A Busy Two Days!

The weather the last two days has been quite nice and quite a change from the brief snow storms we saw this past Saturday afternoon!  The photo directly above and four below show some of our activities on Monday.  For the sixth year in a row, we took a convoy of trucks, trailers, staff and volunteers up to Sunset Acres Tree Farm (Stoughton, WI) owned by Dwight (seen to the far right in the photo above) and Debbie Pautz.  They have generously donated evergreens for the Holiday Light Show (HLS) and our team (Kurt, Dick H., Bobby K., Bob K., Alan, Big John, Terry, Larry H., Alex, Josh E., Steve, Dennis and me!) did a nice job cutting, loading, securing and hauling a whole lot of white spruce back to the gardens.  These trees will be staked with lights added shortly.  We appreciate Dwight and Debbie’s continued generosity and support.  While we were away, we had a full crew working on clearing spent annuals from the garden, bulb planting, garden tidying, carpentry and much more! Janice and Cindy held down the proverbial fort and I know we had Kathy P., Eva, Mike P, Tim, Bonnie, Derrick, Ron Y., Lloyd, Vern, Urban, Dave, Jim, Steve J., Maury, Dr. Gredler, Bill O. and many more helping out!

Today was similar in that we accomplished a wide range of tasks.  Cindy, Bobby K., Big John, Larry H. and I all worked on HLS related tasks with some gardening interspersed here and there. Alex helped clear containers while Kathy P., Eva, Marleen, Grace, Kay, Steve, Terri and Sandi all cleared more debris out in the gardens.  Dick H. was on hand to run to the dump many times today with loads of debris.  It was another super day and the rest of the week looks pretty good in terms of weather.

Dick H. above – lying down on the job again

Larry H. (left) and Alex

Terry (left) and Big John

Alex and Josh (rookies for this task and our “young bucks”)

Bobby K. (purple) and Larry H. troubleshooting some lights

fall color of fragrant abelia (Abelia mosanensis) – woody shrub

inflorescence of ‘Silver Tower’ Japanese silver grass (Miscanthus sinensis) – perennial

‘Guacamole’ coral bells (Heuchera) – perennial

ornamental bark of ‘Halleluja’ lacebark elm (Ulmus parvifolia) – woody tree

Kathy P. has been sick recently so I jokingly told her yesterday she should be wearing a mask….here’s what she showed up in today!

fall color of ‘Aconitifolium’ fullmoon maple (Acer japonicum) – woody tree

‘Red Peacock’ crabapple (Malus sp.) – woody tree