22 August: the Wednesday work routine

Wednesday, 22 August 2018

The wildfire smoke persisted, but happily for me, the temperature had returned to a cool 60-ish degrees.

The Depot Restaurant

I did the watering and deadheading this time, while Allan cleared some blackberry from the wheelie bin enclosure.

east side of dining deck

Allan’s project before

after

Long Beach

We added one extra task to the usual routine, a clean up of the NW quadrant of Fifth Street Park in Long Beach: clipping back spent sanguisorbas, cutting the canes of the mildewed Dorothy Perkins rose.

Fifth Street Park sweet peas success

We pruned a mugo pine that was encroaching on the sidewalk.

before

after

Allan found a rock.

A club of Edwardian Ladies were strolling through town.

Allan’s photo

Allan found another rock, a poignant one.

The park after some tidying:

Allan’s photo

I have a new plan for this corner…next year.  The Nepeta ‘Walker’s Low’ (catmint) has almost completely fizzled out all along here.  I guess it has gotten old, as we all do.

With the smoky haze came no wind, so big kites were not evident in the sky for kite festival.

Allan’s photo

The Red Barn

The smoky haze was heavier here.  I could see it drifting through the woods behind the pasture.

Cosmo the barn cat (Allan’s photos)

I want to take him home.

gaillardia (Allan’s photo)

Diane’s garden

Allan tidied the raised bed garden while I worked along the roadside garden, deadheading the sweet peas and doing as much as I could from inside the picket fence (reaching over) before going on the rather scary outside.

Cupcakes cosmos

sweet pea success, thanks to Diane’s diligent watering

I had to go out there to pull the toadflax!

In the back garden, I got to pet my good friend Misty.

Puppy Holly doesn’t hold still long enough to pet or photograph.

the raised box garden

Allan’s photo

statice

statice

a good looking white painted sage, for a change (they are usually puny of late)

Klipsan Beach Cottages

We got to KBC quite late in the afternoon because of the Fifth Street Park project.

I questioned why the Tetrapanax ‘Steroidal Giant’ there is so much bigger than mine, when mine is older!

For comparison, here is mine, taken a couple of days later at home.

The KBC fenced garden is a warm and sheltered place.  My garden is more exposed with a lot of cold wind from the north.

Anyway….

checking with Mary to see if the figs are ripe

at KBC

Deer had accessed the fenced garden. The roses told the story.

sanguisorba

another sanguisorba

birdbath view

It is about an hour round trip to do this one job up north…but I sure will miss this lovely garden when the job comes to an end, due to Mary and Denny retiring, at the end of this year.  KBC as a cottage resort will continue with new owners.  However, we look forward to our jobs being at the south end only for next year.

Long Beach again

We stopped to pull some bindweed in Coulter Park and ended up doing more than I had planned.

Allan had noticed this bindweed as we drove north to KBC.

passersby (Allan’s photo)

so much blackberry and salmonberry coming from next door to the park

the salmonberry that invades the rose patch

somewhat better

bindweed being eaten by something…leaf cutter bees? (Allan’s photo)

We finally had an evening without watering and so we went for a dinner reward at

The Shelburne Pub

those darn non blooming cosmos!

in the pub

cranberry cosmo

chopped salad (Allan’s photo)

pub burger and potato salad

After dinner, in the dusk, I remembered to go to the back garden and look inside the Sunset scarlet runner beans.

beautiful!

Allan noticed that the Evening Magazine van (out of Seattle) was parked there…for dinner, maybe, or staying at the hotel while covering Kite Festival, perhaps.

 

 

 

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8 August: to KBC and back

Wednesday, 8 August 2018

Do you see a repetitive nature to our titles? That is because our work rounds are quite repetitive these days.

The Depot Restaurant

deadheading and watering

lilies

sign of late summer: Solidago ‘Fireworks’ about to bloom

The Red Barn needed watering, and then we went next door to

Diane’s garden

for deadheading and weeding.

In the raised garden bed:

statice (whose foliage rosette looks so much like dandelion that people are tempted to weed it out)

more statice

nasturtium

allium and bee

echinacea

pots by the house:

roadside garden:

perovskia (Russian sage)

I did put some little sedums in front of the water meter area.

pink lemonade blueberries by the house

Klipsan Beach Cottages

As we drove across 227th from the sunny bay side to the beach side of the peninsula, I was thrilled to see fog.

The end of the road is the driveway where we go in to park north of KBC.

Unfortunately, the sun soon came out again.

