gardens and nurseries overseas, 22 June

All that means around here is we crossed the bridge over the Columbia River to Astoria, Gearhart, and Seaside. We began our Saturday with a stop at Larry’s Antique Gallery Too! shop which involved much chatting and dog petting.

shop dog

Then a stop at Olde Towne Café to trade compost buckets…More schmoozing ensued.

Captain Phil

Then, of course, we had to take a walk through the Ilwaco Saturday Market to take photos for Discover Ilwaco.

Ilwaco Saturday Market

Had a gander at a garden we used to do. Well, now that we live just a block from there, we have offered to return. It’s looking pretty bad! But for some strange reason they don’t want us back. The mind boggles. Since I offered, and was turned down (hearing that only from a third party after we submitted a bid), it has gotten so much worse I don’t even want it anymore. So there! (The person who cares for it is an excellent gardener but is overbooked and lives much further than one block away.)

big blackberry vines

Uh oh, somehow it got to be 2 PM and we were still in Ilwaco, so off we went toward Astoria. The previous week, we had had excellent garden company in our garden: Debbie H and Helen W. on Saturday and Laura D. on Sunday. Helen had invited us to come back and see her Astoria garden in June; we had previously seen it in July and in winter.

We also wanted to check out nurseries, and Allan wanted to go grocery shopping (how tedious!).

By 2:37, we were crossing the Astoria Megler bridge, to my usual terror.

the beginning

the view to the west

too close for comfort

cargo ship

construction guy; I wish I were that brave!

down the curve

I like it when the bridge is being worked on because it slows down the traffic and there is less passing on the bridge.

We survived and turned left to go into Astoria.

Somehow, though, we went by the Mill Pond Village and ended up on the road going east out of town, so we turned left into the Alderbrook neighbourhood to turn around. It’s a hidden gem just east of town; I only discovered it because a friend lived there for awhile. Two blocks wide, it’s next to the Columbia River and seems to have a lot of gardeners.

Alderbrook

pig weathervane

and right next door, another!

Alderbrook

seems like an artistic neighbourhood

vintage trailer in Alderbrook

by the river

Alderbrook riverside

interesting garden

There was an art gallery there, but this cannot really be a grocery store, despite the sign. Or can it?

former store?

an idyllic enclave

Alderbrook does feel quite separate from the rest of the town. I was getting anxious about whether or not we would arrive at the Gearhart nursery before it closed, so I did not photograph any houses on the way out, and I now wish I had taken a photo of my friend’s former tiny house and garden; it still looked good from the street.

as one emerges from Alderbook and turns right, back into town…

We did find the Mill Pond Village but will save Helen’s garden for its own entry, next, because it is so lovely.

We got to Back Alley Gardens with 45 minutes to spare (if they close at five).

Back Alley Gardens

I got some cool Salpiglossis ‘Chocolate’, another Hebe ‘Quicksilver’, a pretty purple and yellow annual, and some variegated thymes but was sad that they did not have a big shipment of unusual plants from Xera like they did last year at this time.

Salpiglossis ‘Chocolate’

Catalina grape

As always, we admired a lot of the indoor garden themed art in the adjoining Natural Nook.

Informative tea towels with hummingbirds and dragonflies

birdhouses

sculpture

The Natural Nook

Then on we went to Seven Dees in Seaside without a feeling of time pressure because they are now open till seven in summer.

I usually don’t go for cutesy critters, but there is something about this hippo…

Seaside 7 Dees

a mossy 7

catnip protected from…

one of the shop cats

I do love a moggie. And they know it. Probably from the baby talk.

Our two carts of lovely purchases.

Catchy names seemed to abound.

Geum ‘Alabama Slammer’

Astrantia ‘Vanilla Gorilla’ (next day, in my garden)

Vanilla Gorilla may have been a Back Alley purchase. On his recent visit to our garden, Ciscoe Morris told us that a study in the UK showed that Astrantia REPELS SLUGS. I already love the plant and now have more reason to collect them.

And an exciting new Eryngium which stays small so might be great in containers:

Eryngium ‘Blue Hobbit’

As we left 7 Dees at 5:45, I suddenly got an ominous feeling: Didn’t Costco close early on Saturdays? We had wanted to go there last to get some frozen food, but we had made a terrible error because when we pulled into their parking lot at 6:05, they had closed five minutes before. This is so hard to remember as it seems so early for a grocery store of any sort to close on a Saturday; it probably goes with their reputation of being very good to their employees.

Oh dear. We stopped at Fred Meyer and while Allan did some minor grocery shopping I checked the plant department and found more salpiglossis. It used to be an unusual annual to find but has obviously caught on.

common name: Beardtongue

I also was surprised to see very inexpensive Leycesteria ‘Golden Lanterns’ there.

Golden Lanterns

A very peachy coreopsis spoke to me of Lorna (Andersen’s RV Park) but it was too leggy so I passed it by.

