5 Sept: some prepping for Slow Drag

Wednesday, 5 September 2018

We did part of the usual Wednesday route, this week without Klipsan Beach Cottages, which will be every other week now.  (This is only because of two reasons: one, the job is ending at the end of autumn and two, I am tired.  A third reason, specific to this week, is that having Labor Day Monday at the beginnning of the week and Rod Run Friday at the end limits the time for working on public gardens.)

The Depot Restaurant

We deadheaded and watered.  I picked some unsightly leaves off of the hops at the entry to the dining deck.

Depot dining deck entryway from the restaurant

south and east side of dining deck

North side; the white flower is Boltonia asteroides.

The Red Barn Arena

The garden had been watered so we only needed to do a few minutes of deadheading.

Red Barn garden

I got to pet Cosmo the barn cat.  Oh, how I want him to be the one I take home to be my best friend cat.  He is darling.

sweet, soft, loves to be petted

I want him to be mine.

Allan’s photo

Diane’s garden

My very good friend Misty

roadside garden (Allan’s photo)

perovskia (Allan’s photo)

In the roadside garden, white sweet peas and Cosmos ‘Cupcake’

the raised box garden

shadows of statice

shadows of bachelor buttons (cornflower)

Allan’s photo

I had to cut down one aster because its foliage had rust or some such.

before, with brown foliage (the other such aster is green)

after (the base of the plant got sprayed with fungicide)

Allan managed to get a photo of puppy Holly between her running around and jumping.

The Shelburne Hotel

We watered, weeded, deadheaded, dead-leafed.

looking east down the bocce ball court

back garden; Sunset runner beans in the trellis pots are getting tired.

Allan was able to get into the three south balcony rooms (you can see two of the balconies in above photo) to check on our succulent planters.  He had not checked on them since we planted them. (They cannot be accessed when the rooms are occupied.) Red clover had infiltrated two of them.

before, room 12

room 14

I planted the lovely Sedum ‘October Daphne’, which in my garden and elsewhere always gets chomped by snails.  Here, it is snail free.

But one stem was broken, maybe was getting too much water…

Room 15, a fine October Daphne…but with red clover.

That’s better.

Room 4’s cosmos container needs way too much deadheading.

before, definitely a mistaken choice of plant

I remember now, I had some extra Cosmos ‘Xanthos’ and wanted a place to put them.  Ooops.  This planter is getting a re-do this very month.

Guests can charge their electric cars on the north side of the Shelburne.

Allan’s photo

watering in front (Allan’s photo)

Mary Norwood stopped to chat and I gave her a little sweet pea bouquet.

Just as we left, we saw Scott of Scott and Tony and had a little natter.

I must show you Tony’s photos of his night blooming cereus.  He has had to come to their beach cottage two days later than Scott because he simply had to see his plant bloom (in their city home) with a multitude of flowers.  How does he do it? I am lucky to get one a year.

photos by Tony!

Meanwhile, Scott and his beloved car are in the biggest photo of this year’s promo article for the Rod Run.

Allan is going to get to go hang out with them at the event because we are skipping the Cannon Beach Cottage Tour this year.  (I want to stay home in my own garden.)

Port of Ilwaco

We watered all but the two east end gardens (and one other that is just escallonias and bark that we never water).  Allan drove in six posts that we are going to use for roping off my favourite garden bed during the Friday evening Slow Drag.  It has delicate plants.  Other gardens can hold up better to being walked and sat upon, although there are a few other plants that I want to safeguard with some individual protection.  All photos at the port by Allan.  I was out of steam for photos.

stake pounder, a great tool. No stakes were broken.

plus a big metal pry bar to make holes with and tamp them tight afterward

We will rope it off tomorrow night.

Must protect my agastaches!

I planted some Brodiaea ‘Queen Fabiola’ bulbs in this bed.  I have read that they are drought tolerant so I want to try them in these “hellstrip” gardens.  Maybe they will be less floppy that in more cushy gardens.

Later in the watering, Jenna stopped to show me some signs she has made for Slow Drag, “Please keep off the gardens and plants”.  I appreciate that very much.

J’s garden

Allan mowed and I did some deadheading and borrowed his camera for two vignettes:

elephant garlic, tied up by the J’s, well done!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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30 May: round 2 done

Wednesday, 30 May 2018

The Depot Restaurant

We checked on the watering, although not the window boxes because we were in a hurry with much planned for today.

camassia and rodgersia (Allan’s photo)

The Red Barn Arena

This little pot by the barn door looked good.

The first section of garden looked good.

But further on, Helianthus ‘Lemon Queen’ was drooping from lack of watering.  The same thing happened last year, and I this year I decided it had to go.

I give up on the idea of yellow sunflowers by a red barn.  I have to rethink and plant only the most drought tolerant plants here.

I left a little bit of it by a barrel.  They get watered a bit more regularly and so some water might spill over.