In the KBC fenced garden:

Rudbeckia

This blue hydrangea had been completely covered over by roses.

agapanthus

Hydrangea ‘Izu No Hana’

Long Beach

We finished the day by weeding five sections of the Long Beach Bolstad approach road, preparing for kite festival being there in a couple of weeks.

In the furthest west very dry planters, someone had placed a bird house and someone had taken up residence.

Allan’s photo

a wee chipmunk (Allan’s photo)

So it’s a mouse house.

Someone had beautifully planted up the Lisa Bonney memorial planter.  I think whoever it is is also watering it. I hope.

Allan’s photo

We started weeding and pulling up old wild lupines out of the beach approach garden.

before

after (Allan’s photo)

This garden gets no supplemental water.  We are in a severe drought and there has been only the lightest of rain.

It is satisfying when a lupine comes out in one big clump.  They will have reseeded themselves for next year.

Allan’s photo

before

after (Allan’s photo)

We got this much done in just a couple of hours:

And we have this far to go:

We have done the hardest part.  The closer in to town, the thicker the roses are and the fewer weeds.

roses where we left off

As always, many questions were asked about the hips.

We had time to weed the flag plaza pavilion at Veterans Field, where the flags showed the pleasant lack of wind.

Shelburne Pub

We arrived at the Shelburne Hotel with enough time to deadhead and give the garden an extra watering….

looking north

looking south

…before taking J9 to the pub for a very belated birthday dinner.

tasty vegan nachos

jambalaya for J9 (Allan’s photo)

Allan’s cheesecake with cranberry

 

 

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July 3: gardens with friends, part one

Tuesday, 3 July 2018

I was a little intimidated by who was coming to visit my garden today: our friend Ann accompanied by Evan Bean from Plant Lust AND Paul Bonine from Xera Plants, who had not seen my garden before but whose nursery is the source of some of the plants in it.  I took the day off because they were not sure when they would arrive from Portland.  I did a little more weeding and fluffing of the garden and a lot of blogging about the Hardy Plant tour.

When they arrived in the early evening, my neighbour Rudder walked right into the garden with Evan.  Rudder never does that even though I try cozying up to him.

Rudder and Evan

Rudder in the garden

Rudder going home (Allan’s photo)

Evan, Paul, Ann

Allan’s photo

Ann (Allan’s photo)

me and Paul (Allan’s photo)

Evan and Ann (Allan’s photo)

Ann botanizing

She found seeds on my variegated Azara.

Allan’s photo

Ann always has an eye out for seeds and she sells seeds at her Spiffy Seeds site.  Ann also works at Cistus Nursery and had brought me some plants from there.  Evan brought me some starts from his garden.  I was happy.

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo, Eryngium pandanifolium var. lesseauxii’ from Xera

Paul, me, Xera tag, photo by Ann Amato

Paul liked the garden.  Whew!

He identified some lost tag plants for me, ones I had bought from Xera via Pam Fleming’s former Gearhart nursery.

translation: Olearia traversii and Rhamnus alaternus ‘Variegata’

We took them for dinner at the Shelburne Pub, and for touring of the garden there, of course.  We were joined for dinner by Melissa and David (Sea Star Gardening).

Ann at the Shelburne

photo by Ann Amato, Nasturtium ‘Caribbean Cocktail’ (mix)

photo by Ann Amato

Paul Bonine at the Shelburne!

jambalaya at the Shelburne Pub

We lingered till after closing time and the staff were kind to let us do so.

after dinner (Allan’s photo): Paul, Dave, Evan, Ann

A perfect evening. To be followed by a perfect day.

Brace yourselves, because there will be four (comparatively short) posts tomorrow.  It will be like going garden touring here on the Long Beach Peninsula with us for all day July Fourth….exhausting and, I hope, fun.  I just can’t let this blog fall five days further behind with two more tour days (Grayland/Markham and, soon after, Tillamook) to blog about.

 

 

 

 

 

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16 May: APT* and a birthday

 Wednesday, 16 May 2018

Looking out my window (over the storage/water trailer/garbage area), I saw that the driveway was wet, oh joy!  Such a relief to know the gardens got some water.

Ilwaco Fire Station

I planted some assorted sunflower seeds at the fire station.

Ilwaco Post Office

I wanted to quickly plant 12 cosmos in our volunteer garden at the post office.  Quickly was not the word because of how weedy it had gotten.

It took an hour to make space and get the plants in.

While we were gardening there, someone from the port office came to get mail and told us that yesterday evening, she had seen a man and a boy picking an armload of flowers from the boatyard garden.  When she asked him not to, he was argumentative and said “No one is going to take care of them and I’m keeping them from dying.”  (“No one is going to take care of them”!!!!!!) She and I had a good conversation that I fervently hope will result, and soon, with some official “Do not pick” signage from the port.  Our polite little “Please leave the flowers for everyone to enjoy” signs are not working.

