Thursday, 24 April 2014
Ah…rain. Wednesday had been a rainy day off during which a number of things (like business paperwork) kept me from just reading all day, so I was very pleased to see more rain at 10:30 AM:
south window, blissful rain
And then…out came the sun.
east window half an hour later!
We still had plants in the van so were quick to get ready to go to work.
By our driveway, an allium emerging
and chives taking on the sun
We made a quick stop at Olde Towne Café to switch compost buckets; while we were there, a patron told us about a bright spot of tulips near the old high school, so on our way north, we detoured down School Road to have a look.
colour in the distance
Kudos to whoever planted these. I am surprised wandering deer don’t eat them, as our client Ann’s garden is just uphill to the south and is continually plagued by deer.
We deadheaded and weeded at the Depot Restaurant, where the tulip and narcissi show is almost over. I won’t be planting annuals till after Mother’s Day so there will be a bit of a gap. We planted some Nicotiana langsdorfii and a pineapple sage and an Eryngium ‘Sapphire Blue’.
Tulip ‘Green Wave’ is coming on still.
My first plan had been a bit of planting on Long Beach, but instead we decided to drive straight on to Klipsan Beach Cottages. We had not been there for two weeks.
on the entry lawn at KBC
at KBC: big old rhodos, visible from the highway
plants to go in at KBC
Above, Nicotiana langsdorfii, Jackman’s Blue Rue, Agastache ‘Sangria’ and ‘Cotton Candy’, and an Erysimum ‘Bowles Mauve’ to replace one that died, and a Lobelia tupa (which is so hard to get results from but when one does, it is spectacular). Later I added a Zaluzianskya capensis (‘Night Sceneted Phlox’).
Allan planted and weeded while I deadheaded narcissi and weeded. Below, I lift some leaves to show you some mice jumping headfirst into the ground.
Arisarum proboscideum (mouse plant)
By the mouseplant, mossy steps lead up to the back of the pond.
looking south across the pond
By the driveway, Mary has planted up the old fountain with sedums.
lady fountain all planted up.
I went over to the A Frame garden to pick many and many the dead narcissi.
The A Frame woods
They are my favourite flower.
deadheads: the making of zombie bride bouquets
The foliage has to be let die down naturally, but it helps the bulb to pick the dead flower so no energy goes to making seeds. Or so I have read. I cling to what Ed Hume (northwest gardening personality) said in a lecture, that one can cut the foliage down three weeks after the flower blooms. I just need to do that because we have so many public gardens that look terrible with floppy old bulb foliage.
in the deer fenced garden
Tulip ‘Jackpot’ safe from munching deer
more tulips
almost done
stunning foliage, including the purple-y Thalictrum ‘Elin’
outside the fence, windblown Meconopsis cambrica (Welsh poppy)
clematis
Pieris and the lawn border with new fountain
The most exciting thing I saw was that Mary’s Cardiocrinum giganteum (a tall stately “lily” that takes years to bloom) is reaching for the sky and has a bud. I forgot to photograph that, of all things.
The saddest thing was to learn that my dear friend Riley had died over the weekend. I will miss him.
my friend Riley, February 2005 – April 19 2009
We are going to pause now for The House Dog’s Grave by Robinson Jeffers, so brace yourselves:
I’ve changed my ways a little: I cannot now
Run with you in the evenings along the shore,
Except in a kind of dream and you,
if you dream a moment,
You see me there.
So leave awhile the paw-marks on the front door
Where I used to scratch to go out or in,
And you’d soon open; leave on the kitchen floor
The marks of my drinking-pan.
I cannot lie by your fire as I used to do
On the warm stone,
Nor at the foot of your bed: no, all the nights through
I lie alone.
But your kind thought has laid me less than six feet
Outside your window where firelight so often plays,
And where you sit to read – and I fear often
grieving for me –
Every night your lamplight lies on my place.
You, man and woman, live so long it is hard
To think of you ever dying.
A little dog would get tired of living so long,
I hope that when you are lying
Under the ground like me your lives will appear
As good and joyful as mine.
No, dears, that’s too much hope: you are not
as well cared for
As I have been,
And never have known the passionate undivided
Fidelities that I knew.
Your minds are perhaps too active, too many-sided…
But to me you were true.
You were never masters but friends. I was your friend.
I loved you well, and was loved. Deep love endures
To the end and far past the end. If this is my end
I am not lonely. I am not afraid. I am still yours.
************************************************************************
We got a grip on ourselves and went on with the work day.
Oman Builders Supply garden, Ocean Park
When we got to Bailey’s Café in Nahcotta, I had to tell Jayne that when our job at Wiegardt Gallery ends, we will no longer be doing our small sessions of weeding at Bailey’s because it will be too out of the way.
Bailey’s Café and old Clamshell Railroad timetable
We saw oystering out on Willapa Bay.
lilacs blooming at Wiegardt Gallery (where we continue to do some basic garden care till Eric’s gardening brother arrives)
I thought we might go to Andersen’s RV Park next to deadhead narcissi. Then we decided to check Golden Sands Assisted Living on the way, assuming that would mean we would not have to return there next week. Oops….because the visit was spontaneous, we did not have our string trimmer for the center lawn, so we will have to return next week anyway.
I hope to eventually have this all turn into moss spangled with little flowers.
The beds need lots more weeding, anyway….although they are not bad and are full of promise.
I toyed again with the idea of just deadheading narcissi at Andersen’s RV Park, then thought how frustrating it would be to AGAIN have to leave without much time to weed. It was already five o clock. Deciding to give Andersen’s a longer session tomorrow, we drove right on by, heading south to the Long Beach tasks that I had originally planned to start the day with.
We deadheaded Narcissi in front of Dennis Co.
added plants to the planter by the arch
deadheaded city hall, where the Aruncus (goatsbeard) is growing rapidly
hosta echoes rhodo flowers in Peggy’s Park, east side of city hall
Peggy’s Park…a memory garden
Allan put in a new rosemary where an old mostly dead one had come out by the police station and I deadheaded the Veterans Field white narcissi.
Tulip ‘Flaming Parrot’ at Veterans Field, Allan’s photos
We added a lavender to balance this planter where one had died.
And then, with the sun low in the sky, we replaced another lavender down at Time Enough Books at the port.
clouds over the boat storage yard, Port of Ilwaco
I even had a little time to sort out and move around some of the stash of unplanted plants at home. I dream of time this weekend to plant them. Tomorrow, I do hope for some good enough weather to put in a satisfying weeding session at Andersen’s RV Park.
today: Ilwaco to Klipsan Beach to Ocean Park to Nahcotta to Long Beach to Ilwaco
