11 July: accomplishments

Tuesday, 11 July 2017

Skooter in the morning, very much wanting to be let outside.  He has to stay in at least through Saturday, and it casts a pall on my mood as well as his.

Allan’s photo

Our volunteer garden at the post office

We actually had a work day that we could just use for weeding projects, with only a small amount of watering to do.

Long Beach

We started at the westernmost planters on Bolstad, tidied them, and I wished they got more water but we are not hauling buckets to all of them.  That said, a few of the ten or more did get the water we had with us.   They get a misting with the city water truck once a week, enough to stay alive.

The city crew was working nearby on preparatons for the Sandsations sand sculpting contest which will take place this weekend.  During the week, starting on Wednesday,  display sand sculptures will be constructed at the end of the beach approach.

Allan’s photo

In the Lisa Bonney Memorial Planter (Allan’s photo)

The ground level garden gets no supplemental water.  It has survived this way for over four years since we last had water out there to hook hoses up to.  It has been a good test of a droughty windy sandy place, to see what will grow.  Mainly rugosa roses, Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’, stressed looking coreopsis, and santolinas.  The escallonias are looking less distressed that the mugo pines.

broken barberry (Allan’s photo)

after Allan tidied it up

It took less than three hours to do an adequate weeding of all 13 parts of the beach approach garden.

Brodiaea ‘Queen Fabiola’ (Allan’s photo)

working our way east

Armeria (sea thrift) deadheading, before

and after (Allan’s photo)

Parks Manager Mike Kitzman driving by on the sand project

We got to meet Beachdog’sBeachdog’s new rescue Dane, Teacup.

Beachdog Keith and Teacup (Allan’s photo)

Teacup (Allan’s photo)

Lots of people stop to talk about the gardens.

finally at the very end

We took time to deadhead all the sea thrift at city hall.

City Hall west side

Allan’s photo

sea thrift before

and after (Allan’s photos)

Gladiolus nanus

and another Gladiolus nanus

I need to get more of these or spread them around.  (Allan’s photos)

astilbe on north side city hall (Allan’s photo)

I pruned more aruncus on the north side.  That’s the Strange Landscaping truck.  More on that later.

From city hall, I could see the heroncam pond and was reminded that its surrounding landscape needed weeding.

Allan out by the waterfall, scrimming off horsetail.

His photos:

before

after

It was high time we attended to this area.

Brodiaea ‘Queen Fabiola’ and santolina

honeysuckle

The Anchorage Cottages

We had to park down below and schlep up the slope, which felt rather like Mount Everest.

Mitzu the Shihtzu was not at work today.

south end of parking lot (Allan’s photo)

First blooms on the sweet peas.

north (office) courtyard steps

by the office window

center courtyard

Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’ (Allan’s photo)

Erygium ‘Sapphire Blue’ and lady’s mantle (Allan’s photo)

Allan’s photo

World Kite Museum

While working at city hall, we’d had a drive by chat with our friend Ed Strange, who told us he has started on the landscaping project at the kite museum.  We had time to have a look on our way south.

Yay, the tatty row of hebes is gone.

landscape fabric is down

river rock to cover the fabric

Allan’s photo

Our little garden will really show now, so we had better pay more attention to it.

Without the hebes crowding the garden, the soil inside might not get as rooty and compact as it has been.

schmoozing with Patty while Ed works

We quit pestering Ed and got back to work at the…

Port of Ilwaco

Our project was to water the east end curbside bed and the Loading Dock Village garden.

Easternmost curbside bed gets watered about every other week.

Crocosmia, quite possibly plucked by deer (Allan’s photo)

People often stop to chat with us while we are working. Usually, at the port, the conversations are as much about boats as about gardens.

This was Allan this evening.

This was me yesterday evening.

lavender in a nest of Nasella tenuissima

Eryngium ‘Sapphire Blue’

Loading Dock Village garden

west of the Loading Dock Village

Allan’s photo

at home

While watering…

astilbes

Sanguisorba ‘Lilac Squirrel’

fluffy red poppy and yellow achillea

 

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5 July: work and art

Wednesday, 5 July 2017 (part one)

Allan had not gotten enough sleep because of Skooter’s 2 AM antics:

Skooter somehow attained the highest bookshelf.