I thought of a few more things to say so I went to the port office while Allan planted cosmos in the office garden (south side).  The baskets from Basket Case Greenhouse had been hung.

Couldn’t get a long shot because the port truck was there.

curbside gardens on the south side of the port office

I did not want to look at the boatyard so we went on to add more to the planters in

Long Beach.

I am tired of planting.

I asked Allan to make room for a blue felicia daisy by the blue painted Benson’s restaurant.

before

after

The golden variegated vinca in that planter is beautiful but much too aggressive for my taste.

Allan was entertained while planting by motorcycle tourists.

taking pictures of their bikes

They asked a Long Beach crew member to take their photo with the frying pan.

The south east quadrant of Fifth Street Park:

Gunnera and Darmera peltata

Later, Allan photographed a hole where a trailing plant had gotten stolen.

I am upset. And tired of this.

We added a few cosmos to the west side of city hall.

Shelburne Hotel and Pub

Today was Melissa’s birthday.  Allan and I worked on the Shelburne garden for 45 minutes until the birthday dinner at the pub began.

the back edible and shady totem pole garden

front garden looking north

and south

In the pub:

avocado toast

chopped salad

pub burger

cranberry curd tart

Melissa declared her chocolate pot du creme the best ever.

Allan took an amusing group photo.

We stayed till well past closing time (with permission from bartender Juan).

On the way to our van, after Dave and Mel had left, we went into the back garden to see if the tiny daisy flowers of the Zaluzianskya (night scented phlox) were scenting the courtyard.  They were, intoxicatingly.

the lawn by night (Allan’s photo)

Allan’s photo, pub deck

At home, I was able to make the work list shorter by erasing Long Beach parks and planters.

*Annuals Planting Time AKA Annuals Planting Hell

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3 May: Long Beach, day one

at home (Allan’s photo)

We began the day by driving by and photographing, but not helping, a volunteer clean up effort in downtown Ilwaco.  You can read about it on our Ilwaco blog, here.

Before our Long Beach tasks, we watered the garden at

The Shelburne Hotel.

We have newly planted areas there that need monitoring.

I took a bouquet for the hotel lobby:

The back yard is turning into an open patio space.  I was excited to see the long narrow area in the middle, thinking maybe it could be a place to grow edible flowers….

…but no; it will be a bocce ball court.

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

after watering

I turned to take a photo of the building…

…and realized that a rhododendron branch was blocking the sign.

So we fixed it.

 

And then, on to

Long Beach

to tidy up all the downtown planters and street tree gardens for Sunday’s annual parade.

Silverstream tulips

I immediately realized that I was cold, in the wind, and had neglected to bring warmer clothes.

Cerinthe major purpurascens

Tulip batalinii ‘Bright Gem’

I clearly must plant more Tulip batalinii: They are short, sturdy, and bloom late enough for the parade.

sparaxis

sparaxis and cerinthe

I was disappointed that not every planter had Narcissus ‘Baby Moon’.  I plant more every year, but did not replant in every planter this time.  I guess they peter out after awhile, probably from too much watering in summer.

As I walked along, I photographed every planter for a reference post, something I started to do last fall.  That will be the next blog post, and I will be able to refer back to it to see which planters are especially dull right now.  Sadly, the parade always falls on the first weekend in May at an awkward time between peak spring bulb season and mid-May flowers.

I am worried about Allium christophii surviving parade day.

So vulnerable. I must have been mad to plant them.

As soon as this veronica completes its brief bloom time, it is coming out. I mean it this time.

a difficult and wet, rooty, weedy bed in Fifth Street Park

We had encountered Parks Manager Mike and talked to him about somehow re-doing the above bed.  It is a problem.

Mike and me

He warned me that a crew member, having mulched a shrubby park, had then dumped bark on one of “my” flower beds.  It will not happen again.  Mike knew I would not like it, even though he probably does not know that our business slogan is “Just say no to barkscapes.”  Especially RED barkscapes.

red bark. Ouch!

This is where the bark ran out! (Allan’s photo)

We moved the bark from the half-done spot back to the shrubby side of the park.

Allan’s photo

bark around hydrangeas, etc, with gunnera and Darmera peltata

Allan found masses of bindweed to pull in the corner:

tree garden outside Abbracci Coffee Bar

a rain spotted Tulip ‘Cummins’

Tulip ‘Silverstream’ did not quite make it to parade day. (Allan’s photo)

I have agastaches for the empty centers of the planters.  I am holding off on planting them to prevent parade day damage and to avoid having to start watering before the end of next week.

