17 May: plants, planting, pruning

Thursday, 17 May 2018

Skooter waking up.

Todd and I had gone in on an order from Digging Dog nursery.  It arrived in the morning, and took an hour to unpack.  Allan’s photos:

I found it time consuming to unpack the shredded paper and to look at my list of which were for Todd and which for me.

Crambe cordifolia did not look happy.

I felt skeptical about this angelica gigas.

The rest of the plants looked promising.

just a few

more (and a hardy orchid birthday present which I have not figured out where to put yet)

While I sorted and listed, Allan went across the street to mow at J’s.  We have fallen far behind.

good thing it is a small lawn

rhodie from next door to J’s

Before we left, I picked some snails to take for a long ride to a place with wild plants.

on my alliums!

Mike’s garden

We finally got a start on getting Mike’s garden back into good order.  I decided to not plant any cosmos there so I don’t have to worry about watering them.  (All work photos today are Allan’s.)

Me and Mike discuss the prospect of getting rid of a suckering and not very floriferous lilac, at the same time that two slowly dying conifers get removed.

While I weeded, Allan’s project was to reshape two Lonicera ‘Baggeson’s Gold’ to the round form that Mike likes.

before

after

before

after

Ilwaco boatyard garden

We did some weeding, and I planted cosmos.  Oh, what a difference the mulch made (applied last fall).  Last year I was hammering away at gravel to plant the cosmos.  This year, it was easy peasy.

euphorbia and columbine

This euphorbia came out. (There are plenty. It had reseeded too close to the sidewalk and was old and woody.)

We added two more of our signs.

As for the man who was caught picking flowers earlier this week and told a port office person that “no one is going to take care of them so I am saving them”, I fumed for awhile while planting.  Just exactly where did he think all these cool plants come from?  The garden was in pretty good shape; what did he think an uncared for garden looks like?  I got up a good head of steam.  I fervently hope the port comes up with some official no picking signs.

fresh cosmos

Stipa gigantea

Stipa is at its best right now.

Talking with the nice boatyard head honcho Mark about plant thievery.

stems from picking

It might seem inconsequential to pick poppies, but I have no way of knowing if someone who is picking is going to also pick the alliums and the eryngiums that only bloom once, ONE CHANCE for beauty.

For example, after the cosmos were all in, we went to the Ilwaco pavilion garden to water some new plants.  Here, the Allium ‘Purple Sensation’ are blooming.  If someone picks them, that is the last we will see of them because each puts out just ONE flower.

Allium ‘Purple Sensation’ and Erysimum ‘Bowles Mauve’

our garden

At home, I walked back to the Bogsy Wood to check on some newly transplanted fuchsias and took a few photos on my way there and back again.  I was terribly sad at how weedy my garden is and how I do not have time for it, and yet there is still much to admire.

Thrilled to see my severely coppiced cotinus finally putting out new red leaves. Whew! I did not kill it!

dreamy Ceanothus ‘Oregon Mist’

I picked up all the weed piles I left on the lawn last week, and Allan mowed.  It had gotten so long, Frosty had to pick his paws up high.

Skooter was staring intently….

…at his next door nemesis, Onyx.

viewed over the most unweeded part of the garden

My mom’s beloved rhododendron, originally from her garden, then moved to Golden Sands when she lived there, then to here:

Rose ‘Radway Sunrise’

The snails are enjoying my compost bins.  I long for time to turn the compost.

I even had time to sit down and finish this book by my favourite cartoonist, Roz Chast.  It is due back tomorrow.

She poses an interesting question, hearkening back to when her parents would spend a day in the city:

I remember taking many long walks as a youth and not carrying a water bottle.  How was that possible?  Now, I take water with me pretty much everywhere.

I was able to erase Mike’s garden and Ilwaco from the work board Annuals Planting Time list, leaving only Klipsan Beach Cottages and here.  This means the worst of the APT pressure is over.  No wonder my headache decreased today.

The one thing that I sadly have not had the time for the past two days is watching even a short episode of Gardener’s World.

 

 

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16 March: mulching day

Friday, 16 March 2018

On the way out of Ilwaco, we dropped off and picked up books at the library.  Now I have an even bigger pile of books to read, which is problematical at this time of year.

Ilwaco Community Building

Community building garden with Ocean Beach Hospital and a salal I want to get rid of this year.

Supposing we do manage to dig out that tatty salal, what should we put in that triangular corner instead?  I am thinking.  The sidewalk is narrow and peculiarly designed there.

We began with a quick visit to the Basket Case Greenhouse, to give Roxanne some seeds to try growing for me.  If she succeeds, she will have some Eryngium giganteum ‘Miss Wilmott’s Ghost’ for sale eventually!

Two seedy characters (Roxanne and me)

Right now, the Basket Case has the excellent Eryngium ‘Jade Frost’.

The leaves of Eryngium ‘Jade Frost’ eventually revert to green. So it’s worth refreshing with a new plant every couple of years.

Peninsula Landscape Supply

Our first work destination was the acquisition of some Soil Energy mulch.

When we drove in, I had a brief wave of anxiety because the bins looked empty and I had not called to confirm that Soil Energy was in stock.