We set off on our work rounds that take us north once a week, along with a plan for a garden tour (which will be tomorrow’s post).

Port of Ilwaco

We began by bucket watering the drive over garden, a small pocket between two driveways,  at the port.

It had been driven over.  (Allan’s photo)

driving by the boat yard

The Depot Restaurant

southeast of dining deck (Allan’s photo)

north side of dining deck

The Escallonia ‘Pink Princess’, which wants to be ten feet tall, is growing again to hide the Clamshell Railroad sign.  The restaurant was a train depot in days of old.

I’ve suggested removing the escallonia.  Chef Michael thinks, I am sure correctly, that it keeps a bad driver from running into the corner of the building.

after

The Red Barn

These helianthus have to go.  They don’t get enough water.  (Allan’s photo)

After watering the garden and the planted barrels, we walked next door to

Diane’s garden.

We had to walk along the highway because the field we usually cross was occupied.

These tire tracks did not inspire confidence.

One of the back yard planters

I got to see my good friend Misty, although she went straight into the house when Diane brought her home from errands.  Then Holly came out of the truck.

Do I hafta sit?

not for long!

Whiskey was also visiting.

So ready to play with Holly.

We drove back to the beach side on Sid Snyder Road to…

The Anchorage Cottages

Many guest vehicles were in the parking lot, so we parked behind the office, giving you a different entry view as I walked around the west side of the cottages.

We were greeted by our good friend Mitzu, who has had to take tranquilizers because of a week’s worth of fireworks noise.

Mitzu has had a stressful week of fear.  (Allan’s photo)

I weeded and deadheaded; Allan fertilized all the containers and the window boxes.

center courtyard, Rose ‘New Dawn’

by the office

We drove across Pioneer Road to the bay side to see what new plants might have arrived at

The Basket Case Greenhouse.

successfully growing a tomato in a bag of soil

greeted by my friend Penny

a real sweetheart

Darrell in the center greenhouse (Allan’s photo)

gazanias coming forward

gazanias

gazanias

We drove back to the ocean side on Cranberry Road to make a delivery to

Jim Unwin’s Hobbit Studio.

We were giving Jim and Annie a Feliway cat comfort diffuser that I no longer needed, for Annie to try to help their two cats get along better.  This entailed a tour of the art studio, which we have visited before on the peninsula wide studio tour that takes place every Thanksgiving weekend.

Jim’s Hobbit Studio

Jim at his work bench.

a double silhouette and a little sailboat (Allan’s photo)

Allan’s photo

art ingredients

Annie’s rose (Allan’s photo)

We drove north to

Klipsan Beach Cottages

Tetrapanax ‘Steroidal Giant’ taller than the fence (Allan’s photo)

Tetrapanax

red dragonfly (Allan’s photo)

June bug

lily and roses

birdbath view

east gate

garden art from the Forsythea shop in Astoria

Mary’s new rose

Our good friend Bella was in the basement and did not want to come out.  She is terrified of fireworks and despite being given tranquilizers and having music played for her to drown out the noise, she has tried to dig through the floor, has hidden in the closet, and has climbed into the bathtub for safety.

She had her paw over one ear.

Nine days of fireworks fear for peninsula animals (Allan’s photo); from June 28th to July 5th.  Ridiculously long.

on the basement couch

We drove further north, almost to Nahcotta, for a garden tour which will be tomorrow’s post, and then south to do some watering of the curbside gardens at

The Port of Ilwaco.

Ilwaco pavilion curbside garden (Allan’s photo)

Something happened at the port.  (Allan’s photo)

the condor (Allan’s photo)

Westernmost bed needs its daisies clipped or pulled.  Next week.

a fasciated Linaria stem in the Salt Hotel garden

eryngium, yarrow, and parsley

Join us tomorrow on the garden tour that delighted us today.

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1 July: big day in Ilwaco

Saturday, 1 July 2017

We took advantage of much of what our town had to offer today.  Earlier in the week, while weeding the port gardens to get them spiffing for today’s events, I had had that feeling of being smitten with love for this little town.  The first Saturday in July is always special here, with probably the biggest Saturday market of the year followed by a fireworks extravaganza at the port in the evening.