Oh for more Baby Moon!

another good, late doer: Tulip linifolia. I think. (Allan’s photo)

The sparaxis flowers look good, but the foliage on them is not attractive this year; it browned off early.

Soon, while planting annuals, we will chop all the Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ by half to make it tighter.

The sedums were all serving as snail homes.

Just half of the snails I got from one clump of sedum.

The snails went into the trailer with the debris to be rehomed in the debris pile at City Works.

What have we here? Someone did this. Why?

We also accomplished the tidying and weeding of the Veterans Field gardens:

And then got back to the last two blocks of planters.

by NIVA green, another late narcissi; I need to figure out which one it is.

another great late bloomer, tall

Tulip ‘China Town’

At the very end, by the bus stop in Coulter Park, I saw a problem that needs fixing.  Tomorrow!  I had been cold and miserable throughout the Long Beach portion of the day.

sidewalk blockage, must fix, but too cold now!

a snail escaping from the trailer. I let it go.

We had a load of debris to dump, along with all the rest of the snails.

I treat the big tulips as annuals and discard them.  They do not come back as well the second year, and Long Beach needs a good, fresh show every year.

Feeling chilled and exhausted, we then repaired to

The Shelburne Pub

for a good warming hot toddy and meal.

….ah….

delicious chopped salad

the astonishingly delectable black garlic fried rice

I took some photos of the Shelburne as we left, trying to capture its evening magic.

Blue flowers show up strongly at dusk.

the pub deck

 

Here is the hotel website; you just might like to dine or to stay there sometime.

At home, I was intensely relieved to relax and watch a show of Gardeners’ World before our regular telly.

ahhhh….

Nigel!

garden touring!

The garden tour segment of this episode was stunning and theatrical.  You can watch it here.

Later, at bedtime, I watched another episode with another glorious garden tour…here.

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21 April: weeding and fun

Saturday, 21 April 2018

I actually do think that weeding, in my own garden, among plants that I like and  therefore enjoy a close look at, is fun.  Sort of. I don’t mind it, if I have time to keep up with it.  I started in on the west front garden (between our driveway and our neighbour’s driveway) while awaiting my social engagement.

MaryBeth came by with a gift of a generous clump of her Kerria japonica (with pompon-like flowers), and we walked into my back garden and I got her a clump of my single-flowered Kerra japonica.  She also brought me a book written by the husband of Margaret Drabble, one of my favourite authors.

Allan will enjoy it, too: “Michael Holroyd confronts an army of automobiles in this charming book. Weaving together memoir and historical anecdote, he traces his relationship with cars through a lifetime of biography.”

Soon after, Our Kathleen arrived for our lunch date at the Shelburne Pub.  She had picked up some violas for me and helped me, by un-potting them, while I bunged them into the edge of the front garden (for edible flower garnish).

Shelburne front garden, looking north

and south

This may have been Kathleen’s first time dining in the pub, at least in its new incarnation.  We had good food and a good long talk; it has been awhile since our schedules coordinated.  I look forward to her living here full time after retirement.

I am working my way through all the non-oyster items on the menu, so this time I tried the crispy, crunchy, and satisfying fried chicken sandwich, an unusual idea that I have never seen anywhere else.  The “Fisherman’s potato salad” has smoked herring in it, also innovative and delicious.

Kathleen had the pub burger.

Followed by bread pudding:

A musician played mellifluous guitar in the living room.  We were there at the quiet hour before the early dinner crowd.

I put some money in his hat.

Back at home, I finished my weeding project:

before (from a couple of days ago)

this evening

The back garden at 7 PM:

two cats

tulips

window box detail

In the window boxes, the redtwig dogwood twigs that I put in for winter interest have rooted and will go into the garden when I change the boxes to annuals. The tulip is ‘Princess Irene’.

It would have been a good day for boating had Allan not been still recuperating from his cold.

Because the chill wind prevented weeding till dusk, I had time to finish In the Eye of the Garden by Mirabel Osler.  After watching the harrowing film, Detroit, I returned to peaceful garden reading at bedtime with Osler’s A Breath from Elsewhere.

Guest photos:

I thought you would enjoy these photos from a neighbour’s walk in Beards Hollow, a woodsy trail to the beach about a mile west of us.

photo by Missy Lucy Dagger Bageant

photo by Missy Lucy Dagger Bageant

Beards Hollow, via google

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19 April: the relief of work

Thursday, 19 April 2018

I was surprised in the morning when Allan woke me up by saying breakfast was ready and that he wanted to go to work.  As (I think it was) Mark Twain said, the proof that worrying works is that most of what we worry about it does not happen.