When we pulled up closer, I was relieved to see enough for us.

The fish of Peninsula Landscape Supply

The Depot Restaurant…

…was our mulching destination.

Before: I wanted to improve this tight and rooty bed and to plant a start of Tetrapanax.  Chef Michael wants tall things in here.  I tried to transplant a start of Tetrapanax last year to no avail.

Allan’s photo, south side of dining deck

after

We used the remainder of the mulch on the north side of the dining deck.

filling in along the edge

Allan’s photo

We were making good time, so we went to the city works yard in…

Long Beach

….and filled all our buckets from the city pile of Soil Energy, enough to mulch the arc garden at the Veterans Field flag pavilion.

Driving to city works, I had seen two sets of narcissi that needed deadheading, the first by the Coastal Inn and Suites.  We took care of that and noticed that the inn now has a tulip bed.

Very nice; we hope the deer don’t eat them.

Allan’s photo

Next, we deadheaded the tree garden in front of Abbracci Coffee Bar.

Allan’s photo

Feeling weary after the usual night of semi-insomnia (and dreams when asleep about the film Ethel and Ernest, now one of my favourite films of all time), I had a craving for coffee and a Pink Poppy Bakery treat.  Just as we finished deadheading, the closed sign went up in the door of the coffee bar.  Dang it! It was already three thirty.

I guess it was just as well, because it gave us time to get more done; we went through the Great Escape Coffee Drive Through instead.

The Shelburne Hotel

Our visit to the Shelburne garden was a quick one, just long enough to plant some Eryngium and Dierama seedlings and a bit of variegated saxifrage.

The epimedium whose leaves (some of them) I cut back in the rain a couple of weeks ago is blooming.  The flowers would not show if the leaves were all still there.

Remember the hellebore whose flower got broken off to many cries of woe (and blame)?  It made a new flower.

Allan’s vindicating photo

I made a fun photo of the Shelburne with the Popsicolor app last night:

Popsicolor: Double Mint, Natural Focus, Top to Bottom Gradient, Inked: India Ink, Enhanced

Ilwaco boatyard garden

We tackled the last of the targeted (by us) clumps of the Pennisetum macrourum, where we had run out of time yesterday.

Allan’s photo, before…the horror

I went over the last area he had dug and picked over yesterday, and had not had time to finish.  There were so many deep roots, I despaired of winning.  But humans WILL WIN this battle.

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo: But what lurks beneath?

Yesterday:

looking north (the steam is from a boat engine that just got put in the water)

Today:

We had a look in the boatyard:

Right above the High Hope, to the left of the Starwest, is the spruce tree in the lower part of our old garden.

At home, Allan decided he had time to mow our lawn, and I unloaded and piled roots of the pennisetum for future wheelie bin disposal (it’s full now) until I ran out of steam, and then erased “mulch Depot” from the work board.

Skooter was sleeping on my go bag again.

Tomorrow, Saturday the 17th, is my birthday—not a big important one, just age 63, but worth a day off and (I hope) some garden accomplishments at home.

 

 

 

 

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10 Oct: more mulching and a meeting

Tuesday, 10 October 2017

Allan found a critter before we left for work:

We had a meeting scheduled for 1 PM and somehow got a late start. I wanted a yard of Soil Energy so we took the risk that 45 minutes was enough time to get to Peninsula Landcape Supply and back.

We were thrilled to see a great big new pile of mulch had arrived.

plenty for all

loading up

On the way south, we made a three minute stop at the Planter Box, looking for orange violas that I had seen the last week.  Someone else had snapped them up, as I should have done.

Allan’s photo

Pumpkins were in. (Allan’s photo)

We got to our appointment with Shelly Pollock at NW Insurance and Financial in Long Beach with five minutes to spare.

in Shelly’s waiting room; to the right is the enjoyable local mystery series by Jan Bono.

It looks like Allan has a new business partner. That’s Shelly’s dog, Bella.

Shelly guided through Medicare choices.  Allan will be elevated to the safety of good health care on January 1st.  We were sadly surprised with how much Medicare costs (cheap compared to full price insurance, of course, and with no dreaded deductible that keeps even insured people from going to the doctor).  Nor does him being on Medicare cut my solo insurance cost in half.  Phooey.  I asked what would happen to someone who, with minimal social security, ends up too poor to pay the Medicare fees.  When does one then qualify for Medicaid, I wondered.  Apparently only if one makes under $12,000 a year Social Security…so if one is living on a not luxurious 14K a year, Medicare would take a painful slice out of that.  The image of sitting at the curb in a cardboard box came to mind.  It does not look like retirement will be in the cards for us, after all.  Good thing we like what we do; I hope we can keep doing it.

I was awash with relief that this fall, Shelly will be able to help me sort my way through the complicated and rather scary application for individual insurance.  The affordable ACA plan with which I have been blessed is in jeopardy right now because of the whims of the Trump administration; I just hope to be able to afford insurance for two and a half more years.

After the appointment, we checked on the planters on Sid Snyder Drive…

Too many wild beach strawberries in this one, we agreed.