Ilwaco Saturday Market

Knowing that the Pink Poppy Bakery booth would be at the market today is part of what drew us down there.  (Baker Maddy is pregnant and therefore not doing every week of market this summer.)

Eryngium ‘Sapphire Blue’ in one of our port gardens (Allan’s photo)

Allan’s photo

The lines were long at the food booths.

plants for sale

at one of the plant booths

the cutest booth of all

port office garden

tied as a result of recent windstorm

Purly Shell Fiber Arts spinning demonstration

Frilly lamps at Suzy Q’s Magical Glass

Salt Hotel and Pub

booths with a view

Charter fishing

fresh produce

Northwest Naturals

Northwest Naturals

another garden booth

Blue Coast Farm

another booth featuring plants.

Pink Poppy: I acquired two slices of the marble chocolate cake, second from left.

As I walked home, I sadly contemplated the really bad pruning in the Lost Garden.

sad

Why do inexperienced pruners feel they just have to hack at shrubs and trees?

I paused next door to pet Old Man Rudder.

At home, I fortified myself with a slice of Maddy’s pound cake in order to accomplish an afternoon gardening  project.  But that’s all there is about gardening in this post.  We’re going to jump straight to 8 PM and the evening’s events.

Fireworks at the Port of Ilwaco

The evening’s festivities started with a special bonus: a performance of renowned Astoria band Holiday Friends in the courtyard at Salt Hotel.

Holiday Friends.  They were good.

I was pleased to see books at the table next to me.

Allan’s photo, featuring our curbside garden

appreciative audience

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Salt Pub’s kitchen pass shows that the restaurant was busy.

I popped into Time Enough Books…

…to say hi to owner Karla and to store mascot Scout.

in Time Enough Books

port office garden

Don Nisbett Art Gallery

Our dear friends Jenna and Don

Darling Jenna made both me and Allan delicious tacos, saving us from standing in line at the popular food booths that had stayed on after Saturday market.

Thank you, Jenna!

classic fairway treat

a growing crowd as dusk settles in

Smoked Salmon Chowder (Allan’s photo)

This chowder is delicious (Allan’s photo)

good accessorizing

Allan walked out on the docks and gleaned some lovely photos of evening at the marina.

Aallotar, built in 1926 or 7

I found my favourite spot for taking fireworks photos, one of the bridges to the docks.

view of the marina

High tide made the reflections especially good this year.

Allan, more agile and adventurous and unlikely to fall off the dock in the dark, ranged from the port office deck to the docks to get his photos.

after racing down the stairs from the deck (which was not open to the public) on the way to the docks

the grand finale

After the fireworks comes the traffic jam…

traffic backed with personal fireworks up on the hill

We are among the lucky ones because we only have to walk three blocks to get home.

Tomorrow: back to the usual subject with our gardening weekend.

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29 June: the longest day

Thursday, 29 June 2017

Our plan to finish the port on Friday suddenly got changed when I saw an ad in the paper last night that Ilwaco Freedom Market was holding a BBQ in their parking lot on Friday.  Their strip of bark/would-be garden would have to be done Thursday, along with the curbside garden in front of their store.  I wondered if this would change up our schedule so much that we’d have to work on Saturday…

Port of Ilwaco

In this infrequently watered garden, the recent hot day and the wind had crisped up some of the dog daisies.

before

after

Some daisies were good enough to stay through the holiday weekend.

The curbside garden got a good watering, as did the garden next door at Salt.

Eryngium ‘Sapphire Blue’

Allan had the terribly boring part of the job (his photos follow): Running the string trimmer along the sidewalk to the marina:

and the tedium of weeds in a barkscape with tatty landscape fabric (which we are slowly removing; obviously it does not prevent weeds).

I hope that we can create more joy in this bed by next year.

On the way out of town, even though we were feeling time pressure, we circled round the block to deal with this in a tree garden (Allan’s photos):

Fortunately, the sign-putter did not get mad about being told it just could not be in the tree bed, no matter how gently placed.

It’s not even a great patch of garden….However, the sign sets a bad precedent for future damage.

Long Beach

We checked on and did not feel the need for any work at the welcome sign.