Cosmo the barn cat

Allan’s photo

in the barn (Allan’s photo)

thirsty coreopsis by the barn

I need to remove that coreopsis and replace with something that needs minimal water.  This particular barrel used to get watered more regularly…

We then went next door to…

Diane’s garden

Allan’s photo

our good friend Misty

back yard containers

talking with client and friend Diane by the septic box garden (which still needs more!)

Eryngium ‘Sapphire Blue’

Allan potted up a new calla lily that Diane had brought home.

the roadside garden

verbascum

valerian and catmint against the house (Allan’s photo)

 

Basket Case Greenhouse

It’s hard to drive by without stopping.

Penny  (Allan’s photo)

Deb’s garden

We took a break to tour two gardens: Steve and John’s bayside garden and the work going on at Deb’s garden (formerly the Barclay garden), where Dave and Melissa (Sea Star Gardening) have been working hard for the new owner.

future farmers’ market produce garden

planting trees in new berms along the driveway

North Beach Garden Gang

the way to Willapa Bay

Next door is Steve and John’s Bayside Garden.  We walked through it before returning to work.  That self guided tour will be our next post; their garden always deserves its own space.

Steve and John’s garden from Deb’s (Allan’s photo)

Klipsan Beach Cottages

This year, we did not get around to cutting back a native grass on the edge of the woodsy swale.  I asked Allan to just dig it out, which I have thought of doing every year.

before

It was big.

after (Allan’s photos)

elephant garlic (Allan’s photo)

Sarah (Allan’s photo)

There is some talk that if Mary and Denny move away after retiring, we might take Sarah and her brother Timmy.

After grooming the garden, I took some photos for the Klipsan Beach Cottages Facebook page.

Tetrapanax

bearded iris

Allium bulgaricum

also known as Nectaroscordum

Agastache ‘Acapulco Salmon and Pink’

birdbath view

Tiger Eyes sumac

corokia cotoneaster

On the way south, we stopped at…

The Planter Box

I sought and acquired a pineapple sage.

And a couple more tomatoes and some cukes.

Shelburne Hotel

Allan screwed some wire between trellis and big flower pots to help mitigate the windsail effect on the trellises.

Allan’s photos

I trimmed back the big sanguisorba that I had transplanted from KBC last week; it had just kept on looking a bit wilty around the edges.

Allan’s photo

Port of Ilwaco

We watered several of the gardens along Howerton Avenue.

on Waterfront Way (Allan’s photo)

in a curbside garden (Allan’s photo)

Montana Mary had asked why we call one little garden “the driveover garden”.  Here it is, a tiny bed between big parking lots and driveways.  Big trucks drive over it sometimes.

Another tiny bed by the port office:

Linaria purpurea (toadflax) seeds itself around but is not really up to the harsh conditons:

The Depot Restaurant

We had our North Beach Garden Gang dinner tonight.  On the way in to the restaurant, I saw that the window boxes were not getting watered.  (Roxanne from The Basket Case plants them up and we care for them, relying on the sprinkler system to water them.)  This led to a flurry to Allan watering them with a jug of water that we carry for emergencies, me fretting over them, and texts to various people.

Finally, dinner.  It was burger night.  We are thankful at this time of year for restaurants that let us dine at eight.  Restaurants that close at eight are no good to us now.

Allan’s photo

chocolate pot du creme

Annuals planting time is over except for at home, where I soon have to plant in my garden two six packs of painted sage and tomatoes and cukes from the Planter Box.

 

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11-12 May: APH stream of consciousnness

My apologies in advance to friends who are going through chemo, who are lonely, who are suffering in other ways.  My hell is nothing like your hell.

That said….for the last two days Annuals Planting Time did get rather hellish.

Sunday, 11 May 2014, Annuals Day Three

Did not want to leave my garden…I so want to weed the east bed…

and the west bed, and I want to make that red box level! and maybe plant something in it!

So many plants are flowering…Persicaria bistorta suberba…

I don’t remember planting this!

Siberian iris reminds me why I put up with its floppy ways.

This will be the last year I miss May in my own garden.  Or do I say that every year??  Off to work….

To work: we planted cosmos, painted sage and a lavender in the Port Office garden.

Some time on Saturday, someone stole an Allium! Of course I notice! And mutter.

I plant many to try to counteract the finger blight, but never enough.

The view soothes my nerves.

The day starts to go pear shaped when we run an errand and had a brief but stressful encounter with someone who has a chip on her shoulder about this and that.  I feel a little head explosion because I do not have time for all this….It is ANNUALS time, not time to sort out the problems of someone who is not a friend.

Next, the Planter Box, where I buy out all the painted sage that they grew for me, and more tall cosmos for Andersen’s RV Park.

I make sure to get some Sweet 100 tomatoes; last year, I waited till after annuals hell and there were no more to be had.