…and spent the rest of the day mulching, first finishing up the end of the Ilwaco Boatyard garden.

Allan’s photo

All the way to the end of the boatyard garden with mulch!

sweeping up

Next, we mulched four of the garden beds (two large, two small) on Howerton Avenue, with an interruption that took us by surprise.

a heavy squall

Allan’s photo

Port Office gardens tidied and mulched

I clipped several santolinas.  An art event will take place on the weekend, so I wanted the gardens to look refreshed.

Time Enough Books/Purly Shell garden clipped and mulched

Looking north across the port parking lot, we could see Melissa finishing up the Norwood hedge.

Sea Star Gardening at work

in the boat storage yard by the parking lots

We had divided the cost of mulch so as to keep some for our own garden.  At home, we finished unloading and wheelbarrowed the soil back to the newly cleared bogsy woods area.

First, I got to see my good friend Royal setting out with Devery for his evening walk.

This much rain in the wheelbarrow from today.

before

after

after

Mulching the port got erased from the work board.

I have a month and a half to get a good weeding done at home before year’s end! It has been on the board since late spring.

 

 

 

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10 July: mostly watering

Monday, 10 July 2017

front path

our garden from the street

detail (Allan’s photo)

Mike’s garden

We began at Mike’s garden a few blocks east, where most of my time was spent watering.  There are very few clients who water as much as I would like them to.

Mike’s garden

Allan’s pruning:

Lonicera ‘Baggeson’s Gold’

Long Beach

We began Long Beach with an hour spent pulling weeds at the north parking lot berm; all three of the so called berms are going to be getting more attention because of the expanded Fun Rides.

The berm (Allan’s photos), which gets no supplemental water at all:

lupines going to seed

with birds foot trefoil

and without

This Long Beach resident, Maria, was on her way home to weed and to plant some new plants in her own garden.

Then we watered downtown: 27 planters for me, 10 planters and 18 trees and six stand alone smaller containers for Allan.

The Smoke Shop planter is one of my favourites this month.

Unhappy words were said…

…over this cosmos pulled out and left to wilt.

Fifth Street Park is starting to look more colourful.

I had had to switch to my phone camera because of zoom and lens cap-opening camera dysfunction.

Armeria (sea thrift) with an interesting fasciated stem and two flowers.

The Geranium ‘Rozanne’ that had been messed with last week was still looking wilted because of pulled stems entangled with good ones.  It took a while to tease the dying ones out.

Once again, the pile was twice this big when I was done.

Allan’s photos on his watering round:

outside the Long Beach Tavern; their flower display

by the Fun Rides

For awhile at one planter, I could sense a man standing behind me.  I thought he was some random guy invading my personal space while talking on his phone….Until I finally realized it was my former partner, Robert, actually talking to me.  (Traffic was loud.)  We had a laugh about it.  I’m used to negotiating around people while watering.  Sometimes, a person will park herself on the bench despite me, my hose, and my bucket.

Ignoring Robert because I did not look to see who he was.

I had been looking forward to seeing him downtown because I was able to tell him that I had had my DNA tested and came up 39 percent Irish.  (Robert is very Irish.)

in a tree garden

Eryngium variifolium under a street tree.  I just now found out there is an E variifolium called ‘Miss Marble’; I had a cat by that name and MUST have that Eryngium!

by Dennis Company

A common sight.  This is the route from the Red Barn Arena to the beach.

There is a path that goes through woods to residential streets that lead to the beach.

If you recall the Geranium ‘Rozanne’ that was dug up for a plumbing repair and then cut way back and replanted, here it is doing well.

Coulter Park with Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’ and Berberis ‘Helmond Pillar’

cosmos, knautia, Cerinthe major purpurascens, sweet alyssum

painted sage and cosmos

We finished with some weeding at Veterans Field, where I got to meet a puppy.

Pup’s name was Eleanor

Also got to talk to this wonderful and good dog:

Aww….This dog was watching me as I walked away, after me saying words about it being such a very good dog.

We remembered to give some bucket water to the thirsty end planter on Sid Snyder Drive.  A fellow was sitting on the bench shaking sand out of his shoes, just yards from the beach.  I had to firmly remind myself, as I often do, that the benches ARE for people, not just for me to put my bucket and tools and hose on.

Ilwaco

I had Allan drop me and the trailer off by the Freedom Market so that I could pull a lot of the dog daisies out of the curbside beds there.  He picked up the water trailer to water the 10 street trees and 25 planters.

Freedom Market curbside bed, before

before

after

A passerby thought the the lambsear flowers looked like the finest marijuana buds, ones that “you’d be really proud of.”  He was right, and I found it amusing with the juxtaposition of the pot shop.

lambs ear “bud”

removed three heaping wheelbarrows of daisies

new mural on Salt Hotel

Allan’s photos while watering:

me starting to pull daisies

Sweet peas at the boatyard (Allan’s photo while filling the water tank)

at the boatyard

Griffin Gallery’s own planter

an old, slightly wobbly Erysimum that I’m not replacing …yet

Asiatic lilies at the post office

Evening at the marina, after another 9.5 hour day:

 

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27 April: exhausting and satisfying

On Monday, our friend J9 dropped by some delicious mulligatawny soup as a belated birthday present.  She also showed me this postcard I had sent her 25 years ago. I met her in 1993 when I was working at the Sou’wester Lodge and she was a guest.  She came with her old dog, Cassie, and her lovebird, B-bird.

