Workdays for the Last 2 Thursdays

Report from Betty:

On Sunday the 30th of September there was a break in one of city's main water lines in the 1/2 circle garden. Betty and Ed Marcus came after a call from the house. They were told that the city would bring a back hoe to repair the area on Monday morning. They removed plants in the area, putting them in pots and some of our raised beds in preparation for the repair. The city came on Monday morning and made the repair but did not need to use a back hoe. Work the next two weeks will include putting that garden back together. Linda Guarino, Crys Wells, and Marilynn Van Waggoner also helped on the workday. 

Note from  Becky:

We had a good workday yesterday,

Laura, Judith, Marilynn, Linda, Betty, Joe and myself -- a good crew.

Betty, her husband Ed, and Linda saved plants in the front half circle so that the water main break could be fixed without damaging the garden. Ed and Betty also salvaged important rocks. Linda and I replanted everything on thursday and Linda got the drip system repaired and working, she even ran it for about twenty mins or so! It looks great! Betty got all of her pots back.

Marilyn worked on deadheading and general clean up.

Judith watered indoors and mulched a few of the roses that had been missed.

Betty watered and "cleaned up"

Joe put in pavers in font of the shed so that the snowblower can get out easily and just so it looks better. Joe will put plastic around trees next time he works.

Laura worked in the medicinal garden.

I think we got a lot done but your whole list is not finished primarily because of attention given to the front half circle.

Betty and Ed deserve a special thank you for being so responsive when help was needed quickly.

I returned to the garden Sunday morning to see what was needed for our workdays this week. It was nice to have a couple of weeks off (my first for the summer) to just relax and get ready for the end of season push.

Thanks,
Loni

Workday 9/17 & 20

On Monday, Julie Holmes came and helped move plants from the area where the trees will be taken down. Since we have plenty in the garden already - volunteers took the plants home. Katarina Karjala cleaned tea pots and put them away for storage for the winter. She also did some deadheading. Linda Guarino came and finished the irrigation in the front bed.

On Tuesday, the two ponderosa trees next to the parking lot came down. They were removed to improve the effectiveness of the solar panels on the home. Work will begin this weekend in leveling the ground and the following weekend in placing our sheds. Next year we will work on making the shed less conspicuous in the garden with trellis and plantings.

Before

After

Thursday, was the day of our Annual Harvest Lunch. Several arrived early and participated in the workday before lunch. Jeanette Sletton worked on composting and mulching roses. Vicki Goodwin, Crys Wells, and Becky Lewis all helped with the mulching. Becky also helped Linda Guarino unload rock mulch for the front bed. Carol Lease worked on the irrigation. She added a few lines and plugged some lines where the sheds will be placed. Several people joined us for lunch - Debbie Crisp, David Hockman, Lee Lease, and Tess (resident). As usual we had a great meal - brats, German potato salad, baked beans, kale salad, calabacitas, jello salad, carrot and raisin salad and a couple of pies. Becky brought some homemade pickles and goat cheese, and Marcia Lamkin brought a banana bread. Katarina Karjala made an apple dessert using some of our apples from the garden, and Brandon Porter brought us a pie. We all ate to much and then enjoyed some thank yous and gifts for the season.

I will be on vacation the next 2 Thursdays - Monday workdays are cancelled. Laura Davis may be working on those Mondays if you want to work in the MMG. Contact her if you are interested. My next days supervising in the garden will be on October 8 and 11. While I am gone Betty (9/27) and Becky (10/4) will be in charge for the workdays. On the agenda for the next couple of weeks:
Deadheading all except penstemons
Watering indoors and all new transplants
Compost (empty red plastic can from pantry)
Cleaning and organizing the garage shelving (put questionable items in a box for my return)
     Black plastic tubing behind the door can be put around treetrunks for the winter
Mulching sparse areas throughout the garden
Moving geraniums out of pots and beds (what doesn't fit on the sun porch is available for the taking)
Beginning to put away hardscape
      Small items in the FG and throughout the garden (boxes in the greenhouse)
      Water features (under the table and in the corner of the back patio)

We may have 2 Saturday workdays in October - 13th and 27th - weather permitting. The first will be a day for planting bulbs and the 2nd Make a Difference Day for final clean-up.