The Fun Rides have now moved into a parking lot area near the center parking lot berm.  We felt the need to at least string trim said berm.  Allan dropped me off at Veterans Field to weed and took time for a bit of strimming there.

Before: a rough edge had been left.

after

meadowy look around the anchor

flag pavilion garden: am thrilled Salvia patens came back

Salvia ‘Hot Lips’ and Salvia patens

Eryngium ‘Sapphire Blue’

I think Sapphire Blue reseeded itself into plain old eryngium, left  ??maybe

Meanwhile, Allan faced the tedium of the boring and never watered center berm:

a string trimmer job, with some dandelion pulling

He found a dirty diaper as well as weeds. Unfortunately, used diapers are not an unusual find in the parking lot area.

I started the watering round earlier than Allan did so was able to do four blocks of planters to his two.  My walkaround:

I realized that the theme of most of my planters IS the meadow look.

cosmos and California poppies

Today, I had the hard task of carrying bucket water to the four Fish Alley planters…a long walk to the back end. I sometimes think this is the hill I will die on.

It was windy…again.

Basket Case basket

I am very disappointed in the Salvia viridis, painted sage, this year.  They are supposed to look like this:

pink dahlia, pink painted sage

But this year and last year they have been disappointing.  Everywhere I’ve planted them this year, they are just putting out one small disappointing bract on the top:

The bract (colored leaf) is the showy part and should be all down the stem! Why is this happening?

 

If these plants don’t shape up, I am going to go off them and not use them next year.  For so many years they have been the most asked about plant (many times per each summer watering session) in the planters.  Last year, when they were also dull, no one asked about them at all.

Allan’s watering walk around:

????? What have we here?

nice round lavender

a crab shell deposited in a planter

Cosmos and California poppies

So he saw this woman with a hat clearly decorated with planter flowers (Cosmos and Geranium ‘Rozanne’ and California poppy).  She told him her two year old had picked them, and she was perfectly happy to have her photo taken.

In other unrelated news, a local realtor told Allan that she had seen a woman picking a bouquet from under the trees.  When the realtor suggested the woman not do that, the woman (not the woman in the hat) kept picking, saying she “had permission”, which the realtor doubted.  Allan assured her that permission had not been given by us.

In better news, he saw someone taking photos of the flowers, as it should be.

We finished Long Beach by weeding in Fifth Street Park.  It is taking a long time to get interesting.

slow to be colorful; we are not allowed to let much of the garden be taller than the fence.

I cut off the spent stalks of Camassias.

Eryngium ‘Jade Frost’ and cerinthe (Allan’s photo)

Port of Ilwaco again

More watering of the Howerton curbside gardens was essential.  Allan started east of the Pavilion while I watered and weeded by the Nisbett Gallery, port office, Time Enough Books…

Coast Guard helicopter overhead (Allan’s photo)

Someone had braided a grass by Loading Dock Village. Allan thought a clever student from the driving school did it while waiting.  (Allan’s photo)

Eryngium and santolina (Allan’s photo)

Eryngium and yarrow (Allan’s photo)

Port office south side…which the office staff waters.

the marina

In the curbside gardens, I have found eremerus (foxtail lily) to be a big disappointment.  They just mostly dry up like this one:

in the center, all dried up and no flower

And only one looks like it should, so I may have to give up on planting them:

beautiful tall spikes of the one happy Eremurus

port office curbside

Artist Don Nisbett told me he’d given this little bed 11 gallons of water on the recent 90 degree day.  Thank you, friend!

I spent a lot of time grooming the dead flowers off of the sea thrift.

example: before

after

Allan caught up to me and dropped off the trailer at the boatyard, went home and hooked up the water trailer, and came back to help me finish watering at Time Enough.

veronica at Time Enough

Time Enough garden boat

Purly Shell yarn shop shares the Time Enough building.

I felt a strong desire to have a nice dinner at Salt Pub.  Not tonight.

Allan still had to water the Ilwaco trees and planters.  At 7:30, he dropped me off at the boatyard to weed.

