Today was a nice, pleasant day with sun, some clouds and not too hot overall. I'm glad the plants had a chance to perk up and stretch before the incoming thunderstorms over the next five days beat them down again. We have mushrooms galore around the gardens right now which is a lot better than cracked, arid soil in my mind. I'm so glad we have so much planted already and are still on track to finish our annual planting very shortly. Nice shot above of Land of the Giants Hosta Farm in nearby Milton, WI. I picked up our order and the owner, Jeff (whom I've know for years) gave me a tour of the nursery which opened up before me in this dappled glade above. A wonderful garden and by the way, a "by appointment only" nursery for now. See
www.landofthegiantshostafarm.com/ for more information.
A lot was accomplished out in the gardens today. Larry went on a path of "corrective destruction" as seen ab
ove. This is one of the purple-leaf plums in our arboretum that has become undesireable for many reasons. Larry diced up this one and "limbed up" many of the smaller trees surrounding the sunken garden. We planted hybrid elms (
Ulmus sp.) and honeylocust (
Gleditsia) years ago to fill in when the current cottonwoods (
Populus) are rem
oved as they age. Nice shot to the left of one of my favorite perennial combinations (in the Scottish Garden). this is golden meadowsweet (
Filipendula ulmaria 'Aurea') with blue oat grass (
Helictotrichon sempervirens 'Sapphire'). You can't go wrong with blue and yellow. Little Jerry did a lot of pruning here and there and worked in the Japanese garden as well. Marianne started the day by "roughing up" our cocoa bean hull mulch around the roses that was beginning to form mold from all the moisture. She moved on to tidying, weeding and continues to plant small gaps in the entrance garden. For three years now she has been maintaining our "front door garden" and does a superb job. Marv and Terry bounced between mulching, planting trees, planting annuals and other projects. Big John worked on composting, weeding, planting roses and mulching. I was able to spray a couple loads of herbicide today as it may be my only window until late next week. Kay was here (upper right) and continued to tackle our weedy shade garden with a thorough approach. I told her that she is one of the very few volunteers that has the patience to deal with such a large (depressing) area of weeds and do such a nice job without going insane. Shirley was back in action and personally weeded and planted 3/4 of the color rooms garden. Jumbo Jim came in with two RECAPPERS and they helped Little Jerry, weeded the roses and tidied up our alpine gardens prior to our Saturday tour by the rock garden society folks. Nice shot below of a neat alumroot (
Heuchera villosa 'Brownies') with dwarf goatsbeard (
Aruncus aethusifolius) to the right and golden spiderwort behind (
Tradescantia x
andersoniana 'Sweet Kate'). We also saw Dave, Dr. Gredler, Art and Gwen today. Don and Pearl were back to finish their area as well as the bed across the path from their area.
The 27 plywood daisy projects have been a huge hit out in the gardens. The
Janesville Gazette ran a nice article on the
program which should bring in more visitors or at least create a better awareness of the local art we are featuring. I was disappointed to see an emailed comment to the
Gazette from someone saying that the daisies are a "distraction from the peace and natural solitude" and had they "known that they would be wrecking their view all summer, they wouldn't have renewed their membership." To each their own but what a sad commentary regarding support for local artists of all ages. The Carefree C
elebration rose (
Rosa 'RADral') from Bill Radler (to the left) continues to catch my eye (I realize this same image was posted last week but wow, that is a nice color). Shrub roses have really come in to their own and Big John has a couple more to put in tomorrow to fill out our collection. To the right is a close-up of one of my favorite catmints (
Nepeta x
faassinii 'Walker's Low') which is a tough perennial with violet-blue blooms that are quite exquisite if you look closely. Reaching 30" tall and 36" wide, this mounding perennial was named Perennial Plant of the Year by the Perennial Plant Association in 2007. Blooming right now in to July, consider shearing back 2/3 of growth as the flowers wane to get another burst of color and mounded growth. Many catmints become leggy and reseed; neither of which is a problem for this variety (named after a garden in England, not for it's compact nature!). Below is Janice's biodegradable pot trials. Step 1 and Step 2 are illustrated here and she'll monitor how quickly these pots break down in the soil over the course of the summer. This should be interesting. The Cowpots (cow poop) claim they will help boost the growth of the plant which I think is entirely possible. We'll examine plant size too. Great initiative by Janice who has a background in research.
