Japanese Garden Re-Dedication

Today was another busy day and I just got home after working from 7 pm to 9 pm (although my 6 pm until 9 pm was a class/presentation). The plant sale continued today (15% off everything!) and will continue tomorrow from 9 am to 5 pm. Our last ditch sale will be this Saturday, September 17th from 8 am until 12 noon (also 15% off). Marianne started up the sale and came back to close it up. Special thanks to Kay, Gary, Rita and Alice who all helped at the sale. Above (from left to right) are Little Jerry, Karen and Jumbo Jim at our Japanese garden "re-dedication" this afternoon. These three have been our primary trio for caring for the Japanese garden over the past 8 years. More on the re-dedication further below....

Larry worked on running irrigation, repairing a pump, watering and other projects. John push mowed, re-graveled and did lots of watering out in the gardens. We could really use the rain. Janice helped get the plant sale situated this morning and did a nice job removing some annuals and planting mums for some extended color. Marianne helped with the plant sale and Pat came in to push mow with John. Dr. Gredler was in to mow and Kay helped water and did some nice gardening in various locations. Bill O. also was in to mow and collect a couple loads of leaves. The cottonwoods (Populus deltoides) are really starting to drop their leaves. Our Garden Development this morning committee meeting included Dr. Gredler, Dr. Yahr, Hal, Joanne, Big John, Kelli, Iza, Dick P. and Gary. I saw Tom K. out in the gardens later. Big Jim had three RECAPPERS with him to tidy up the Japanese garden. To the right is another shot of the dinosaur kale (Brassica oleracea 'Laciniato'). To the left is the "yellow-variety" black-eyed Susan vine (Thunbergia alata) climbing up a blue obelisk in our entrance garden. This vine also sprawled over everything in the near vicinity and was quite vigorous.

Below are some images from the Japanese garden "re-dedication" event this afternoon. We had about 35 guests come to this event and it was truly a lot of fun. Kelli did a nice introduction followed by my presentation (PowerPoint) regarding the history and recent developments in the Japanese garden. Dr. Yahr did the ribbon cutting and Todd (Nature's Touch) was there to help answer questions as well as we all enjoyed a stroll thru that garden and some tasty snacks too.