23 July: making the rounds

Tuesday, 23 July 2019

Tuesdays have become the day that we make the rounds of the small jobs and sometimes the Long Beach parks.

Norwood garden

Two doors down, we weeded and deadheaded.

My decision to weed turned out to be a good one.  I had forgotten it was Oregon Tuna Classic in Ilwaco this weekend, a fishing tournament that benefits the local food bank, and the Norwoods had a lot of guests. I am glad the garden looked good!

The Red Barn

We watered and weeded extra well because the Long Beach Rodeo would be this weekend at the Saddle Club next door.  I am sure the event spills over onto the Red Barn grounds with extra horses and riders getting ready.

Tigridia (Mexican Shell Flower)

I picked off this perfectly good flower.

That is pre-emptive deadheading.  The flowers only last for a day, and more will come on for the weekend.

buds coming on

Allan’s photo

 Diane’s garden

Of course, I felt sad because my very good, very elderly canine friend Misty is no more.

The septic vault garden:

deadheading with the new long handled pruners (Allan’s photo)

container garden (Allan’s photo)

The roadside garden:

sweet pea success

The Planter Box

We made a quick excursion to The Planter Box to get some plants to replace the shrubs that we’d removed from Mike’s garden.  I found some excellent lavenders.

Long Beach

We tidied the Veterans Field garden and noticed the clever way the city crew lawn mower moved the picnic tables.

pushing the tables around with the riding mower

We finished weeding the beach approach garden. The wildflowers did grow from seed but are awfully small.

One of the tough perennial coreopsis with moth

Our very good friend Mitzu, former member of the Anchorage Cottages staff (as were we), came by to say hello.

I got to pet two more nice dogs, too.

Allan’s photo

We reached the end of the garden with time to spare.

Boreas Inn

I figured we would do some light weeding and deadheading and be home early.

looking east…I wish the daisies matched in vigor.

agastache

Imagine my horror when I walked around just to look at the entry garden and remembered that, when we had visited with Kilyn and Peter last Thursday, I had promised to trim the hardy fuchsia that had gotten beaten down by rain. Susie appeared and had lots of ideas about pruning other plants, as well, so my big plan to get home and start blogging about the Ocean Shores tour went out the window.

before

an hour later

We decided to have a reward dinner at

The Depot Restaurant.

gazpacho

house salad

Thai noodles

peach cobbler (Allan’s photo)

After dinner, we had another look at Jessica Schlief’s gorgeous new plantings at the Sou’wester Lodge.

This poppy!  I think it might be ‘Amazing Grey.’

It made me kind of sad that I had not taken on this job when I was offered it last year; I turned it down because the owner wanted mostly native plants!  Clearly, Jessica is planting what she loves, not just natives.  It would have been fun to make a garden at the Sou’wester again, because it was my first garden when I moved here.  However, I also don’t have time, and Jessica is a local gardener I greatly admire so I love seeing what she has done.

We got home as the sun was setting.

 

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9 Nov: mulching week, last day

Friday, 9 November 2018

the very last of the eight yards of mulch

Allan filling buckets while I went to unload yesterday’s Shelburne garden debris from the trailer

mulch all gone!

We were able to fill almost the full array of buckets with the last of the mulch pile and spent the day doing the first complete end of season clean up at

Diane’s garden.

parked in the Red Barn pasture next door….with this many buckets. (Allan’s photo)

Holly got so excited she dragged the chair a little bit after getting petted.

Allan’s photo

Our first mission was the roadside garden, where I cleared while Allan brought mulch from the trailer in the pasture next door—a long haul that required using the wheelbarrow to transport the buckets.  There is not enough room by the road to maneuver dumping a wheelbarrow full of loose mulch.

Just as I started, my friend Terran of BeeKissed Gardening pulled up in her distinctive honey-yellow truck (during a lull in traffic).  I was pleased to see one of my three favourite chefs was spending the day with her, Chef Jason.  And, of course, I was even more thrilled to see two of her dogs.

Allan’s photo

Terran is my top recommendation for gardening jobs.

I will apprise you when Chef Jason opens his new food truck in Astoria.  That will get me across the bridge for sure.

roadside garden before (Allan’s photo)

I hated to cut down that sanguisorba, but I did, because it would have been silly and floppy on its own.

starting to pull the cosmos

Even though I had told Diane last week that we’d be at her garden early this week, I was glad we had waited till Friday.  A frost had damaged the cosmos last night and so we were able to clear them all out instead of getting sentimental about them still looking ok.

The bad foliage of one of the leftover plants of the Agastache catastrophe was revealed.

It never had gotten better.

More Agastache thoughts: I was pressured, by the person who had sourced these plants, to see if they would just grow out of their disease.  I left one here in the roadside bed, being an isolated garden, just to see.  No, it did not grow out of it.  I was also chastised at the time when I discarded all the other diseased plants that throwing them out was like “having a cat put down without knowing what was wrong with it”.  The plant-sourcing person knew I had had to do that with my poor darling suffering best beloved Smoky, so that remark did not go over well with me.  In fact, looking back now….. [Redacted…This is one of many times in the Agastache Castastrophe and later that I wrote about my full feelings about what happened and decided to delete it!]

I never did get the plants tested.  During the peak of gardening season, I simply could not allow such ugly looking foliage to stay on view in public gardens.  (Some of it was even worse, with black patches on each leaf.)  Expert nursery friends assessed the plants as being bad and dangerous enough to other plants to require wheelie bin disposal.  (“And then throw out your gloves”, said one, and “remove every fallen leaf!” said another, and a third said, after viewing the leaves, “Don’t get that plant anywhere near me!”.) Another gardener had the best advice, to just move on and not spend any more time than necessary fixing the painful problem, which was a personal as well as a monetary loss.

Yet agastache remains one of my favourite perennials, so I will try again next year.  I have read that the Kudos series is highly resistant to disease, and all of those that I used this year have done beautifully.  The catastrophic ones were Acapulco Salmon and Pink, Cotton Candy, Estella Indigo, Golden Jubilee, and Sangria….some of my very favourites, unfortunately.  Only one batch of the above cultivars was bad; the ones I had gotten earlier in the year were pristine.

Today ended the bad episode, with the very last of the bad agastaches going into the wheelie bin.  The bigger showy ones often behave as annuals around here anyway, not coming through the winter.  I am glad to be at the other end of the saddest plant experience of my life!

starting to apply soil after clearing and clipping

A little bed by the front porch deck is one we have neglected.  I am hoping we can finally improve it next year.  It is full of valerian, which is just fine, but also has an awful lot of creeping buttercup and terrible soil.  We ran out of mulch for it.  Allan got the plants cut back.

before

after, ready for some bagged mulch later on

The equipment shown in the photo is part of the septic system and includes the septic alarm box that sounds if something goes wrong.

We turned our attention to the raised box garden in the back yard.

before

during

during

after

after mulching (Allan’s photos)

The center had been mostly cosmos, and three of the Agastache ‘Salmon and Pink’ that I do not trust, whose leaves still looked suspect, so we treated them as annuals also and discarded them (no composting for them!).

