Good Weekend, Short Week

Nice shot above from Saturday with Cindy and Gary deadheading annuals in one of our entrance garden annual beds. We are cutting some annuals back severely (snapdragons, salvia, nicotiana, etc.) in an effort to get a new flush of blooms to extend color until October. Many annuals are fading quickly with the cool temperatures but we hope to have color until a hard frost in 6 weeks or so. We had a great turnout of about 15 volunteers on Saturday and accomplished many tasks.
Today is sunny and quite pleasant. I'm writing this blog in the morning as I'm leaving town today with my younger daughter to go camping up in the Michigan upper peninsula. Should be fun but cool weather. We had another great Grumpy day with the fence gang (Dick P., Rollie and John) finishing three more sections and reaching a point where they can't do any more fence installation until we get more materials. Jim, Bob A. and Vern worked on finishing some nice custom benches while Gene and Ron hauled plants and compost. Bob T. worked on more air edging in the arboretum. Ed worked on cutting back some overgrown shrubs while Charlie and Mike (new Grumpy) skimmed and replaced path gravel where needed. It is nice to have Marv and Marianne back and they jumped right in to their various tasks. Terry, Little Jerry and Larry are also here today working on odds and ends including pruning, fertilizing, watering, etc. Nice shot below of the 'Limelight' four o'clocks (Mirabilis jalapa). I love the bright pink flowers and chartreuse foliage which of course fits our chartreuse/pink theme this year! Nice shot below from Carrol L. of the view thru gazebo to the arched bridge. I've received so many nice digital shots from volunteers this year! No blog until Friday!