Skooter having a drink on the plant table (Allan’s photo)

I picked a bouquet for the Shelburne.

Allan dug some borage and red mustard starts for the Shelburne.

removing a deadhead at the Ilwaco Post Office.

The post office garden is looking drab.  Mulch would cheer it up but there is a limit to how much mulch I can provide from my own budget.  Soon the plants will cover the grey looking soil.

I told Allan we could have a light day with just some fertilizing, planting, and deadheading. (The usual story!)

Our first stop was at

The Planter Box 

to buy some Dr. Earth fertilizer.

Allan’s photo

at the Planter Box

With our bags of Dr. Earth loaded up, we headed south again to

Long Beach

and gathered up the very last of the pile of Soil Energy mulch.

all gone, need more

We weeded and deadheaded at city hall and added the mulch to the wide part of the west side garden, where it had been looking beaten down and sad.

much better

even better with horses

Horses make the landscape more beautiful. –Alice Walker

Allan’s photo

We weeded the narrow beds along the side; we did not plant the top tier and would not have chosen so much Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’, because it has a short season of bloom.  I’ve mixed some elephant garlic in along the top because the office staff loves it so.  Last year, the flowers got stolen as soon as they opened; I hope that with MUCH elephant garlic, some will be left.

We checked on Veterans Field again, the main site of this weekend’s Razor Clam Festival, and I remembered that I had wanted to plant some chives in the corner garden.  I happened to have a bucket of chives with me and realized the red mustard would look good there, too, evoking the Farmers Market that takes place there on summer Friday afternoons.

species tulips and nigella (love in a mist)

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

I have realized that the red monarda is spreading like mad throughout this garden, even though I had thinned it earlier.

monarda all over the place; will have to thin it some more.

We went after more of the scrimmy little horsetail and too much hesperantha (schizostylis) in Fifth Street Park and added Dr Earth to this area.

looking much better

Instead of putting the Dr Earth bag behind Allan’s van seat, I put it behind mine so I could access it better when parked in traffic.

camassia just colouring up (Allan’s photo)

I stopped a sweet dog named Bananie from running into the garden to snuffle the fertilizer.

Good Bananie. (His person was nearby.) (Allan’s photo)

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

We saw a U Haul with interesting artwork.

We like garter snakes. They eat slugs.

On the way back to city works to dump our debris, we remembered to deadhead the little garden at Culbertson Field.

We also remembered to deadhead by First Place Mall….

Tulip ‘Silverstream’ (I still forgot to check it for scent and for silver edges to the foliage.)

Tulip ‘Silverstream’…I can see the variegated foliage in this photo by Allan!

Tulip ‘Silverstream’ (Allan’s photo)

Tulip ‘Silverstream’ (Allan’s photo)

…and, thanks to Allan, we remembered to deadhead the planters on the Sid Snyder beach approach and to deadhead and fertilize the World Kite Museum garden. Manager Patty was just bringing in the display banners.

Our “short” day had now reached 5 PM and we still had the Shelburne garden to do.  I was so glad we had spent more time in Long Beach to make it look better for Clam Festival.

Shelburne Hotel

I got the fertilizer bag out from behind Allan’s seat and fertilized the front garden.  Then I realized I had been using evergreen and azalea fertilizer.  I got the fertilizer bag (all purpose) from behind my seat and added more.  When I do fertilize, I tend to under-fertilize, so it will all work out.

Mustard and borage went into the west garden:

I added nasturtium seeds (in the front garden, too) because the chefs need many for garnish flowers.  Orchid Cream, Caribbean Cocktail, Vesuvius, Tip Top Mahogany, Alaska, Variegated Queen, Dwarf Cherry Rose.

Also some Calendula ‘Frost Princess, ‘Pink Surprise’ and ‘Kinglet Mix’ and some Bright Lights and Celebration swiss chard for some stem color.

By the pub deck and here and there where it might find a space to grow in the back garden, I planted more night scented stock seeds.

We decided to dine at the pub, as the workday had gone on until 6:45, longer than planned, and moved the van and work trailer a block north so as to not take up two parking places.  (Allan took into the pub with him a couple of disinfected wipes to spare the staff from any cold germs on his dishes.)

My bouquet still looked good (especially after I arranged it a little better than this:

Allan’s photo

looking south from the north end of the garden

from the sidewalk

From the front entry, looking south:

looking north

In the Shelburne living room, singer Bryan O’Connor was performing.

