Another Nice Presentation

Dave Wanninger's talk last night on Woody Plants was very well received and we had 69 attendees for this event. Dave, as always, was very enthusiastic and while he went a bit long on time (not unusual for him!), everyone was mesmerized and appreciated his vast knowledge and willingness to answer myriad questions. There were also many questions during our break and after the presentation (see to the right). The next Wednesday evening lecture will be on March 30th (6 pm - 8 pm) and the topic will be Herb Gardening. Presented by Patty Bailey of Patty's Herbs (Milton, WI), this talk should attract a wide audience and we hope to have another solid turnout. Eleven of our twelve evening lectures have been scheduled and are all listed on our website (www.rotarybotanicalgardens.org). Don't forget the additional six presentations arranged by the Rock Prairie Master Gardener Association (also on the website). The first of this series will be offered next Thursday (March 3rd) from 7 pm until 8 pm. Entitled, The Right Tool for the Right Job, this presentation/demonstration will be given by Janice and John, both of whom are active Master Gardeners and also RBG grounds employees. This series is free for RPMGA members and RBG members ($5 for all others). See the bottom picture for a shot of our tool wall with many samples that I'm sure will be featured during this discussion.

We had another great turnout of volunteers today and it was fairly mild outside albeit a bit overcast and breezy. Marv, Terry and Dick W. went out to bring in some of our last Holiday Lights Show displays while the carpenters (Dave, Jim, Bob and Vern) worked on making benches and some minor projects at the visitor's center. Larry and Bill went out to do some pruning in the afternoon. Urban was also here to do some pruning and Marianne juggled seed work, handout preparation and mailing work too. Janice was here to work on plant sale signs and Cindi came in to work on vegetable labels. Dr. Gredler and Pat were painting all morning (see Pat to the left with his favorite apron). We also saw Bev, Mary W., Dick H., Big John and others over here. Cool shot below of a wasp nest that the carpenters found on something that came in from the gardens for repair. I'm always amazed by Mother Nature's architectural skills!I've been working on more plant ordering and finalizing some presentations for early March. I speak at Olbrich tonight and will hopefully finish some other projects tomorrow. With my involvement with education this year, I attended the youth education committee meeting today that was well organized by Bev and attended by Mary D., Mary B, Sandy, Shirley and Dale. We have such great volunteers taking care of our youth education and there were lots of ideas on improving programs and making sure our existing programs are properly prepared and delivered. We hope to develop some new programs to highlight our "Smelly Garden" this year and will be doing more than ever to promote these valuable programs to various schools and the community in general. We also talked about examining the feasibility of being able to create a "mobile component" to our programs that would help address the diminishing school budgets that can't accomodate buses and travel to the gardens proper. With our mission to provide horticultural education, we realize that while the gardens themselves are a wonderful teaching tool, our entire potential audience may not have the ability to travel to the gardens for our educational services. Nice shot to the right of some of Marianne's seed organization and by next week, all of our seeds should be delivered to our growers.