Tuesday, January 11, 2011

The 2011 Color Scheme Revealed!

Above are some of the Holiday Lights Show displays coming back in for "unprocessing" (is that a word?). These were some of the PVC arches out in the gardens and we take off the lights for storage (and subsequent re-testing and repair in September). We have this process down to a science (I'm a casual observer) and though Mother Nature will affect the rate of putting up and taking down the show, we have a good, organized system. Today was a bit snowy but a cozy day to be inside thinking about spring activities. I finished one of our larger seed orders which includes some neat heirloom tomatoes (for the May plant sale) that I haven't tasted yet. Check out Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds (all organic from Mansfield, MO) for some really neat varieties of all sorts of veggies. With tomato variety names like 'Black Icicle', 'Moonglow', 'Roman Candle' and 'Violet Jasper', how can you not want to sample these? The Rock Prairie Master Gardener Association will again have their Garden Festival (August 27th this year) and hopefully tomato tasting will be part of the fun! I've also ordered about half of our marigold collection and am excited to finally put this collection together. Below is one of the large obelisks being converted to our new blue color for 2011 and in the distance are some of our new yellow culvert planters. This image is a good representation of our blue and yellow theme for the entrance garden and terrace garden but of course, the primary impact will be from 5,000 plants representing 80 varieties that will really make this color scheme shine!
Urban and Rose were here to do some more work on the culvert pipes (seen above) and have done some more painting and prep as we'll be using these in our Garden Expo booth (see previous blogs about the Garden Expo up in Madison in February). Dick H. was here to help them out and we'll have some fun, cut stems and grasses (put together by Marianne) coming out of these uprights. Dr. Gredler continued his obelisk work and will add plenty of blue paint smudges to his painting clothes over the remainder of the week. Janice came in to work on spring plant sale tasks and Marv and Marianne popped in briefly. Marianne is doing a nice job sifting thru lots of historical pictures and information regarding RBG and we'll save all the relevant materials in a more accessible and safe format (not jammed in to old cardboard boxes!). We had a productive Garden Development & Maintenance Committee Meeting today (Gary, Maury, Dick P., Big John, Dr. Gredler, Hal, Carrie and Christine) and talked about our overall plan of attack for 2011. A big project will be landscaping the "North Point Garden" but it's an exciting piece of real estate with a beautiful view. We also saw Mary, Jim and Bob T. over here today. Below is both bad and good news. The bad news is that most of Janice's gourds that were drying for crafts next year (behind the Horticulture Center) have been pillaged by the squirrels. The good news is that the squirrels had a nice sustaining, nutritious snack! That was a bushel gourd by the way!

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