Going To Get Damp

The Danford irises (Iris danfordiae) are just starting to bloom in time for another battering from incoming rains. Portions of this past weekend were quite damp and it sounds like we'll have more of the same this week. This upcoming weekend is our big spring symposium (March 26th) and we are looking forward to a full crowd (180 attendees). I met with Big John and Polly today regarding set-up and took care of some other arrangements. We still have people calling to see if they can get in for this Saturday! Our Friday night "Meet & Greet" still has some openings (call me for more details) and it will be nice to relax with the speakers (Doreen, Ed and Jeff) prior to the chaos. Doreen is also doing a presentation on "Heirloom Vegetables" that evening. Janice, Marianne, Kay and our new Education Coordinator, Kris worked on preparing our symposium attendee bags this morning (see below). Kris' son Roman was a great help too and it's nice that we're so organized thus far (thanks to Janice, Marianne and Polly!).Today was our first official "Grumpy Day" and I put up our first list of the year. Unfortunately it was a bit damp to do some of the projects (i.e. composting beds). Dick W. went out to cut back some shrub willows while Terry and Marv transplanted spirea, barberries and did a nice job organizing the yard for some incoming semi-loads of shredded bark (coming Wednesday). Larry took in more stakes and helped the guys organize the yard. Dr. Gredler worked on painting the last of the cucumber supports as did Pat. Dr. G also ran to the dump a couple of times to keep up with our accumulation of garden debris. Ron W. and Dick H. started assembling our plant sale tables that will go in to use for the big tree sale in April prior to their use in May. Gary continued his work on labels and we also saw Kelli, Chuck, Polly, Maury and many others. Our Horticulture Therapy committee also met this afternoon.

Directly below are some new offerings for our spring compost sale. We'll be selling these half gallons of worm tea concentrate ($4 bottle) that can be used out in the garden. We'll be using some of this product here for fertilizing containers, houseplants and select plantings. This worm tea will also be offered with worm castings at the spring plant sale. Many swear by the use of compost teas in the landscape although the research conclusions regarding its effectiveness are at times, quite conflicting. I've heard enough positives about the appropriate use of such teas and am interested to see how popular it will be as a sale item. Butterfly #6 can be seen at the bottom of the posting. Speaking in Pardeeville, WI tonight ("Focus on Foliage") and at Olbrich tomorrow evening ("Groundcovers"). Busy week.