STUGGY

Above is a nice shot of the formal gardens this afternoon from the back porch above the English cottage garden. My blog title of STUGGY refers to my new word combination of STUFFY and MUGGY. I think it was appropriate as it was pretty brutal out there today with the heat and humidity. While we did see some visitors, the bulk of the activity involved our wonderful volunteers "toughing it out" in this hot weather. The gardens continue to look awesome including that front slope planting of red/orange/yellow as seen below. Our day started out with a semi-load delivery of bagged compost at 6:30 am for the Fall Plant Sale (see below). Larry was in to unload it as he is excellent with the skid loader. Thankfully Bob (in blue) and Larry (in white) were there to help out as well (with Alan and Leo too!). We had another excellent day out in the gardens and while it hasn't dried up entirely yet from the rain last Saturday, I wouldn't mind some rain in the next day or two. All of the photos in this blog were taken today.

'Thailand Giant' elephant ears (Colocasia gigantea) - tropical

fruiting structure of the Jack-in-the-pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum) - perennial

'China Town' plume celosia (Celosia plumosa) - annual (can't stop photographing this plant!)

annual sneezeweed (Helenium amarum 'Dakota Gold')

Our volunteers were so numerous and productive today that I wont go in to too much detail on activities. Above is Alan who was one of two dozen or so volunteers we had helping today and many of them are featured in the photos below. I'd like to offer a collective thank you to Alan, Lloyd, Ed, Larry O., Bill O., Maury, Ron P., Dick H., Gary B., Vern, Ron Y., Dave, Jim, Vera, Bonnie, Suzie, Marilyn, Peg, Karen M., Sandi, Eva, Kathy, Vicki, Dr. Gredler and many others that continue to be so important to this special garden. It was a very productive day.

The grounds staff put in some sweaty hours too. Bob K. helped with the compost unloading this morning and then spread mulch just in advance of our second mum delivery for the Fall Plant Sale. Larry H. also helped unload compost and moved on to some serious mulching in two areas including the formal rose garden. Big John ran irrigation, set up sprinklers, sheared, watered, unloaded mums, etc. Janice helped organize our volunteers, watered, tidied and continues with preparations for the Fall Plant Sale (in 9 days!...see our website!). It was nice to have Larry O. back helping out (see below) and we hope to see more of him soon. I was able to get through the gardens a couple times for different reasons but am also preparing for plenty of upcoming projects and events. It was another great Thursday which I've come to expect and fully appreciate!