We finished up the mulching of the roadside garden with four bags of a product that Diane had bought for it during the summer.

I am glad it was brown and not red bark!

not a big fan of bark, me…

Allan found a frog living behind the bark bags, along with a worm and a slug.

With the bark spread, it did look sort of reddish…

Allan’s photo

Most people see this garden at 20 miles per hour.

after

Almost all of Diane’s summer garden got loaded into our trailer to go home to our compost bins:

One more wheelbarrow load was added after this.

Diane’s garden now gets erased from the fall clean up list, and added to a new list on the workboard called “Post frost check-up”, which will be the final clean up of annuals either after a hard frost or in mid December, whichever comes first.

Helichrysum ‘Limelight’ climbing into a barberry, according to plan.

The Red Barn

We had an hour before dark to weed the narrow bed at the Red Barn.  It is not quite ready yet to erase from the fall clean up list.

Lots of sorrel weed appeared after we pulled the old California poppy foliage.

not quite done….but running out of daylight.

I don’t like using horse manure; it is too weedy.  However, I’ve decided we will add some to this gravelly garden bed when we return to finish the clean up job.  It needs something, and the Red Barn has a great big pile of horse manure always at the ready.

sunset over the Red Barn

At home, we unloaded the compressed trailer load of debris onto a tarp till I have time to enter it into the compost bin three.  Mulch week is over, with eight yards of soil moved in about 20 hours of very hard work.  The last two days, I was running on Doans Back Pills.  Yesterday, I frequently had to stand with my back against a wall to just straighten up.  The wall at the post office was especially good because it was warm from the sun.  I heard some pained noises from Allan, too, as the week wore on.

I hope to revive by staycation time and order eight yards of mulch for my own garden.

We now are entering serious fall clean up mode and hope to plug on through it without a day off until it is done or until rain comes, whichever is first.  Then: staycation preview till the first hard frost.

 

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17 April: under the (good) weather

Tuesday, 17 April 2018

I got very little sleep because of worrying that we were both going to get sick.  With the clam festival coming up, we had much to do in Long Beach town.  There is no back up plan if we can’t do it; all of our other working gardener friends are even busier than we are.

Little dramas loom large when one is self employed.

Allan felt poorly in the morning with sniffles and a cough, and yet with the good weather, we did go to work.  It is maddening; we were so good about disinfecting our hands every time we went somewhere public, and yet…the germs got him.

If only we could have followed Skooter’s example:

Skooter

(Skooter has a chin condition, a problem common with orange cats, says the vet.  My orange cat of years ago, Valene, had the same thing.)

On the way, we dropped off a book at the library (housed in the Ilwaco Community Building).

at the Ilwaco Community Building

Tulip bakeri ‘Lilac Wonder’ at the community building

The community building garden needs a bit of weeding…(not shown in the photos above).

In case I end up having to go to work on the bus later this week, we went to the two least-accessible-by-bus jobs first.

The Red Barn

Because I am thinking of using a different plant for the centerpiece of the Ilwaco planters, Allan pointed out how good the Erysimum ‘Bowles Mauve’ looks at the Red Barn.  They get less wind here.

My very good friend Rosie was at the barn.

Diane’s garden

My very good old friend Misty greeted us next door at Diane’s garden.

snoozing

till the camera clicked

The septic box bulb display pleased me; we had missed some of it, of course.  After deadheading:

Muscari ‘Bling Bling’

Muscari paradoxum

I was pleased to find sweet peas just emerging along the picket fence.

The corner driveway garden needs mulching; soon, I hope. I asked Allan to take this photo, and did not get what I wanted, which is the fact that the Stipa gigantea grass is already showing flower spikes.  Oops, I should have specified.

Long Beach

Long Beach had been on the schedule for all day this coming Thursday, to get the parks and planters perfect for the Razor Clam Festival.  I was fretting about what would happen if we both got sick and could not work then.  So we did a lot of it today, which led to more fretting on my part that I was going to make Allan sicker by having him work.  I brooded about how I recently delayed one day taking Calvin to the vet, prioritizing work instead because he seemed not especially sick, and then…we know how that turned out.

We went down the six downtown blocks of street trees and planters, deadheading.  I felt reassured each time I saw Allan taking a photo, figuring it must mean he did not feel too terrible.  (He said, “It’s easier than working!”)

Allan’s planter and tree garden photos:

Tulip bakeri ‘Lilac Wonder’ and Tulip ‘Silverstream’ and Tulip sylvestris

Geum ‘Mango Lassi’ and muscari

Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’ in street tree garden (with tulip)

Tulip ‘China Town’ and Fritillaria meleagris

Tulip ‘Princess Irene’

AKA ‘Prinses Irene’

Tulip ‘Silverstream’

Van Engelen catalog says: A magical sport of Jewel of Spring, fragrant Silverstream ranges from creamy-yellow to deep yellow with red feathering, to red with every combination in between. But the surprise garden party doesn’t stop there: it has showy, attractive foliage with silver-white margins. (Did you know that the phenomena of marginated foliage occurs due to a lack of or insufficient pigmentation and chlorophyll in the plant cells on the outer petal edges?)

I did not think to smell the tulips nor did I notice white margins on the foliage.

street tree garden

Tulips ‘Green Wave’ and ‘Formosa’

Tulip ‘Formosa’

lower left: a tulip ‘Sensual Touch’ that went mushy with rain

My planter and tree garden photos:

Tulips that had been broken, and not by the wind.

Tulip ‘Silverstream’

As you can tell by now, I planted a big run of Silverstream through town.  I think they are too tall to choose again.  And the color variation is nice but it does not thrill me.

one of the viridiflora (green) tulips…too tired to look it up

Tulip ‘Strong Gold’ in one of the windiest planters. Short and strong.

Tulip ‘Strong Gold’

Tulip ‘Strong Gold’…would that all tulips were this tough

more Silverstream

Tulip ‘Sensual Touch’ and Tulip acuminata

Tulips ‘Sensual Touch’ and ‘Black Hero’

Tulips ‘Green Star’, sylvestris, acuminata

Tulip ‘Sensual Touch’

Tulips ‘Prinses Irene’, ‘Sensual Touch’, ‘Black Hero’

We also weeded in Fifth Street Park because…Razor Clam Festival!  Fifth Street Park needs so much more attention, and I hope we can do more later this week.  So much horsetail, so much wild garlic.  (No photos there.)

We went on to Veterans Field, which will be the central place for the clam festival.  It is not ideal to deadhead and weed four days before the festival, but needs must.

Veterans Field flag pavilion garden

The last time we were in Long Beach, Allan asked where the blue was in that arc garden.  I said the grape hyacinth along the edge.  Well, now look at what a string trimmer did:

Muscari ‘Ocean Magic’ as was

And right before the festival, when we were trying to make it perfect despite feeling poorly.  I wanted to lie down on the lawn and blub, but it would be too hard to get back up again.  Some white narcissi were also casualties along the edge.  Then I thought…Ok, maybe this is a sign that I do not have to struggle so hard and fret so darn much about making it perfect.  Maybe I can stop worrying about whether we will be able to get back to deadhead on Thursday.