He is the spouse of Renee, the creator the tile work in Long Beach that you saw earlier in this post (the sidewalk tile and the obelisk).

I had a most tasty salmon special on black rice, and a cranberry cosmo (with Starvation Ally Cranberry Juice).

and delicious cranberry curd tart

Allan had the black garlic fried rice.  I reminded myself with one bite how tasty it is.  I could eat a casserole dish of it.

and “beeramisu” for dessert.

A local couple who were in the living room (lobby) listening to the concert bought us our dinner!  As we drove away they were just emerging, and I thanked them again. “For all you do!” she called out!

At home: I have whittled down the work board more than I expected this week, and Allan seemed none the worse for wear after a long day.

A most wonderful thing happened: I got an email from the woman who is the little girl pictured in my blog post about visiting the Isle of Skye in 1975, telling me what life was like there, then.  She is not, as I always wondered, related to Donovan, but she did know him when she was a child!

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13 April: mulching day

Friday, 13 April 2018

By late morning, the considerable overnight rain had stopped and so we went to get a load of Soil Energy at

Peninsula Landscape Supply.

Allan’s photo

one yard Soil Energy (Allan’s photo)

When I returned from the office, I just waited for Allan to drive out to pick me up.

Another rain gauge:

I browsed the pavers while waiting.

The Shelburne Hotel

A few people expressed surprise, beginning at Peninsula Landscape Supply and continuing at the Shelburne, that we were working on such a cold windy day with a forecast of heavy rain. Again, we were determined to get the back garden’s west beds mulched before the removal of the six square railroad tie beds next week.  It would be a circus with railroad ties going one way and a wheelbarrow going the other.

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

all nicely mulched

looking north

The totem creature garden, between building and fence, is going to be an ornamental shade bed.

I was concerned about the new fig tree bed; it seemed a little too soggy so we raised the planting  just a tad, with rocks from a handy pile nearby and some more soil.  I do not think we need to replant the tree; the soil is still at the proper depth on the trunk.

These railroad tie beds will be removed to make room for a graveled open space next week, suitable for weddings.

That will give me an L shaped garden along the west and south fence to plant herbs and edible flowers, as requested.  I am concerned because the west side is rooty from a cedar in the SW corner (which I would remove) and only gets morning sun.  Some wheeled containers in the patio might be provided, too, for growing more herbs and flowers in full sun, and those could be wheeled to the side if space were needed for an event.  I think morning sun might be enough; if not, I will have to turn the west bed into a shade garden and find some other place to grow herbs. ( I used to provide edible flowers from my own garden to the Shoalwater Restaurant when it was part of the hotel.) Hardy fuchsias will definitely be added; they won’t mind some shade and their flowers are edible.

While Allan had wheelbarrowed the mulch, I had time to do some much needed weeding of tiny weeds in the front garden.

looking north

looking south from the north end

looking south from the entryway; we added some mulch under the rhododendron, left)

To celebrate getting done with what we hope is the last biggish project of the springtime, we had a late lunch at the pub.

Someday, there will again be dining on the south deck.

garden sandwich, French onion soup, a side of “fisherman’s potato salad” (with smoked herring, sounds odd but it is good), and some nice hot coffee.

After lunch, I longed to go have a look at Diane’s garden, one of our jobs that we had glimpsed, down her driveway, as we drove south with the mulch.  It now seemed too late, almost five, to go to a private garden, and the rain had begun along with an even colder and stronger wind.  So no visit there until Monday or Tuesday; I hope all the flowers that I glimpsed from the highway last until then.

I was able to cross a project off the work board:

I have a feeling that we will not be working this weekend.

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11-12 April: dinner, work, dinner

Wednesday, 11 April 2018

I did not want to clutter up yesterday’s Bad Tempered Gardener post with our weekly North Beach Garden Gang dinner meeting.  Almost weekly.  We missed last week because I was feeling so under the weather about losing my feline friend, Calvin, that I thought I was actually getting ill.  And Melissa was out of town.  Now, because of learning about The Guild of the Garden Lovers, I wish we had named our group a guild.  The word gang did come from this photo, taken as we (Todd, Allan and I, Melissa and Dave, representing three gardening businesses) were in Seaside to tour Pam Fleming’s downtown garde

In the Depot Restaurant garden this evening, we did a bit of pre-dinner deadheading and Allan photographed some lily sprouts:

It felt good to see Dave and Mel again to catch up on their gardening exploits of the last two weeks.  Tonight was burger night (Wednesdays, till tourist season starts).

dinner salad

clam chowder

Allan’s photo; diners can choose from the plethora of burger toppings

Thursday, 12 April 2018

It was windy and chilly, this sort of day:

We worked at the Shelburne instead of having a nice cozy reading day.  At home, I picked some tulips to take to the innkeeper.

in our back garden

Snails got one of these four narcissi.

rain gauge since I last used it a couple of days ago

bouquet on its way

in the post office garden

Near the Shelburne, I photographed a cute Seaview cottage.

