Culvert Conversion

As you can see above, the "culvert conversion" continues with Dr. Gredler priming these 10', 24" diameter culverts. These are the first two of five. The three smaller ones have been primed and painted by Rose who will continue to work with Doc and transform these in to industrial planters. I'm sure visitors will have mixed feeling on these but the primary intent is to get a reaction (which is most assured). Come visit this summer to check these out in action and I'll certainly keep updating pictures of these on the blog throughout the summer as their plantings mature. It was another balmy day above freezing temperatures by lunchtime. March has certainly come in "like a lamb" but we know how WI weather can change. Jerry, Urban and Bill worked on pruning and hauling back debris (see to the left) and have accumulated a respectable pile of brush at the Horticulture Center. They'll finish most of their pruning this month and have done lots of corrective pruning on trees that were affected in December by the heavy snowstorm. I haven't pruned here in years as we have many capable and talented staff and volunteers that enjoy the task. Del was in working on reindeer and Larry worked on equipment maintenance. Jenny was in to work on labels and we saw Marianne, Marv, Mike and Kay too. Maury helped prime the culverts and Heidi was here to process plant sale labels. I ran seeds out to our last grower and enjoyed a tour of their greenhouses in full motion. Lots of color and interesting to see the early stages of plants that will be in the gardens later this summer. This grower will start all our plant sale vegetables and about 200 varieties of specialty annuals for us as well. They are very kind, generous and knowledgeable. This is certainly a field filled with happy people!

The plant to the right is sea kale (Crambe maritima). I've been showing this hardy, zone 4 perennial at many of my ornamental edible talks recently as it has plenty of edible (and ornamental) merit in the garden. Native to coastal Europe (the UK in particular), this plant has edible stems (blanched), leaves and the flowers can be eaten as well. We have it in our Scottish Garden and I like the powdery blue appearance. This plant emerges in May with crinkly, maroon leaves that will unfurl and turn blue in to summer (see leaf close-up below). The bottom image shows one of my favorite benches here at the gardens. The message from Dr. Yahr still remains the same and the support of the community will always be needed to continue to perpetuate and improve the gardens.