Fantastic Friday

The weather was spectacular today with sunny skies and a high temperature around 73 degrees F. While the morning was a bit chilly, it warmed up nicely and it looks like the next week or so will be very similar. It was the perfect day to enjoy flowers like the fragrant garden hyacinths (Hyacinthus) seen above and to get some serious gardening accomplished. While I didn't garden much (I did spread some mulch!) today, our grounds staff and volunteers kept very busy. Tomorrow we'll be selling pansies as part of our Spring Compost Sale and we're not too far away from our Mother's Day Plant Sale (see our website for details).

'Northern Gold' forsythia (Forsythia x intermedia) in bloom - woody shrub

'Concerto' tulip (Tulipa) out front of the Parker Education Center

We had an excellent volunteer turnout today including students from Oakhill Christian School (seen above with their teacher, Kath). The students did a wonderful job mulching the woodland glen and moved on to a portion of the woodland walk. Students from this class have helped both in spring and fall for close to 9 years! A few of the giant piles of mulch they spread today can be seen directly below as can some of their activities. Kathy, Kay and Eva all did a great job tidying up in various locations out in the gardens. Lisa I. was out in the daylily collection which she manages so well. She's marking some specimens for division and/or relocation. Pat C. was back in action assessing our labels for repair or replacement out in a couple of garden areas. Dick H. finished repairs on a trailer which is our primary "hauler" for incoming plants. We also saw Marleen, Vern, Lynn Y. and many others today.

Big John and Terry had plenty of action today which ultimately included our first wave of push mowing (tis the season!). Cindy (third photo down) did a nice job weeding in multiple locations and also spread a large quantity of our pre-emergent weed control which we hope will help save some time later this spring. The weeds are already coming up quickly. Janice was a huge help with the students this morning and moved on to putting together the cutting display as well as details for our Pansy Sale and future Spring Plant Sale. I had a wide range of tasks today both inside and outside.