Today was a nice, pleasant day with sun, some clouds and not too hot overall. I'm glad the plants had a chance to perk up and stretch before the incoming thunderstorms over the next five days beat them down again. We have mushrooms galore around the gardens right now which is a lot better than cracked, arid soil in my mind. I'm so glad we have so much planted already and are still on track to finish our annual planting very shortly. Nice shot above of Land of the Giants Hosta Farm in nearby Milton, WI. I picked up our order and the owner, Jeff (whom I've know for years) gave me a tour of the nursery which opened up before me in this dappled glade above. A wonderful garden and by the way, a "by appointment only" nursery for now. See www.landofthegiantshostafarm.com/ for more information. 
ove. This is one of the purple-leaf plums in our arboretum that has become undesireable for many reasons. Larry diced up this one and "limbed up" many of the smaller trees surrounding the sunken garden. We planted hybrid elms (Ulmus sp.) and honeylocust (Gleditsia) years ago to fill in when the current cottonwoods (Populus) are rem
oved as they age. Nice shot to the left of one of my favorite perennial combinations (in the Scottish Garden). this is golden meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria 'Aurea') with blue oat grass (Helictotrichon sempervirens 'Sapphire'). You can't go wrong with blue and yellow. Little Jerry did a lot of pruning here and there and worked in the Japanese garden as well. Marianne started the day by "roughing up" our cocoa bean hull mulch around the roses that was beginning to form mold from all the moisture. She moved on to tidying, weeding and continues to plant small gaps in the entrance garden. For three years now she has been maintaining our "front door garden" and does a superb job. Marv and Terry bounced between mulching, planting trees, planting annuals and other projects. Big John worked on composting, weeding, planting roses and mulching. I was able to spray a couple loads of herbicide today as it may be my only window until late next week. Kay was here (upper right) and continued to tackle our weedy shade garden with a thorough approach. I told her that she is one of the very few volunteers that has the patience to deal with such a large (depressing) area of weeds and do such a nice job without going insane. Shirley was back in action and personally weeded and planted 3/4 of the color rooms garden. Jumbo Jim came in with two RECAPPERS and they helped Little Jerry, weeded the roses and tidied up our alpine gardens prior to our Saturday tour by the rock garden society folks. Nice shot below of a neat alumroot (Heuchera villosa 'Brownies') with dwarf goatsbeard (Aruncus aethusifolius) to the right and golden spiderwort behind (Tradescantia x andersoniana 'Sweet Kate'). We also saw Dave, Dr. Gredler, Art and Gwen today. Don and Pearl were back to finish their area as well as the bed across the path from their area.
program which should bring in more visitors or at least create a better awareness of the local art we are featuring. I was disappointed to see an emailed comment to the Gazette from someone saying that the daisies are a "distraction from the peace and natural solitude" and had they "known that they would be wrecking their view all summer, they wouldn't have renewed their membership." To each their own but what a sad commentary regarding support for local artists of all ages. The Carefree C
elebration rose (Rosa 'RADral') from Bill Radler (to the left) continues to catch my eye (I realize this same image was posted last week but wow, that is a nice color). Shrub roses have really come in to their own and Big John has a couple more to put in tomorrow to fill out our collection. To the right is a close-up of one of my favorite catmints (Nepeta x faassinii 'Walker's Low') which is a tough perennial with violet-blue blooms that are quite exquisite if you look closely. Reaching 30" tall and 36" wide, this mounding perennial was named Perennial Plant of the Year by the Perennial Plant Association in 2007. Blooming right now in to July, consider shearing back 2/3 of growth as the flowers wane to get another burst of color and mounded growth. Many catmints become leggy and reseed; neither of which is a problem for this variety (named after a garden in England, not for it's compact nature!). Below is Janice's biodegradable pot trials. Step 1 and Step 2 are illustrated here and she'll monitor how quickly these pots break down in the soil over the course of the summer. This should be interesting. The Cowpots (cow poop) claim they will help boost the growth of the plant which I think is entirely possible. We'll examine plant size too. Great initiative by Janice who has a background in research. 
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