I walked down to the north end to begin.  There, the weeds were the worst with lots of tall velvet grass.

taken while Allan watered planters at the boatyard intersection

a trio on a walk (Allan’s photo shows two out of three dogs)

8:15 PM

I was thrilled to find some sweet peas, planted from seed, prevailing against the horsetail.

tree garden watering where the sign had been (Allan’s photo). I do not like that wild sweet pea in there. He does.

 

boatyard: I had got this far by 8:50 PM.

I was getting close to the stretch that had been partly weeded earlier this week.

I have planted a few lilies in the boatyard to test if deer will eat them. I think a human picked some of the flowers off this one.

I love heleniums.

8:55 PM

I started to wonder when Allan would show up, as the song lyrics “Gettin’ dark, too dark to see…” ran through my mind.  I pictured slowly pushing my wheelbarrow home in the dark.  The odd thing was I still had loads of energy and could have weeded for another two hours (by headlamp?), thanks in part to my Unloader knee brace.

At last Allan drove up to the trailer at the other end of the boatyard.

what I got done

The whole stretch has to be weeded reasonably well by Saturday.

It was 9:30 at home before the trailer was unhitched and parked.  Allan saw this disturbing sight on the roof next door:

Not good news. Raccoons severely damaged the shake roof on my old house…

They are bold and unafraid.

I didn’t know I still had it in me to do a ten hour day and was well chuffed.

 

 

 

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25 May: all Ilwaco

Thursday, 25 May 2017

With the big tourist crowds of Memorial Day weekend and the local extravaganza of “The World’s Longest Garage Sale” (from Chinook to Oysterville), we had to get the port looking fine.

This involved some planting as well as weeding.

post office garden

me talking with Betsy, director of the museum, taken from behind the Stipa gigantea

I could not find the sunflower seeds I wanted to plant at the back.  Added more cosmos.

Then we drove a couple of blocks to the port to start weeding and adding a few plants to the curbside gardens.

Looking east. We would do the east end if we had time later in the day.

looking west

The marina is across the parking lot. (Allan’s photo)

I got to pet this doggie. (Allan’s photo)

a good butt scritching

Pleased to see most of the Eryngiums are budding this year. (Some years, some of them don’t.)

my favourite bed. Thinking I should get a yellow helianthemum to balance the orange one.

Helianthemum’s only flaw is a short season of bloom.

Drive over garden still rather flattened. Lucky the alliums did not get driven over. Would look better with more soil, as the soil is compressed by tires.

north of the port office

We found time to pull most of the noxious weed, Geranium robertianum (Stinking Bob) from the south side of Purly Shell Fiber Arts; shop owner Heather emerged and helped, which I appreciated so much.

Stinking Bob would take over the whole port. It went in the garbage can. The pelican is from Basket Case Greenhouse.

at Time Enough Books, looking west

Bookseller Karla says the ceanothus is causing a sensation.

Allan’s photo  OleBob’s café is named for two friends, Ole and Bob.

Karla had recently given  me the wonderful book, Cutting Back. I told her about the author’s encounter with Joan Baez while pruning an old ceanothus.

perfect book

Leslie was pruning at a retreat when Joan Baez emerged.

Karla will order the book for you if you want to read more.  Meanwhile, the UPS truck  delivered a new t shirt with Ilwaco’s longitude and latitude on display.

on the left: a must read for me; I am not very good at growing cutting flowers.

figuring out where to plant

weeding the bookstore landscape (Allan’s photos)

Karen Boardman from Ocean Park stops to give us words of admiration for all our gardens.

After the planting of the garden boat and some curbside plants at Time Enough, Allan went to string trim and weed a bit down by Ilwaco Freedom Market while I backtracked to weed the curbside at Powell Gallery.

With my knee brace on, I was able to walk on this river rock bed that I have lately had to delegate to Allan.

velvet grass in a California poppy at Salt (Allan’s photo)

Allan’s string trimming

It seemed we now had time to loop around to the east end curbside beds.  But driving down Lake Street, I realized we hadn’t checked Mike’s garden for a couple of weeks.  We hoped to find nothing to do there. Of course, there was some weeding, deadheading, and path raking.

path caked with cherry blossoms (Allan’s photo)

Mike’s raked path

Then on to weed some of the beds from Elizabeth Avenue to the Ilwaco Pavilion.

