Four of Four

The area above was devoid of plants yesterday morning and is now planted and complete after a full morning of attention from about 50 volunteers. Even better, the area above was one of four areas that was planted in its entirety. Not only did we plant four of four areas but this fourth of four Saturday work days was again, very successful like the previous three. The rain seemed poised all morning and we had a brief shower around 11:15 am that was easy to work thru and the sun later came up. I still hope it rains tonight and soaks everything in nicely although the long range forecast looks good for precipitation through the upcoming week. We had a crack team of volunteers in the front berm (called the "flag berm"). See Carolyn to the left and Mary and Del to the right. These images show a lot of red and maroon which is a strong, rich color combination that I think will look quite fetching in a couple of weeks. We planted lots of foliage annuals like coleus (Solenostemon), sedges (Carex), purple fountain grass (Pennisetum), copperleaf (Alternanthera), sweet potato vine (Ipomoea batatas), etc. Our filler annuals are all red bloomers, many with maroon foliage. It will be nice to see the many celosias (Celosia sp.) that will look dynamite in these compositions like 'Amigo Mahogany Red', 'Forest Fire', 'China Town', 'Fresh Look Red', 'New Look' and so on. Lots of good ones out there. Below are more volunteers including Magda and Felicia further down. We also had 14 volunteers from the Rock County Corrections "WORKENDER" program. This is a program that allows low-risk offenders to be involved in community service as opposed to jail time and/or other restrictions with the intent of not disrupting their employment, childcare or educational opportunities. We've worked with this program before, specifically for planting projects, and I would say that this was our best group yet and everyone was enthusiastic about not only planting but finishing this large area. They did a nice job and were no different than our other volunteers (aside from the orange vests) in working towards some lofty goals in the morning (which was to plant as much as possible before the rains, which never really came!). I think it was a first time planting experience for some of these participants but everyone gave it their all. This large bed has been a target area for planting by the participants of this program in the past as it requires a good 30 people to get it done in 3 hours or so and is our largest planting area near the main parking lot. The red and maroon theme is going to look pretty sweet this year.

As with many of our work days, we usually have a "back-up plan B" if we underestimate the progress of our volunteers and need to move beyond what we originally planned. Well, that happened by 9:30 am and we planted another entire berm with the trial annuals from Ball Seed, PanAmerican Seed and Takii Seed. We had a dozen or so volunteers shift over to this area and planted 90% of that space. We had everything cleaned up and watered by 11:30 am as we wanted to get out of there before all the weddings started. Our fourth planted area (also red and maroon themed) was planted by members of the Noon Rotary Club behind our Parker Education Center. The gang, led by Hal and Doris (below and to the right), planted the entire terrace garden border as well as a large area in the wishing well garden. The Noon Rotary Club planted this area in the past and did another great job. I actually placed the plants out there Thursday and we kept them watered in place until the Saturday planting. I don't know all the names of the participants planting this space but saw Hal, Doris, Pam, Paul, Gary, Dr. Yahr, Leslie, Whitey and Dave A. Great progress and this border will echo our front plantings and really help define this neat garden space.