Bulk Material Dispersal

On this "sun shiney" day, we saw the piles above (compost on the left, shredded bark on the right) diminish considerably. Bill was here all day and composted the entire reception garden among other duties. We had a smaller crew but had a great day to work outside. Janice worked on some office projects then shifted to weeding and composting. She and Big John composted down in the wishing well garden. John also helped Larry dig up and transplant some evergreens while Little Jerry kept busy pruning all day. Jenny worked on labels then tidied up the woodland walk. Kay was in and did lots of weeding and tidying along the shoreline. Weeds are really popping up now. Dr. Gredler was here to aerate and mow select areas. I had meetings and am trying to finish up my desk work for this spring. We also saw Vern, Maury, Dick P., Iza, Carrie, Joanne, Urban and Rose. The tulips are really starting to bloom in front of the building, about two weeks early. I'm afraid there wont be any tulips (Tulipa) left for Mother's Day but there's not much we can do to change the timing on these bulbs. The clump below (variety unknown) is blooming near the east gate. There are plenty more signs of spring out in the gardens as many spring ephemerals explode on to the scene with this warm weather. They don't want to miss their ideal bloom window, even when it is unseasonably early. These are perennials that get plenty of sunlight from above as the overhead canopy of deciduous trees hasn't started leafing out yet. Below we have sharp-lobed hepatica (Hepatica acutiloba), Virginia bluebells (Mertensia virginica) and Mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum) respectively. These all prefer moist, well-drained, organic woodland situations. At the bottom is our 24th of 27 returned daisies for our art project. Very nice.