We had a tour from Grant County (WI) come in this morning (8:40 am sharp) with 54 Master Gardeners. Art and I split up the tour and they all seemed to enjoy the gardens. It was a beautiful morning for a tour and the group was very fun to chat with throughout the morning. Above are some of the tour attendees enjoying the Thomas Jefferson Collection which is at peak right now and has received an amazing (and much appreciated) amount of attention recently. After the tour, I had a meeting and missed out on most of our morning action out in the gardens. However, it was nice to see so many volunteers out in the gardens and our staff also kept busy with watering and other duties throughout the day. Directly below are three photos from the Jungle Garden which continues to fill in slowly but surely. The doors and windows continue to intrigue guests and it will be nice to see these collections once they totally fill in over the coming eight weeks.
Much of our volunteer activity today revolved around watering and weeding. Above is Kathy (hiding by the pear tree) who worked with Eva in the reception garden today. The ladies continued their monumental weeding efforts in this space and will likely finish tomorrow. Marilyn, Mary and Sue weeded in the terrace garden and shifted to the formal gardens. Don and Pearl (directly below) tidied up their border which is looking very nice. Mary Ann (second photo down) tidied up the Thomas Jefferson Collection and has been a great help in that area along with the efforts of Tom K. Our gardening Grumpies (Gary B., Bob C. and Ron B.) worked on watering duties and some mulching. Vern, Jim and Ron Y. continued building our next batch of obelisks (for sale). Dr. Gredler was in for mowing and Maury worked on cleaning our lady fountain water feature and he also ran errands. Dave and Jenny (third photo down) did a super job tidying their two assigned garden areas (formal perennial garden and hosta hollow). They do a very thorough job. Vicki was also at the gardens from late morning thru early afternoon. She focused on weeding in multiple areas. I'm sure I missed some of the volunteers but their efforts are appreciated nonetheless.
With some grounds staff on vacation, the week has been light on grounds help but thankfully "heavy" on volunteer support! Janice, Larry and I were the only grounds staff today. Larry worked on running irrigation, setting up sprinklers, watering and mowing. Janice helped direct our morning volunteers, planted, watered and bounced between other projects as well. Aside from my tour and meeting, I spent more time on upcoming events and preparations for our Fall Plant Sale (Sept. 6th and 7th, 9 am - 4 pm) which should be awesome. Below are some more photos from today.
'Limelight' four o'clocks (Mirabilis jalapa) - annual
Quickfire panicled hydrangea (Hydrangea paniculata 'Bulk') with fountain in the background
'Durango Tangerine' marigold (Tagetes patula) - annual
'EnduraScape Red' verbena (Verbena hybrida) - annual
the formal annual garden is starting to fill in nicely
our red-themed wall planting is looking sharp too
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