Looking west from Elizabeth

just across the parking lot (Allan’s photo)

I must confess that we skipped over three xeriscape (lava rock, river rock, and bark) gardens that we do not plant up.  We still had the whole boatyard to do and only today for Ilwaco.

After weeding at the old Shorebank building, we stopped at Salt to check on a santolina that Allan thought was not worth saving.  He was right.

by Ilwaco Freedom Market

We skipped weeding the last two beds. I hope the dog daises will dazzle people (those who don’t know it’s sort of a noxious weed) and distract from weedy grasses.

The curbs had been painted all along the port. (Allan’s photo)

columbine reseeded into the Salt river rock bed, which has soil covered with landscape fabric under the rock (not our doing!) (Allan’s photo)

Salt had a new and attractive smoker.  Wish I had gotten the whole sign…was tired.

making brisket, smelled delicious

Allan’s photo

Next, the boatyard.

Our friend, former LB city manager Gene Miles stopped by to talk about bonsai.

Allan left me at the boatyard with wheelbarrow and cosmos and went off to hook up the water trailer and water the street trees and planters.  I was mighty tired.  While getting plants out of the van, I found a bag of seeds that had gotten soaking wet…My fault. My proposed kitchen garden of red runner beans and some greens. I would have to plant them as soon as I got home.

Allan’s photo. He had been cultivating a garden of poppies under the red sign. Someone had string trimmed it flat.

Allan’s photos in town:

more digging in the corners of the tree beds. What is up with this??? This one has a perennial sweet pea.

one of the Ilwaco city hall planters; we can plant more delicate plants there because the office staff waters.

Parts of the boatyard garden were so hard and gravelly I could not hammer any cosmos into them.  We simply MUST mulch this whole garden next fall.  I had not realized it had gotten so low in spots.

7 PM….I had come this far…

and had this far to go including the long strip beyond the gate.

Being on hour nine of work was just about beyond me.

The garden had a haze of horsetail again.

so much to do

I skipped that center section as Allan arrived; it takes him an hour and three quarters to water the Ilwaco planters.  He set to weeding the section above and I went on with cosmos to the end.  My mood was dire as I had to accept that the boatyard would be far from perfect for the holidays.  The only comfort is it looks fairly good driving by, not so good to critical walkers-by.

weeds and plants in the boatyard garden (Allan’s photo)

cosmos seedling, watered with a dipper, and sluggo (Allan’s photo). My thought: poor little things.

Allan’s photo

I have been trying to be chipper and say Annuals Planting “Time” instead of “Hell”, but today was most definitely planting hell.  The last minutes were cheered  by two passing young fishermen, one of whom commented that they enjoy the gardens and that “Gardening is hard work!” I said, “Not as hard as The Deadliest Catch!” And he said, “That’s not so hard; it’s all done by hydraulics!”

Sometimes I wish there could be some signage explaining that all the public flower gardens (not the lawns) in Long Beach and Ilwaco are done by just two people, so have mercy with the imperfection.

geese seen while dumping weeds (Allan’s photos)

Erasing quite  a bit off the work board was not as cheering as usual.  I really had so much wanted to achieve perfection.  Once upon a time, when I was up to working seven days a week, ten hours a day at this time of year, we could achieve perfection before the holiday weekends.  Maybe we could have if we were not combining weeding with planting.

Of course, I had no oomph left to plant the veg seeds that had gotten wet.  I put them on a plate with a wet paper towel to keep them damp till our Saturday off.

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18 April: some easier jobs

Tuesday, 18 April 2017

We were revived by our day off but were not ready to face the rest of the beach approach project. Today would be a day of smaller, easier jobs.

Next to the driveway as we left for work:

tulips

Narcissus ‘Chinita’

Port of Ilwaco

An event this Thursday at a port business inspired us to deadhead narcissi all along the Howerton Way gardens.  We won’t be attending but we expect it to draw a crowd.

We want to make sure the gardens look nice for this business that watches out for flower jackers. (A few weeks ago, Allan got asked from the Freedom Market’s upstairs window what he was doing digging up plants in the garden. We appreciate that vigilance.)