J9 , Cassie, B.Bird in 1993.

Thursday, 27 April 2017

at home before work

Akebia on the arbor

Akebia

Allan’s photo, wild cucumber vine

Port of Ilwaco

We did a brief deadheading all along Howerton Avenue because of the Saturday Market’s early opening this year (on April 29 to coincide with the Long Beach Razor Clam Festival).

east end

 

sneaky dandelion

Allan’s photo

heading west for more deadheads

Note to self: Must trim up these shrubs before the May 6 children’s parade!

I am thinking of cutting the wax myrtle all the way down, because usually they come back quite nicely.  However, the one a couple of gardens west has not revived from being chopped last fall.

hmmm.  I don’t really want it here, anyway.

The maybe dead wax myrtle is part of this garden by the Ilwaco Pavilion.

I tire of BIG shrubs that were planted at the port (not by me) and need frequent pruning to preserve traffic sightlines.

The driveover garden got driven over (or something).

some smashing happened…

This is why it’s “the driveover garden”.

Port office garden with some orange tulips…

and spaces for at least two new plants

Next, we finished a rough weeding of the boatyard, to be repeated next week in a more perfect way before the children’s parade.

before

a boat coming in (Allan’s photo)

an hour later (boat was being power washed, too)

at the south end, a tangle of bindweed left unpulled for now

Sunday, before we go to an afternoon Indivisible event at Black Lake, I hope we can find time to make a trench or gap by pulling grasses along the back of the chain link fence.  I’ve done it in previous years and it is easier than it sounds.

While he was taking a couple of boat photos (below), Allan talked to the port manager, Guy, and his dad, also Guy, who happens to be our lawyer.  The elder Guy commented that our garden at Diane’s was gone.  It is nice to know the roadside garden was noticed.  Allan reassured him it is not gone for good and that we will be recreating it.

Allan’s boat photos:

Long Beach

We went to the beach approach with the hope of getting one more section done.  I decided to shake things up by weeding four sections of thick rugosa roses.  There is no way to weed the centers of those sections without thorns and eye pokings, so they actually go faster than the more open sections.  I also wanted to get the roadside edge dealt with before all the traffic arrives for the weekend’s clam festival.

a painted rock by where we parked  (Allan’s photo)

before, looking west

Allan’s photo

another painted rock (Allan’s photo)

more edge pulling of roses (Allan’s photo)

4.25 hours later

before, looking east, 1:45 PM

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

6:10 PM

Allan’s photo

 A dog named June out by the restrooms.   Part boxer part Great Pyrenees! (Allan’s photo)

During the job:

I might have left some clover “for the bees”.

Allan pruned some but not all the stubs on mugo pines that keep getting cut back (not always by us) for traffic sightlines.  

after

I’d like to find time to tidy up all the pines.  Some of them look so beaten by all the wind that I’m not sure they will provide any soothing greenness this year.

in the wheelbarrow: an accidental narcissus casualty

Fortunately, Martha walked by with her dog Ray, so I was able to give her the flowers.  She said it was the most beautiful casualty she had ever seen.

The lawn ponds across the sidewalk are finally drying up.

thick grass in the thickest rose thicket

I am hoping that next fall, we can cut back the three thickest rose sections to the ground, giving us a chance to weed in fall and early spring.  Meanwhile, I hope the roses distract passersby from the weeds.

At the city works yard, a killdeer was finding food amongst the green debris.

at home

I can’t erase “boatyard” from the work board till it is done well next week.  I decided to count today’s beach approach sections as three done, two to go.  We have one, the worst  section (rugosa roses and swamp rushes, almost impossible), untouched, and I’d like to do some further weeding of the ones I worked on today, probably less work than a whole section would take.  That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

‘Tomorrow: a check of all planters and of Veterans Field before the clam festival, and maybe time to finish weeding one berm.

I had been planning to go to a climate vigil in Seaside on Saturday.  It would have been fun to see Pam Fleming’s downtown gardens.  A combination of exhaustion and of not looking forward to the actual ride down there and of my own garden being a mess has me seriously considering Saturday being a day off at home.

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10 March: spring clean up at the Port

 

Friday, 10 March 2017

Skooter thinks the morning light is just too bright.

We had a break from the rain.  The predicted wind did not arrive, making it even better. Work ensued.

at home: Tulip kaufmanniana ‘The First’

While it looks like that tulip is growing in straw, it is actually in the old growth from Geranium ‘Rozanne’.

Allan noticed and photographed the same tulips.

We went down to the port, just a block south, to finish the garden beds along Howerton Avenue.  Of course, I had high hopes, thinking we could finish there, AND the boatyard, and maybe even prune roses in Long Beach.  Not bloody likely, as it turned out; my ambitions are usually greater than reality.

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

Howerton and Elizabeth, looking west, before

after, 1.5 hours later

Partway through that first garden bed, three ibuprofen were required.