I recently learned that Camp Hungry is a vacation rental; if you have always wanted to see the darling inside, click here for a good snoop.

The Shelburne Hotel

Because other hotel workers will be tearing out six old flower beds next week, we needed to get our own back garden project done because it would be hard to find room to navigate around other workers.

We spent seven hours tearing out Ficaria verna (lesser celandine) and orange crocosmia (montbretia), both of which will do their best to win by coming right back from each little bulbil and corm.  I learned recently that Ficaria is a class 3 noxious weed here because “Lesser celandine outcompetes and excludes native plants. It emerges before most other spring ephemeral plants which can give it a competitive advantage over our native understory plant communities. It is invasive, difficult to control and is spreading in Washington.”  More importantly, per Wikipedia: “The plant is poisonous if ingested raw and potentially fatal to grazing animals and livestock such as horses, cattle, and sheep.”  Now that I know all this, I am going to try to get it out of MY garden, where it is going rampant in two areas, having hitchhiked in when I moved a couple of hellebores from my mother’s old garden (where the celandine was there when she bought the place.

Before:

Shelburne project, looking south

looking north

The hotel’s instagram and Facebook have such a beautiful description of the view from the room that looks out to the above garden bed:

So I was particularly eager to make that view look better than horsetail and old, non-blooming orange montbretia.  Seven hours later:

Allan’s photo

That was hard work, and I dread to think what we missed that still lurks beneath.  The celandine was only in one bed, thank goodness, because each one spewed dozens of tiny bulbils.  We will be policing these beds regularly for pop-up crocosmia and celandine.

I looked at the front garden without time to weed it today:

looking south

north end of the bed especially rampant with teeny weeds

and ground elder WITHOUT variegation is popping up willy nilly.

As we were loading debris, my wasband and former co-gardener, Robert, who had worked with me at the Shelburne many times in the mid to late 90s, was passing by.  He was inspired by my armload of clipped sword ferns…

…and my clippers and knee brace to say that an armload of clipped plants, a pair of clippers (secateurs), a knee brace, and one other (unspecified) thing should be my coat of arms.

With our digging done, Allan and I celebrated stage one success with dinner in the pub. Its seating has now been extended into the hotel lobby.

You can even have your meal by the fire.

cranberry cosmo and cranberry lemonade

I had delicious jambalaya (which you can order WITHOUT oysters) with a perfectly cooked egg on top, an egg with a frilly edge. I love that.

vegan nachos (Allan’s photo)

Here is another example of the Shelburne’s fine prose:

They don’t make hotels like this anymore. Not one room is alike. Hidden staircases, mysterious dark hallways, it is a beautiful maze of uniqueness. Some rooms even have private or shared decks; some of the decks even lead to our lower garden and give a separate entrance to your room.  Shelburne Hotel is truly a wonder to walk through.

It is the oldest continuously operating hotel in Washington State, and every one of its newly refurbished rooms is now available for booking.  A painting behind the check-in desk shows the hotel as it was, before the stained glass windows were brought back from England and installed along the front:

At home, I set out some containers of the crocosmia corms because, to my surprise, despite my warnings, four members of the Peninsula Gardeners facebook group wanted some.  I had shared with them what Anne Wareham wrote about it in The Bad Tempered Gardener.

P.S.  My new  (used, refurbished) Lumix arrived…with an unformatted card, that refused to format for quite some time, although eventually Allan did succeed at getting it to work.  I am afraid to use it for every day work, as every Lumix I have had soon succumbed to “system error focus” and “system error zoom”.  My idea is to use it for garden touring and at home photos.  We’ll see how long I can keep to that.

Despite dire weather warnings, we hope for a non rainy window tomorrow in order to mulch the area we weeded today.

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31 March: beach approach triumph

Saturday, 31 March 2018

Before work, Allan helped me dig up a start of Eupatorium ‘Pink Frost’ to take to the Shelburne.  I have it planted in a big old garbage can planter, not easy to divide from.  The one I got from Todd for my birthday is Eupatorium fortunei ‘Capri’, which is shorter and whose foliage is a brighter pink.

We had an audience.

digging

We then planted sweet peas along the fence at the

Ilwaco boatyard garden.

