A Chilly Day

Dr. Gredler's apparel above (including long underwear) should clue you as to the weather this morning. The high was around 50 degrees F with a cold breeze and afternoon drizzle; certainly very "fall like" for everyone outside. The Fall Plant Sale Extended Clearance Sale did have some patrons and we look forward to a busy Saturday morning tomorrow (9 am - 2 pm, 15% off everything). Special thanks to Polly, Joy, Janice, Bev, Mary W. and Gene B. for helping facilitate the sale today. I'm glad we had a relatively dry first portion of the day with some great productivity from grounds staff and volunteers. I was able to tour the gardens this morning and the color is extremely vivid on this cloudy day and the tropical plants all withstood another cold evening around 40 degrees F.! Below are some additional images from today.

the fern & moss garden still looks great

the Jungle Garden continues to be impressive in scale

the red wall theme is still hanging in there

this container with dark foliage anchors the North point garden

We had a great showing of volunteers this morning and were able to get the gardens tidied up for the weekend. The weather will be cool this weekend but tomorrow looks nice for the Fall Plant Sale Extended Clearance (9 am - 2 pm, 15% off everything) and three outdoor weddings. Above is Ron K. collecting leaves in the woodland walk garden. He did a nice job but noted that about 75% of the leaves above his assigned garden have yet to come down! Below are Resa (left) and Cookie heading out to tidy the North point garden and areas surrounding that garden. They always do a nice job (of smiling too!). Kathy and Eva continued their work in the entrance garden and we'll be going through their weekly to tidy and purge as needed. The second photo down shows Kay working in her assigned section of the shade garden which had a fresh batch of leaves and twigs that didn't escape her attention. Dr. Gredler did his mowing rounds and we had help from new volunteer John (third photo down) out in the gardens. We also saw Dr. Yahr, Maury, Bonnie, Fred S. and many others today.

Our grounds crew had a productive day with outdoor activities until lunch and then a shift to more inside work as the drizzle continued. Cindy worked on tidying up in front of the Parker Education Center and did some work near the gazebo garden. She also shifted to lights testing which is one of the early preparations for the Holiday Lights Show that we like to tackle during these rainy days. While Terry helped with the lights after lunch, he had a busy morning of push mowing, shearing, weeding and other gardening duties. Janice helped with the plant sale but also worked with John (above) in the Thomas Jefferson Collection. Janice also did some gardening and worked on the cutting display. I had various tasks including some preparations for upcoming presentations and the Holiday Lights Show. Below are some additional images from today.