The Weed Population Takes A Plunge

 

It was another lovely day with a combination of sun and clouds and a temperature around 80 degrees F.  We had another great turnout of volunteers today and were able to accomplish many tasks including significant planting and a whole lot of weeding!  Above is the 'Cheyenne Spirit' coneflower (Echinacea) which is a nice seed mix (also an All-America Selections winner) that includes purples, reds and yellows as well.  This little patch of orange certainly caught my eye.  With a cool morning, it was nice to have so many helping hands and we were able to spread out over a good portion of the gardens for many projects.  The amount of weeds that came back to the compost pile was impressive and the grounds staff also had their share of projects including some watering as we're on the tail end of riding all the recent moisture in some areas.  Below are some other photos from today.

 

'Archangel Dark Purple' summer snapdragon (Angelonia angustifolia) - annual

'Wallowa Mountains' sandwort (Arenaria sp.) - perennial 

'Thailand Giant' elephant ear (Colocasia gigantea) - annual

As mentioned above, we had a superb volunteer turnout including the arrival of a new volunteer, Karen (seen above).  I gave Karen a tour and she opted to be an assigned gardener and will be taking care of the North point border which immediately benefitted from her weeding attention this morning.  She is an accomplished gardener and fit in nicely.  Our Grumpies kept busy with path tidying and some mulching.  Below are Ron P. (left) and Larry H. sweeping up the koi pond patio.  Bob C. and Gene were also out cleaning up the paths.  Later, Larry H. shifted to some mulching in the larch area.  Our carpenters (Dave, Vern, Jim, Ron Y.) worked on more Japanese fence repair although the second photo down shows Jim (left) and Ron Y. taking an early (and unauthorized!) break in the shade.  The next photo down shows four of our Grumpettes (Suzie, Vera, Bonnie and Sue) weeding along our red themed wall border.  Marilyn, Kathy (fourth photo down) and Winifred were also part of the crew.  All the ladies shifted to other areas for planting (entrance garden) and more weeding (Jungle Garden).  Shirley (fifth photo down) also focused her weeding efforts in the Jungle Garden.  Vicki came in later to finish planting and shifted to weeding in the Pollinator's Paradise theme of the Nancy Yahr Memorial Children's Garden which was also targeted by Pat R. this morning. Roy and Mary were in for weeding in multiple locations and Urban and his son arrived this afternoon for some serious pruning and the removal of a dead tree.  Dr. Gredler did his mowing and we also saw Rose N., Dr. Yahr, El, Kris, Megan and many others.

The grounds crew was quite spread out today with much going on and many visitors to accommodate.  Larry ran irrigation most of the day in areas that were starting to dry and moved on to mowing, weed whipping and watering the holding yard.  Big John worked on setting up sprinklers, watering containers and many other tasks.  Janice organized our morning volunteers, weeded, had a meeting and worked on other tasks.  Jenny was in for a half day with a strong focus on weeding the fern & moss garden.  I was able to place plants for installation and had many meetings.  We're ready for a great Home Garden Tour this Saturday, July 12th (9 am - 3 pm, rain or shine).  See our website for more details.  Further below are more recent shots from the gardens.

blood banana (Musa acuminata ssp. zebrina) - annual

'Diamond Frost' spurge (Euphorbia graminea) - annual

woolly sage (Salvia argentea) - biennial

Come see the beautiful Adirondack chairs at the gardens as part of the 2014 Garden Art Project!