I still don’t know the extent of the possible digging.  The construction crew for the new boat washing thingie cannot dig the sweet peas all up, can they?  I figure there is no way they would dig all along the base of the fence, although they may have to go under it a time or two…

Allan’s photos:

With that done, we returned to

Long Beach

We first deadheaded the welcome sign.  Just in time for spring break, it’s in an awkward pause between narcissi and tulips.

deadheading

anemone blanda (Allan’s photo)

 

We then returned with enthusiasm to the final section of the Bolstad beach approach garden.

I had offered up free rugosa roses (with plenty of warning about how they run) on a Facebook group for Peninsula Gardeners.   I recall that about four group members said they would come get some, so I asked Allan to start by pulling the roses right along the edge (where we try to keep them back from sidewalk and street).

We have this much left to do.  The buoy has been our goal all along.

As it turned out, only one couple showed up for roses.  I saved two buckets of cuttings for a friend who is out of town.

befores (Allan’s photos):

I found a painted rock from “Long Beach school” hidden deep under lupines.  A lot of these rocks get put in places where plants grow over them and only the gardeners will find them.  I put it on better display.

I did not complain about picked narcissi yesterday, deciding to give the finger blight rants a one day rest.  Today, I found several narcissi clumps whose flowers were plucked and one big hole where something got stolen, probably a nice clump of narcissi.

We had a delightful visit from our friend Mitzu, former staff member at a place where we recently quit working.  She and her people were going for a walk.

Our good friend Mitzu.

At 3:30, we made it to the end!

“Ocian in view!”, as Lewis or Clark wrote.

We had come all this way.

And the vehicle traffic had not been nearly as bad (for weeding on the street side) as we had expected on this sunny spring break Saturday.  A woman walking by said, “Your town is so pretty! I love coming here!”

afters (Allan’s photos):

We will add some mulch when a new pile is delivered to city works.

A bit of deadheading by the hotel/townhouse/arch end of the beach approach, and we were done.

We had an audience from a hotel window. (Allan’s photo)

Allan and I separated, he to dump debris and then to deadhead the south blocks of planters and street tree gardens and me to deadhead city hall and the north blocks.

trilliums at city hall

The wider part of the west bed needs more narcissi planted next fall.

drab!

I had wanted to take a March photo record of all of the planters and street tree gardens.  Due to bright sun and deep shadows and to my camera battery dying, this mission failed. My iPhone camera couldn’t handle the light contrast. We did get some pretty photos, and enough of a record that I can use to make a list of which planters are low on narcissi.

Here are some of the end of March flowers of Long Beach.

my photos:

planter by NIVA green

variegated tulip foliage (battered by rain)

Dennis Company tree

under tree across from Dennis Co.

one early tulip…

and finger blight!!

Dennis Co planter

a flock of ducks at the Heron Pond

tree by Long Beach Pharmacy

Fish Alley

an Easter rock (from “Vancouver Rocks” group, SWWashington)

Third Street

Lewis and Clark Square, Tulip ‘Formosa’ which usually blooms in late April

Tulips ‘West Point’ and ‘Tom Pouce’

Third Street gazebo

Tulipa sylvestris

If this is Cool Crystal, it is awfully early.

Tulip acuminata buds

Allan’s photos:

shrubby planter left over from volunteer days (that hebe!)

If I could get up the energy, I would like that to be the next planter we clear out as it looks rather dull most of the time.

Fifth Street Park

by Abbracci Coffee Bar

This old planting of azaleas and a rhododendron (not by us) is only interesting right now.

With all of Long Beach town deadheaded, we repaired to the Shelburne Hotel to plant one Eupatorium ‘Pink Frost’ and to reward ourselves for our completed days and days of weeding the beach approach.

Shelburne Pub

epimedium flowers outside (Allan’s photo)

The hotel lobby now includes spillover pub seating. (Allan’s photo)

in the pub: Cosmo with Adrift Distillers cranberry liqueur

I had black garlic fried rice and am still remembering its goodness as I write this a day later.

black garlic fried rice and a salad

Allan’s pub burger and salad

well deserved treats

 

delicious beeramisu

At home, I woke two sleeping cats.

The only let down to the happy end of the beach approach project was that Calvin’s cough has come back.  It was so bad in the late evening that I thought of the emergency vet.  Some soothing medicine I had left over from Smoky helped him, so that he can wait till Monday to go in for an asthma shot.

The re-written work board:

I have every intention, some time in the next two weeks, of working on a new volunteer garden project at the Ilwaco Fire Station.

 

 

 

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