Productive Duos

Today was another hot one with the high temperature hovering around 88 degrees F. It sounds like the next two days will be even hotter. Needless to say, we did lots of watering today! As I took some pictures of our volunteers today, I realized that we had three dynamic duos out in the garden today helping with planting and general garden work. The top photo shows Carol (left) and Kay in one of our utility carts. The ladies spent the entire morning in the sunken garden and planted the remainder of the plants that were placed yesterday. They did a great job and finished the morning with a nice hand watering of that entire garden. Directly above is Sue (left) and Kelley who spent the morning planting in their portion of the shade garden. These ladies have done a nice job maintaining this space for the past 5 years or so. They finished planting annuals in the open spaces in their berm and planted some perennials as well. Their garden has plenty of spring bulbs and the ladies cleared the remainder of the bulb foliage too. To the right are Magda (left) and Marleen (pigtails!). The ladies planted a wide range of annuals and perennials in their garden berm near the entrance garden. I think their space showcases our best mixed border with woody plants, perennials and colorful annuals. Both ladies have a long history of gardening and are very self sufficient. Jan spent the morning in the Scottish garden doing a nice job of weeding and tidying. Other volunteers included Bill O. who came in to mow and do some shrub shearing. Dr. Gredler mowed most of the day and we'll see him again tomorrow. Mary W. continued her work in the herb garden and we also saw Maury and Tom who collectively worked on some electrical issues. We also saw Urban, Rose, Gordy, Vern, Dave, Dorothy, Bob, Gary and many others. To the left are our huge patches of 'Blue Spruce' stonecrop (Sedum reflexum) starting to bloom. Pat planted about 200 of these last year in the alpine garden to create a "faux water feature" with this carpeting perennial. To the right is the dark foliage of the 'Royal Purple' smokebush (Cotinus coggygria). I love smokebushes (sometimes called smoketrees) in general but this shade of maroon is quite engaging in the garden. The specimen seen below was cut back severely in winter to get a flush of vivid new growth and stay "shrubby". Unfortunately such severe pruning eliminates the wispy flowers but the foliage still rocks.The grounds staff had a busy day today. Directly above is the yellow fumitory (Corydalis lutea) which is blooming around the gardens (prefers part shade). Janice spent a good portion of the day watering and fertilizing shortly after her push mowing duties. She had some time to plant and also checked on Dale's new moss creations. Marv and Terry also spent time setting up and moving sprinklers, running irrigation, push mowing and even planted two small trees. Terry (and Jenny) also helped haul about 150 flats of annuals to the entrance garden. These were the varieties for our entrance garden color theme (white, silver, light blue). The guys also planted annuals in a good-sized bed this morning. Jenny, after hauling many loads of plants, moved on to fertilizing a large garden area that was recently planted. We provide supplemental fertilizer for our annual diplays every three weeks until September (including containers). To the right are the showy, cup shaped blooms of the native winecups (Callirhoe involucrata). This sprawling, hardy perennial (prefers full sun) is not shy about blooming for a long period of time. To the left are the white flower clusters of the native elderberry (Sambucus canadensis). We have many of these naturalized around the gardens and we should see the fruiting clusters in about a month.

To the lower right was my challenge today. This is the mass of plants that Jenny and Terry hauled out this morning. To the left of the flowers is the entrance garden slope which is our target planting area for the Volunteer Planting Work Day tomorrow (8 am until 12 noon). I spent about six hours setting these around the planting area which was time well spent. I've learned the lesson of being proactive prior to a work day so you can keep ahead of the troops! Our volunteers should be able to just dive right in when they arrive. At the bottom is one of the cartloads I hauled this morning. I think the color theme is quite evident!