I used to visit and revisit it a dozen times a day, and stand in deep contemplation over my vegetable progeny with a love that nobody could share or conceive of who had never taken part in the process of creation.  It was one of the most bewitching sights in the world to observe a hill of beans thrusting aside the soil, or a rose of early peas just peeping forth sufficiently to trace a line of delicate green.  
~Nathaniel Hawthorne, Mosses from and Old Manse

Thanks,
Loni

Workdays 9/10 & 13

On Monday Julie Holmes came and we worked on removing rocks from under the trees, moving a large succulent to several parts of the garden, and removing bellflower. There were more rocks than we anticipated - buried from years of erosion - so she called John and he came to help us. Between the two of us we only have 2 good knees, so we needed the help, and John came to our rescue. We did everything except plant all of the succulent. Some will be given away but others planted later this week.

With a small crew today we were able to get much done. Linda Guarino worked on the irrigation for the front bed revamp. She will finish on Monday and pick up rock mulch on Thursday. Betty Marcus, as usual did a variety of activities - watering indoors, dead heading, cleaning bird baths, and spraying the roses for aphids. Becky Lewis transplanted a couple of perennials that are under the pine trees that will come down and she planted some more of the transplanted ice plant. Crys Wells also worked on the ice plant. The house was very busy today with lots of traffic to work around. Dave Hill and Murphy brought out several residents. I helped Linda a little, watered the new plantings, made a trip to Home Depot for some more irrigation equipment, and pulled the plants out of the potato bed. They will be dug up some time this weekend, but one came to the top when pulling the plants. I should have taken it to the county fair as a freak vegetable, but didn't know it was there. I am sure it would have brought a blue ribbon. It's a bird, it's a plane, it's super-potato.
.

Blooming:
Ketchup and Mustard Rose, Julia Child's Rose
Lots of seed on the Job's Tears
Many apples on the Granny Smith
Beginning fall color on the Virginia creeper

Plans for next week:
Tree removal on Tues. Sept. 18 - 8am - no volunteers in the garden please
Thursday, Sept. 20 - 12pm - Harvest Lunch after workday
Mulching and tying large roses - mulching throughout the garden
Adding rock mulch to front bed

Upcoming:
Thursday, Sept. 20 - Harvest Lunch 12pm
Friday, Oct. 19 - Volunteer Lunch/Northland Hospice
Saturday, Oct 27 - Make a Difference Day in the garden 9am-12pm

The foliage has been losing its freshness through the month of August, and here and there a yellow leaf shows itself like the first gray hair amidst the locks of a beauty who has seen one season too many.  ~Oliver Wendell Holmes

Hope to see you in the garden next week.

Thanks,
Loni

Workdays 9/3 & 6

Labor Day brought several volunteers to help Laura Davis in the MMG - Nancy Palmer and Toni Barnes. Debbie Crisp came and helped me weed and remove invasive plants (Wood's Rose and Bellflower). Congratulations to Toni Barnes for finishing her MG hours for certification today.

A photo taken Monday of a rose dedicated by the gardeners for a long time garden visitor.

On Thursday, Linda Guarino returned to work and added new plants to the front garden, and made repairs on the wood rings which have been driven over several times. We now have an iron fencing to protect the bed. With the help of Becky Lewis she added many ground covers and lots of drought tolerant perennial forbs and grasses. Next week she will work on installing the drip and on the following week adding rock mulch. That will end the work on that bed for the season. We had several other volunteers working in the garden that day. Vicki Goodwin came for a couple of hours and transplanted a 3rd peony into the rose garden. She also planted a moonshine yarrow in the north bed and a couple of pussy willow in the faerie garden. Jeanette Sletton spent her time transplanting vinca and kinnickinnick to the beds along Switzer Canyon Dr. These are plants that need to be moved in preparation for cutting down 2 pine trees. The pine trees will be replaced by our sheds. I helped Jeanette move rock from the corner to create a new bed for them. Betty Marcus continued collecting seed and for the 3rd time sprayed roses for aphids. The aphids have been worse this year with the moist and cool evening climate. Julie Holmes stopped by to pick up our August hours for tally.

Amy Websdale's Teapot

On Friday, a small group of visitors from the Retired Senior Volunteer Program came and gave us a beautiful  Japanese teapot from Amy Websdale. Earlier this year she came to enjoy the garden and particularly loved the tea garden. We lost her recently to a long time illness and she wanted us to have one of her teapots.  It is now in the garden with a backdrop of Hyssop and surrounded by mint.

