunset, along Howerton Avenue

home

Kniphofia ‘Earliest of All’ is changing shape.

Devery came to pick some Cripp’s Pink apples to make some applesauce.

She stood on a bucket to get some.

Canna in bloom in the water boxes

I made a sit spot in the new bogsy wood clearing.

on the table: broken china bits that I found in 2010 when making our garden

I had a sudden brainstorm which Allan helped me bring to fruition.

Skooter supervising

He helped me move this….

…out to the salmonberry cave….

…where I like it very much.

And it gave me room for a new little sit spot on the east wall of the house.

Next: another long weekend.  We are enjoying the short work weeks between tourist season and the soon to arrive fall clean up and bulb season.

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3 November: mulching time

Thursday, 3 November 2016

The weather turned out as good as predicted.  I hoped to cross two mulching projects off of the work board by the end of the day.

The Depot Restaurant

Before we could acquire mulch, we had to do the rest of the fall clean up at the Depot garden, including taking the hops down from the dining deck lattice.

Chef Michael asked for an extra project, clearing a narrow area between deck and wall of bamboo so that a repairman could get in to fix the heater.

Fortunately, Allan could fit in the narrow passageway.  I am not sure I could have.  Well, I could have fit, but not worked easily.

Allan’s photos: passage of chopped bamboo, before

after

Allan did the inside passage to the dining deck.

before

me working on the outside

inside, after

outside, before

All the bare, strangely textured stiff stems of hops have to be clipped and teased out through the lattice.

after

I had been hoping to be able to get, say, five bales of Gardner and Bloome compost from the Planter Box for this mulching project.  As soon as I was reviewed it, I realized I would need a full yard of Soil Energy from all the way up at Peninsula Landscape Supply.

Long Beach

We just had time to do some clean up of a lavatera and some perennials at Long Beach city hall on the way.

LB City Hall (west side) with more clean up done.

pulling some Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’ at Coulter Park

after

We divested ourselves of today’s debris and headed north to

Peninsula Landscape Supply

plenty of Soil Energy on hand. (Allan’s photo)

“This light, absorbent and nutrient rich manufactured soil provides an excellent medium to grow grass, bedding plants, shrubs, roses, and fruit trees. It is our lightest and most free draining soil with great fertility and growth characteristics. This works as well in your deck’s planter boxes as it does in your landscape beds. You can plant straight into it or use it as a soil amendment added to your existing soil to give it a boost and improve its drain-ability. 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)”

One of two scoops being loaded into our little trailer.

Lots of other hardscaping material for sale, including oyster shells. (Allan’s photo)

one yard, tarped and ready to hit the road (Allan’s photo)

back to The Depot Restaurant

a thick layer of mulch, applied bucket by bucket over the log

luscious

Fuchsia ‘Hawkshead’ can now be seen.

ornamental grasses on the east side of the dining deck

We had time to go the Dennis Company in Long Beach and buy two bales of Gardner and Bloome for the pocket garden at the kite musuem.

across the street from Dennis Company

World Kite Museum

one of two tightly compressed bales

with mulch applied

World Kite Museum

Rather to my surprise, we had time to tidy up the planters along Sid Snyder drive (just north of the kite museum).

Allan’s photos: The one with crocosmia, before…

and after. Crocosmia was planted years before by a volunteer.

Our friends Steve and John of the Bayside Garden drove by while we were working but we didn’t see. Steve snapped this photo downtown showing a color match by one of the planters:

Photo by Steve McCormick, cropped close by me

On our way to a near dusk debris offload, we pulled a few more clumps of crocosmia from the parking lot berms.  

a large mushroom on the parking lot berm (Allan’s photo)

I had time at home to write up one blog post before going to dinner at

The Cove Restaurant

where we were joined at our usual North Beach Garden Gang dinner meeting by Our Kathleen, down for a long weekend.  All we local gardeners are just getting over property tax and quarterly sales tax payments so salad followed by fish tacos ($3 each!) was the order of the night.

2 fish tacos, filling and economical

As usual, we closed the place down and lingered for a bit more chatting in the parking lot.

The work board lost four things today: two mulching projects and the fall clean up of city hall and the Depot.  Now the latter two get shifted into a new column: post frost clean up, whenever that might be.

