As quoted from lyrics to the song
Rollin' by Limp Bizkit, the title of my blog refers to the fact that we accomplished all manner of projects today and kept rolling along.
If you have an interest in hearing the song, look for the Limp Bizkit album
Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water. That should be easy to remember (and it's pretty good too). The top picture shows our ornamental onions (
Allium) starting to peak in the formal annual sections (defined by boxwood hedges). We planted these over eight years ago and they still come back strong. In two wee
ks, we'll cut them down (they'll be back) and we'll overplant with annuals. Directly above is a picture I took last night before the start of the lecture on
Perennial Favorites by Dr. Frank Greer. Dr. Greer can be seen in the blue shirt in the middle of the image. It was a wonderful talk full of colorful images that not only featured plants but showed the progression of Dr. Greer's small garden in Madison (mostly shade) over the past 30 years or so. We had 67 attendees and I think everyone enjoyed the presentation. I'll be giving the next lecture on
Gardening In Containers on June 15th (6 pm - 8 pm). We've averaged about 75 people for the first five lectures and are pleased with the attendance. To the right is a nice bloom close-up of the Starlite Prairieblues hybrid false indigo (
Baptisia x
bicolor 'Starlite') that is looking pretty darn good right now. This is our first one to bloom here and I'm a big fan of baptisias in general. To the left are Shirley and Janice who eerily enough, had on the same hats and footwear today. Spooky... I never left the Horticulture Center grounds today which is fairly uncommon (except in winter). I spent the day out in the yard organizing annuals by ultimate planting location. I set aside five good sized groupings of plants that we'll hopefully install this Saturday. See below for two of the groupings which will be part of our yellow/blue theme in the entrance garden (obviously!). I also put various color flags in the flats that will be going to our "Smelly Garden" and those going to the "Ornamental Edible / Compact Vegetable" display. The weather was cool but no precipitation.
Above is our ornamental mustard (
Brassica juncea 'Brazen Brass') "wall" planter. There are still some pansies in there that are buried but I'm happy that this will ulimate
ly be a solid wall of maroon very soon. We'll probably transition this planter in 2 or 3 weeks before this plant decides to bloom. We had a similar mustard in an area last year and let it bloom (bolt) and those wispy yellow blooms dropped a lot of seed that has germinated over a vast area. To the right is the bloom from a hybrid magnolia (
Magnolia sieboldii x
tripetala) that is just past peak. To the left is the showy foliage of the variegated feather reed grass (
Calamagrostis x
acutiflora 'Overdam'). Today Jenny spent the day organizing our mar
igold (
Tagetes) collection and setting it out for planting tomorrow. She is always so organized. Janice worked on her netting for the squash collection and had some help from Big John later in the day. Janice also helped get some volunteers going out in the gardens and planted up a whole bunch of small containers (second picture from the bottom) with scented plants that we'll use for our programs for the Smelly Garden. Our Grumpy, Joe, gave her a hand with that planting. Big John hauled marigolds (150+ flats) and rototilled the garden in front of the Parker Education Center so it's ready for planting this Saturday. John, aside from helping Janice, also finished composting the future squash collection beds. Larry ran out for plants (mainly impatiens) and later worked on mowing, securing our new (red) obelisks, watering and some other tasks. Little Jerry and Dr
. Gredler were in to mow and we had help out in the gardens from Shirley, Ernie, Gena and Mary who all weeded and removed some spent bulb foliage. We had some good Grumpies around as well with Dennis, Ron B. and Joe disassembling our plant sale tables. Dennis and Ron then helped John tidy up the entrance garden after the rototilling. Del worked on gravelling while Dick H. repaired some vehicles and equipment. Vern, Dave and Bob worked on their fancy planter for the Dinner Dance (July 16) auction and we later saw Maury, Mary W. (helped with watering and marigold hauling), Elsa, Geesje, Harold T., Bob T., Kris and Ariel. Ariel was later trained by Gary on our laser engraver and plant labeling processes (see bottom photo). To the right is the shoreline that we'll plant on Tuesday with 1700 plugs of native perennials that will tolerate the fluctuating water levels. That soil is quite damp and we've seen the water level come up to that curb and even over the curb to the right with severe flooding (like 2008). The browning you see was from a water-safe herbicide applied professionally a couple weeks ago. We'll poke in these plugs right thru this mat.