Still….dang blang it!

On the way south, we deadheaded the welcome sign.

And finally, we paused at the

Shelburne Hotel

where I planted 9 more violas and two Agastache ‘Apricot Sunrise’.  I would like to have weeded more, but we had already worked four hours longer than I had originally planned and Allan was not feeling any better.  The question is, was it wiser to work today so that we can take a day off? Or did it make everything worse?  It would have been so bad if we had stayed home today and then both got sick and couldn’t do a thing before the weekend.  It would be even worse if we got even sicker.  Such woes of self employment have plagued me for the last 42 years.

three by the fig tree, the rest in front

If the gardens in Long Beach are not perfect when you attend clam festival, you now know why.  We forgot to stop at First Place Mall on the way south and deadhead the one dead narcissus that I noticed in the planter there.  I will try not to lose sleep over it.

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15 Dec: a little work, a little rally

Friday, 15 December 2017

When we’d learned there was to be a rally against ICE deportations in the afternoon, interfering with my at-home goals, I had decided that we should try to polish off some of the leftover work beforehand.

We began at the Ilwaco boatyard garden, planting about six good sized starts of Solidago ‘Fireworks’ in empty spaces along the two block long garden.

boatyard garden looking south

planting

The last of the old cosmos got pulled, and I am calling this garden done for 2017.

crab pot tree at the end of the garden (Allan’s photo)

In Long Beach’s Fifth Street Park, I planted two clumps of the solidago (a short and well behaved clumping goldenrod) while Allan snipped a few stray brown stems from nearby planters.

Fifth Street Park

Narcissi already blooming in Fifth Street Park

We cruised up to the Anchorage Cottages, thinking we could finally clip back the chrysanthemums and agyranthemums.  Our summery weather had them still blooming, so we did not even get out of the van, just turned around and left.

At The Red Barn Arena, we planted a couple of pieces of the goldenrod and pulled out one dead erysimum.

a wee bit of weeding

Midge in her fine coat.

Next door at Diane’s garden, the remaining annuals still looked too lush to pull.  I left a note suggesting she just cut back anything in those pots that looks tatty later.  I can’t keep going back to check on them every week; that is not cost effective for either of us.

the annuals that will not die

I look forward to many bulbs in this raised septic garden.

We now had an hour and a half left before the rally, with no more work to do.  This called for a stop at NIVA green.

In NIVA green, with Heather’s assistant, Wes, and Heather Ramsay herself

a peek through the doorway into the magic workshop (Allan’s photo)

Heather had put out some new lamps:

I fell hard for this double decker nightlight and got it for myself, even though buying presents for myself was not on the agenda.

This red truck is going to go beautifully with a “Card Lady’ card of a red truck with a Christmas tree in the back.

After NIVA, we spent 40 minutes relaxing at Abbracci Coffee Bar.  I am quite annoyed that the bright summer-like sun blurred out my focus on the Christmas tree in their window.  Trust me, it was such a pretty sight.  Let’s say it is like a water colour.

an elegant pattern on my latte

Maddy of Pink Poppy Bakery is retiring her business to become a personal chef for an artists’ retreat.   Abbracci will be the only local place to get her baked goods, like this delicately flavoured Swedish Traveling Cake.  Elixir Coffee up in South Bend will also have her treats.

Abbracci art (Allan’s photo)

In Abbracci, I had such a helpful conversation with owners Tony and Bernardo and one of their patrons. I was asked (not in these exact words) about the severe clean up of the narrow garden to the south of their building: Would the plants come back? I had dug up lots of volunteer blue scabiosa and other perennials in an attempt to start over. I told them that I try to rein in my “messy gardening style” and was thinking of a much tidier planting there. Turns out all three of them love the wild and tangly style. It made the happy to hear that I could so easily make that garden bed messy again.

Finally, it was time for the rally.  This time, the organizer had decided to split the event between Long Beach and Ocean Park.  I had kvetched about it making the groups too small, and indeed, the rally began with only three of us.  For new readers, here is the background again:

“[Long Beach Peninsula Resident] Rosas was arrested when going to Okie’s early in the morning of November 27. When he asked why he was being arrested, ICE officers said “My supervisor asked me to come find you because of what appeared in the newspaper.” We want to speak out against this arrest and on the attack on his rights to free speech.

The original story in the Seattle Times (my home town paper) is here, and well worth reading.

The follow up, after the arrest of Rosas, is here.

He appears to have been sought out because he spoke (under his nickname) to the Seattle Times.  ICE did not detain him earlier, even though he asked them why they took his family and not him.

This story has drawn the attention of the Mexican consulate and has been picked up by national and international news, including the Washington Post and The Independent, UK.

Here is a link to the gofundme where you can contribute, to help him and his family, who were deported to Mexico.  (His children are American citizens, who went with their mother.)

Today, when we first arrived, we thought there was no one else, and we waited in our van for a bit.  Then we saw one lone figure arrive; it was Ann, who had also been waiting in her vehicle.

Allan’s photo

We settled into our rallying as the wind picked up and the rain arrived.  Allan took all the rally photos but one.  My hands were so cold that I didn’t even think of getting out the camera.

Only once were we heckled with a “WOOO Trump!” from a young fellow driving a foreign made car; the rest of the interaction from passing vehicles was all waves and honks and thumbs up.

Everyne at the Ocean Park rally point bailed out when the rain came.  I was not about to stop for rain; I know darn well that Rosas himself worked on the bay in all sorts of weather.

MaryBeth saw my one real-time photo on Facebook and came to join us.  Four felt much more effective to me than three.

The rain finally stopped and out came a rainbow behind us.

Our good friend Susie was just at that moment returning from an out of town trip, too late to join us..

our Susie

We endured till 4:15 PM.

Allan and I could see a glorious pink sky and so we drove to the west end of Sid Snyder drive for a better look.

looking west

Allan’s photo, to the south

We nabbed a few Christmas lights photos on the way home.

Ilwaco City Hall

Ocean Beach Hospital, Ilwaco (Allan’s photo)

Ocean Beach Hospital (Allan’s photo)

Crab pots on First Avenue

We had a mere 45 minutes turn around time at home.  I was able to erase Diane’s garden and the Red Barn from the work board.  The other jobs are simply going to have to wait until we have a hard frost for their final check up…if we have such a thing this winter.

We soon left again for our weekly North Beach Garden Gang dinner at OleBob’s Café at the Port.

on the way: The Crab Pot Tree

The four us us (Tangly Cottage Gardening and Sea Star Gardening) were joined this week by our good friend Ed of Strange Landscaping.

In the entry hallway: Pins show where visitors have come from.

a local sea captain

This week’s specials:

a beef empanada

the view

south window reflection shows the inside, the outdoor dining deck, and the Jessie’s Ilwaco Fish Co Christmas star

Dave, Ed, Allan, Melissa, with Lynn and Chef Laura in the background

Paella was another special of the night.

Allan’s fresh caught rockfish with Laura’s chimichurri sauce and a “perfectly done” baked potato

flan for dessert

We stayed till after closing, when I was so happy to sit with Laura’s dog, Pancho.

