Waiting for Rain!

Posted: June 14, 2017 by Mark Dwyer

At the start of this blog, we hadn’t had any rain all day and it was another scorcher. I watched the doppler radar for incoming precipitation which always seemed to avoid us today. However, we did receive some rain later this afternoon which just barely whet our whistle but was heavy at times either north or south of us. Some rain is better than no rain of course! With the majority of the day being hot and muggy, our grounds staff and volunteers did an exceptional job at various tasks and I’m glad we did so much watering and didn’t just rely on the possibility of significant rain. Nice shot above of some ornamental onions (Allium) out in the gardens today.

Our grounds crew of Larry O., Larry H., Trevor and Bobby K. all had a full day out in the gardens with a wide range of tasks including plenty of watering. We never count on the rain and I’m glad we accomplished as much as we did!

blue globe ornamental onion (Allium azureum) – perennial (spreads by seed!)

nice shot of the French formal garden above

Easy Elegance® Snowdrift rose (Rosa ‘BIArift’) – woody shrub

Our volunteers did a great job today and lots more plants were installed and many garden spaces were tidied up nicely. Above are Mirjam (left) and Marsha who did a lot of planting and primping in the English cottage garden. Directly below are Mary H. (left) and Kathy P. planting their area this morning. Kathy and Eva tidied up multiple areas with a focus on removing bulb foliage and weeds. Stan and Kristin did a nice job in the Japanese garden and Alan M. continues to be a tidying whirlwind (see him below in the gazebo garden). Mary, Gena, Patty and Myrt all worked on planting in the sunken garden this afternoon. We also saw Dick H., Maury, Joanne A., Dr. Gredler, Bill O., Dave K. and many others. Today was one of our Community Appreciation Days with all sorts of fun activities, things to see, food, promotion of the Giant Aquarium and much more!