Plans for next week include:
Possible tree removal?
Finish removing plants from under the trees on Monday (succulent and any others needed for tree removal)
The usual deadheading, compost, and watering indoors
Begin mulching roses when mulch available
Add drip lines to front bed
Clean and organize the garage shelves

Upcoming:
Fall Harvest Lunch - September 20, at 12pm (contact Loni for potluck items)
October 27 - Make a Difference Day - possible group project to finish the season

Change is such hard work.
Billy Crystal
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/topics/topic_change5.html#ZYuphrRjAhvQrBq0.99

and what we have in front of us for the next several weeks is no exception. The pine trees will come down and the sheds will replace them - maybe the end of this week or beginning of next. Our job will be to make the garden welcoming again after that happens. We will not make any changes this fall but think about it over the winter and talk in January about what we would like to do.

Thanks for all your help and support. Looking forward to the end of this garden season (probably Oct. 27 - Make a Difference Day).

Loni

Workdays 8/27 & 30

The rain continues almost daily and the drip system has been off for a couple of weeks. The only thing being hand watered are some pots and new plantings.

On Monday we had a small crew. Nancy Palmer worked planting in the Michael Moore Garden. Toni Barnes and Katarina Karjala worked on the front bed planting grasses and leveling the tree rings. About a half hour after doing that someone drove over them, flattened a plant and broke two rings. We may need to reconsider putting some rocks in front to prevent driving into the bed. Toni and Katarina also cut back iris and thinned one small bed. They are yellow iris and some of the crew may want some. The remainder will be taken to the county fair this weekend. I worked on thinning gaillardia with some help from Toni and Katrina. The bed is just east of the sandstone patio and has not been thinned for 6 years. We probably removed more than 100 extra plants. The thinning should help with better blooming next summer.

Thursday Betty Marcus came and continued to collect hollyhock seeds and Mexican hat. Joe Harte worked on connecting our two new rain barrels. Joe brought some geraniums to give away and several gardeners took them. We still have some left if you are interested, as we have too many for the winter sun porch. Judith Chaddock returned from her new knee surgery and was able to get all the indoor pots watered and geraniums cleaned.  Marcia Lamkin helped Laura Davis planting in the MMG. I spent my time watering some pots and tomatoes, cleaning up a couple of vegetable beds, planting a few perennials.

Over the Labor Day weekend a display from the garden was set-up at the Coconino County Fair. We had seeds and iris available for giveaways, and the table was visited frequently by those people visiting the Floriculture Bldg. Thanks to Superintendent Carol Burris for letting us show off the work we do in the garden.

New plantings:
In the front bed Cheyenne Sky Grass and Switch grass. Both turn red in the fall and have beautiful seed heads.
Added to the bed east of the sandstone patio, Orange Mt. Daisy, and coreop

New in the garden:
2 new rain barrels, one placed where the old black rain barrel was and the other in front by the garage. If you need to water pots or new plantings there will be a watering can there so please use the rain barrel rather than the hose as soon as there is enough water in them. Judith uses the back rain barrel to water sun porch plants.
New fencing to prevent visitors from driving into the front bed.
New blooms:
Red Wing Butterfly Gladiolas, some agastache, and a butterfly bush

Plans for next week:
Cut lavender
Remove Wood's rose and weeds under the apple tree, and remove Bellflower from the rose garden walkway again
Plant ground cover and new plants in front bed, pussy willow in FG, moonshine yarrow, and lavender
Repair front wood rings after damage from a driver
Move peony to rose garden
Begin moving plants from pine tree area

With impending big changes happening at the gardens this thought was helpful to me.
When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.  ~Victor Frankl
Thanks,
Loni

Workdays 8/20 & 23

Water flowing in the canyon, over and around trees

The gardens are very wet from all the rain we have had this month and last. On Thursday the water was flowing in the canyon after another heavy rain. Some of our natives (mostly penstemons look dark and over watered - hope they make it).Our rain gauge since April 26th recorded over 11 inches. We have lots of tomatoes but have only been able to pick 2 so far that were ripe, with little sun recently.  Many plants including the squashes have powdery mildew, but they are still producing. I was all set to spray roses on Saturday with lots of aphids spotted on Thursday. After the hail I could not find any - interesting. I am sure they will be back, but maybe they don't like hail. We will forgo the County Fair entries this year as most of the flowers are done or damaged by hail.

Monday we had a small crew but much was accomplished. Toni Barnes returned and worked on the front garden creating another spoke with sandstone. If that wasn't enough she went down in the canyon with her chain saw and cut 14 wood slices from a downed tree for pavers in the new garden. Nancy Palmer spent her time planting ground covers in the new spokes. I worked on weeding the north Switzer Canyon bed and began cleaning up the greenhouse in preparation for moving items from the shed later this week.