I’m kind of old and my arthritic legs ache like fury sometime when I am working.

Allan’s photos of the east end bed, before and after:

before

after

He also yanked a dead lavender out of the CoHo Charters garden bed because I felt it was bringing down the tone.

It was really most sincerely dead.

space for something new

 

Next, I made an executive decision that we simply had to get the sword and deer ferns cut back in a pocket garden in front of the former Shorebank building.  Otherwise, they will bother me all summer long…and they do show very much from the sidewalk.

before

clipping

 

A sweet 7 month old dog had jumped out a truck and came running up to me.  I held on to her till her daddy got her back.  Reminded me of my escape artist black lab, Bertie Woofter.

Oh, how she wanted to keep running.

The deer fern looked especially unsightly

 

20 minutes later.  I felt so much better at this being done.

Allan’s photo

We had done all the gardens in between the east and west end last week, so we skipped right ahead to the garden by Salt Hotel.  Allan did most of the clipping of santolinas in the river rock bed; I find that difficult to walk on nowadays.

before

half an hour later, almost after

Allan had dug out one tatty old blue fescue and, to fill the hole it left, he got a piece of Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ from the garden to the west.  Someone called out from the upstairs window of the adjacent building, which now houses the marijuana store, “Why are you taking plants?”  We were thrilled that the folks there are watching out for the garden.  Allan thanked them for their vigilance.

Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’, about to be divided

and in its new home

I had clipped all the sword ferns in the Salt’s containers along the sidewalk…because I could not stand not to do so.  The pub readerboard said “beef on weck”; I had to google it and found it was a roast beef dip sandwich.  Good thing I did not google it till I got home or I might have found a lunch break irresistible, and we still had much to do.

Next came the two beds at the west end.  These took much longer than I had expected.

before, looking west

an hour and a half later

We saw our former next door neighbour, Killer.  It had been interesting to move in and learn our neighbour was called Killer.  It means “fish killer”.

I divided and put some sedums and some golden oregano into the pot shop’s garden bed.

narcissi (Allan’s photo)

another dog on the run

In the parking lot across the street, forklifts buzzed around loading crab pots onto trucks.

Last night, when I looked out my south window, I could see the lights from the Ilwaco Pavilion building (a view that disappears when leaves come on the salmonberries and willows at the south end of our property).  This morning, the view had changed to stacks of crab pots.

We drove to the Ilwaco Community Building just to stick some starts of santolina in a sunny bed.  It is an easy plant to start right in the ground just by poking in a short hardwood cutting.

Ilwaco Community Building and its garden beds

sticking cuttings

view of shade garden from inside the building’s corridor.

crocuses at the library entrance (Allan’s photo)

Galanthus nivalis ‘Flora Pleno’ double snowdrop (Allan’s photo)

narcissi (Allan’s photo)

 

We ended the day down at the boatyard, which of course we did not get near to done.

The long, narrow garden runs along the fence by 1st Ave South.

 

boatyard, looking south, before

an hour later

Euphorbia in bloom and a disheartening number of weeds and pleasing number of poppy seedlings

so weedy

We ran into one big problem: We had created so much debris that we had to break in order to dump.  I went home at that point because it was but an hour till dark.  If I had realized that Allan had the energy to go till dark, I could have stayed at the boatyard and done more clipping while he disposed of the first load of debris.  My brain is not fully work functional yet and I did not even think of that solution, one we have used many times in the past.

I long for a good weather full work day at the boatyard.  The weeds came out like butter (smooth and easy) and it would be a pleasure to spend a day perfecting this long narrow garden.  There is still so much to do here.

boatyard garden, looking south from the gate

and looking north from the gate

The boatyard had a line of boats in every spot along the fence.

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

The only item of collateral damage today

The cats were happy I came home early.

Skooter and Calvin

Allan returned to the boatyard and worked till dark.

before

after

Rain and wind are again predicted for the weekend, which is just as well because we have political meetings during both days.  At this point, I am feeling behind on work and it would be frustrating to miss a good weather day with indoor events.

workboard tonight, still did not get to erase first clean up

 

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16 August: all Ilwaco

Tuesday, 16 August 2016

at home

I had promised Allan today would be an easy day…and it had better be, because I was still sound asleep at 11 AM, giving us an even later start than usual.

A small puddle in the street showed that some rain had fallen overnight.

so happy to see rainwater on helenium…

and Melianthus major…

and Melianthus major ‘Antenow’s Blue’.

hypericum (St John’s wort)

box o’ special shade plants from Hardy Plant Weekend purchases

Joseph’s Coat rose

front garden

Ilwaco Post Office

We spent a volunteer hour weeding and thinning.  The front looked bare when we were done.

Mid August doldrums with the lilies almost done.

I do not like seeing so much bare ground where poppies once were, so will have to buy more plants.

Ilwaco boatyard garden

The accursed horsetail and bindweed was returning.

a boat arrives

love the homey, checkered curtains

‘Black Knight’ sweet peas (Allan’s photo)

sweet peas and heleniums (Allan’s photo)

more sweet peas (Allan’s photo)

sweet pea success (Allan’s photo)

Nancy G. drove by (owner of the Depot, and Marilyn’s daughter); I updated her on Skooter’s household integration process.

