Today, while sunny and clear, was still pretty frigid. I'm always amazed when I drive in to work to see high school kids waiting for the bus in just hooded sweatshirts. I never understood this fashion statement that involves subjecting yourself to frozen extremities and fro
stbite! However, we had a nice warm-up yesterday (25 degrees F!) that melted some of the snow and ice on streets and our garden paths. With lows around zero degrees F tonight, I still hope the first night of the Holiday Lights Show is well-attended. It looks to be consisten
tly cold over the next couple of evenings. Marv came in to sand/salt the paths as needed and Bill O. will do one more round before the show starts. We've had a good crew of volunteers here throughout the day. Janice came in and continued going through our newest seed catalogs. Two of my favorites can be seen here. We order lots of seed from both of these companies, much of which ends up in our spring plant sale in May. I also like the commitment of both Seed Savers Exchange and Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds to maintain seed diversity and protect/distrib
ute amazing heirloom varieties for a wide range of vegetables and flowers. I haven't gone through all of our catalogs yet but will begin the search in earnest after the New Year. I'm currently doing as much advanced planning for 2011 as I can with a focus on events right now so they can be promoted early and often! Urban and Rose came in to do more work on the yellow culvert planters. Next week we'll start the conversion of the big pipes (10' tall and 24" diameter) from maroon to a nice pastel blue. Speaking of colors, I was just reading in one of my newsletters that the garden color for 2011 is "honeysuckle". There was a reference to planting honeysuckle in the article which I've shown to the right and directly below. This is the Tatarian honeysuckle (Lonicera tatarica) and the color of those blooms is exactly what the "honeysuckle" color sample looked like. I cringed when I considered that this photo was taken in an understory dominated by this weedy species. Introduced from Central Asia in 1752, this honeysuckle was considered very durable (which it has proven!) and had varieties with flower colors including the pink above, red, yellow, orange and white. This species is still sold in the trade but is quite invasive. Dr. Michael Dirr, woody plant guru from the University of Georgia (Athens), states in his Manual of Woody Landscape Plants, "This, in my opinion, is a terrible weed and should be avoided." So, if you're in to honeysuckle, make sure it is the color and not one of the invasive species!
Dr. Gredler was here to work on sealing/staining benches and did some primer work on some of our trash bins that need to be repainted. Maury was in for a bit and I had a meeting with he, Gary and Matt regarding a potential new sign here at the gardens (more on 
that in the near future!). We also saw Mary and some others over here as well. I was pleased to hear that we received a grant that will allow us to do some shoreline plantings and corrective measures (2011) to not only beautify our shoreline but enhance it with appropriate plants. Despite a tough financial year, we've had some very generous, late season donations and there are still some grants out there that we hope will come in for the activities and developments of next year. To the right are some of the new butterfly wings that the carpenters have created for our 2011 art project. Once assembled, we'll have 35 of these available for decoration and placement out in the gardens. Details regarding this art event (similar to the daisies in 2010) will be announced in January. On a side note, I have quite a bit of time off for the remainder of the month so blog postings will be variable.
Dr. Gredler was here to work on sealing/staining benches and did some primer work on some of our trash bins that need to be repainted. Maury was in for a bit and I had a meeting with he, Gary and Matt regarding a potential new sign here at the gardens (more on 
that in the near future!). We also saw Mary and some others over here as well. I was pleased to hear that we received a grant that will allow us to do some shoreline plantings and corrective measures (2011) to not only beautify our shoreline but enhance it with appropriate plants. Despite a tough financial year, we've had some very generous, late season donations and there are still some grants out there that we hope will come in for the activities and developments of next year. To the right are some of the new butterfly wings that the carpenters have created for our 2011 art project. Once assembled, we'll have 35 of these available for decoration and placement out in the gardens. Details regarding this art event (similar to the daisies in 2010) will be announced in January. On a side note, I have quite a bit of time off for the remainder of the month so blog postings will be variable.
No comments:
Post a Comment