News bulletin! Daffodils (
Narcissus) are blooming on the north path (where it's a bit warmer) and most are budded up around the gardens. We probably have 150,000 daffodils out there and I sure like t
hem when they peak (10-15 days from now). After this warm weekend, we'll really start to see them "stretch" and open up. Today was one of our busiest spring days thus far with all sorts of garden volunteers and continued progress in the Japanese garden. Our contractors have been removing rocks out of the stream and scouping
out years of accumulated sediment (in some cases, over 12"!). The pictures to the left and right show some of the progress. The stream will be widened and narrowed in select spots to create calmer areas and faster moving water here and there. I've been involved with these decisions and I think the final product is going to look awesome. The waterfall rebuild will be the last piece of the puzzle and it will be restored to its original glory (and then some!). If spring rains don't slow this process too much, we should see a completion before Mother's Day (knock on wood).
The weather was cool but pleasant today and the Grumpies worked at an amazing pace. Above is Dick H. replacing coolant lines on our Cushman garden vehicle. He's so handy and it's nice to utilize his skills for very quick (and professional) repairs. Directly above a
re Gary and Urban who worked with Ron W. and new Ron on composting the entire sunken garden. This is a huge space and the four of them did an awesome job. The timing was perfect as plants are just starting to poke up and were easier to work around than they would be next week. Bob C. and Del helped Big John compost a border as w
ell and Big John moved on to other composting and has started spreading fresh shredded bark around the periphery of the children's garden. Our window for mulching/composting is narrowing with warmer temperatures but we should get thru it in the next two weeks. To the right is some of the bluestone that will be used for our new patio very shortly and to the left are more glory-in-the-snow (
Chionodoxa) which are blooming everywhere and thankfully, are not bloo
ming out of the snow (which happens every now and then!). What a beautiful flower and I'll feature the white variety in a future blog as well. Bob A., Dave and Jim continued work on our new cedar garden benches and will have
no shortage of projects this spring for sure. Bob T. worked with Joe (to the right), one of our new Grumpies, on some air edging techniques and the guys did a real nice job tidying up bed/turf edges in the garden east of the Parker Education Center. Maury dug himself in to a hole (literally, to the left) as he and Pat dug five of these large holes that will be the locatio
n for our culvert pipe planters (to be installed next week). They ultimately dug down 36" but were sure to mention that only the first 18" was any fun (rocks, etc. further down)! Janice did a nice job tidying up more gardens and straightening garden signs which is an annual spring event. She had some meetings and is the featured speaker tonight at the gardens with her presentation on
"Heirlooms, Hybrids & History" (7 pm - 8 pm). Larry flagged more irrigation heads and Dr. Gredler was out aerating lawns most of the day. Larry also installed new garden signs and repaired a water pipe leak that thankfully was not as bad as we had feared. I was out in the gardens today and really walked every garden end to end, taking notes and using tape, flags or spray paint to lay out some "near future" projects. The hellebores continue to impress and to the right is one of the darker blooming varieties (
Helleborus orientalis 'Ruse Black') in the woodland walk garden. Below is one of four signs (modified by Pat) that are now installed and are promoting our tree sale with the Golden K Club on April 22 and 23 (see
www.rotarybotanicalgardens.org for more information). I'm here for a half day tomorrow but am then travelling up to Green Bay and will participate in their "Spring Thaw" symposium on Saturday. I haven't been up that way in a couple years and am looking forward to it.
News bulletin! Daffodils (Narcissus) are blooming on the north path (where it's a bit warmer) and most are budded up around the gardens. We probably have 150,000 daffodils out there and I sure like t
hem when they peak (10-15 days from now). After this warm weekend, we'll really start to see them "stretch" and open up. Today was one of our busiest spring days thus far with all sorts of garden volunteers and continued progress in the Japanese garden. Our contractors have been removing rocks out of the stream and scouping
out years of accumulated sediment (in some cases, over 12"!). The pictures to the left and right show some of the progress. The stream will be widened and narrowed in select spots to create calmer areas and faster moving water here and there. I've been involved with these decisions and I think the final product is going to look awesome. The waterfall rebuild will be the last piece of the puzzle and it will be restored to its original glory (and then some!). If spring rains don't slow this process too much, we should see a completion before Mother's Day (knock on wood). 
re Gary and Urban who worked with Ron W. and new Ron on composting the entire sunken garden. This is a huge space and the four of them did an awesome job. The timing was perfect as plants are just starting to poke up and were easier to work around than they would be next week. Bob C. and Del helped Big John compost a border as w
ell and Big John moved on to other composting and has started spreading fresh shredded bark around the periphery of the children's garden. Our window for mulching/composting is narrowing with warmer temperatures but we should get thru it in the next two weeks. To the right is some of the bluestone that will be used for our new patio very shortly and to the left are more glory-in-the-snow (Chionodoxa) which are blooming everywhere and thankfully, are not bloo
ming out of the snow (which happens every now and then!). What a beautiful flower and I'll feature the white variety in a future blog as well. Bob A., Dave and Jim continued work on our new cedar garden benches and will have 
no shortage of projects this spring for sure. Bob T. worked with Joe (to the right), one of our new Grumpies, on some air edging techniques and the guys did a real nice job tidying up bed/turf edges in the garden east of the Parker Education Center. Maury dug himself in to a hole (literally, to the left) as he and Pat dug five of these large holes that will be the locatio
n for our culvert pipe planters (to be installed next week). They ultimately dug down 36" but were sure to mention that only the first 18" was any fun (rocks, etc. further down)! Janice did a nice job tidying up more gardens and straightening garden signs which is an annual spring event. She had some meetings and is the featured speaker tonight at the gardens with her presentation on "Heirlooms, Hybrids & History" (7 pm - 8 pm). Larry flagged more irrigation heads and Dr. Gredler was out aerating lawns most of the day. Larry also installed new garden signs and repaired a water pipe leak that thankfully was not as bad as we had feared. I was out in the gardens today and really walked every garden end to end, taking notes and using tape, flags or spray paint to lay out some "near future" projects. The hellebores continue to impress and to the right is one of the darker blooming varieties (Helleborus orientalis 'Ruse Black') in the woodland walk garden. Below is one of four signs (modified by Pat) that are now installed and are promoting our tree sale with the Golden K Club on April 22 and 23 (see www.rotarybotanicalgardens.org for more information). I'm here for a half day tomorrow but am then travelling up to Green Bay and will participate in their "Spring Thaw" symposium on Saturday. I haven't been up that way in a couple years and am looking forward to it.
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