Another Dent In Our Planting

Above is just one of three large areas that I placed plants out for installation today. My cart (below) is very handy for this task as I can haul 36 flats at a time! The area above is in the gazebo garden which we're planting in advance of a large wedding this weekend. I also placed plants out in the larch area and the terrace garden. The excellent weather today, coupled with super volunteers, kept me moving to keep ahead of our planters. The weather still looks good for the week although a little rain in the coming days would be alright with me. We hope for a dry Saturday morning for the fourth of our five Volunteer Work Days (8 am until 12 noon, meet at the Parker Education Center). We plan on planting the remainder of the entrance garden Saturday which will receive another 6,000 plants or so this weekend to complete our yellow/orange/red theme. I couldn't be happier with the progress today by both staff and volunteers and I think the average bed time for all of us tonight will come sooner after accomplishing so much!

I wasn't able to photograph all of our volunteers but we sure had an excellent turnout. The Story & Stroll program had a huge turnout and it was nice to see all those folks out in the gardens along with the students who arrived for the Youth Education Program. Our education volunteers were in action all day. .Betty (above) and Shirley (directly below) both worked in their assigned garden areas on weeding which will be followed by significant planting next week. Jan R. weeded in the Scottish garden and Kay continued her onslaught of purslane in the entrance garden. The second photo down shows Eva (left) and Kathy (hiding behind the pole) doing some planting in the gazebo garden after they finished weeding the entrance garden slope just before Big John and Terry came through with the rototillers. The third photo down shows Mary D. (foreground) and Vicky planting the gazebo border (seen in the top photo). The ladies put in a good 500 plants and Vicky stuck around for watering and clearing out more bulb foliage in another garden that we have to plant next week. It's nice having her back in action. Jenny (fourth photo down) and Dave tidied in the Hosta Hollow garden and Jenny installed more hostas in that colorful space. They both put in some solid time and are excellent gardeners, volunteers and past RBG grounds employees! The fifth photo down shows Nancy (left) and Gena planting in the larch area this afternoon where they were joined by Mary (sixth photo down) and Patty (seventh photo down). They planted a good portion of our All-America Selections garden and Paula and Emily came later in the evening to continue on this same project. Janice worked with the Chestnut House volunteers and they did an excellent job selecting and installing plants for the raised planters at the Horticulture Center. Vern continued installing signs for the Garden Art Project ("Nature Nooks") and Mary Kay worked on the lending library. We also saw Chuck S., Dr. Yahr and many others today. I'd call that a solid turnout!

The grounds staff had a great day as well. Cindy and Cheryl dove right back in to weeding in the Nancy Yahr Memorial Children's Garden which will once again feature our Smelly Garden theme. Cindy did some watering and Cheryl watered the entire holding yard which was a monumental task today. Big John and Terry had a very physical day with rototilling, watering and completing the edging project out in the Thomas Jefferson Collection. The boys will be sleeping well tonight. I drove my little tractor around and delivered plants. Below are a couple plant photos I took throughout the day.