Rain "Bookends" The Presale

I woke early to some rainfall and was concerned that prolonged precipitation would adversely affect the success of our RBG Members Only Pre-Sale (9 am - 4 pm) today. As I was coming up with some rainy day projects for the rest of the grounds staff, the heavens opened and we had a nice, although occasionally overcast, day. The rains held off until about 3:30 pm and their return just caught the tail end of the sale. Overall, it was a successful day and we had a nice turnout of customers and our volunteers were again very helpful. At the top are Becky (left) and Sally who were two of over 36 volunteers that helped with the sale today. Those orange vests are a badge of honor and are a great way for customers to identify our helpers. Marianne, Janice and I donned the orange as well. I wont remember everyone's name to be honest but we had great help out in the yard with customer service and our checkout volunteers did a great job facilitating purchases. Directly above is the plant sale just as it opened this morning and customers started arriving. To the left are some fall container arrangements that seemed quite popular today. We've offered these in the past and they sell quickly. Our sales of mums, asters, perennials and particularly shrubs went well too. To the lower right is Gena who helped this morning (although her vest is embarassingly inside out...).

The grounds staff (Marianne, Janice, Big John, Marv, Terry and I) all helped prepare the sale this morning as there are tasks that we need to accomplish before the sale starts. Pat was in later as a volunteer. Big John then did some path graveling, push mowing and container watering. Marv and Terry worked on repairing an asphalt path, went shopping (fertilizer, etc.) and worked on various odds and ends. Terry also push mowed and took the blower thru our three wedding sites (tomorrow). Marv has been doing a nice job organizing our storage yard and has a knack for keeping things orderly. Marianne and Janice kept our changing shifts of volunteers occupied out in the plant sale and the three of us are a well oiled machine for keeping the sale running smoothly with many years of experience between us. Marianne is great with the registers and the checkout process while Janice keeps the yard volunteers on track and is super with customers too. I try to stay out of the way but had some great conversations with RBG Members/customers and it was nice to see such a strong turnout for the sale. Tomorrow is traditionally the busiest day of the sale and the weather looks perfect. On Sunday, WJVL 99.9 will be doing a live remote broadcast (www.wclo.com/ontheroad) from the plant sale from 10:30 am until 12:30 pm. Al Fagerli will be promoting the plant sale at the Horticulture Center and attendees can register to qualify to win an ATV from Rob's Performance Motorsports (http://www.robsperformance.com/) of Johnson Creek, WI.

Directly below is a cluster of cherry tomatoes trailing out of an elevated culvert pipe planter just outside the Horticulture Center. The red variety is 'Sweet Million' and those creamy ones are the yummy 'Snow White' variety. The volunteers (and I) were nibbling all day. Janice's veggie beds around the Horticulture Center have been uber-productive this year. Speaking of tomatoes, I haven't yet mentioned how neat the Garden Festival was a couple weeks ago out at the 4H Rock County Fairgrounds. The bottom photo shows the tomato tasting tent and I was so impressed with how organized the event was by the Rock Prairie Master Gardeners with great help from the RECAPPERS. Kudos to another well-run event (Jumbo Jim, Deb, Bev, etc.) although I'd like to see more people enjoying this offering in the future.