All In Preparation For Spring

To the left is a 'Sunkist' arborvitae (Thuja occidentalis) near our Horticulture Center. This is the best looking specimen of the three near our building. The deer have uniformly denuded the foliage of arborvitae in the garden up to about 60". It's odd to see our 10' arborvitae hedges with only 5' of growth up high. On the bright side, this will allow more air circulation in to those gardens....

Kay is here today (and yesterday) organizing labels for our spring plant sale. These labels, typed and printed by Janice, will be used to label ALL cells in our flats of vegetables for the May 15-17 sale. All the veggies (with the exception of the heirloom beans) will be started in four packs. Customers have mentioned in the past that while they don't need four of a certain variety, one or two would be nice. We let customers "break" the four packs and mix and match as needed...thus the reason for labels for each and every plant. This equates to 22,800 labels that have to be typed, printed, "ripped/peeled", organized and put in to the cells once the plants arrive. The beans are being bagged up to be sold as little packs. We will be giving surplus seeds to kids during Earth Week in April. Dr. Gredler is helping Kay and has consistently processed our seeds as they come in. We are a well-oiled machine (at least in February). Dick and Maury were around too and Larry went on a winter shopping spree for various odds and ends for our shop and vehicle repair/maintenance that will be occuring in the coming months. Kelley sent me an awesome link of interest at http://www.heirloomseeds.com/trivia.htm that may be of interest. Note the interesting snow sculpture below. Only in WI (not at RG!)......