At the desk, a California poppy that I do not have. Was it called ‘Bubbles’??  (next day: it’s Candy Kiss’)

Next, The Basket Case Greenhouse for still more annuals.

I made sure to get a photo of Biggun, who was visiting (with the kids) for mother’s day.

Godetia for Andersen’s. It is a pleasure to have a big vehicle this year.

The day goes further pear shaped when we are planting, and planting, and planting at Andersen’s, and I go for the flat of pretty big blue Bacopa and…it is still back at the Basket Case, left by me in one of the greenhouses.  I think hard but can blame no one but me.  We go back at four to get it (fortunately a short drive) and don’t realize till the next day how nice Fred was to put up with us…because we had forgotten they close at three on Sundays!!

the blue bacopa retrieved

plants lined up on the Andersen’s lawn

The day degenerated further when I realized there was no way in the world we are going to get The Anchorage planted, too.  That had been my great big ridiculous unlikely dream.  It took way longer at Andersen’s because of the way that the white phlox has gone berserk in the picket fence garden.  Allan masterfully dug a whole bunch out (and if we were not so swamped, someone could have had the starts) to make room for cosmos.

phlox gone, cosmos in, thanks Allan

I even found some sweet pea babies still alive that had been swamped by the rampant phlox.  And put in more seeds; we shall see how that goes.

Andersen’s west side

More plants were added to fill out the Payson Hall planters.

Payson Hall alliums (schubertii and albopilosum)

Maybe too many volunteer California poppies at Payson Hall. (The red is ranunculus.)

pink armeria (sea thrift)

We had to run an errand to Seaview, to deliver some Sluggo (iron phosphate slug bait) to The Depot Restaurant for owner Nancy Gorshe to apply to her mom Marilyn’s garden.  I waited, sitting by the door like someone whose date had not showed up, because it was mother’s day and people kept coming in to be seated.

My view while waiting; all mothers got a red rose.

I got a little verklempt about the mother thing, and Allan (I found out later) fell asleep in the van while sitting in the driver’s seat waiting.  I enjoyed watching Nancy at work graciously seating party after party and after awhile was able to give her a quick lesson in how to apply Sluggo.  (I kept the jug of it under my seat till then as it is not a very appetizing thought, slugs.)  When I told her that I felt guilty we had not been up to Marilyn’s for a month or more, she said she would rather do some tasks (deadhead narcissi and apply sluggo, her two recent garden lessons) than have us quit.  She said if she had not been so busy, she would have posted on FB a happy mother’s day as I have been mother to the Marilyn garden since we created it seven years ago.  That reminded me that Basket Case Nancy had wished me Happy Mother’s Day for my cats, and Planter Box Barbara had wished me a Happy Mother’s Day for my plant babies.  I became less verklempt.

The Depot garden

Finally we got back, as planned,  to Garden Tour Nancy’s in Long Beach, where I helped her place the plants she had acquired at the Basket Case the day we were pre-touring gardens and her car broke down.  Seemed like forever ago, before annuals planting kicked in full force.  We spent a little time in the house then, having the most delicious curry caper dip with chips and crackers.  I was greedy because the food at the Depot Restaurant, being carried past me to the tables, had looked and smelled so good.

Nancy’s windowsill, from my chair while eating snacks.

Home at dusk, exhausted.

Monday, 12 May 2014, Annuals Day Four

A couple of things weighing on my mind, not the least the unpleasant encounter at the hardware store the day before, woke me with a start at 7:30 AM and that was that.  I read emails and looked at Facebook till Allan awoke as there would be no more sleep.  So, with just about five hours of sleep to fuel my day, we were off again for day four of Annuals.  Starting to seem like planting hell instead of planting time.

My goal was to do several smaller jobs and be able to check more than just one off the list.

It was pleasant to plant cosmos and painted sage at Larry and Robert’s, just half a block away.

a garden corner there; the soil was still moist and easy to plant in.

To make life just that little bit difficult, I had somehow a few days earlier got a thorn in the back of my hand, and today it was too sore to wear a glove or even a bandaid, and yet I could not get soil in the wound because hypochondriac me was sure that would mean infection and death.  This led to much whining.  (Poor Allan.)  He said it was in a very sensitive spot, the same spot you test infant formula to see if it is the right temperature as there are lots of nerves there.  I felt like less of a whiner then.

Next, we went to The Anchorage Cottages, a day later than I had hoped.

added trailing lobelia, Cosmos ‘Sonata’ and lotus vine to the windowboxes; the violas still look too good to replace.

south courtyard needs weeding but no time

got the pots all planted up in center courtyard (shown here) and in office courtyard

On the way out, I saw dead stems on a Viburnum right by one of the cottage doors…NO time to prune, which is maddening.  (Look next to the number 7…dead twigs!!!)

On the way to the next job, we realized why we were increasingly uncomfortable.