I so much want a nice little dog.  Pancho is such a good boy.

I suddenly felt ever so exhausted.  Yet tomorrow is another busy, not at-home day.

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9 December: the (almost) last work day of 2015

Wednesday, 9 December 2015

the view while we were getting ready…a torrential squall

After that downpour, the day cleared up and turned into excellent weather for the (almost) last work day of the season.  The almost refers to one more job that Allan has, mulching the library garden.

Mike’s garden

We had a few clumps of mixed white narcissi and Narcissi ‘Angel Eyes’ to plant at Mayor Mike’s, just down the street.

Mike’s front path

a low sprawling conifer with white tips

Ilwaco Post Office

More bulbs went into the Ilwaco Post Office garden.  Crocus tommies, iris reticulate, Narcissus ‘Angel Eyes’, Tulip ‘Flaming Spring Green’, Brodiaea ‘Silver Queen’

post office window

The Red Barn

I had a bill to drop off at the Red Barn.  Again, the fields were boggy from rain.

Allan’s photo

the narrow garden (Allan’s photo)

Allan’s photo

horses in the field where we usually park to work at Diane’s

Diane’s garden

Other than a small amount of clipping back potted annuals, our mission at Diane’s was to deliver a pot of Stargazer lilies, ordered at her request.

Misty gets a good scritching.

my good friend Misty

one pot of Stargazers added to the mix

hydrangea at the corner of the house, will be our first task on a late winter visit

street view with Stipa gigantea

Long Beach

At last it was time to do the final clean up of the Long Beach welcome sign.

A few remaining yellow flowers could not save the bidens along the edge.

a ridiculously early anemone

sweeping up

I had mercy on a very few last flowers of the echibeckia.

We planted lots of little crocus tommasianus and iris reticulata in the Long Beach main street planters and three on the Sid Snyder beach approach.

poppy seeds sprouting in a planter I had strewn with poppy tops

Allan’s photo: poppy seedhead

And we cut down some more plants, including chrysanthemums…

Allan’s photo, before cutting these down, because we won’t be back to do it later..

but we did not cut these, that are about to bloom still

and that little dwarf chrysanthemum is blooming!

Long Beach City Hall got some Narcissi ‘Angel Eyes’ in the garden bed that is a memorial to Peggy Miles; she and her spouse, Gene, planted the garden on the east side of city hall about a year before she died.

Inside city hall (Allan’s photo)

The photo above shows a glimpse of a city crewman and City Manager Dave discussing the unpleasant fact that a city water main broke today, a BIG one, and although the crew got it fixed, a boil water advisory is now on for Long Beach and Seaview at least until at least Friday morning.

Inside city hall (Allan’s photo)

Inside city hall (Allan’s photo)

Inside city hall (Allan’s photo)

stocking hung with care for city workers (Allan’s photo)

The Anchorage Cottages

The very last of the mixed white and ‘Angel Eyes’ narcissi went into the entry garden at the Anchorage, where the buddliea got a trim.

before

after

Melianthus major still standing

I’ll send the following photo to manager Beth with the message that she can have someone take the calla lilies to the ground if a frost blackens them or turns them limp, and the same goes for the Melianthus.

Our work season is done and these callas still remain.

working till dusk

The only clump of callas that did look mushy…

and did get taken down.

Next door to the Anchorage: bear traps ready to be deployed as needed.

Allan’s photo

In the almost dark, we stopped on the way home and did a last bit of clipping at The Depot Restaurant, which was closed because of the boil water advisory.

Ilwaco

We did the rounds of the flatlands to get some more holiday photos for the Discover Ilwaco Facebook page.

CoHo Charters (Allan’s photo)

Santa’s outhouse (!!), Allan’s photo

Englund Marine (Allan’s photo)

Griffin Gallery (Allan’s photo)

Griffin Gallery (with a bucket because of a leaky window)

Doupé Building (Allan’s photo)

an extravaganza on Spruce Street

At home, I looked at all we had accomplished on the work board…

And was able to erase all but that one mulching job…

And because the mulching job can be accomplished any time between now and February, I think I will now declare that staycation has officially begun.  Although there will be some off-season non-publishing days on the blog, I do have a few slide shows set up to keep things ticking along for awhile.

 

 

 

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30 Sept-1 Oct: our two day work week

Wednesday, 30 September 2015

On our way to work, we watered the Ilwaco Post Office planter, and I noticed to my dismay that the deer have discovered it.

Deer have nibbled the nasturtiums; this bodes ill for our post office garden.

The Planter Box

We stopped at The Planter Box on our way north to pick up a few plants for a container at the Anchorage.

Allan’s photo: They have pumpkins!

After our second tour of the Oysterville garden, we put in a half day of weeding and grooming several gardens.

Marilyn’s Garden

looking southwest from the driveway

looking northwest from the back porch steps

Removing this clump of volunteer montbretia must go on the list of fall projects!

look how the big floppy zebra grass has a tidy clump coming up in the middle.

Klipsan Beach Cottages

Bella in the A Frame garden

inside the A Frame (one of the vacation rentals)

Mary of KBC

Managers Denny and Mary do everything from lawn care to cleaning to welcoming guests and doing the paperwork.  They own one of the cottages and their own home on the resort property.

Sarah

Bella

oh, and the garden!

The big birds (spruce grouse?) were there; Allan just managed to get this rear view.

Golden Sands Assisted Living

my mom’s coppery rose

sweet peas and my mom’s old window; wish she could see them

more sweet peas

Anchorage Cottages

Allan weeded under the grape arbour.

autumnal grape leaves (Allan’s photo)

Allan’s photo

Mitzu felt unusually camera shy.  Dogs and cats have moods, too, you know.

on Beth’s lap

new plants from The Planter Box went into this pot

the office courtyard

watering Ilwaco

Watering season is still not over, so Allan took the water trailer on the Ilwaco rounds.

at the boatyard to fill the tank for watering

He found the volunteer fire department having a drill while he filled the trailer at the boatyard.

boatyard and fire fighters

By the time he checked on the Time Enough Books boat, darkness was falling.

Meanwhile, I was at home doing the monthly billing and anticipating writing this blog post and reliving of walking through the Oysterville garden today.

Thursday, 1 October 2015

We finished our great big two day work week with a three small jobs and then Long Beach.

The very first sign of Halloween on Lake Street, by the Post Office

Halloween is a very big deal on Spruce and Lake Streets in Ilwaco, and we are beginning to collect our materials for our Corridor of Spooky Plants.

The Red Barn

Allan’s photo: our small and narrow Red Barn garden

I decided it was time for the fennel to go away. (Allan’s photo)

Poor bronze fennel, once so prized, and recommended by influential gardeners in slide shows at garden seminars, and now on the noxious weed list.

Bronze Fennel looking glorious in a garden

bronze fennel….now called by some a noxious weed

And it is gone! (Allan’s photo).  The tall stems will go in our Corridor of Spooky Plants for Halloween.

The yellow violas died in this container, and reseeded themselves.

