Actually Wearing A Tie

Well, I've already received dozens of "digs" regarding my tie this morning. With Dr. Yahr's event today, I thought I'd go formal/casual. While I do have a tie on, I'm also wearing jeans. That seems like a compromise for me but is always a surprise to the volunteers that see me in ultra-casual attire most of the time. Nice shot above of a golden juniper (Juniperus chinensis 'Saybrook Gold') that holds nice color in winter but will be an eye-catching yellow when new growth flushes out in spring.


Another nice Grumpy crowd today but only Little Jerry braved the sub-zero windchills to go out in the gardens. Del, Dick W., Bob A., Dave, Vern and Jim worked on carpentry projects while Dr. Gredler continued to paint. Maury and Dick P. worked on some projects at the other building while Larry helped with odds and ends. We also saw Marv, Urban, Janice, Terry and Dick H. Marianne came in and continued processing seed orders and has been a huge help with getting handouts ready for my upcoming presentations. I have three presentations at the upcoming Garden Expo in Madison (www.wpt.org/gardenexpo/ ). We're getting our booth "contents" ready to go and will have plenty of handouts for those that like to know what's going on this year (or have never visited). This event continues to get better attendance each year and is a great venue for RBG exposure.


Dave, our Executive Director, recently hauled our old computers, monitors, etc. to a place that will recycle them for a fee. I remember seeing years ago a large truck at our local dump just pouring out computers, keyboards, etc. in to the dump. Out of sight, out of mind as they say. The term for this type of garbage is E-trash. Our nation disposes of over 400 million electronic items each year with less than 20% of that being recycled. While representing only 2% of our trash in landfills, E-trash accounts for 70% of the toxic waste in those same landfills. The European Union banned E-waste from landfills in the 1990s and hold manufacturers responsible for accomodating disposal. Unfortunately, large amounts of E-wast is exported to China, India and Kenya where processing E-waste is profitable but environmental standards and worker health protection is lax. Consider donating or recycling some of your items. It may take more time and/or money but you'll hopefully sleep better. Cell phones are a topic for another time. Most of my facts above were from http://www.dosomething.org/.


Below is a shot from years ago of our Garden Expo booth. We try to make it different each year but having live plants is always a challenge as they are usually exposed to freezing temperatures before they enter the Alliant Center. We used to give out free seed packets but don't any more as it seemed that there are those that are just cruisin' for freebies and had no interest in the gardens. My favorite was the attendees that would walk by our booth multiple times, not want any information, but would load up on their seed supply for the year! At least I'm still not bitter. Well, my tie and I are headed out. (grammar?)