We worked our way from east to west.

east end, looking west

The marina is across the east end parking lot.

 

nautical trash

The scrimmy little horsetails are not my mission today.

CoHo Charters lavascape

deadheads by the old Portside Café (Allan’s photo)

by the Fort George Brewery office

The old Shorebank building (now empty)

kinnikinnick looking really quite nice and making one big buzzing bee happy

Wax myrtle and arbutus that got the full windstorm blast from across the Shorebank parking lot…

Another storm blasted wax myrtle

We will trim up those shrubs before the May 6th Children’s Parade and opening day of Saturday Market.  No time for that today.

Allan went on to deadhead the west end while I weeded between Shorebank and the Port Office, including the little garden on the south side of the port office building.  The tide was low…

looking west

Little brown birds scavenging the muddy rocks

Looking east, with lots of interesting driftwood

In the wheelie bin enclosure, I found a salvage piece which will be great to add to our fence.  Its little doors will provide a peekaboo effect.

This went home with us.

 Interlude at home

As we parked in front of our fence, I thought about how interested I would be to see our garden as a passerby.

I’d be looking over the fence for a better view.

I remembered a few gardens in Seattle into which I used to peer through and over fences.

The cats had something to say about how we should stay home for the rest of the day.

Smokey

Skooter appears

Frosty

Calvin, being not especially outdoorsy, doesn’t much care whether we stay home or not.

Calvin woken from his usual daylong nap

The garden looked extra fine and tempting.

tulips and cardoon

Japanese maple (Allan’s photo)

golden bleeding heart

Tulip ‘Green Star’

Ribes speciosum still in full flower

Ribes speciosum and tulips

patio tulips

a lavishly fringed tulip (and Frosty saying, “Do stay!”)

tempting

I have pretty good willpower about going to work (necessary for longterm self employment).  Off we went.

Allan photographed this good old dog when we stopped at the bank to put a cheque in.

The Anchorage Cottages

Beth and Mitzu (Allan’s photo)

We expected to just deadhead and weed.  However, Beth needed help with the climbing hydrangea which had fallen over in the recent big windstorm.

They got it pushed back and well tied to the new trellis.

The wind was hard on a lot of the tulips in containers, especially in the office courtyard.  They fared better in the more protected center courtyard.

center courtyard; an array of pots is just to the right

some courtyard containers

purple fringed tulips

pink fringed tulip

window boxes with tiny species flowers

narcissi and unfurling sword fern

Long Beach

Next, we picked up from the city works yard as much Soil Energy Mulch as today’s buckets would carry.

our mulch stash, with plants that were removed from a defunct planter

Our first mission was to mulch the corner bed at Veterans Field.  Some sort of Veterans walk is beginning there later this week so we want it to look fluffy.

Allan’s photos, before….

during; an annoying and constant wind made the day cold.

after

With that done, I went on a deadheading walkabout of the city planters and street tree gardens, while Allan went to weed and add some mulch in two areas of Fifth Street Park.

He found this big lily bulb…

a bright orange tulip

and some annoyingly persistent horsetail

My photos while walking the planters:

Tulip ‘Flaming Spring Green’

foreground: parrot Tulip ‘Rococo’ in bud

Tulip bakeri  ‘Lilac Wonder’

bench sitter

Reminder to self: Put “dig out planter ivy” on the work board so I will remember it.

horrible variegated ivy.  I blame myself from many years ago.

exciting bud on Asphodeline

orange tulips

and a painted rock placed by California poppies that might be orange later on!

pink fringed tulip, and progress on defunct planter (the lamp post has now been removed)

some big tulips, windblown, chomped by deer, broken, or picked

In the same planter, Tulip bakeri ‘Lilac Wonder’ have been blooming for weeks.

Note to self: plant many more ‘Lilac Wonder’.  They are my favourite species tulip and they do so well here.

Tulip bakeri ‘Lilac Wonder’

I was awfully tired for the last two blocks of deadheading and figured as soon as we got home, I would sit down.

at home

At home, I took four buckets of deadheads out to the compost bins while Allan (almost always a man of boundless evening energy) set to mowing the lawn.

The compost bins inspired some compost turning.  A day of varied jobs is much less exhausting than an all day, same place weeding project.