Diane’s garden

My good friend Misty came out to meet us even before we got next door to Diane and Larry’s garden.

My Misty

I love her.

Such a good girl.

blueberry autumn colour

The roadside garden

The pink heather that was Diane’s inspiration for having us make this roadside bed is already going over, which is why I did not want to make it the only plant here.

It only looks perfectly pink for a couple of weeks.

I enjoy when we drive by this garden, and I hope others do, as well.

The Depot Restaurant

If we deadheaded every old cosmos flower, we’d be here for an hour!

flower garden on north side of dining deck

Long Beach

Allan deadheading what’s left of the welcome sign flowers (after it got trampled during Rod Run)

We’d have lots more deadheading to do if most of the cosmos had not been destroyed!

Cosmos ‘Happy Ring’

We took two jugs of water for the newly planted Sid Snyder beach approach planters, as the water is turned off there.

new plants, nurtured

The plaque goes back to volunteer days from years ago.

My darling little hens and chickens have already been stolen from the planter above.  That is IT, I will nevermore plant hens and chickens sedums in any of the Ilwaco planters.  They got stolen here, and on the Bolstad approach, and in Fish Alley.  As Allan says, someone probably has a nice collection of hens and chicks on their windowsill.  I picture the same person prowling and thinking “Ooh, has she planted any more?  YES, a new kind for my collection!”  Feh.  It is frustrating because they would be so perfect in all the beach approach planters that are hard to water.

Because watering season is not over after all, we watered all the main street planters and street trees.

lavender at Fifth Street

the carousel being dismantled, sure sign of end of tourist season

Salvia viridis (painted sage)

My friend Tam at the Herb “n Legend Smoke Shop

reseeded lavenders and a determined little fern

more painted sage

Salvia patens at 7th Street

Salvia patens

Geranium ‘Rozanne’ (Allan’s photo)

Gunnera by the pond in Fifth Street Park (Allan’s photo)

We also had time to pull Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’ at four locations, or rather, Allan did, while I worked the Veterans Field garden deadheading….

tree by Anchor Realty, before

and after

tree by Cottage Bakery, before

and after

planter by Wind World Kites, before

This is the only planter where we have let a large amount of ‘Lucifer’ stay.  The owner of Wind World Kites likes it very much.  Most shopkeepers prefer to not have something so tall in front of their shop.

Wind World Kites, after

Veterans Field corner garden

We had time before dinner to pull more Crocosmia at City Hall, in an area along the west wall planted by former city administrator Gene Miles.  I found some weeding to do because when I pull crocosmia I feel like the top of my head is going to fly off.  (Yes, that’s weird, but true.)

City Hall, north side

west side, before (Allan’s photo)

and after (Allan’s photo)

The Cove Restaurant

Todd joined Melissa, Dave, Allan and I making up a good meeting of the North Beach Garden Gang.

Chef Jason Lancaster

Todd shared fascinating stories about all the local places where he had taken visiting friends.

Two friends from Plant Delights nursery, where Todd used to be the curator of the display garden, had been to visit for a week.  They had eaten clams and mushrooms which the three of them harvested, and visited old growth trees by Teal Slough:

Todd’s photo

And the north Oregon coast:

Todd’s photo: Ecola State Park north of Cannon Beach

We caught up with Melissa and Dave (Sea Star Gardening) on news about the work week.

I also found Melissa’s stories fascinating.

delicious apple blue cheese salad and Arnold Palmer to drink.  (Allan’s photo)

apple blue cheese salad

And it was good. (Allan’s photo)

Cove Stir Fry (Allan’s photo)

Dave, Todd, and I had the Cajun chicken alfredo. (Allan’s photo)

Melissa had the bronzed scallops.

Melissa and me (Allan’s photo)

Allan and I are now set for another self indulgent five days off!  We’re hoping for good evening weather on Saturday so that we can have a campfire dinner with Melissa, Dave, and Our Kathleen, and of course I am hoping to not leave my property for the entire five days.

 

 

 

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18 May: onward with annuals

Monday, 18 May 2015

Diane’s garden

We loaded up with lots of annuals in pinks and pastels for Diane’s garden.

After arriving there, while sorting and burbling all the plants, I found a hitchhiker in a pot hidden under foliage.

We put him in an empty jar.

lots of containers all planted up in the back yard

my good friend Misty

Allan’s photo

I am reminded by the above photo that I had a headache all day, thus the cold, wet headband was worn.

Misty’s smile (Allan’s photo)

Diane is a champion barrel racer; this tile reflects her love of horses.

a bright pink agyranthemum for Diane

Meanwhile, Allan planted cosmos in the roadside strip…

after

Nepeta and a pale pink allium

allium, catmint, and bee

I made room to plant some cosmos in front of the Stipa gigantea.

Stipa gigantea, my favourite ornamental grass

a fragrant apricot coloured azalea against the house

back container garden all planted up

Basket Case Greenhouse

with yellow aquilegia (columbine)

Allan released the little hitchhiker frog in the greenhouse.

Later, when we got home, we found another frog in the van, so we hope they were not best friends traveling together.

Allan’s photo

Basket Case staff members (Allan’s photo)

The Red Barn Arena

At the Red Barn, we had twelve yellow calibrachoas to add to the four whiskey barrels.

Then I briefly visited Hugo.

Long Beach

Next, we did some more Long Beach work, weeding and planting cosmos in Fifth Street Park and adding a few more plants to the planters.

Brodiaea in Fifth Street Park…I love the little flowers, but the foliage is always a mess before the flowers bloom. Here, I have pulled some foliage off sideways, trying to preserve the flower buds.

planter by Fifth Street park with a perennial veronica and columbine

This bicycle parking job mightily displeased us.

Fifth Street Park after weeding and planting

roses by Funland

Veterans Field Flag Plaza: a somewhat windy day

We cleaned up under a tree by Stormin’ Norman’s kite shop.  Now, you may wonder how this is different from the tree garden being flattened in Ilwaco that I wept about in yesterday’s post.  The difference is we know what we are doing, and we did not decimate any good plants.  The golden lemon balm which was smothered by a wild sedge grass will now have room to regrow.

before (Allan’s photo); I had noticed a big sedge in here last week.

after (Allan’s photo); also removed the old floppy schizostylis leaves

In the shop, Zoltar kept offering to tell our fortune.

Basket Case baskets are up at City Hall.

The Depot Restaurant

We had acquired two Miscanthus strictus, a tall zebra grass, at the Basket Case, so on the way south Allan added it to the east side deck garden at the Depot Restaurant.

planting at the Depot

after (with limited seating available to watch the garden grow)

Ilwaco

Our last task was to replace a few more old Erysimum ‘Bowles Mauve’ in the Ilwaco planters.

old and leggy

a healthy Erysimum in flower

We bucket watered two blocks worth of planters with our leftover bucket water from the day’s planting.  As I rounded the corner onto Spruce, I was thrilled to see our friend Jenna (Queen La De Da) watering; turns out she waters the planter in front of her shop and also the one across the street.

Bless her everloving heart!  (I wish there really were an English Pub there; it has been closed for years.)

At home, I appreciated a few things in my own garden before going inside….