Not all jobs get a special post frost clean up.  The Depot has window boxes that need to be cleaned out after a freeze.

Tomorrow, I hope Ilwaco and the port and the boatyard will drop off the fall clean up list.

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1995 (age 71):

Nov 3:  Finished digging dahlias.  Cut down lily stalks in UDFB [Upper Driveway Flower Bed] and PBB [Patio Back Bed??]  Drove around Yelm paying bills, bank, Payless, Stock Market, and Gordon’s.  Bought 16 more pansies and more perennials.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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10-11 December: waiting for reading time

a blog post after all, because something garden-y happened

Thursday, 10 December 2015

From the north window: Suddenly my Tetrapanax looks ever so sad.

On the way to the post office and bank, Allan noticed our accountant’s office all pretty for the holidays, along with CPA mascot Helen.

our friend Helen

the Christmas angel tree at Ilwaco’s Bank of the Pacific

Pick an angel from the tree and provide a gift for a child.

Other than Allan’s errands, heavy rain kept us indoors.  I spent all my free time making slideshows and photo galleries of the year through various gardens, because that is just the sort of time lapse that I like to see.

At the Cove Restaurant

In the evening, we had our weekly meeting of the North Beach Garden Gang’s core members (me, Allan, Dave, Mel).

from our cozy corner table at the Cove

delicious dinner salad

Allan’s vegetable stir fry (He calls this “comfort food”.

Our Dave and Melissa, and my bowl of rich and comforting Cajun Chicken Alfredo; I always have enough left for lunch the next day.  That’s my version of comfort food.

Melissa’s Prawns Solo

Friday, 11 December 2015

I do not know what came over me.  Allan and I were discussing how he was going to mulch at the library:  Make two trips to get the one yard at a time of soil energy mulch that our rig can haul.  Or hire Dave and Mel (Sea Star Gardening) to haul the two yards that we need with their much larger rig.  (It’s complicated because the supply yard is open by appointment only this month.) Or we could wait until I ordered a pile of said mulch for here and have Allan take two yards over to the library in buckets (27.5 5 gallons buckets x 2) = 2 yards.  I hope.)  We had talked about it over dinner last night with Dave and Mel and not come to any conclusion (although they are eager and willing to help).  Suddenly, I just picked up the phone, called Peninsula Landscape Supply, and arranged for seven yards to be dumped in our driveway….this afternoon!

Allan’s photo

The pile always looks smaller than I think it will, no matter how much I order.

(Allan’s photo) I immediately wished I had ordered 12 yards instead of 7.

Allan’s photo

Allan could not deliver soil to the library garden today.  When they are open, the rather poorly designed and steep-ended parking lot is too full of cars to negotiate with soil.  It will have to be done Sunday or Monday.  He kindly helped me move at least three yards of the pile to garden beds back by the bogsy woods.  Today’s calm before tomorrow’s predicted storm was perfect for safe soil dumping under the brittle alder trees.

One of two wheelbarrows we had in play.

I was already thinking 5 yards would be plenty.

I will have enough soil to fill in the low spots, especially along edges that I expanded this past summer, and if I find the energy to want to put a layer over every single garden bed, I’ll get another 7 yards later.  I do some chopping and dropping of debris in the garden beds over the course of the year so they do get some natural mulch.  I learned that from Ann Lovejoy and Anne Wareham.

Allan filled every bucket available and now has over a yard a soil just waiting in the garage to go to the library garden.  I continued to wheelbarrow soil into the front garden low spots till it was too dark to see.

Allan’s photo

As you can see, the remaining mulch prevents us from putting our van away.  If I had a place to keep mulch in waiting, I would always have a big pile somewhere at the edge of the property.  There’s just no way to get it delivered to anywhere but the driveway.

Meanwhile, the dramatic weather has continued to have a severe effect on towns both inland and along the Oregon coast, with flooding and a complete closure of sea-faring waterways.

Our other great accomplishment was to put up (Allan) and decorate (me) the Christmas tree.  Reading time is being delayed by that, by the need to move that mulch, and to write Christmas cards and wrap packages to mail, and by some busy weekend holiday events.  Oh how I hope that book reading time starts next Monday.

 

 

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