Petra Marie (Allan’s photo)

The north end of the boatyard weeding took so long that Allan became skeptical that it would be an easy day.  However, I knew that south of the gate has so much less horsetail that it would go faster.  I felt doomed for a moment when my hip started hurting from stepping in and out of the garden.  A brief sit down in the van made it possible to keep going.

finishing up fairly easy weeding along the south end

looking north

more sweet pea success

and more

I had no success with the sweet peas I planted in Long Beach’s Fifth Street Park, so I am extra pleased with the boatyard success this year.

salmon coloured four o clock that comes back each year.  Probably ‘Salmon Sunset’

Howerton Avenue

With the boatyard done, we moved on to grooming and watering the Howerton Avenue curbside gardens.  We would not have time to water them later this week.   A soil poke showed that, due to their well drained and windswept nature, the rain had not left any dampness in the soil, unlike the richer and deeper soil of the boatyard garden.  Allan watered the east end and west end gardens and Ilwaco pavilion gardens.  I walked the entire length of the curbside gardens, deadheading and weeding and clipping here and there, and watered at Time Enough Books and port office.  A strong and chilly wind and sore hip and knee made me focus all my endurance on getting done so I only took one photo.

I did enjoy the look of the “driveover garden” in the wind, with santolinas and Nassella tenuissima.

Thanks to water from the Tuna Club, this eryngium may eventually recover from a long drought. (Allan’s photo)

Howerton Avenue with crab pots (Allan’s photo)

I got a ride home before Allan went to dump the debris.  I’d had a headache all day, and the debris pile is on bumpy ground.

snail on boat trailer near our debris dump spot (Allan’s photo)

Allan went back to water the garden at Salt Hotel, and cut back one more santolina.  I’d done a few at the boatyard and Howerton earlier in the day.

before

after

an eryngium which has been getting regular water (but needed more)

It did turn out to be an “easy” day of only six and a half (seven for Allan) hours of work.

I communed at home with Skooter, after bringing in a bundle of catmint trimmed from my garden.  I thought it would remind him of Marilyn’s garden, where he used to roll in the catmint patch (not catNIP, which he would have eaten to the ground).  I made two piles of catmint on the bedroom and bathroom floor and he seemed pleased and amused.  Two more days indoors!

As I read Facebook on my phone with Skooter, I saw this great photo and wished I’d been at kite festival with the whale kites.

---

1998 (age 74):

August 16: Sunday—what an odd day.  I worked on my [crossword] puzzle until about 10 when I got so sleepy, laid down—and slept till 5:30.  I fed Tabby and laid down again.  When I woke up it was dark so I thought it was morning but it was only 10:30 PM.  I had some chocolate and read for a couple of hours and then slept till 8:00 AM.

 

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15 Nov: a surprise work day

Sunday, 15 November 2015

We were pleased when the rain stopped around 10 AM, and by 11 we were out planting two more batches of bulbs.  We do feel rather wimpy as we happen to know that while we took rainy days off, Melissa, Dave, and Todd were all out working in the rain at that Oysterville garden that we like so much!  The front garden there has been dug up and the plants moved and then replaced with a new beech hedge.  Much of that had been accomplished by the owner, with Todd’s help.  I look forward to driving by there at the end of this month (when we go on the annual studio tour) and seeing what’s new.

Today, we first finished the bulb planting at…

The Port of Ilwaco

Before planting bulbs, I had about 12 divisions of Libertia to plant.  My original libertia was a gift from Kathleen Sayce, which I had since divided and shared with the Golden Sands Assisted Living garden, and this month I divided THAT one to share with the port gardens.

Libertia grandiflora in my garden, 5-14-13

I had recently learned that Libertia is drought tolerant so it should be perfect for the port gardens.  Several pieces went in the easternmost garden:

east end Howerton Ave, looking west

I am pondering what to do about how weedy the east end garden is.  Should we do a thorough weeding now so that it looks good all winter, or should we leave it weedy till February, thus saving the port several hours of labour costs?  People do walk by all winter.

It’s gotten pretty bad since the end of the tourist season….

Next, we planted three libertia in the garden by the old Wade Gallery.

 
We planted narcissi, Libertia, and a couple of eremerus in the curbside garden north of the port office and unfortunately, we found some unpleasant debris (the first we have seen of this in the port gardens).

Above and below: Allan’s photos. It was hidden in the catmint that Allan was clipping. I mention this simply to share one of the hazards that public gardeners must watch out for.  This does not mean the port harbors a den of iniquity.

 Just as we finished planting bulbs there and some libertia at Time Enough Books, the pelting rain came.

I could tell by the sky that it was just a squall so we waited it out in the van, me with bulbs and bulb food in my hands.

storm flag over the port office

At the boatyard, we planted several clumps of tall narcissi.

 

The similar script suggests these boats have the same owner.

 We had the pleasure of a visit from Ed Strange, who was also out working. Allan had a camera in his pocket so took some photos of me, Ed and Jackson.  

