Soup and Seeds

Last night we had our third installment of our popular, volunteer soup events and were happy to have a turnout of about 75 people. The four varieties of soup were enjoyed and kudos to Polly and Lori for their pre-setup before going home sick. Thanks to Janice, Polly, Virginia and Celise for making the delicious soup selections too! Janice, Virginia, Judy and Dave B. helped get the event up and ready before the 5 pm start. About 50% of the crowd had been to all three of these events and it was equally exciting to see some new faces and rookie volunteers that started last year. Kelli was introduced and made some nice comments and gave some background about herself. I did a short presentation on what's happening in 2011 in regards to events, garden modifications, collections and volunteer opportunities. After eating, the group had to endure me talking about my travels to some gardens in New York City this past October (2010). These three events had a combined attendance of 230 and are something we'll consider next winter to keep in touch with our volunteers and work up some momentum prior to the "spring crunch."

Today I worked on upcoming presentations, orders and spent some time with Kris Koch, our new Education Coordinator. She'll fall in to a regular schedule next week and we're looking forward to her involvement and input here at RBG. We also had a meeting regarding our spring tree sale (April 22 and 23, 8 am - 2 pm). We're working with the Blackhawk Golden Kiwanis club that has normally facilitated this sale. We've combined our efforts this year and will have over 10,000 tree transplants of four different evergreen varieties available (see information on this sale and the tree varieties at www.rotarybotanicalgardens.org). We did have plenty of action out in the gardens today and our pile of woody plant debris (seen to the left) continues to grow. Terry and Marv were out installing and leveling benches while some others were out continuing to take down and haul back our deer fencing, stakes, burlap, etc. This is a tough task but the timing is perfect. Other Grumpies continued to tidy up paths, cut grasses and otherwise get the gardens ready for spring visitation. The image to the right is the dead (but still ornamental) foliage of the golden Hakone grass (Hakonechloa macra 'All Gold') that we've established in these "boulder pockets" down near the arched bridge in the fern & moss garden. Outdoor Grumpies included Ron, Dick W., Dick H. and Del. The carpenter quartet (Bob, Dave, Vern and Jim) continued to work on the benches and Marianne was in to work on some labels then tidy out in the gardens. Gary was in producing more labels and Janice came in to work with her volunteer group on counting and bagging seeds for the spring plant sale (see bottom photo). We also saw Maury, Kelli, Mary W., John & Becky N., Bill O. and Kris. Lots going on today but we beat the rains and are one step closer to a smooth spring start out in the gardens. I'm off tomorrow afternoon to head to Kimberly, WI for a talk I'm doing early Saturday morning. I present on "Ornamental Edibles" for the Garden Expectations conference that is presented by the Outagamie County Master Gardener Association and UWEX. Should be fun. Then our RBG conference (totally full) is the following weekend. I would sure enjoy a green beer right about now.....! The tulips (Tulipa) directly below scare me with their quick growth but what can you do?