But first, here are some extra photos from Thursday that did not make it into the blog.
the unusual sight of a newt crossing the lawn (usually we find them in hidden places)
Some photos of the bouquet that Allan took to the Shelburne:
Physocarpus ‘Dart’s Gold’ provides the foliage.
inside the pink tulip
Friday, 6 April 2018
Frosty at the bedroom door (Allan’s photo)
Instead of rain ahead of the storm, we got a perfectly calm windless day. Allan went on a non- boating outing (tomorrow’s post) while I stayed home and planted almost all of my ladies in waiting.
view from the front porch
When I emerged into the late morning sunshine, I found a most unusual guest low down in an old apple tree by the front porch.
Usually, the flock of doves hang out way up on the power lines. (I’ve thought of them as pigeons till Montana Mary said this looks like a dove.) Not long after, I heard a distinctive cry and looked up to see one male and two female bald eagles circling overhead. The pigeon, and some of its mates, had been hiding low down in the trees. I started to worry about how Skooter goes up on our white, flat roof and took some time to research whether the eagles might snatch him. Audubon says that would be most unlikely. “No, no and Google it”, Audubon says to the question of whether an eagle would take an adult cat. But when Googling, youtube videos say otherwise. (I did not, could not watch.) I talked to Allan about putting some loose wire mesh around the arbour posts that we know Skooter uses to access the roof, but he probably has another way. One site pointed out, not too meanly, that for an eagle to take a cat would reverse the usual cat-bird situation. I looked at Skooter and said, “You do eat birds.” I wish I could warn him in words he could understand. (If he is kept indoors, he sprays angrily on the door and elsewhere while glaring at us.)
I put that worry out of my mind (leaving it in Allan’s, perhaps) so that I could concentrate on planting. Perhaps because planting is not my favourite gardening activity, I moved slowly and mopily through the day, thinking how much I miss seeing Calvin sitting on the cat door ledge watching the world go by.
I dumped the gauge of this week’s rain because I needed it.
a lily coming up inside an old stalk (winter clean up neglect)
I love the backdrop of stacked crab pots. It will not last long, because surely the gear shed folks will tarp the pots to protect them from weather all summer long.
Skooter kept me company throughout the garden. I will keep on missing my Smoky’s constant garden companionship and his enjoyment of campfire evenings.
I realized that if the wind stayed away, we could have a campfire tonight.
The tiny cupped narcissi are my favourites.
(By the way, Allan bought me a better camera from ebay, a pocket sized Lumix (yes, trying Lumix again despite many “system error zoom” fails in the past) with a Leica lens. It arrived today but with a dead battery and no charger, so we can’t use it till a newly ordered charger arrives.)
What I planted:
My first mission was to plant four roses that have been languishing in small pots. I had been thrilled to find Ghislaine de Feligonde there, and had ordered three other kinds of roses just because.
Ghislane de Feligonde and Rosa palustris in my old garden
Rose ‘Ghislaine de Feligonde’ in my old garden; my transplant of it here died last year.
The other three roses are Old Blush, which gives a at least one flower most every month, Golden Wings, because I like yellow roses, and Félicité et Perpétue, which I used to grow in Seattle and in my year at the Sou’wester Lodge.
Rose ‘Felicite and Perpetue’ by cabin 9, east side, at the Sou’wester
As I sit writing this the next day, I think I planted Felicite in the wrong place. It had to get out of the pot. I must ponder a better place for it to climb than just over a big fuchsia in the west back bed. I will move it to the fence on the east side…as soon as the storm is over.
I played musical chairs, moving the sad and probably dying Pittosporum ‘Tasman Ruffles’ to the back garden (insane to have any hope, but at the last minute I could not bear to throw it out), replacing it with Pittosporum ‘Wrinkled Blue’, and trading around with a small epilobium and a small callistemon and a small Japanese maple whose name completely escapes me at the moment.
This one, at Westport Winery last August
The rest of the the plants:
Far Reaches Farm, east bed, south end
Now that I have found out that the height is six feet, I am rethinking this spot.
From Far Reaches Farm. Now at the south end of west bed.
Ajuga incisa ‘Bikun’
From Select Seeds, now in a pot in the greenhouse, Sempervivum ‘Gold Nugget’
Also planted, but not photogenic or rare, an Eryngium ‘Blue Glitter’ and a Helenium ‘Mardi Gras’. I had already planted the ever so pink leaved Eupatorium ‘Capri’, a birthday present from Todd, which is supposed to be shorter than ‘Pink Frost’. The only plant of mine that I did not plant was my other Todd present, because it needs a special place and I want to protect it from the battering storm.
I might try to talk Allan into adding this to his garden, where we can see it from the porch. His garden is better maintained and plants don’t get lost in it.
With the plants in the ground (even though two may be moved again), I had a couple of hours for weeding, a task I enjoy so much more than planting.
center bed, yesterday
this evening
I wish I had four more nice days at home to weed.
Allan had returned in the early evening and set about making a fire. I remembered one more plant, an Eryngium ‘Jade Frost, and I ended the planting session badly by slicing a lily bulb (of course, one I had recently planted only one of) right in half.
Eryngium in, lily collateral damage, stuck the damaged bulb back in anyway. So much weeding to do!
I swear I will not buy a whole bunch more plants (except for cosmos and nicotiana) this year so that I can….oh…wait…I have another order coming from Digging Dog.
Near the fire circle, I had finally remembered to divide a Japanese iris today:
It takes two to make a thing go right.
It takes two to make it outta sight.
The area below used to be the campfire wood pile along the edge. Allan and I had a bit of an argy bargy when I said I was going to move the wood pile in order to make this a garden. I won that round.
It makes a good view from the campfire.
I do wish the ground was not thick with meianthemum (the heart shaped ground cover).
mahonia (Allan’s photo)
bogsy wood alder catkins
campfire supper
Allan’s photo
Post script:
At midnight, after an evening that had continued windless, the rain finally arrived. The wind did not kick up till after 2 A.M. and I slept through the supposed storm, waking to learn that the wind had only reached a mere 44 mph. But as I began to write this blog post on Saturday morning, I learned that the storm had gotten distracted along the way and is now due to arrive later on Saturday.
Update regarding the new LUMIX: a charger arrived. Upon testing, the refurbished camera immediately zoomed in and out and said “turn camera off and then on again” so back it goes.
