While the weather was primarily cool and overcast today, we had a remarkable turnout of volunteers helping out in the gardens throughout the day. Our break room was totally full and we saw lots of folks coming and going and working on a wide range of projects. I’ll likely miss a couple of folks but I recall seeing Kathy, Eva, Bonnie, Shirley, Barb, Marleen, Dr. Gredler, Tina, Dave, Jim, Steve J., Dick H., Larry O., Maury, Alan, Bob K., Lloyd, Urban, Barb, Sandi, Kay and many others. Our grounds crew of Cindy, Big John, Terry, Larry H., Sean, Chuck and Brian all had a wide range of duties. We brought back more plants for the gardens from our suppliers and have more yet to come. It was a crazy busy day but that’s how we roll. I had my camera with me today so caught some nice color…

The weather held nicely today and we had a very successful volunteer planting Saturday at the gardens. With the threat of possible rain over the last 24 hours and some dampness on Friday, we were worried that we might have to cancel our scheduled workday but the forecast looked good this morning and the garden wasn’t too muddy. Today was the first of many workdays for planting this year. We have five sequential Saturdays (this being the first of five) as well as a Saturday in October. We also have four Wednesday evening planting scenarios (starting next Wednesday from 6 pm – 8 pm). That’s how I come up with ten! We had 30 volunteers helping today along with staff assistance from Big John and Laura. Of these 30 helpful sets of hands, I had 20 volunteers planting in the Wellness Garden (see below) and we also had the duos of Janice & Mike and Kath & Marleen planting in other areas. Ken and Chris ran the bagged compost sale while Dr. Gredler was out aerating lawns. Bill, Dave and Larry O. were also in to help with myriad projects including equipment repair. The Janesville Area Herb Society also had their monthly meeting and did some work out in the gardens. It was a busy morning followed by some timely rain! Below are some of our great volunteers!

Today was beautifully sunny and warm with a temperature around 76 degrees F. I think we are beyond the chance of overnight frost which has been a concern over the last couple of weeks. It was another very busy day with grounds staff and volunteers involved with myriad tasks. We made two more trips to pick up plants and continue to prepare for our busy planting season. Our grounds staff of Larry, Bobby K., John, Chuck, Brian and Sean all had a wide range of projects around the gardens. We had a very solid turnout of volunteers that included Kathy, Eva, Sharon, Gena, Mary, Myrt, Sue, Patti, Nancy, Bonnie, Bill, Becky, Dave K. Maury, Dick H., Chris and many others. It was super busy and as we put closure on the Spring Plant Sale, we shift gears to additional spring gardening activities and try to achieve the delicate balance of weeding, planting and other traditional gardening activities.