The Calm Before The Storm?

Looks like a doozy of a storm system is heading our way. We had another .5" of precipitation last night in the form of a heavy downpour. This is one of the first days we've had all summer where we didn't water anything. Tomorrow is our 17th Annual Home Garden Tour that features eight area home gardens and we've never had rain for this event. The forecast calls for scattered rain but I hope it waits until the end of the event at 4 pm. Nice shot above of our formal annual sections. Marv and Terry do an awesome job shearing our boxwood hedges (twice per year) and this garden is filling in nicely. We've had some criticism regarding the bright blue obelisks but it's safe to say that they wont go with being un-noticed! Below are some of our seasonal berms starting to peak. We had Susan from Ball Horticultural Company (West Chicago, IL) come out to visit today and she looked at much of their plant material in this very space. Nice visit.
I hope I don't forget anyone; volunteers today included Dr. Gredler, Dr. Yahr, Vern, Don, Pearl, Kay, Joann, Magda, Olive and Steve. Kay and Joann were knee deep (literally) in weeds in the reception garden and everyone spent time weeding today. Fridays involve a lot of garden "tweaking" and preparation prior to Saturday weddings. Little Jerry, Janice, Marv and Marianne were all here doing various garden tasks and preparations for the weekend. There is a wedding this evening in the rose garden that I hope misses the downpour. I'm finally caught up with desk work after being gone and while daily garden operations are my priority, I have to get the ball rolling on our fall plant sale and lights show in December. With limited staff and volunteers, the value of being proactive can't be overstated. I'm not a "last-minute" type of person but find I'm doing things later than usual depending on other distractions. With the prevalence of weeding over the past couple of weeks, we will make great efforts to minimize mechanical removal of weeds and hope to accomplish more mulching and early weed control with pre-emergents. We do try to minimize chemical usage but there are select cases where it is very warranted as a result of our lack of "manpower". Nice shot of 'Satisfaction' lily (Lilium) below in our English cottage garden. This is an O-T hybrid or essentially a cross between an Oriental lily and a trumpet lily. The benefit is a nice height (48"), later bloom time but wonderful color range and engaging scent! These really perfume the entry in to the garden and we'll continue to plant more lilies over the upcoming years. Nice shot at the bottom of our "fence offensive". The guys (mainly Dick H, Dick P, John and Rollie) have been going gangbusters on installing this fancy new fence around the periphery of the garden. It lends a professional touch, will help direct entry traffic (away from hopping over, thru or under the fence as they have been doing) and might slow the deer down as they size up a jump. We'll see. Great progress though...