 

With our friends gone back to work and the bulbs in, we planted the rest of the libertia at the westernmost Howerton bed, where Allan made another disturbing find.

This is an unusual find and we think indicates just one person must be responsible. We don’t know who but perhaps the powers that be (whom we notified) can figure it out and tell that person to considerately dispose of their debris.

We stopped into the lovely Salt Hotel to say hi to owner Julez, whom we had not seen for awhile.

at Salt Hotel on the port

 

catching up with julez. The stools are for the future restaurant.

  Julez asked if we recognized the new shrubs in the hotel courtyard.

Oh my!  Those are the arbutus that I’d asked the port to remove from the Shorebank garden. I described to him how we had been forced to keep pruning them to ugly stubs to preserve traffic sight lines and had finally said they must go.

 
Laila and Julez had rescued them. I hope they make it.

looking beautiful

We checked on the empty Shorebank spot and we’re pleased that it won’t need replacement soil brought in.  We did our debris disposal and admired the views at the east end of the marina.

Dave the kite flyer was doing a trial run of a kite with a water scooping bucket and told us he had dumped the bucket of water on himself.

looking east toward Yellow Bluff

On the way to plant another patch of bulbs, we saw this in the Lake Street puddle.

 Next….

The Depot Restaurant garden

I cleared the garden on the north side of the dining deck while Allan cut back the hops from inside the lattice and then did some clean up along the east wall.

before

after, with Sanguisorba ‘Dali Marble’ still blooming

after

before

after

Allan’s before and after:

  

The very last task was to plant five little narcissi ‘Segovia’, all I had available, back at the Port where the shrubs were removed.

a couple of weeks ago, shrubs tagged for removal.

today

We offloaded all the clean debris from the Depot into our own debris pile and the Depot weeds and hops into our garbage can.

Now we wait out another storm which is supposed to be substantial with two days of high wind (60 mph gusts) until we can get back to the last of the bulbing.

The work board bulb list is getting small and I was able to erase the Depot from the fall clean up list. A new list of post frost check ups had appeared; that’s something that might happen after staycation had begun.

There is hope for work later in the week:

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flashback: 25 July—south end

I’ve been getting messages (two so far) from some real estate investment person (spammer?) saying my titles are boring.  Oh, dear.  Too bad.  I’m thrilled anyone reads this blog, but it’s mainly for me to relive garden tours and keep track of what I did at work. 😉

Friday, 25 July 2014

Friday was the day before the wedding at Pink Poppy Farm.  I had been collecting poppy seeds at the request of Jacob, the groom-to-be, for a surprise present for Maddie, and when we left for work, I hung a bag on the front porch for him to pick up.

poppy seed intrigue

Mayor Mike’s garden

We started work just a few blocks to the east at the Ilwaco mayor’s garden.

The northwest corner of Mike’s garden

with painted sage

Last time I’d left a note that the garden needed more water. It had not been ignored.

the front path

golden yews

rose clambering up a tree

Echinops (blue globe thistle) under the rose

interlude

Kitty corner across the street is Cheri’s garden, which we usually do.  She knows we’ve been running behind because of my leg problems and our indulgence in garden touring out of town, so she has been pretty much doing it herself for now.  We noted she had a new feature on some tree trunks which were cut to provide more sun for growing veg.

new feature in Cheri’s garden

We made a comfort stop at home, during which I briefly admired our own garden.

front garden from outside the fence

looking in by the front gate

I had gathered some more poppy seeds from Mike’s garden: some oriental poppies.  I thought I could add them to the poppy seed bag but Jacob had been so quick to pick them up that the bag was already gone.  So I would secretly pass them to Jacob when we arrived at Pink Poppy Farm the next day.

Indoors, Mary and Smokey expressed their wish that I would stay home.

I did have to work, though.

Depot Restaurant garden

Trimmed the golden Lonicera so its sprays do not hide any of the sign

and cut the escallonia…that would love to be eight feet tall…from in front of the railway history sign.

and deadheaded and watered the cosmos garden

Long Beach

the weekly deadheading of Agyranthemum ‘Butterfly’ at the welcome sign; thank goodness the Bidens in front is self cleaning.

Allan always deadheads the sunset coloured flowers in the back of the sign, as the uneven ground hurts my knee.  (Pink and white agyranthemum, white bacopa, and cosmos)

The difference between how well the downtown planters do is always remarkable to me.

on the east side of the street, planter full of white yarrow (not planted by me) with two sad struggling Geranium ‘Rozanne’ (planted by me)

right across the street on the west side with thriving Geranium ‘Rozanne’.

The one on the west side had all new soil put in when we dug out a ridiculous honeysuckle (not planted by me!!!) by the lamp post.  I would like to think the east side planter would thrive if it were dug out and redone, and yet wind might also be a factor as it is much less protected.

just for fun, vivid colours at Pacific and Bolstadt

The Columbia Pacific Farmers Market was just setting up in Veterans Field as I weeded the garden there.

Allan cut back the hideous brown spent flowers of the Alchemilla mollis (lady’s mantle) by the pond at Bolstadt and Pacific.

before

after

…and was passed by a bicycle club heading west to the beach.