Lorna’s colour palette…

I got myself some more heirloom tomatoes and peppers for the edible garden tour; I still wonder if my garden will look ridiculously under-edible.

Hint of the day:

To my horror, both 7 Dees and Fred Meyer were selling the horrid Aegopodium (Bishops Weed). Do not fall for this dreadful thug.

at 7 Dees: Do not fall for this.

At Fred Meyer

Don’t do it!

Do not buy this plant, don’t take starts from anybody, or you will so regret it. This amusing article will tell you more, but I have to disagree with the author’s assertion that Bishops Weed does not seem to grow into lawn turf…because it does. It also looks terrible after it blooms and does need to be sheared at that time.

Back we went across the river…

approaching the dreaded four mile long bridge

glad to slow down for a flagger at the top

the descent

the view upriver

Allan says the bridge does not bother him although he did find it startling the first time he saw how high the span goes. He does wish that people could not pass on the bridge. We obviously survived another crossing because I am here to tell this story.

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17 June: again mostly Andersen’s

I’m still running behind on blogging due to the caterpillar emergency evening, so here I continue to attempt to catch up.

Larry and Robert’s garden

Monday morning, the first item was to water Larry and Robert’s garden because we had planted a new little tree. We could not count on rain to keep the new plants happy, and in fact found a couple of perennials with thirst-wilted leaves. (The green Echinacea seems highly miffy when it comes to needing water.) Allan drive and I walked a bit later as I still had a few potted plants to water in my own garden. On the way, I looked over the fence to admire Judy’s Eryngium, nicknamed “LB”.

Eryngium ‘Sapphire Blue’

Saliva patens on Larry’s front steps (from The Planter Box)

watering

The Depot Restaurant

We next checked on the Depot garden to see if those plants needed water. The Eryngiums had fallen over a bit.

but we were stakeless

The garden did need watering because the sprinkler system does not hit the new garden.

Planter Box and Basket Case

Next, The Planter Box…for some Dr Earth organic CATERPILLAR spray. We have to deal with them at a commercial job, whereas, as I have said, in my own garden I would let nature take its course. Look at all the glorious cosmos that Planter Box still has for sale:

glorious cosmos for sale at Planter Box

another great Planter Box annual: Salpiglossis

I bought some stunning Gazania there, and we then nipped over to The Basket Case to get a different kind of Gazania. There we saw a sign welcoming the Sisters on the Fly club, and Fred told us that he’d gotten an email from Lorna of Andersen’s RV letting him know that the club was collecting “something blue” on this trip. He and Nancy had put a collection of blue flowering plants at the front of the center greenhouse. Very clever. Geranium ‘Rozanne’, Lithodora, Salvia ‘Queen Victoria’. With this knowledge, we bought some Queen Victoria to add to the Payson Hall planters because the rest of our day would be spent at Andersen’s.

Once upon a time, I had several old nonfunctioning wheelbarrows planted with flowers, and I then “went off” the idea, but seeing how great the Basket Case wheelbarrows look, I will try again the next time one becomes not work worthy.

planted with Nancy’s magic touch

Andersen’s RV Park

At Andersen’s, we stopped at the road box to add Gazania. The reseeding nasturtiums are being slow and not putting on any show so far.

workin’ on the road box

a Gazania ‘Stars and Stripes mix’ from Planter Box

It is always a trick to plant this planter because nothing in it can be too tall or signs will be blocked.

for example…

We finished the detailed weeding of the picket fence and west gardens. Meanwhile staffer Rob was appreciating the flowers by taking some photos which are slated for the Andersen’s website.

with a macro lens

We brought some coils of fishing rope which had been left in the bogsy woods by David Maki, the son of the former owner of our house, Shirley Maki. Some of it has gone to decorate at Queen La De Da’s, some hangs on our fence, and now some is at Andersen’s artistically enhancing two big planters.

Al starts uncoiling rope

pot number one

It took three staffers to coil the rope around; it is quite stiff, and I was impressed that they managed it!

having at pot number two

finished

We got the weeding done and Payson Hall deadheaded but not before a big storm moved in. It rained so hard I felt like I was breathing rain, and we did not even have our raincoats with us as had not expected it til Tuesday.

Payson Hall planters all refreshed

I was, in fact, thrilled because the rain meant that we did not have to drive far north to Surfside to water Marilyn’s in the late evening. I could only hope (because the Peninsula is long enough that the weather differs) that it also rained reasonably hard up there, although the sky looked suspiciously light in that direction.

The group leaders of the Sisters on the Fly and a few other trailers had already arrived. There will be many trailers by Wednesday evening and we must get back to see them. (Payson will need deadheading again anyway for such a special event; the women will be dining there.) Here is a sampling. They were even cuter before the rain came and some of the decor got put away.

Rod and Reel

two cuties

another cutie

We have the pleasure of knowing that the gardens are just about as perfect as we can get them for this fun group and we look forward to stopping by later this week to see all of the painted and decorated vintage trailers.

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