May Chills

The group above is from Madison College (Madison Area Technical College) along with their instructor, Darcie on the far left. The students were at the gardens in late March to do an accessibility study of our pathways around the gardens and they came this morning to do a presentation and a walk-thru of the gardens to point out their observations and recommendations. We really appreciate their time and their information was very valuable and we'll utilize their findings in future path modifications and improvements. We took wheelchairs out in the gardens and most of us took turns using them and observing the existing challenges that our paths create for some visitors. Darcie will be passing along all of their data and findings and all of the ladies did a nice job with their presentation and tour. To the right (and below) is the group working thru the lower larch area on our newest brick pathway. We did note that this path has some "slope issues" and has a pitch (from side to side) that can also be quite challenging. The students finished their presentation with some recommendations for incorporating sensory features out in the gardens. Our Horticulture Therapy committee will be discussing the accumlated information on our accessiblity issues and will make recommendations based on some of our own personal experiences out in the gardens.Today was dark and cloudy all day and quite chilly. Our walk around this morning was a bit brisk and made me wish I had another layer of cold protection. Big John was out planting pansies most of the day in containers and along the flower border north of the larch area. This is the border that he planted lots of mustard (Brassica juncea 'Brazen Brass') over a week ago and the combination of the dark maroon mustards and the yellow pansies installed today will be dynamite. Janice and Jenny both worked on garden clean-up and Janice also attended the presentation this morning. Larry has been instrumental in moving our tender plants outside in the morning and bringing everything back inside at the end of the day. He worked on many projects. Nice shot to the left of more 'Mt. Hood' grape hyacinths (Muscari armeniacum), which like all the other grape hyacinths in the gardens, is now really hitting peak coloration. To the right is the checkered fritillary (Fritillaria meleagris), featured in a previous blog, all opened up and looking nice along the edge of the shade garden. I like this bulb alot but notice this species only does well in well-drained soils and has done well for us in some very sandy, lean soils too where there is little to no supplemental watering in the summer dormancy period (i.e. overhead irrigation).

Kay was here most of the morning and continued her onslaught of weed removal in the peony bed along Palmer Drive. She has fought this battle many times and we hope to keep ahead of the weeds that just never stop germinating in this space. We also saw Bill F., Bill O., Maury, Urban, Mary W. and others over here today. Dr. Gredler was here to keep up his mowing rounds as the turf, in many locations, was in need of a good haircut today. Gary spent quite a bit of time entering more labeling data and continues to produce more top notch plant labels. After my involvement with the presentation mentioned above, I continued work on some time-sensitive projects and am trying to get thru my "to do" stack so I can get outside more often. With a wet end of the week predicted, we'll get out in the gardens tomorrow and really tidy up. We have our first two weddings out in the gardens this Friday and Saturday which seems very early to me! There are plenty of bulbs in bloom (like the Narcissus to the left) out in the gardens but our annual beds wont be planted until later May when the threat of frost is a distant memory. To the right is the "powdery blue" blossoms of 'Valerie Finnis' grape hyacinths (Muscari armeniacum) which features one of my favorite color shades in the garden. This is the time of year that makes the previous fall of arduous bulb planting all feel worthwhile! Last night I was in Sheboygan to give a talk on "Low Maintenance Containers" to the Sheboygan County master gardeners. I gave a late winter talk (similar content) in the same venue which was located at the UW-Sheboygan campus. When I arrived for the previous talk months ago, I noted that the Bookworm Gardens (www.bookwormgardens.org/) is located on the campus, literally 100 yards from the building where my talk was hosted. I had heard of Bookworm Gardens a year or so ago from a woman I met at a talk in Fond du Lac. It really sounded interesting and when I saw it in early spring, I didn't have time to explore. Above is the "Hansel & Gretel" style administration building for the gardens. I left Janesville right after work and ran in to some traffic and under-estimated travel time. I arrived at UW-Sheboygan about 30 minutes before my presentation. I almost skipped running thru the gardens but decided to make a quick tour as there was still decent light for some photographs. I was SO happy to spend the brief time there and was amazed by all the structures, themes, hardscaping, paths, waterfalls, etc. It looks like a dynamite garden and the inputs in to hardscaping and structures was noteworthy. I talked briefly with a volunteer in the gardens too. Most of the spaces were themed from books that many of us would remember. I was very impressed with the layout and got some great ideas very quickly. There is still plenty of space to plant but the "bones" of the garden are there. I do a talk in early fall in Sheboygan again and will check out the gardens for more improvements. I wish them the best and see this garden becoming quite popular as a resource and destination. Hopefully this garden will also continue to encourage the joys of reading as it doesn't seem to be as popular (or available?) to children as it used to be in the past. What a sad commentary.