Piles of Fun

Despite spring starting two weeks ago on the calendar, the first Monday of April is truly our full scale “spring” back in to gardening with all the grounds staff back to their regular schedules and many volunteers returning.  The gardens are still awakening with more color every day and recent rains (more to come later in the week) will get everything moving along including our areas of turf.  Above are some recently delivered piles including shredded bark to the left and compost to the right.  These piles will disappear quickly as we continue to frantically spread these out in the gardens in advance of more plants emerging and certainly in areas that we have to address quickly prior to planting.  These piles became quite a bit smaller as today progressed as a result of an excellent volunteer turnout.  Our grounds crew of Larry O., Big John, Larry H. and Cindy all had a full day of tidying, mulching and other myriad projects.  I was able to get out in the gardens a bit and continue to prepare for our upcoming Spring Plant Sale and other events.  Note some of the seasonal color in the photos below…

flowers of red maple (Acer rubrum)

reticulated irises (Iris reticulata) are looking nice right now

daffodils (Narcissus) are really starting up now

pasque flower (Pulsatilla vulgaris) starting to open up in the alpine garden

some crocuses (Crocus sp.) that have avoided “consumption by rabbit”

‘Northern Gold’ forsythia (Forsythia x intermedia) is at peak bloom

Even though Alan (above) was sitting down on the job today, the rest of the volunteers kept in motion both out in the gardens and at the Horticulture Center.  It was a VERY busy Monday with volunteers here from start to finish today.  Ron R. and Bob K. worked on path repairs and some tidying while Bob C. and Steve E. (new volunteer) did some serious composting.  Dennis J. was a mulching machine near the formal gardens.  Kathy P. (below) did a nice job tidying in the woodland glen area and Kay was a “composting whirlwind” in her section of the shade garden.  Stan, Kristin, Jim H. and three RECAPPERS all did a great job working in the Japanese garden today.  Urban was in for some pruning later in the day as well.  Marv B., Bobby K., Steve J., Jim and Vern all had carpentry jobs today and continue to progress with the creation of new obelisks and other projects.  Dick H. ran many loads to the dump and both Alan and Dr. Gredler did some significant painting.  Maury ran errands and did some work in our greenhouses while Bill O. was in to help Larry O. later in the morning.  Gary did some work on labels and we also saw Maury, Mark S., Terry N. and many others today.

Kathy P.

Ron R.

Bob K.

early spring bulbs are really coming up nicely now!

‘Golden Glory’ corneliancherry dogwood (Cornus mas) starting to bloom

crocuses (Crocus sp.) looking great

new watering wands (above) will go in to service shortly

our 12′ tall and 24″ diameter culvert pipe planters are ready for our “Gothic Theme”!

our Adirondack chairs have a fresh coat of paint and are ready to go out in the gardens

our bagged compost sale started this past Saturday ($6 per bag, 10% off for RBG members) and continues every Saturday through April and May (check out our website for more details)

neat detail along wall in sunken garden