A VERY typical day indeed as we got back to maintenance. The only thing approaching a project was Allan removing some lady’s mantle that was crowding three new blueberry plants at Diane’s garden. He also transplanted some Cerinthe although, in my opinion, it would not hurt the blueberries at all (but Diane wanted the area cleared all but for the berry bushes).
Allan’s project, before and after
The blueberry to the left is ‘Pink Lemonade’ and had lots of berries. I got all excited thinking that maybe my Pink Lemonade at home might have berries. (I found at the end of the day that it doesn’t, even in its third summer here.)
Diane and Larry’s ‘Pink Lemonade’ blueberry
Meanwhile, I deadheaded the Agyranthemum ‘Butterfly’ at The Red Barn. The lovely Helianthemum ‘Lemon Queen’ in that area does not need deadheading at all.
Helianthemum ‘Lemon Queen’
beautiful in every stage of flower
beloved of all sorts of bees and the like
I do wish the whiskey barrels got more watering at The Red Barn!
- two out of four barrels
The one closest to the barn door (left) gets the most water because people dump their stable cleaning buckets into it. The next one gets far less (i.e. not enough) water. Note the difference in the size of the nasturtiums. (The third one, furthest from the door, is, of course, the paltriest!)
The happiest one is by the stable on the south side of the building, protected from the north wind.
lopsided but happy
In a wonderful gardening book that I just read, A Breath from Elsewhere, Mirabel Osler wrote a chapter about plants she dislikes. One is sanvitalia (creeping zinnia) and I just don’t know why. Yes, it is bright yellow, but with a charming green center.
I find sanvitalia to be a delight.
At the barn, I feel sorry for the horses that are inside dark stalls with no one coming to put them out to pasture.
Indoors at one in the afternoon.
I will pick a handful of lush grass in for the poor horsie to eat. Just a taste of the fresh outdoors.
These two were more fortunate.
The one on the foreground came over to say hello.
two being led out to pasture
After my work at the Barn, I went back to Diane’s (next door) and deadheaded her cosmos. I have some lavenders to add to the roadside bed but am waiting for damper weather.
still so unsatisfying…will mulch with cow fiber!
Larry, Diane’s spouse, mulched the roadside bed with cranberry mulch but I don’t think it adds anything other than a nice dark colour.
Next came the deadheading of the welcome sign. How very badly it needs more blue in the planting!
Yellow “stops the eye” but next year will have Geranium ‘Rozanne’
In downtown Long Beach, Allan went to work on Coulter Park while I started walking around to deadhead the planters. I thought at first I would get away without watering them, but they just were not damp enough to hold till Monday and look fresh and happy. Soon the watering rounds will stop but not yet.
I keep meaning to Google for what type of Daphne this is:
short, fragrant, long period of bloom
The daphne planter is kitty corner from the cranberry harvest mural on the south wall of Dennis Co.
In the planter by the Long Beach Pharmacy, one cosmos continues to behave strangely with green non-flowers.
an odd cosmos indeed
It has some flowers low down on the stem.
I weeded and deadheaded at Veterans Field.
at three o clock, vendors were setting up for the afternoon farmers market
I am impressed by the continuing red white and blue-ness of the little Veterans Field garden.
Next year: More Salvia ‘Hot Lips’ (right) as it has been a great doer.
Some of the short Cosmos has been excellent and some just terrible. I have a feeling the ones called ‘Cutesy’ were the bad ones (and the reliable, tried and true ‘Sonata’ the good ones).
good (left) and bad (right) with one paltry flower and a lot of dead
In the above right photo, you can also see a paltry Lobelia tupa. Of three planted there, two of them look better:
a good tupa!
but none have bloomed with the glorious flowers that we had from the Boreas Inn’s tupa!
Lobelia tupa should be doing this!
Back to the planter watering….I admired the schizostylis (river lily) now blooming under many of the trees.
Schizostylis in pale and dark pink
At the restroom on Fifth Street, as elsewhere around town, the baskets from Basket Case Greenhouse still look wonderful.
I think the park at Fifth Street is looking great, too.
I did not deadhead every cosmos…It would have taken hours.
I still long for the day when watering Ilwaco does not come right after Long Beach…so we can have crab rolls at Captain Bob’s Chowder!
When I got to Fish Alley, I did not have to bucket water the barrels. (Joy!) I did chop back the variagated sedum that still looked just awful.
water spots? too much rain? mildew? yuck!
I walked down Fish Alley and the alley to the east to get back to the Columbia Pacific Farmers Market.
looking east
I can’t bear to pull the Cerinthe that reseeded in the left hand barrel, even though they symmetry has been thrown off.
at the market
Kim from River Rock Farm was making bouquets out of dahlias (but cleverly avoided being photographed).
heirloom tomatoes from River Rock Farm
The Clatsop Weavers and Spinners Guild were doing a demo.
Our realtor friend and garden client Cheri is a member of this group but was off getting a treat at Sweet Celebrations cupcake shop!
I had been hoping that Wholesome Hearth Bakery would be at the market with their delicious little black bottom cupcakes. They weren’t. One of the spinners suggested I could go to one of the two Long Beach bakeries but I said the treat would not be as much fun if it did not come from the open air market.
Heading west again…a telephoto looking through Fish Alley to show that the view corridor goes all the way to the beach (half a mile west through the dunes).
looking west
The photo that got away: Due to traffic I just missed a couple walking through Fish Alley carrying a bouquet of dahlias from the farmers market. Imagine…
As I finished the planters, I realized that we should not have pulled the Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’ out of the planter in front of Wind World Kites (of which just one blue corner shows above). Not before Rod Run! The Fuchsia that we had pulled the Crocosmia to reveal got almost totally smashed by Rod Run car-watching planter-sitters.
a lesson learned…smashed Fuchsia would have been protected by thickly planted Croscosmia!
I have no photos to show the excellent job that Allan did all around Coulter Park….
And will close with a selection of tomatoes that I picked at home while he went out to water the Ilwaco planters.
tomatoes
…and the still golden view from the south window.
Next: If fate is willing and no catastrophe intervenes, I’ll be posting about something I have been looking forward to all summer long: tomorrow’s Cannon Beach Cottage Tour!
Tangly Cottage Gardening 