More Rain...But Productive Inside

While it was fairly dismal outside today with consistent rain, thunder and lightning, the Horticulture Center continues to become more colorful on the interior as seen here. We focused on more indoor projects which continue to prepare us for spring. The weather looks damp all the way through the weekend with some cooler temperatures arriving later in the week. It's always good to temper spring enthusiasm in April as the tail end of winter likes to lash out from time to time. The photo above shows one of our re-purposed containers with these daisy signs that Kris K. will use for her education programs. I thought this was a neat and modern looking arrangement! Behind the flowers is our yellow "squirrel gate" ready to go to the English cottage garden. We've been painting obelisks, containers, etc. since December and that has continued to happen daily. Below are more re-purposed containers that Pat was painting today. Do you think these will be hard to spot!? We had a productive day but we're all itching to get outside to get our "gardening fix." The second photo down shows the culvert pipe planters (18" diameter) that Jenny and Dr. Gredler were painting yesterday. These six will be used in our "rainbow garden" that will feature colorful flowers and vegetables that roughly correspond to these colors.

Our grounds staff today consisted of Cindy, Pat, Big John, Janice and Larry. Everyone jumped right in to indoor projects. Cindy started planting some select seeds which we'll encourage in one of our new greenhouses. Cindy also helped sort and organize tools, process handouts, etc. Pat worked on some painting and did a nice job reinforcing some of our pedestal/urn planters for use this year in the Pollinator's Paradise garden. Big John helped with some cleaning, went shopping with Janice and was out in the gardens briefly to pull some stakes out before it poured again. Janice caught up with many of her projects in the office while Larry spent most of the day primping and prepping one of our riding mowers. I worked on many tasks and delivered the last of our seeds to one of our local growers. These were some new samples from Takii Seeds that will be used in our trials. Directly below is our revised Tree Sale poster that emphasizes the shift in the event date to May 10th, 11th and 12th. See our website for more details on this event (including tree information) and the Spring Plant Sale that will be on those same days.

We had some volunteer action over here today. Dr. Gredler came in for some painting and Bill O. stopped by as well. Urban went out in the gardens to prepare some holes that are for destined for some small ginkgos that we'll relocate later this week to the alpine garden. Our Garden Development & Maintenance Committee met as well and attendees included Gary S., Maury, Big John, Hal R., Joanne A., Iza G., Christine R. and Rose M.. I have to admit the photos below are not from today. I took these yesterday afternoon when it was sunny and warm. All of these fall planted bulbs were near the Parker Education Center and are identified under the image.