81 degrees????!!!!!!

We had a few plants with us for the Red Barn and Diane’s garden so we got the Red Barn ones planted (all eight of them).

part of our scenic view there

horse getting groomed

We just placed Diane’s plants in her containers (next door to the barn) and I made a list, and then we were off up Sandridge Road to the Basket Case for more annuals.

At Basket Case…they have an astilbe I want but danged if i can find the time to buy it..too focused on annuals time.

We were rushing to get back to Diane’s to plant before dinnertime, which always seems like the wrong time to be working at a private home, when a friend driving in the other direction waved us down.  Allan pulled over, while I pleaded “Drive, DRIVE!  JUST DRIVE!”  I am sure when our friend approached I looked wild eyed in the passenger seat as I said I did not have time to talk because we were trying to get work done before dark and we were already running late.  If I believed in astrology, I would think the moon was in SOMETHING as the encounter had to do with an apology for something, the second difficult encounter in two days.  Mercury in retrograde?  Why, why, why, during planting hell (which WAS ticking along as the new and improved Annuals Planting TIME till days three and four turned hellish).  (Ok, the apology was for saying my planters don’t look as good as the ones in Victoria.  Or that they do not matter because Ilwaco does not look as good as Victoria.  Or something like that.  I don’t even know and I don’t have time to deal with it right now.)  (Let me assure you this has nothing at all to do with anyone who regularly appears in this blog!!)

Back to Diane’s, planted up all her pots.

I was so tired that I said i could not face planting the cosmos I’d brought for the roadside bed.  Then I thought how miserable it would be to not plant them and not get to cross the job off the list.  So I dug deep, deep, deep, and did it, with Allan’s help.  (He did the toughest part, planting in an area that needed some weeding first.)

just finishing the planting of the roadside bed

I must remember to buy something tall for this corner.  Did not have enough cosmos.  Am STILL gonna cross the job off the list!!!  (And i did swear off multiple exclamation points awhile back, didn’t I?)

no time to finish weeding the corner of this bed…MADDENING.

back where we park outside Diane’s lot; I was so seized up I could NOT walk over the The Red Barn. Needed a ride.

We had two new little barrels to plant up by the new entry fence.  I had picked fairly drought tolerant plants…thyme, catmint, gazania, sedum, Erysimum ‘Bowles Mauve’ because someone will have to haul water to these:

one of them, just planted, using Ann Lovejoy’s principle of stuffage for instant effect and so the plants can prop each other up in this windy site.

Allan had to heave the heavy bags of soil to fill these, and while I planted he dug congested narcissi out of another barrel, not an easy task at 7 PM after a hard day.

the cleaned up barrel, planted with red, yellow, and blue annuals

Blue bacopa, Agyranthemum ‘Butterfly’, Diascia ‘Deep Red’, Cosmos ‘Sonata’, white alyssum, Calibachroa ‘Lemon Slice’ and ‘Vampire’.

While Allan planted, I sorted and burbled (soaked in a bucket) plants for the next three whiskey barrels.  (Those would get the same as above, but without the red diacia; earlier in the day, they had each gotten two Diascia ‘Denim Blue’.  WHY did they not get red diascia?  Well, I could have SWORN I had bought four of them at Basket Case but I had miscounted somehow…HOW???? and I only had ONE!!  ONE, why?????)

Allan planting the other three barrels in the dusk.

NOOOOOO! these blue lobelia were supposed to go in the Diane planters!!!!!!

Blast.  I have a bit of a second wind so am able to walk over to Diane’s and quietly pop the lobelia into her back porch pots.  I hope they get watered soon because I did not want to turn on the hose and make a ruction.

We head for home at last after moonrise, 8:10 PM

the two new barrels, looking rather tiny after all that work

At home, I am able to have the pleasure of making a dent in the work list.

checking jobs off the list

even better when I erase them from the whiteboard

Tomorrow, we will start on the Long Beach parks and planters.  That could take two days, and that is if all goes well.

 

 

 

 

 

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Wednesday: all over the Peninsula map

July 10:  It is easier to go to work while the cats snooze than it was during wild late winter weather.  They seem to pick such uncomfortable places…

Mary and Smokey

We began with a check up on Diane’s Sandridge garden.  I am happy with the way the roadside bed is filling in (thanks in part of Larry’s good watering).

It looks even better if (right) I use a slight telephoto effect and squeeze the plants closer together.

Next door, the garden by the Red Barn is looking better…

Red Barn garden

And in the barn, I could not resist going to look at a burro (or donkey?)

And a horse, maybe named Peace or maybe that is the sentiment of the horse’s person.

peace

From there, we stopped at The Basket Case so I could get myself one of those Banana Cream daisies, and I also picked up some Geranium ‘Rozanne’ to add to the Long Beach planters.  I will probably hold them till better planting weather in fall.