Rose ‘Gloire de Dijon’

the back garden, with Mary

back garden, west bed (also with Mary)

back garden, east bed

back garden, center bed

The second little frog that had hitchhiked with us today got released back by the water boxes on the patio.

I hope he doesn’t miss his friend. (Allan’s photo)

the work board today

The work board had a couple of items simply eliminated:  I decided not to plant any cosmos in Mike’s garden, in order to make it easier maintenance, and I had observed that the Depot rhododendron does NOT need pruning in order for the painters to get behind it.  I added the planting of painted sage, when the second batch at the Planter Box is ready.  Carter and The Red Barn remain on the planting list because each will get a few more annuals.  I suppose Long Beach should still be on it for the same reason…and yet I somehow feel that Long Beach qualifies as done, as any annuals left to plant will be popped in to fill gaps  the first time we do the big planter watering there.

 

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15 May: Annuals Planting Time continues

Friday, 15 May 2015

Eleagnus ‘Quicksilver’ by our driveway

This may be the first year it has bloomed with tiny, intoxicatingly fragrant flowers.

on the way out of Ilwaco, some deadheading of Narcissus ‘Baby Moon’ at city hall; the two dead flowers had been bugging me for two days.

Long Beach

We began with adding a lot of cosmos to the back side of the Long Beach welcome sign.

Cosmos ‘Sonata’ set to go in (Allan’s photo)

all in  (Allan’s photo)

front side, with cosmos added (Allan’s photo)

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

Taking up where we left off yesterday, we continued the planting of Cosmos ‘Sonata’ on the two northernmost blocks of planters.  As we worked, blog reader and Facebook friend Merry presented us with two delicious cookies that gave us a boost of energy.

Thank you, Merry!

Allan’s photo

the very last of the tulips (and a variegated Euonymous left over from volunteer planter days)

Some of the planters were planted up, back in the day, by volunteers, with full sized shrubs that require lots of shearing and that allow little room for annuals.  They certainly are beautiful (most of them) and those planters are the easiest to take care of.  I would like to redo one further south that is just red azaleas and is quite dull all summer long.

the newly redone planter by Dennis Co; I can manage to redo just two or three a year.

Diane’s garden and The Red Barn

After the last planter had its cosmos, we headed north for more plants, stopping to count up how many we will need to plant Diane’s containers.

the roadside garden at Diane’s, with Stipa gigantea (ornamental grass)

Allan strimming at The Red Barn Arena

Our quiet rechargeable weedeater doesn’t scare the horses.

The Basket Case Greenhouse

I now had a list of exactly what I needed to finish the annuals planting in Long Beach.

the gatekeeper of the “employees only” greenhouse where we get to shop

Allan’s photo

Kitty accompanies us all around the nursery. (Allan’s photo)

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo

After collecting our plants, Fred and Nancy and I perused the new availability list for cool plants to order.

Basket Case Nancy and Fred (not to be confused with Garden Tour Nancy)

What to buy….Some Sanguisorbas and Agastaches!

Andersen’s RV Park

Next stop, Andersen’s.  Rose ‘Climbing Cecile Brunner’ is in bloom over the picket fence arbour.

Climbing Cecile Brunner

Allan cleared all the old bulb foliage from Leucojum (Summer Snowflake) from the white brick planter by the house and planted begonias.

Two wheelbarrow loads of foliage came out.

after planting some begonias and New Guinea impatiens

Allan’s photo

We added some assorted Calibrachoa to the Payson Hall planters at Andersen’s.

Payson Hall

All the time, I feel weird about planting them as my feelings tell me it is about to sell.  After all this worrying about my newly planted babies, it will be funny and kind of a relief if we end up working there all summer after all, even though I so very much want one less big job.

planting Payson Hall

Long Beach again

Finally, we added some godetia and blue bacopa to the sidewalk end of the Long Beach welcome sign.

Allan’s photo

We had worked till dusk, and the spotlights were on at the welcome sign.  The last thing I wanted to do was more planter work.  However, on the way home through Ilwaco I saw an annoying sight: a plant pulled up and just left sitting on top of one of the planters.

“Stop the car!” I yelled at this sight.

“Whyyyyyyyy?!?!?!”

The plant was one I had mentally slated for replacing, and we had a fresh new non-leggy Erysimum ‘Bowles Mauve’ to go in its place. I noticed something else really weird at the same corner but in the gathering dusk I did not have the time or energy to do more than take a picture and wonder what had happened, and then put it out of my mind till later; the plants under one of the street trees were just…flat…What the heck???

It would be a couple of  days before I had time to take a closer look at this tree garden. Something is wrong.  Why is it flat?  Too tired to think about it.

At home, the work board got just a bit more erasing.

All the Andersen’s annuals are in and the cosmos are planting in all the Long Beach planters.

I forgot to add this photo from yesterday:  I thought the colours in Nellie’s garden, seen on the way home, with the yellow house to the south as backdrop, looked stunning.

Look how the top of the hedge, all aglow, is almost the same colour as the yellow house,

 

 

 

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19 Nov: bulb finale

Wednesday, 19 November 2014

We started work an hour and a half earlier than usual, a must (and an unusual decision for us) because of my feeling of urgency to get lots of work done before rain comes.  The previous night, I was in bed before 1 AM, which is practically unheard of as both Allan and I are night owls and are usually awake till two.

The cats were still snoozing. There’s nothing unusual about that at any hour.

I had a huge list of tasks to accomplish.  The first were two jobs that had not even been on the list that I cooked up last night.  We’d gotten such an early start that I thought we could add them.

The Red Barn

The four whiskey barrel planters were finally done and ready for the annuals to be pulled.

I always say hello to this fine, one-eyed fellow.

the sign on his stall

Disney said hello.

I thought this bit of green in one of the barrels was a leaf. Allan showed me it was a sleeping frog.

Frog had lost his plant cover, so I tucked him in under these sedums and he snuggled down all comfy.

No time to weed any more at ground level. It can wait till next February.

Crabbing preparation was going on at the barn.

Diane’s garden

Next door to the Red Barn property, we did frost clean up on Diane’s pots of annuals.

The pots are stuffed with bulbs for next spring.

Next door, Amy’s horse.

Allan clipped back perennials along the road.

We said goodbye to the Diane and Larry garden and the Red Barn garden for this year and went on to my list of Long Beach tasks.

Long Beach

First, we checked the planters on the Sid Snyder beach approach road and found two that needed a bit of attention.

In one of the  westernmost planters, I couldn’t bear to totally cut down the blue globe thistle as it still looks fine, so Allan just clipped a few dead stalks.

the view from our parking spot

This one needed just a bit of tidying.

That’s better.

Allan had started tidying the Kite Museum garden; I walked across the lawn to join him

our little kite garden

put to bed for the winter

Next, we clipped and weeded the bed in the NE quadrant of Fifth Street Park.

before

after, with some Gladiolus papilio corms added

Next, we pulled Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’ and some weeds and trash from the garden bed behind Lewis and Clark Square.  It’s behind the L&C wall of plaques and we had forgotten to deal with it earlier.

