Welcome Rain & Drizzle

After waking up and seeing my driveway, I was concerned that the rain would miss us. By the time I left for work, it was a deluge. We ended up with about 1" of rain (see gauge to the right) and it was a nice, invigorating rain. It rained until 10 am or so and then some drizzle returned in the afternoon. The top picture shows the McHenry County (IL) Master Gardeners that came in for a tour. They were a fun group and most had not been to the gardens. Their tour was mostly dry and we spent some significant time out in the gardens. They mentioned their favorite gardens which included the Ornamenental Edible & Compact Vegetable Collection, sunken garden and Japanese garden. The photo to the left is the 'Fireworks' purple fountain grass (Pennisetum setaceum) which has a reliable pink variegation and nice inflorescences later in the season.

With all the morning rain, the grounds staff stayed inside for some projects. Big John worked on peeling labels, cleaning up a bit and went for a gas run after fueling up all our vehicles. John also worked on myriad other small jobs including edging and mulching once the weather cleared. Larry spent most of his day pouring concrete in 16 oz. cup forms to make our new woody plant label stands. He also went out to clean-up some washouts on our gravel paths that occur when we have a significant rain. Pat was in to work on edging as well and did a great job yesterday tidying up the vines that were overpowering the Parker Pen archway (between the reception garden and sunken garden). Janice spent some time out in the yard later today but worked on many indoor projects that were awaiting her attention. To the right is a bloom close-up for the black-eyed Susan vine (Thunbergia alata). This is the variety 'Susie Orange Clear' that is along our orange wall planting and doing well climbing up the orange obelisks.

Despite the rain, we did have a nice turnout of volunteers. Dave, Vern, Jim and Bob came in to work on their shed project and stayed fairly dry during their work morning. Gary came in to work on producing more labels and Maury was in to run some errands and pick up supplies. We also saw Dr. Yahr and many others. Directly below are Ron Y. (left) and Ron W. who came in later this morning to put up tents in the Smelly Garden for some upcoming programs in that space. We appreciate their expertise as they have mastered the set-up of these frustrating tents. To the left is a shot of our yard-long beans (Vigna unguiculata) looking yummy. This bean species is also called the asparagus bean or Chinese red noodle bean. They aren't quite a "yard long" but there are some well over 24" in length. This is one of the 20 or so different beans we have growing in our Ornamental Edible & Compact Vegetable Garden. Later this evening, I gave a walking tour with a focus on Fragrant Plants. We had about 20 people attend and we had lots of fun in the Smelly Garden. We enjoyed the scents of lemon, lime, licorice, pineapple, vanilla, chocolate, pine, rose and many others. To the right is our most compact growing tomato called 'Micro-Tom'. This entire plant is the size of a fist. Granted, it's not high in productivity but sure looks cute. Since I hadn't photographed the arched bridge in awhile, I took the shot further below during my tour today.
My talk on Vertical Gardening went well at Olbrich Botanical Gardens (Madison, WI) last night. I arrived early and was able to explore and photograph the gardens for about an hour. Ironically, the Wisconsin Hardy Plant Society (check it out at www.wisconsinhardyplantsociety.com/) was having their potluck meeting at the gardens so I popped over to say 'hi' to some of the members that I knew. Below are just some of the many images I took at the gardens which were looking good.