Lobelia tupa is coming into bud!

Echinacea looking fabulous

Then on to Peninsula Landscape Supply to dump debris and get half a yard of Soil Energy to add to Marilyn’s.  We arrived at an exciting time when a big delivery of stone arrived.

much activity

Garden tour poster in the window

Peninsula Landscape Supply will be one of the ticket sales points for the July 20th tour.

In the midst of all the action, Colleen loaded us up…

and off we went to Marilyn’s.  The garden is looking pretty tour worthy!

shasta daisies and painted sage and more

I took lots of photos so that I could get the deer page ready by Friday when tickets (with the link) were to go on sale.  We had the strimmer and used it along the backside of the garden so it now looks good from all angles.

behind the garden

The two Rozannes ended up at Marilyn’s along the driveway after we had added the mulch to that area and to another path spot behind the back porch…and then we were off back south to the Wiegardt Gallery in Ocean Park.

Wiegardt Gallery front garden

Eryngium ‘Jade Frost’

Gallery manager Christl expressed amazement that the Eryngium just keeps getting more intensely blue.

Eric Wiegardt himself showed up with a new painting, and lots of cars arrived for a workshop he was about to teach.

The Artist

We left for Klipsan Beach Cottages to do weeding and deadheading.  Two slightly different views than the usual:

the garden view people get when they check in

a view from inside a garden bed while weeding

I am not just weeding out weeds but trying to get rid of damnable Japanese anemone, a plant I once liked till I found how invasively it runs through a garden.

The sweet peas at KBC are doing better than mine.  So are the ones at Andersen’s…I think because they got more care than mine at home!

sweet peas and Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’

sweet pea and Eryngium ‘Sapphire Blue’

We then went to Golden Sands Assisted Living, where I took the usual pictures of the four quadrants.  We had to water around the edges again but this time I had a great talk with the maintenance man who is going to address the powers that be about getting some better sprinklers set up.  The ones they have a pretty twirly things that get baffled by plants growing in to them and that do not reach the edges of the gardens.  We discussed how I could get the courtyard looking good enough to be on the garden tour if the water situation got resolved and if we had some help cleaning up the pitifully weedy and drab areas outside the quadrants, where I actually think bark mulch (NOT RED) would help.

outside the quadrants

southwest quadrant

detail: Sanguisorba

NW quadrant…still needs mulch!

NE quadrant

SE quadrant

SE quadrant detail

By the time we were almost ready to leave, some of the residents were taking an after dinner walk through the courtyard and we were most pleased to hear their happy words about the flowers.

Not done yet, we spent an hour or so at Andersen’s RV Park.  The main show of poppies in the west garden is declining but some of the newly planted areas are coming on with poppies sown this year rather than reseeded ones.

west garden at Andersen’s: middle section is petering out

but the south side has new poppies

and so does the west end.

Here’s a different view than the usual one of the picket fence garden on the east side of Lorna’s house.

Usually I take a photo looking south over the fence. This is looking north.

For your amusement: a cute staff dog!  What a face!

and the garden tour poster in the window!

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more plant shopping

We woke to pouring rain and I got the idea that it would be a great day to go to Costco and get some plants to complete a few areas…at Back Alley gardens in Gearhart.  But then the sun came out and we went to work after all.

We finished weeding the garden at the east end of Howerton:

at Howerton and Elizabeth

And did a weeding job at the Red Barn Arena.

before and after at Red Barn

a horsey view

By then I was still feeling the urge to go to Gearhart, partly because of a tiresome wind and partly just because I knew I would probably find some special plants there.  And we needed canned cat food in quantity; as Allan said, that was important to five members of the household (Frosty, Smokey, Mary, Maddy, and Calvin).  First, we would have to make sure Long Beach was reasonably ready for the weekend so we went to the Fifth Street Park and Allan weeded it while I walked and checked four and a half blocks of the tree and planter gardens.

Fifth Street park, NW corner

planter detail with Veronica (blue)

planter detail with Erysimum ‘Bowles Mauve’

Cosmos and Bee

Bees buzzed about in many of the planters.

across from Home at the Beach

It was rather stressful getting far enough along by 3 PM to have time to get to Back Alley Gardens (across the river and down the coast a bit) before they close at five.  We both hustled.  I did not do the four northernmost planters but did get to all the others and got the Veterans Field garden weeded and deadheaded as well.  We had a brief turnaround time at home to make room in the car and drop off the trailer and then we were on the road.

I had called ahead to Back Alley and learned that they mostly had annuals at this time, with one new shipment of perennials having arrived today and more expected tomorrow.  Tomorrow and Saturday would not do for our shopping trip because of work.  By Sunday the weather was predicted to be good and I knew I would want to be in my own garden IF we could get the day off.  So it had to be today, and I was sure I would find something worthwhile.