I had gotten all excited when seeing the bottom of bin B:

It looked like it might be siftable!

It wasn’t.  But soon will be if I keep turning frequently.

bins after today’s turning

I need more green stuff before flipping another layer.

While Allan also mowed the next door lawn for our next door neighbour, I checked the hydrangeas over at the J’s garden for signs of life.  The twigs are green when snapped but still no leaves, not even at the base.

good looking sword ferns at the J’s

Back at home, a stunning narcissus with a deep green center (and tiny spider):

I got a bit of a start when I thought each leaf of my Davidia tree had a snail in it.  No, those are flowers buds

Not like the horrible snails everywhere in my garden due to lack of time to properly police them.

Allan’s photo

Tomorrow, yet another storm is due.  I look forward to reading a book.

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2 April: Sunday in the park with us

Sunday, 2 April 2017

After breakfast, I looked out the (not entirely clean) kitchen window and thought about how much I appreciate the dogwood buds just outside.  Because I’ve been thinking a lot about the recent deaths of friends, I wondered how many more springs I will have to see this sight.  If I live as long as my mother, 23 more.  My grandma…15 more. Not guaranteed by any means. I gave the buds close attention.

We finally had some warmth and sunshine.

Allan’s photo: The wind gauge is still!

Allan hoped to get home in time to mow the lawn.

Port of Ilwaco

We finished weeding and deadheading along Howerton Avenue at the Port.

Allan’s photo: Powell and Artport Galleries curbside garden

curbside garden by Don Nisbett Gallery

I dead headed many narcissi and pulled a few weeds on the south side of the port office.

Port Office, south side

Armeria (sea thrift)

strollers

low tide

north side of port office

lots of tulips in the Time Enough Books boat

Allan’s photo: Time Enough Books garden

species tulips (probably linifolia)

more species tulips

Allan’s photo: tulip buds and muscari

westernmost Howerton Ave gardens

looking east from the west end

muscari and armeria buds (Muscari ‘Ocean Magic’, right)

I had envisioned planting sweet peas at the boatyard next, then realized that I like to use up all the leftover sweet peas there.  Until we had the seeds planted at Klipsan Beach Cottages and the Anchorage and Long Beach and home, I don’t know how many will be left.  (Sort of like not knowing how many years are left.)

Long Beach

a pause to admire tulips at the welcome sign

detail

We went straight to city works and filled up eight buckets with Soil Energy mulch.

the dwindling pile

plus two buckets of grass clipping for my compost bins

At Fifth Street Park, we weeded and mulched and planted sweet peas.  I have had no luck with sweet peas in this park for the last few years.  I blame snails.  Yet I live in hope of having a show like the one from several years ago.

Fifth Street Park, one of the years when the sweet peas were glorious.

dreaming of sweet peas

I said to Allan that next time we work in LB, I want to get more mulch for this park.

no time for delicious crab rolls today

 

Anchorage Cottages

our good friend Mitzu

While I planted violas in the window boxes and sweet peas against the chimney on the office courtyard, Allan weeded all round the garden.

Allan’s photo

trillium and astible (Allan’s photo)

the ever annoying glut of scilla (Allan’s photo)

Someone from Oregon had left a painted rock. (Allan’s photo)

Manager Beth had done a wonderful job installing a new trellis for the climbing hydrangea.  (Allan’s photo)

squeezed in three violas to each spring bulb window box

At the very end of weeding, I noticed that a trunk of the ceanothus by the office had died back, as that shrub is wont to do.

Allan cutting the dead trunk off

after, opened up

As we were loading up to depart, I saw two buckets of Soil Energy still in the trailer.  Due to a complete breakdown in communication, they had not got used at Fifth Street Park, so back we went to Long Beach:

Fifth Street Park with two more buckets of mulch

Next time, we will weed this edge of volunteer Bad Aster.

I had big plans as we drove home.  We still had two hours of daylight; Allan could  mow at J’s and Devery’s and I could weed at J’s and Norwood and cross them off the check up list.  And then:

dag nab it

The sun did come out again and Allan got our lawn mowed but by then my energy had disappeared so the two small jobs will have to wait till tomorrow.

work board tonight

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