Lewis and Clark Square

The wall curves around two sides of the square, with plaques about L&C’s explorations.

the garden behind the wall a couple of springtimes ago

today, before clean up

no time to cut the lady’s mantle. Hydrangea was hit hard by frost, will look better when leaves fall off, as they will.

As we drove toward this project, I had noticed some wilt on an Erysimum ‘Bowles Mauve’ in a planter half a block back.  I walked back to check on it.

No wonder it was wilted; it was loosened out of the ground and I had to pull it.

Now the planter is lopsided, which bugs me.

It was actually fortuitous that I was inspired to walk back, as I found that whoever had been supposed to plant the bulbs in this planter (me or Allan!) had missed some and the little bulbs were still placed along the edge!

a startling sight for me to find.

If only I had planted some little crocuses in this particular planter yesterday, I would have seen those stray bulbs then.

On the way back to the Lewis and Clark garden, I saw an apropos sign….

because I was anxiously watching the clock.

The little park almost done, or at least as done as we had time for.

Next, we drove out the Bolstadt beach approach road and tidied up its planters.  The 25 mph wind gusts were not cold and therefore only mildly irksome; the remainder of our jobs would be more sheltered.

The city crew had added garlands and lights to the lamp posts.

Our next task was to finish cleaning up the garden on the west side of city hall.

before, Geranium ‘Rozanne’

after. We left the Solidago ‘Fireworks’ standing because I think it looks more interesting than nothingness.

I was so pleased with how much we had done by now that we took time to go through the Great Escape espresso drive through for some much needed coffee.

at the Great Escape window

Our last little thing in Long Beach was to finish the little memorial garden on the SE corner of Coulter Park.

before

after pulling the tattered schizostylis leaves

There was no time to pull this patch of Crocosmia. I will call it decorative and leave it till late winter (late February 2015).

In less than two hours, we had made a big load of debris to dump at the city works yard.

We now say goodbye to Long Beach parks and planters for 2014, except for some small thing I might see to do when driving through town (such as when the yellow chrysanthemums eventually turn black).  It happened to be the crew’s lunch break so I bid them adieu for the year. One of the things I appreciate most about the Long Beach job is how we are allowed to just decide what needs doing when, with very little instruction.

Now we headed up north to get back to some bulb planting.  On the way, we just had time to run an errand for a friend.

The Planter Box

Jenna (Queen La De Da) had asked me if we could pick up two bags of the new biochar soil mix, made by the local Biocharm Farm, the next time we were by the Planter Box garden center.  So we did.  I saw that they had lots of small packages of bulbs for sale.

I resisted…except for one!

Allan commented that recently, a passerby in Long Beach had asked him where to buy hummingbird feeders, and noted that Planter Box has the best selection.

Just some of the feeders on offer.

Along with one packet of bulbs, I also bought myself five paperwhites to grow indoors.

two bags for Jenna

Klipsan Beach Cottages

I had some bulbs to plant in the window boxes for the A Frame vacation house; this involved removing the annuals and going through a couple of old windowbox liners from behind the garage.  In them, I found a few more early spring bulbs to supplement my small collection for this last minute request.

Allan fetched me the plastic window box inserts from the A Frame while I started clipping some perennials down inside the fenced garden.  He began to spread three bales of Gardner and Bloome mulch.  We had been planning to bring a yard of washed dairy manure at some point and had been awfully glad when owner Mary bought this bagged stuff…saved us a lot of work (even though it did not cover the whole garden).

in the fenced garden, before

after

greenhouse corner, before

after clipping back Coreopsis ‘Flower Tower’, Melianthus major, etc etc

Bella in the basement; she got a quick bellyrub

from east gate of fenced garden

boxwood and blueberries, backed with bay tree

Knock out roses may be sneered at by some, but they are still blooming.

In a perfect world, we would have taken time to clip the uppies off the New Dawn rose.  We did not.

Hydrangea and hardy fuchsias hit hard by the frost. Both will be fine.

I turned my attention to the windowbox project, while Allan did some clipping and raking in the woodsy swale by the clam cleaning shed.

at work in the swale clipping crocosmia, daylily and iris foliage

One of two A Frame windowbox liners planted with bulbs and back in place.

I provided Tulip bakeri ‘Lilac Wonder’, species crocus mix, Tulip batalinii ‘Bright Gem’, and Narcissus ‘Baby Moon’.

Bright Gem and Lilac Wonder

A frame deck

We bid farewell to the Klipsan Beach Cottages gardens for 2014. We will revisit before the end of the year, but for social rather than work reasons.  I hope to read the guest books in the cottages sometime this winter.

Oman Builders Supply garden

A bit further north, in Ocean Park, I planted ten white mix narcissi in the entry garden at Oman and Son Builders Supply (the last of the bulbs!!!), and we did some clipping of lavender, Erysimum ‘Bowles Mauve’, and lily stalks.

OBS garden

grasses, lavender, erysimum, hebes

I debated cutting back the lavender at the south end of the garden, as it is woody and yet looks like it has a good new center growth.  I decided to wait.

It could use a renewal, even though I usually do not cut back lavender that hard…

However, I think the old growth will help keep people from continuing to drive their cars into the wall this winter!

The cottage stone wall keeps getting shoved back, apparently by people’s car bumpers, even though one parks parallel next to this garden…supposedly.

Wiegardt Gallery

Amazingly, we had time to go a few block northeast and put the Wiegardt Gallery garden to bed.  Most of it was done on earlier visits.  We did some clipping along the west wall and in the back garden bed.

before

after (in the darkening dusk)

The grasses will stay up all winter.

a last look at the Wiegardt garden for 2014.

Lately, we have been dining out an awful lot.   Well….we are tired, and we feel like rewarding ourselves for continuing to plug along with work at the exhausting end of the season.  (For many years, I did not take hardly any break and kept going year round with odd jobs…painting, cleaning, winter garden work; I am grateful to be financially secure enough now to take the midwinter off).  So, for another reward (this time for finishing Long Beach for the year):

The Depot Restaurant

Wednesday’s offseason Burger Night special sounded so warm and cozy, we could not resist.

Burger night: You choose your desired ingredients.

Yes, I am greedy.  We get the egg and the pineapple and then deconstruct the burger to have the egg as an appetizer (Allan calls it “breakfast”) and the pineapple as a dessert.

with sweet potato fries, a Mac and Jack for me and a Guinness for Allan.

We were offered the very last piece of chocolate Guinness cake to share….and did not say no.

Speaking of chocolate, while we were ordering our dinner, Depot server (and garden lover) Laura showed us a couple of photos she had recently taken at Ethel M Chocolate Factory in Las Vegas.  Here are her photos, for my cacti loving friends.

chocolate cacti, photos by Depot Laura

home

At home, I planted, in a big pot that has some tulips already in it, the ten bulbs that I had bought at the Planter Box:

I don’t think I have grown Muscari ‘Dark Eyes’ before.

I then had the delight of completely removing the fall clean up list from the work board, as we had finished its last item, the Long Beach parks.  Now, we just have a few last garden check ups to do.  VERY few.  Less than two days of work, all told.  The Depot task is only to pull the last few annuals out of the window boxes if they ever decide to die back.  The Nelly bulb project is on for tomorrow.