Back Alley Gardens and The Natural Nook

Sure enough, right inside the display area entrance, I found two plants I wanted, a Salvia and an Agastache.

some of the plant tables

on the Back Alley deck

Agastache and Salvia

At Back Alley

I hope we can find time to go back in a couple of weeks when the nursery has acquired, as they plan to, more cool perennials.

I did find a little over a square flat of interesting plants, including Hebe ‘Quicksilver’, and had a good gardening business talk with one of the owners.

Hebe ‘Quicksilver’

The Natural Nook side of the business has home decor and a florist shop.

The Natural Nook florist car

and a welcome sign for dogs

Allan wanted a fern for his garden and, failing to find one at Back Alley that he did not already have, proposed we go south past Seaside to 7 Dees.  I thought it might be an excursion doomed to failure as they might close at five.  Their website assured me they stayed open till six (at least the Portland store does!), so we went south.  And indeed when we got there, it turned out they are now open till seven PM.

7 Dees garden center

The plant selection was much better than it had been on my visits there last year. I still miss the olden days when it was Raintree Nursery and had, I feel, more unusual plants and a more personal feel.  It is where I first discovered my favourite perennial, Eryngium ‘Sapphire Blue’, which I bought because it had a sign saying it was the favourite of one of the staffers…back in the Raintree days.

The access through the nursery is better now, with level paths and only a few stairs, and they have changed it around somewhat over the winter and added some appealing decor.

at 7 Dees, Allan looks at ferns

gazebo and baskets

planted chair

rustic door with view of lower level

shop cat

dinnertime

plummy pots

Gunnera leaf cascade fountain; I like this!

I bought a blue and gold Tradescantia for myself, having fallen in love with it years ago in Lucy Hardiman’s garden, even though every time I have tried one the slugs have gotten it.

gold Tradescantia…maybe this time…

I can’t resist brown leaves.

had to have it

I think I already have this so resisted.

tried and failed to talk Allan into this for his shade garden

It was only on the drive home that I found out Allan had resisted the above Saxifrage…or I probably would have bought it.

pulsatilla seedheads

We headed home via two tedious grocery shopping stops at Costco and Fred Meyer.  I will not admit the chain that we stopped at to get two reasonably priced Heucheras.  (Hint:  The plants there were DRY.  Caveat:  It was not a Walmart, whose door I will NEVER darken.  Excuse: Even my most liberal friends Tom and Judy shop for plants there despite the conservative reputation of the chain.  Reason:  Heuchs were much much less expensive than at 7 Dees and I spend sooo much on plants…)

At home, we now are back in the world of unplanted plants.  They all got a deep burbling in one of the rain barrels, and the chain store plants (ok, Home Depot) were especially thirsty.

in the car to go with us tomorrow

on a shelf waiting to be squeezed in here

to fill in Gene and Peggy’s garden

Allan’s fern and those artichokes for Leanne…they were being eaten by a slug!

I hope by Monday evening to be back to an everything-planted state, except for the artichokes.

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From Barn to Boreas

We began today at The Red Barn, our second visit of the year to that little garden of four whiskey barrels and a narrow strip along the fence. I was pleased to see horsewoman Amy, who had earlier in the year asked us if we could do a spring clean up on her own garden. I had foolishly said yes, and then had to back pedal, and found it a big relief today to learn that she had done the weeding herself and wasn’t upset with us for never getting there.

She told us she was not sure whether or not to mow a plant that had spilled out of the garden by the barn. It is a plant that I know to be a weed, but it is so pretty that I would buy it if it were not so rampant.

a gorgeous weed

one of the barrels

The barrels no longer get red tulips because a cold wind blows across the pasture on them most of the spring and the tulips got all beaten up. We just pulled weeds out today and will plant annuals after Mother’s Day.

The one barrel that is on the sheltered side of the big barn does much better because it is completely sheltered from wind.

the happiest barrel

Red Barn still life

Crab pots are ubiquitous on this fishing Peninsula and here they are stacked at the Red Barn’s newish outbuilding.

crab pots

I like the horsey view all around this job.

Next door to the Red Barn fields we checked on Diane’s garden. The new long bed along the road will fill in more later….I could have sworn I had planted pastel poppies in there but there is not a sign of them! Phooey.

new, still rather empty bed

Thug of the day: Along the edge of the older, corner bed grows this strawberry thingie. I did not plant it. I swear. But I once planted a potentilla to the side of the bed. Is this some kind of sport of that? There is an ornamental strawberry that is a cross between Potentilla and Fragaria…I think.

vigorous edger

The leaf texture is gorgeous and the white flowers are nice.

the first of many white flowers

However, it does want to run all through the bed. Every year I think we will get it all removed, and we never have time. So why did I bring some starts home and plant in my bogsy woods? I am sure I will regret it….