On Thursday work continued on the bed in front of the house. Kay Balzer worked her design magic with rock and wood and Linda Guarino dug in hardscape and plants from other parts of the garden. She found some more mat penstemon near the compost, pine penstemon that seeded from a large pot, native geranium, and some campanula that had spread. Also planted were horehound (groundcover), low grow catmint, a low-grow sand cherry and a sage. More plantings will be added to this reworked bed including some grasses, and a rock mulch when it is  done.

Redesign of front beds
Beginning hardscape and plantings 8/23

Other volunteers were busy in the garden. Betty Marcus and Carol Lease moved all the small items from the sheds to the greenhouse in preparation for the work on the foundation. Carol organized and cleaned the sheds and the greenhouse. Betty Marcus also cleaned birdbaths, gathered some Mexican hat seed, sprayed roses, and deadheaded. Becky Lewis brought us some of her wonderful goat cheese and spent her time in the garden deadheading.

Plans for next week:
Continue work on the front bed (planting and digging in some pavers)
Watering, weeding, and compost pile work  as needed
Begin work on reworking the small arc bed behind the sandstone patio
 (thinning gaillardia and replacing with other plantings)
Continue to cut back iris and deadhead other plantings

New in the garden:
Reworked front bed with hardscape and plantings
Reorganized sheds/tools (all hand tools and supplies in the greenhouse, shovels and large tools in small shed, adapted garden seats and weed bags in the large shed)

Upcoming:
Coconino County Fair - I will set-up a table in the Floriculture Building. No entries this year.
Fall harvest lunch - Sept. 20, 12pm
    Please let me know if you are coming as I have only one response and may cancel or put off to October.
Bulb planting - early Oct.
Garden wrap-up late Oct. or early Nov. weather permitting

"A garden is never so good as it will be next year."
Thomas Cooper     Horticultural Magazine 1993

Thanks for all you do to keep the gardens beautiful and all who enjoy them curious to see what is next.
Loni

Workdays 8-13/8-16

On Monday our workday was cancelled due to a celebration in the garden. It was the 10th Anniversary of the opening of the Olivia White House. A small group of people came to honor Marilyn Pate the founder of Northland Hospice and the director when the house was built. She came with Bill her husband and was honored by the current Director, Diana Wyatt, President of the board Joe Donaldson, and the current Mayor of Flagstaff. Ray and Joan White, who donated the home were also in attendance along with other friends of Northland Hospice. It was a beautiful day and the gardens were at their peak. Many who could not be there but who have give to the home and hospice but could not be there were honored. Nancy Palmer, Linda Guarino, and myself represented the gardeners.

On Thursday, work resumed in the garden. Laura Davis stopped by briefly to water the MMG. Judith Chaddock came and watered inside as well as deadheaded. She also began to gather some of our lavender for 2012. Jeanette Sletton deadheaded, and Betty Marcus gathered seed for our yearly giveaways. Kay Balzer returned and began her magic on the front garden remodel. Marcia Lamkin watered pots. Joe Harte pruned trees and suckers. I spent my time removing the dreaded bellflower from one of our roses. Just before we were ready to leave a downpour came along with hail. Betty, Marcia, and me had to wait a 1/2 hour before we could get to our vehicles.

On several days this week we had 4-legged visitors (deer) to the garden.  They were very curious and came right up to the edge of the rock walls. After we were gone they helped themselves to dinner.

The Ketchup and Mustard rose buds were all missing except one bloom, which I took in the house for the residents to enjoy. On Saturday my plan was to spray some of the roses for aphids. I looked and looked and couldn't find any. I think the hail on Thursday scared them all off - at least for a while. Instead I helped Steve Raymer, a new master gardener, weed the inferno strips and cut back iris.

We are beginning to harvest seed from our hollyhock and Mexican Hat. If you want any please stop by the garden on one of our workdays (Mon/Thurs from 8am-12pm).

Plans for next week:
Continue work on the front beds
Deadhead iris, shasta daisy, and lambs ear
Spray roses for aphids ?
Begin removing dirt from north side of house and moving items to the greenhouse from the sheds
Watering, weeding and composting as needed

New blooms this week:

Ketchup and Mustard Rose planted in honor of Lois Steve

Some fall asters

Thanks to all who help make the gardens at Olivia White beautiful!

Loni