Week of May 4

We had another good week in the Olivia White Hospice Garden. It was raining on Monday, but Carol and Vic Hudenko bravely showed up to help Becky Lewis with winter clean-up and weeding.

On Thursday, Carol Chicci finally finished pruning the roses and started on the grapes. Hope Gibbs starting bringing out the hardscape and the garden looks much livelier with all of our garden decorations in place. Joe Harte pruned shrubs and cleaned up the rain barrels. Ed Skiba brought in some lovely new garden soil and wonderful compost for the vegetable beds. We should get a good crop of veggies this year with all of those goodies for the soil. Judi Manoogian continued beautifying the rock garden area and Brenda Mitchell worked on ground cover. They are both trying to define plant space to give a more planned appearance to the garden. Many of our plants, while desirable, have taken over more than their allotted area. Crys Wells ordered the new standing vegetable bed and I starting working on the drip system.

Here are some blooms from the garden. The choke cherry is usually beautiful in the spring, but this year it seems especially showy. Two weeks ago, we thought we'd lost all of our lilac blooms because most of the buds seemed to have been killed in a frost, but this week they are back. Crys and I tried to identify the orange flower. An internet search suggests that it is helianthemum, also known as sunrose. it is supposed to be a summer bloomer, but it certainly looks good now!