I would like enough good weather for the opportunity to polish off that list so that I can make the big satisfying announcement that Staycation has officially begun.  (The rest of the projects are either for here, thus not really work, or for 2015.)

I planted the paperwhites in marbles and water on the kitchen windowsill.

As I finished writing this, I heard the rain begin outside.  It is sorely needed; the ground has felt awfully dry while I’ve been bulb planting.  A few rainy reading days would be most welcome.  Now, time to put me feet up and watch Survivor, and to finish the show we started watching last night at ten and then got to sleepy to finish:  Page Eight starring the delightfully droll Bill Nighy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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6-7 Nov: food, books, work, food

Thursday, 6 November 2014

I’ve been mentally looking ahead to staycation and I think that it got me distracted from gathering blog fodder. So when I went to breakfast (a late one, of course) on this stormy Thursday with Garden Tour Nancy, I completely forgot to take photos. Unheard of!! We were having too much fun talking about gardens, plants, bulbs, her flock of young chickens, and possible gardens for next year’s garden tour. I swiped some photos from the 42nd Street website to make up for my distraction.

a darling painting of the Café by our friend Don Nisbett

inside Seaview’s 42nd Street Café

We were happy that there were only two other tables dining, as we went at a time between breakfast and lunch times. We happily tucked ourselves away in the corner table to the left.

I had the Russian scramble and Nancy had the salmon scramble, both delicious.

When I returned home after two hours (!) of schmoozing, Allan optimistically had the trailer hooked up to go out and plant bulbs. The rain, however, refused to cease even though the forecast had called for a workable afternoon after a windy and stormy morning. This gave me a chance to do some more monthly billing (delayed by bulb sorting) and to finish reading The Sisters of Hardscrabble Bay. I liked the first part of the book better than the last; the two protoganists did not themselves read a book during the whole course of the novel and were not people I wished I knew in real life. Liking the characters is not a prerequisite for the enjoyment of a book. Perhaps I was just too eager to get it done because Three Junes has finally come from the library!

Now I can finally re-read the first two books of this trilogy and then read the new third book.

Later I had time to read the just first section of Three Junes. The title refers to three months of June in the history of a family. Then it was time to go to dinner with our friend and sister gardener Terran, at the Cove Restaurant, of course, for Taco Thursday.

Terran places her order from Carmen.

The cider had changed from apple to apricot. I did not think I’d like it as am not a fan of fresh apricots. It was, in fact, deliciously tart and tasty.

beet salad

my “prawns solo”

$2 fish taco

Terran’s fish and chips

Chef Jason Lancaster sent us this delectable plate of ahi tuna!

pumpkin cranberry stacker

We had such a good time talking that the time slipped away and when I looked at my watch, I realized it was too late to go to the 8 PM concert at the Sou’wester. I do keep trying to get out for more musical events (and failing, it seems). So we just kept right on visiting at the Cove.

me and Terran outside in the parking lot

Friday, 7 November 2014: work and more food

Front window view: Only the autumn sun casting a low shadow from the house shows that it’s not summer. Note the new lawn across the street.

Sunny, warm weather had us back to planting bulbs on the south end of the Peninsula. We started with planting for an hour at our volunteer garden at the post office.

bulb bags all laid in place, and the planting begins (Allan’s photo)

Many the bulb goes in here as we like it to be a garden that makes post office patrons happy.

bulbs for the post office planter (Allan’s photo)

all planted up (Allan’s photo)

On a check-depositing trip to the bank, I noticed an upcoming concert from the Bayside Singers. We will want to go to that as our friend Christl, manager of the Wiegardt Gallery, is in that ensemble.

Coming at the the playhouse 3 blocks to the west…

Mike’s Garden

We took our first batch of work bulbs to Mayor Mike’s garden, four blocks east of us.

Mike’s garden

He got some more white narcissi, some muscari, some Allium multibulbosum, to tone with his mostly blue and white (and green) garden.

Because a new deck or room is being constructed in the back garden, we planted narcissi there as well, and pruned a hydrangea that was set back by this summer’s long dry spell.

pruning

White narcissi in semi circles around the shrubs will perk this area up.

The Red Barn

Next, we planted bulbs in the six barrels at The Red Barn. This time, no tall tulips! The wind gets to them too much. Short red and white tulips (Peppermint Stick and The First) and some yellow-orange Tulip batalinii ‘Bright Gem’, with some short and sweet narcissi ‘Baby Moon’ will be perfect. I am planting hundreds of Baby Moon this year as have found it reliably blooms in early May.

Some bulbs cast upon the ground to plant in the barrel…

Bright Gem, The First, Peppermint Stick, Baby Moon, Rapture

Annuals still blooming on the south wall of the barn.

our audience for the south wall planting

Two adorable dogs hung around with me on the east side of the barn.

(Allan’s photo)

Diane’s garden

Next door to the barn property, we planted lots of narcissi, crocus, and species tulips and iris reticulata and other littles in Diane’s back yard pots. And some tall tulips. All in the pastel colours that she favours. I usually plant narcissi in her roadside garden, but I am not sure what its future is as there is talk of a fence instead. It occurred to me that I’ve rarely planted narcissi and whatnot (just tall tulips) in the pots and that it will be great for Diane and Larry to be able to admire them up close.

stuffed full of bulbs; we’ll be back for a post frost cleanup sometime later

My good friend Misty got a belly rub.

Helichrysum ‘Limelight’ climbing in a barberry

Pink Poppy Bakery

On the way to our next garden, we picked up a check at Long Beach City Hall and of course a treat at Pink Poppy Bakery had to be acquired.

Madeline at Pink Poppy (Allan’s photo)

Pink Poppy’s update below means we won’t find it quite as easy to get these treats after Thanksgiving, but we will track them down!

Nancy’s Garden

We had a box of bulbs sorted out for Garden Tour Nancy. She and I share similar taste in tulips, especially Tulip viridflora (the ones with green markings).

Chinatown, Formosa, White Parrot, Green Star

And best of all, parrot tulip ‘Green Wave’, a very late bloomer. Tulip photos from Van Engelen

 

Nancy’s veg boxes

Tomatoes. Outdoors. In November.

(If I had taken better care of my greenhouse tomatoes, I would still have some. I stopped watering because I got lazy!)

Nancy’s pineapple sage is the best one around! (to the left, Allan down planting bulbs)

I weeded along the front of the mixed border in order to plant some species tulips and muscari and so forth. And some Baby Moons, of course. And for the first time, we planted some lilies, and I advised Nancy to start to acquire them, especially the tall fragrant oriental and orienpets.

We admired Nancy and Phil’s new flock of pretty hens, still a bit too young to be laying eggs yet. They enjoy pecking around the sod pile where Nancy grew potatoes this year. But wait, I thought just now, could potato plants be toxic to chickens? I sent Nancy an urgent email to Google this topic! As I wrote this, I heard back from her that she has been removing the old potatoes since extending the chicken run to that area.