Planting Preparations

Today was a day of planting, pre-planting preparations and post planting care. The weather was beautiful with blue skies and a cool day in the 60 degrees F. We had some cold temperatures last night but no observable frost. However, some of our tender plants in the yard looked a little bedraggled but should be fine. Directly above are the formal annual sections filled with ornamental onions (Allium) and punctuated with these obelisks. I was amazed how many visitors were out in the gardens today. I spoke with many visitors and it was nice to see the place "hopping." This should be a busy weekend and the gardens are still looking quite colorful. Directly below is one of the fuchsias (Fuchsia sp.) in our hanging baskets. This shot was taken from underneath the hanging basket. Those flowers are certainly showy in both color and form. The next photo down shows some perennial flax (Linum sp.) looking nice in the herb garden. The Janesville Area Herb Society has maintained our three herb garden sections (originally four) for many years and are a great group that is very supportive of the gardens too.

We had a nice turnout of volunteers today including a group of nine students and their teacher from Edison Elementary School here in Janesville. The kids can be seen below planting the beds on the south edge of the terrace garden. The kids were all hard workers and did a great job and much thanks to Janice for help facilitating the group. The next photo down shows Mary and Roy in their assigned garden section of the shade garden. I placed about 300 plants out there for them to install and they made quick work of that project and did some significant weeding too! Pat C. (third photo down) was mobile out in the gardens and continued trying to match our new labels to replace the older style. She also continues to catalog labels that come back (dead plant, etc.) so we can use them again in a timely fashion. Jumbo Jim had four RECAPPERS helping in the Parker Education Center with clean-up duties and he also brought the guys out to help in the gardens. Dr. Gredler was out mowing and we also saw Dr. Yahr, Del, Bill O., Barry, Mary W., Becky and many others. Marv B. was also in (fourth photo down) and spent some major time turning our massive compost pile. He also helped Terry with some gardening projects.

We had a smaller grounds staff today and everyone kept busy. Pat push mowed, mulched in the arboretum and worked on some other projects. Cindy tidied up in the sunken garden, gazebo garden and spent much of the afternoon watering our yard. Terry also push mowed but spent time preparing a flower bed (with Marv), accomplished shearing/shaping duties and watered containers (and a tree). He also set up a sprinkler to water in the new plants installed by Mary and Roy. We try to keep up with watering although it looks like there is a chance for more rain this weekend. Janice did the cutting display, had a meeting and spent the afternoon with our new volunteers from Edison. I spent time hauling out plants and preparing areas for planting tomorrow. For the planting work day, depending on the turnout, I have one major area ready to go and three others prepared as "back up" areas to plant. I hope we have a nice turnout. Directly below are more images of interesting plants out in the gardens although the last photo was taken at my home.