 

We had a delicious crab roll at Captain Bob’s Chowder before heading south to Ilwaco.

inside Captain Bob’s, which is right behind Fifth Street Park (next to Marsh’s Free Museum)

Port of Ilwaco

I was ready for the day to be over but felt compelled to go to the boatyard and deadhead some ugly white daisies…the kind that look really bad when they start to go over.

I think this is Leucanthemum ‘Esther Read’

me deadheading daisies (Allan’s photo)

boatyard garden, oops…still on vivid colour

Any other year, we’d have been working till sunset every day.  Without the jobs we have dropped over the last year, we seem to be able to knock off work at a less tiring time, and as we are both 60-ish, that is a blessing.

We have now caught up to the blog entry about the Pink Poppy wedding, which will take place the next day.

I’m relieved to be done with flashbacks as I found the digression from perfect continuity to be rather disconcerting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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stormy day, puddle walk

Sunday, September 22, 2013

The storm arrived as predicted, I am told at about three or four AM.  I slept through that part.  By eight thirty the roaring wind had me awake and I got up after awhile to root for the danger tree to fall harmlessly.  It didn’t. After reaching 60 mph at Cape Disappointment (just to our southwest) and 50 mph in Ocean Park,the wind completely died down in the early afternoon.  I had been planning to spend the entire day inside but I just couldn’t when the weather got unexpectedly lovely.

A walk around the garden revealed the garden boat Cosmos had gone all sideways.

What a shame!

The Cosmos between me and Nora’s house also took a battering.

wind tunnel

The rest of the garden looked normal…   Allan took the opportunity to mow the lawn.

Allan mowing in the distance

Not one branch had come off the danger tree,  but some large pieces of bark had fallen.

shedding its bark

where the bark came from

Next door in Nora’s back yard more wood had come down than in ours, so I collected some for a future campfire.

Smokey helped, as usual.

I could not muster much interest in cutting back plants in the garden.  My excuse is that they make a good home for our tree frog populations.  The good weather did not allow me to have my day indoors so I decided to take a puddle walk.  Rain always creates good photo opportunities on our not quite level streets.

needles windswept into patterns in our neighbour’s driveway

house for sale across the street and two doors down.

in the middle of Lake Street

windfall at Lake and Advent

from this tree

I thought about walking to the beach below Yellow Bluff but had not checked the tide.  So I turned to the port on Advent Street.

in the port parking lot…a boat thing.

When I saw the marina, I knew it was a good thing I had not gone to Yellow Bluff.  High tide would have prevented walking along the river beach there.

high tide at Ilwaco marina, looking east

high tide sky, looking west

looking east

Since yesterday, Don Nisbett Art Gallery and the Port Office hanging baskets had been removed.  The office ones were stashed safely behind the building, while Don’s sat on the south side.

a sure sign of autumn

I wonder if the baskets will be re-hung?  The ones in Long Beach town are down for the year now.  I had brought my clippers with me and attended to a few broken stems in the port office garden.

As I walked toward Jessie’s, I kept hearing the strangest squawking.

Jessie’s high tide…

Finally I located the source on a boat by the last dock ramp.

This view would have been such a different picture two hours before, if I could have stood up to the wind:

after the storm

Below, all kinds of fish hauling carts are lined up on the entry to the docks.

looking east from Jessie’s

I walked around to the west side of Jessie’s to see if perhaps a boat was offloading…but of course, no one had been out fishing in the storm.

Jessie’s west wall

working boats at rest

I expected to find a lot of wind damage at the boatyard garden on First Avenue.  It looked surprisingly good.

boatyard garden, looking north

Some cosmos was a little sideways

Some was broken, but not as much as I expected.

The Cosmos in my garden boat at home had fared worse than most of the ones at the boatyard.

Aster ‘Harrington’s Pink’

I picked up some windblown trash and when I went back to the boatyard wheelie bin, I saw that the boat washing station looked like one of those infinity pools.

telephoto

not telephoto

Then, sighting north up First Avenue, I saw that the street planters still looked pretty good , so I turned to walk home through the interesting alley to the north of one of the Jessie’s Ilwaco Fish Co buildings.

looking east

interesting stuff!

crab pot reflecting pool

There’s a second boatyard to the east end of the alley where boats are stored while not being worked on.

storage yard

I kept on walking too noisily and a lot of little brown birds had flown off of the crab pots, but bathing crows were fearless.

one of the crows

Not THAT fearless; I did use the telephoto.  I will have to do better at not scaring the little brown birds so I can get some photos for the amusement of ace bird photographer Mr. Tootlepedal.

The storage yard is home, permanently as far as I can tell, to some very old boats whose stories I would like to hear.

Warrior of the Seas

on the north side of the alley

by the old Kola Brothers boathouses

gulls resting up in the port parking lot

I have absolutely no idea what THIS boat thing is:

mysterious thingie…some sort of trailer

Having done my duty by enjoying the garden and a walk, I retreated to my desk, glad to get back to some sorely postponed computer work that I’d been planning to spend the whole day on.

dusky view from my window

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