If you have an interest in hearing the song, look for the Limp Bizkit album Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water. That should be easy to remember (and it's pretty good too). The top picture shows our ornamental onions (Allium) starting to peak in the formal annual sections (defined by boxwood hedges). We planted these over eight years ago and they still come back strong. In two wee
ks, we'll cut them down (they'll be back) and we'll overplant with annuals. Directly above is a picture I took last night before the start of the lecture on Perennial Favorites by Dr. Frank Greer. Dr. Greer can be seen in the blue shirt in the middle of the image. It was a wonderful talk full of colorful images that not only featured plants but showed the progression of Dr. Greer's small garden in Madison (mostly shade) over the past 30 years or so. We had 67 attendees and I think everyone enjoyed the presentation. I'll be giving the next lecture on Gardening In Containers on June 15th (6 pm - 8 pm). We've averaged about 75 people for the first five lectures and are pleased with the attendance. To the right is a nice bloom close-up of the Starlite Prairieblues hybrid false indigo (Baptisia x bicolor 'Starlite') that is looking pretty darn good right now. This is our first one to bloom here and I'm a big fan of baptisias in general. To the left are Shirley and Janice who eerily enough, had on the same hats and footwear today. Spooky... I never left the Horticulture Center grounds today which is fairly uncommon (except in winter). I spent the day out in the yard organizing annuals by ultimate planting location. I set aside five good sized groupings of plants that we'll hopefully install this Saturday. See below for two of the groupings which will be part of our yellow/blue theme in the entrance garden (obviously!). I also put various color flags in the flats that will be going to our "Smelly Garden" and those going to the "Ornamental Edible / Compact Vegetable" display. The weather was cool but no precipitation.
ly be a solid wall of maroon very soon. We'll probably transition this planter in 2 or 3 weeks before this plant decides to bloom. We had a similar mustard in an area last year and let it bloom (bolt) and those wispy yellow blooms dropped a lot of seed that has germinated over a vast area. To the right is the bloom from a hybrid magnolia (Magnolia sieboldii x tripetala) that is just past peak. To the left is the showy foliage of the variegated feather reed grass (Calamagrostis x acutiflora 'Overdam'). Today Jenny spent the day organizing our mar
igold (Tagetes) collection and setting it out for planting tomorrow. She is always so organized. Janice worked on her netting for the squash collection and had some help from Big John later in the day. Janice also helped get some volunteers going out in the gardens and planted up a whole bunch of small containers (second picture from the bottom) with scented plants that we'll use for our programs for the Smelly Garden. Our Grumpy, Joe, gave her a hand with that planting. Big John hauled marigolds (150+ flats) and rototilled the garden in front of the Parker Education Center so it's ready for planting this Saturday. John, aside from helping Janice, also finished composting the future squash collection beds. Larry ran out for plants (mainly impatiens) and later worked on mowing, securing our new (red) obelisks, watering and some other tasks. Little Jerry and Dr
. Gredler were in to mow and we had help out in the gardens from Shirley, Ernie, Gena and Mary who all weeded and removed some spent bulb foliage. We had some good Grumpies around as well with Dennis, Ron B. and Joe disassembling our plant sale tables. Dennis and Ron then helped John tidy up the entrance garden after the rototilling. Del worked on gravelling while Dick H. repaired some vehicles and equipment. Vern, Dave and Bob worked on their fancy planter for the Dinner Dance (July 16) auction and we later saw Maury, Mary W. (helped with watering and marigold hauling), Elsa, Geesje, Harold T., Bob T., Kris and Ariel. Ariel was later trained by Gary on our laser engraver and plant labeling processes (see bottom photo). To the right is the shoreline that we'll plant on Tuesday with 1700 plugs of native perennials that will tolerate the fluctuating water levels. That soil is quite damp and we've seen the water level come up to that curb and even over the curb to the right with severe flooding (like 2008). The browning you see was from a water-safe herbicide applied professionally a couple weeks ago. We'll poke in these plugs right thru this mat. 
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