A Not So "Daily" Blog!

Despite vowing to keep up with my daily blog here at the gardens, I've had a difficult time recently. Last week I travelled to Rochester, MN and spoke to the Shades of Green Hosta Society about Ferns and Mosses. They were a great group and very enthusiastic about plants. I hope they come to see the gardens as only a couple of their members have seen Rotary Gardens. I then went up to Amherst, WI for a presentation on Saturday to about 200 people. This topic was about foliage/texture. Another great group of plant enthusiasts (and potential visitors!). I've now been getting ready for the WI Public Television Garden EXPO in Madison this Fri. thru Sunday. We have a nice booth and I'll be giving a couple seminars. This has always been great exposure for Rotary Gardens and we look forward to 20,000 people walking by our booth.

Lots of volunteer help recently. Janice continues to work her magic getting ready for our spring plant sale by producing labels, finalizing spreadsheets and being very proactive. Kristine Z. has also been helping with these collections. Kay and Dr. Gredler have processed most of the labels and seeds (see below) and I'll head out to our growers next week with our seeds for them to subsequently incorporate in to our large spring orders. With the recent heat wave (almost a record), we've had more access out in the gardens for bringing in elements of the lights show. Larry, Jerry, Marv, Marianne, Terry, Bill, Urban and others have been keeping up with dismantling the show and bringing back lights and cords for processing. The "carpentry Grumpies" (Vern, Jim, Bob and Dave) are working on 50 bean towers (see above) that will be used to grow our heirloom runner and pole beans. These towers (10' tall) are extremely sturdy and will be anchored 2' in the ground. We will have 25 here and the Rock County Farm will have the other 25 when they replicate our veggie collection. Dick W, Dick H, Dick P, Del and Maury have also kept busy with various winter projects. Rotary Gardens is so fortunate to have not only a dedicated staff but wonderful, "energy-laden" volunteers. This might be my "weekly blog" as I'm wrapped up in projects and gone Fri-Sun.