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September 28, 2008

Olivia White Hospice Garden Project

On Thursday our large crew was able to accomplish many tasks and yet enjoy our end of the season Harvest Lunch. Karen Kent and Linda Guarino used some of the rocks harvested a couple of weeks ago to create a small rock garden in the Native Bed. We found some great perennials (sneeze weed, Flagstaff penstemon, matt penstemon, mexican hat) on sale and they managed to find many other plants that are abundant in our gardens (lambs ear, coral bells, echinacea, pine penstemon).

A small rock garden created in our Native Garden by Karen Kent and Linda Guarino. Photo by Carol Lease.

Nancy also added some drip lines to some recently moved Shasta Daisy. Leslie Penick found a small amount of mulch at Ft. Tuthill, but the pile has been spoiled with aggregate pulled up from somewhere at the Ft. and piled on top. AA tree service has agreed to dump some of their wood mulch next week instead, so we can winterize our roses. David Hockman, George Bradshaw and Gus Delgadillo cleaned our north rock wall and added rocks for stability gleaned from the property. Gus also found time to care for the bird feeders and baths and moved a couple of plants as well. Carol Lease came for the last time before heading to the valley for the winter. She reorganized our shed which was a mess after a shelf came down. Nancy Palmer did some planting and watering. Gloria Bradshaw and Chrys Wells spent time weeding.

Annual Harvest Lunch enjoyed by all who worked today. Photo by Carol Lease.

After all the work was done we enjoyed a delicious lunch with many vegetables and herbs harvested from the gardens. The menu included chili, roasted veggies, many different salads, muffins (corn and rosemary/goat cheese) and carrot cake and pie for dessert. We waddled around cleaning up after the big lunch, and managed to leave a few leftovers for the staff at Olivia White.

We did have a small crew on our Saturday workday. Cynthia Katte came and we had 3 master gardeners who tackled the very weedy area on the corner of Switzer and Turquoise. I spent my time harvesting herbs for drying and moving a few more plants indoors for the winter. We also did a little watering of some of the newly planted perennials. We harvested some more hollyhock for packaging for resident's families.

New blooms:
Red dalhias and brodiaea in one of our pots, and a blue salvia planted last fall

New plants:
More bee balm, sneezeweed, matt penstemon, Flagstaff penstemon, mirabilis, mexican hat

Thanks:
Karen and Linda for their creativity in building a new rock garden in a short time
David, George and Gus for hauling some heavy rock
Leslie for another load of mulch
3 master gardeners for helping do some serious weeding on Saturday

Come join us for our last month in the garden for 2008. Still on the agenda is:
Mulching the roses and other parts in the garden
Working on a design for the rock garden
Putting away hardscape for the season
Finishing gathering hollyhock seeds
Deadheading some perennials
Planting some fall bulbs
Staining some benches ?
Weeding
Moving a few perennials before the frost comes
We will be in the garden every Thursday Morning 8-12pm weather permitting. We have 2 Saturday workdays scheduled on Oct. 11 and 25 9-12pm. Come with a hat and sun screen and any tools you like to use. Park in the First Cogregational Church lot on Turquoise.

Thanks, Loni

Posted by maxmaddy at September 28, 2008 6:51 AM