A Busy Weekend Ahead

Today was a warm and sunny, summer day with lots of visitors out in the gardens. It was nice to see so many people enjoying the garden throughout the day. Above is a nice shot of coneflowers (Echinacea hybrida 'Cheyenne Spirit') and gloriosa daisies (Rudbeckia hirta 'Indian Summer') in the Nancy Yahr Memorial Children's Garden. There was no shortage of color anywhere out in the gardens but we did have a shortage of staff with some of our grounds staff at home preparing for the Home Garden Tour tomorrow (July 11th, 9 am - 3 pm, rain or shine). Cheryl, Big John, Cindy and Janice are all on the HGT tomorrow along with four other wonderful gardens. Tickets can be purchased yet today for $10 each or tomorrow for $12 each at RBG, K&W Greenery or at any of the individual homes. We did have a nice volunteer turnout today though and are ready for what should be a busy weekend!

'Heart & Soul' false spirea (Astilbe chinensis) - perennial

'Maximus Gigante' elephant ear (Colocasia) in the Elephant Ear Collection

'Carnival' summer poinsettia (Amaranthus gangeticus) - annual

the blue foliage of giant coneflower (Rudbeckia maxima) - perennial

Volunteers were extremely helpful throughout the day. Marv (above) continues improving the moss island in the fern & moss garden with his excellent attention to detail. He is also encouraging significant moss establishment near the upper Japanese garden entrance. Directly below are Eva (foreground) and Kathy working on some weeding and planting in and around the gazebo garden. The second photo down shows Shirley in the woodland glen garden digging up some weeds. She has helped maintain that space for over 15 years. Jan (third photo down) worked her weeding kung fu in the Scottish garden which she has maintained for over 18 years! Lots of very committed volunteers here at the gardens. The fourth photo down shows Vern who worked on the "Nature Nooks" which are our 2015 Garden Art Project. Come see all 25 of these artistically decorated pieces that were designed after the Little Library concept. Bill O. was in to do his mowing as was Dr. Gredler. Bill also worked on one of our vehicles and Dr. Gredler reseeded some new lawn areas. Kay came in to check over her area and shifted to weeding some of the annual beds near the Alphabet Jungle Garden. We also saw Karen and Cheryl P. tidying in the Japanese garden and Sue and Kelley worked in their section of the shade garden. Pat C. worked on new labels and we also saw Jean S., Marcia N., Sue S., Gary S. and many others. It was a productive day out in the gardens!

The grounds staff consisted of Terry, Trevor and me. We all had watering duties and our usual Friday routines of mowing, tidying up wedding sites, etc. The guys kept busy with a wide range of tasks and Terry was able to do more shearing on the boxwoods (Buxus) in the formal gardens. Trevor accomplished a lot of fertilizing and push mowing today. I ran irrigation, watered, sprayed herbicide and have finished preparations for the ever popular Home Garden Tour tomorrow!