Planting Progress Continues

The good news is that we're continuing to put in thousands of plants each day, the bad news is the image above only shows about 60% of what we have left to plant. We will be making many more runs out to our growers over the next week or so to pick up the remainder of our orders. We also have planting work days over the next three Saturdays and hope to have nice weather and a solid turnout of volunteers. Speaking of volunteers, we had a wonderful potluck last night with close to 100 attendees. The tractor with the double tiered cart (in the picture) has been my vehicle of choice the past couple of days as I've hauled plants out to select areas. It was very damp today after the quick deluge last night so we've been able to skip watering (despite the balmy afternoon temperatures). We've gotten off to a strong start with planting and will continue that momentum over the coming weeks. Nice shot to the left of goatsbeard (Aruncus dioicus) in the sunken garden that really does well with rich, damp soils in full sun. Goatsbeard isn't really a shade plant and moisture seems to be one of the most important factors for success. To the right is a meadowrue (Thalictrum aquilegifolium 'Album') that needs identical requirements. Meadowrues will take full sun with ample water although the specimen here is in our partly shaded woodland walk garden and has truly exquisite bloom clusters (40" tall plant). We had Kay here today and she worked on removing bulb foliage then shifted to planting annuals in the reception garden. I wish I had her here every day! Kelley and Sue came and planted a couple hundred annuals in their portion of the shade garden which will be quite colorful very soon. Jumbo Jim and John came to help Little Jerry in the Japanese garden and the guys hauled and placed more rocks near the new path. They also set some stepping stones. Dr. Yahr helped plant containers and did some planting in the reception garden as well. Dr. Gredler was here to mow and accomplish some turf repair and Bill did a nice job tidying up the paths after the pounding rains and resulting debris. He later moved on to bulb foliage removal. Below is a shot of Terry after smoothing a bed that Marv just rototilled and prepared. The guys are keeping ahead of our planting with their timely bed preparations.

Marianne staked irises, cleared bulb foliage, weeded the front garden and planted containers in our sunken garden. She always has a full plate but does a nice (and extremely thorough) job with any project she starts. Jenny spent most of the day in the yard matching up labels and sorting plants for easier distribution. She later went to the gazebo garden to remove bulb foliage. Larry weedwhipped and worked on planting. Little Jerry kept to the Japanese garden and Big John planted culvert planters, removed roses, planted roses, planted containers and did other odds and ends. Aside from bed preparations, Marv and Terry also removed a tree and some shrubs, hauled cocoa bean hulls (mulch) to the rose garden and planted a nice tree. I was able to lay out lots of plants and am getting ready for planting projects both tomorrow morning and afternoon. Nice shot to the left of a hybrid bluestar (Amsonia hybrida 'Blue Ice') in the woodland walk garden that is showing some nice, light blue flower clusters and in that same garden (to the right) is one of the tough and beautiful perennial geraniums (Geranium x cantabrigiense 'Karmina') with a profusion of pink blooms. We like to mass plant geraniums like this to form a beautiful (and durable) groundcover. Below are some leaves of the variegated Shantung maple (Acer truncatum 'Akikaze Nishiki') in our Japanese garden. Some leaves are totally green, most are variegated and on occasion, you'll see neat white ones like this. Nice shot of the pagoda in the Japanese garden at the bottom too...