Mistake of the day: Diane likes pastel colours, and yet…these tulips in one of her pots turned out so bright. I am pretty sure these are ‘Blushing Lady’, the one that started out with a beautiful swirled pointed bud of gentle colour. And now…much too bright!

not very gently blushing

‘Cummins’, a favourite tulip, got wrecked by rain…

but ‘Cool Crystal’ looks good.

I hope Diane’s earlier tulips were successful because the later ones are a disappointment!

The narcissi are allowed to be bright.

Next door to Diane’s are more horses to admire.

The goat and donkey were out of sight today.

I was a horse crazy city girl. My horses were made of china and plastic, but I loved them and books by Walter Farley and Marguerite Henry.

Before we moved on to our next job, we found it advantageous to be at one of those great locations where we can dispose of debris rather than hauling it away.

the joy of dumping debris on the edge of a field

Next, Allan planted some Salvia ‘Hot Lips’ at Veterans Field in Long Beach while I deadheaded some planters on the main drag.

on Pacific Way…more brazen Blushing Ladies

Fish Alley with Erysimum ‘Bowles Mauve’

I returned to Veterans Field with a treat from Sweet Celebrations: Chocolate Ganache cupcakes.

more elegant than the usual Tiger Paws!

We then checked the raised planters on the Bolstadt approach but (joy!) did no ground level weeding except the occasional dandelions. Our weeding job of a few weeks ago had held up reasonably well. I do wish the city crew had time to mulch this long stretch of garden…

beach approach garden, looking east from the end

After deadheading at city hall, we tried to drive nonstop through town but had to stop to deadhead unsightly narcissi.

this cannot stand!

a fringed tulip basks in the sun

Two pink Gauras went into a planter that too-tall sanguisorbas came out of last week…

Allan planting: I weaseled out of planting by “making a plant list”…

And then: The Boreas. We had a mission to widen one of the narrow lawn beds because it just has always looked too small.

before

end of day

I had the brainstorm that the two westernmost beds need to be longer as well as wider. Tomorrow we will bring a yard of soil. I had something completely different (some weeding at Andersen’s RV Park) planned for tomorrow afternoon, but this needs to be finished.

Various aches and pains had me hitting the wall at work well before sunset, but at home I did manage to plant nine more Nicotiana langsdorfii and one Verbascum. While planting, I tried not to let myself fret about going out of town while two of the beds still have unweeded horsetail areas.

I should stay home and pull horsetail!

While planting down the west side of the garden, I had a thrill. I could see plants of Eremurus (foxtail lily) coming up in a large healthy way. I could never grow them in my old shady garden, and when I planted some in fall of 2011 the results were disappointing. Maybe 2013 will be their year. My friend Sheila grows amazing tall ones in her sunny Oregon garden.

great excitement!

I could see several in the two big beds, east and west. Joy!

By the front steps, the Dicentra scandens vine is getting longer!

yes!

In other at home garden news:

Epimidium

rhubarb

Persicaria bistorta superba

partial shade bed…weeded but not trimmed up

new bed next to the bogsy woods

foreground: my young Salix magnifica

ornamental rhubarb

Sambucus ‘Sutherland Gold’: golden cutleaf elderberry

And finally, one of the hostas that my friend Mary F. gave me when she moved away:

thoughts of a much missed gardening friend…

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flashback: April-July 2009 — some little jobs

Occasionally we take on a job so small that only a few photos result…..Or we permanently care for a little pocket of a garden that we fail to photograph very often…..or changes to a big job make it into a small job.

In 2009, a job which had been one of our bigger ones became smaller in that it only lasted half the year.  We had cared for the garden of an inn for perhaps ten years, and in 2009 had taken some photos to record the passage of spring time tulips in the garden.  I’d had an increasing feeling of doom about the job but my fondness for the garden itself and all the cool plants I’d added to it (plants that needed my care to protect them from winter cold and hungry slugs) kept me there.

22 April, the repaired border, Cool Crystal tulips

I enjoyed watching my favourite tulip, ‘Cool Crystal’, bloom in the garden which had been repaired in 2007 after a truck landed in it.

22 April

5 May: on the deck, in the front garden, in the back garden

tall ship sailing for Ilwaco

We also cared for a sister B&B to the inn, where usually I took many photos of the quantities of narcissi I’d planted over the years, but the only 2009 photo I have of the springtime there was this one taken by Allan of one of the Tall Ships sailing by on a day when we were working there.

You can just see a glimpse of the late spring garden in the lower left.

I had had that revelation, you see, in June of 2007, and these two gardens were probably the hardest to give up as a result of that revelation.  I had felt that the main inn garden needed me before I ever went to work there; it had called out to me and I had actively sought out the job, not been hired, then been hired after all a couple of years later.  I had always worked as an independent, not as an employee on the payroll.  On July 4th of 2009 when I stopped by to check on the watering (even though Allan and I had designated it as a day off, we could see the plants drooping as we drove past on our way home from the Ocean Park 4th of July parade), all the issues came to a head, words were exchanged, and I quit the job.  I thought I would suffer emotionally every time we passed the place, but to my surprise I have felt nothing but a calm observation of when the gardens looks good without me…and sometimes not so good.  No one is irreplaceable, and the garden survives although perhaps not with the plant lust that I brought to it.  And so…the big job became a smaller job…and then no job.

Another little tiny job we did that I thought turned out well was planting up a container arrangement on the deck of a Long Beach business.  We planted the front entrance with violas and lavenders.  I loved the lime green door.

entry planters, 5 July

We had fun choosing plants and pots for the deck to harmonize with the dark blue of the building.

5 July, harmony in blue

I learned from this job that I’ll be happier if I insist on building into the budget a certain amount for after care, because for the rest of the summer I fretted over these pots, watered them sometimes on my own time, and watched them dwindle away much earlier than they had to in the autumn.  New rule: no guaranteed after care, no planting.

We cared for the Red Barn, four whiskey barrels and a strip of garden along the pasture, always with an interesting view of horses.

Red Barn whiskey barrel, 24 July

Whiskey Barrel with Salvia patens, 24 July

Just past the Red Barn we’d been caring for a couple of years for a little pocket garden belonging to Diane and Larry, and for a group of plantings on their deck.

Larry’s tool sharpening sign

The corner garden is just north of the tool sharpening sign.  Here’s how it looked on 17 July 2009.

from the road….

…closer…

…closeup, Cistus ‘Elma’

from the driveway

Gratifyingly, people have told us they notice this garden as they drive by and watch it change through the seasons.  The Cistus passed on and has been replaced with a hydrangea.  The ornamental grass in the background is Stipa gigantea, my favourite.

We get a kick out of livening up Diane and Larry’s deck with planters.  In 2009 we had the thrill of an Ismene actually blooming; it’s not hardy, and I often don’t remember to acquire the bulbs and sometimes don’t succeed in saving the newly emerging foliage from slugs, who seem to find it extra delectable.

deck planters with Ismene (Peruvian daffodil) 27 July

No job is too tiny for us as long as the owners will let me exercise my passion for plants….which can be realized in one container planting.

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18 August 2007 — meanwhile, in other gardens

sweet peas, California poppies, garden art

Andersen’s RV Park sweet peas have been a great success on the picket fence, and while the new garden’s perennials are slowly filling in, a mix of California poppies has offered up some gorgeous sweeps of colour.

Andersen’s RV Park in bloom with sweet peas and California poppies

Meanwhile, Diane’s roadside garden is looking wonderful from Sandridge Road with Cosmos, Salvia viridis, Cleome, Chocolate Cosmos, grey Santolina, Perovskia, and more.  And I love the way the Heliochrysum ‘Limelight’ has twined up through the Barberry in the back yard whiskey barrel.

Diane’s cloudy haze of (mostly) pastels by the busy road…and barberry accents. It was supposed to be all pastels but an Anthemis marked as the pale yellow ‘Sauce Hollondaise’ ended up being bright yellow. Oops.

The simple garden of the next door Red Barn riding arena is perhaps a bit overwhelmed by the pre-existing clumps of Shasta daisies:

Red Barn, white daisies

Earlier this week, we had a blast at Anthony’s Home court.  One of the owners had us pruning a few volunteer beach pines in the office garden and we discovered a lost world of bowling balls, so brought them to the forefront of the garden again.

left) Anthony’s charming cabins (Right) Now THAT’s garden art!

[2012 note: Anthony’s is under new ownership; it looks like the cottages are being worked on, but we have no idea if or when it will reopen as a resort.]

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25 April 2007 — gardening with a horsey view

Today we continued with an ongoing job that I have not mentioned much but which has taken at least a bit of time on several days: the continued pruning and moving things way from the fence at the Shelburne Inn to facilitate repair of the damage caused by the truck. Bill Clearman has made new pickets to match the old, and we are making way for him.  A brand new empty palette to fill with lovely plants will open up when he is done, but it might seem too disheartening to photograph the garden the way it is now.  There are plenty of other pretty areas to admire than just along the fence.

Then on to Joanne’s garden where we did extensive weeding and planted some bonus Siberian iris, either blue or white, along the stream.  Allan did a brilliant job of weeding the round rocks along the stream and pond edges; they did not show at all before under a mat of bird’s foot trefoil and small reeds.

And finally, a check for deadheading at the Red Barn whiskey barrels.  We had never been there in the late afternoon, and at five pm the barn was bustling with horselovers and parked with a line of trucks, some with amusing horse related bumper stickers. (Something about having spent all one’s money on one’s horses.)  I appreciate gardening with a horsey view.

In fact, I might prefer a horsey view even to a beautiful bay or ocean view.

 The day was tiresomely grey and drizzly despite promised clear weather.

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