Week 24, Project GREEN Gardens (PGG), October 7, 2024

Hello All,

Don’t forget to take a look through a window or stroll outdoors these days!  Despite our very dry conditions, fall 2024 is turning into an autumn to remember.  Pull into the parking lot at 820 Park Road, park in one of the 26 parking spaces, and stroll the 8+ acres of autumn beauty.   In the next couple weeks, the Gardens will be put to sleep with only its gorgeous black soil remaining.

There’s LOTS of room to park at the Project GREEN Gardens!

Volunteers met last Monday, October 7 from 9 – 11 a.m.  The air quality was 24, described as good.  Our rain gauge (again) showed zero rain since last week.  Our winds were from the south, 9 mph.  The temperatures were 54 degrees at 9 a.m. and soared to 70 degrees by 11 a.m.   It was another beautiful day to be with Project GREEN friends at the PGG.  There were 14 extraordinary volunteers in attendance: Mary Laughlin, Pat Yeggy, Rina Sjolund, Monica Hoherz, Susan Ahrens,  Merrill Elaine Sunderland a master gardener visiting from Virginia, Linda Bergquist, Sue Terveer-Mullins, Jim Peters, Lisa Haverkamp, Dhyana Kaufman, Erin Buscher, Hetty Hall, and moi.  Five volunteers spent an extra hour each.   It’s always striking to see how much debris is left on tarps for Steve Erickson + crew (Iowa City Parks and Recreation employees) to clear away to the landfill weekly!  I’m thankful to drop by the Gardens after our Monday sessions and see our tarps of debris have been emptied, folded neatly, and placed in the garage.  Many thanks to Steve + crew!  Many thanks to our Project GREEN volunteers as well!   

Cindy Parsons and I were at PGG Friday (10/18) for two and !/2 hours looking at our 2024 planted beds.  Since it’s time to put in an order for our 2025 beds, we assessed the Triangle, Quilt, Mary’s Tree, the Circle, seven Dashes, memorial bed, Iowa City’s flower bed (black eyed Susan), Project GREEN’s variegated Soloman Seal bed, two beds around the patio & sidewalk of the Ashton House, Evelyn’s Corner, Shady Grove,  Ligularia Dell and its Arch, West Oval 3, Catalpa bed, 6 containers and 2 wagons, clearing of the dry river bed’s sides.  My, what a LONG list of Project GREEN’s volunteers’ accomplishments!  I know volunteers are working hard & adding extra time to West Oval 2 now.  We need to assess this long bed for a 2024 covering of beautiful mulch.  

Attention to all volunteers: Please let Cindy and/or me know of annual or perennial plants needed for 2025 beds.  Here are some websites to check for choices.  I’ve included the Ball Horticulture website since last week.  I will ask Dawn Bouslog from Pleasant Valley Greenhouses for catalogs to look at during our November 4th brunch.     

https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/fourstargrowerresource/growerresource2025/https://www.ballhort.com/media/Catalogs/

Roger Swartz has been working on end-of-year improvements to the Little Free Library.  I will add his hours working at the gardens soon.

Tomorrow we will remove the canna lilies and elephant ears.  Here are instructions for our end of year tasks.

Canna Lilies:  Cut back dead foliage to 2 inches.  Carefully dig the cannas with a shovel or spade.  Cut all around the clump.  Lift rhizome clumps out of the ground and shake off any excess soil.  We will need two different tarps for this work.  One tarp for above ground cannas and another for the rhizomes. 

Elephant Ears:  Cut back the stems to about 4 – 6 inches from the ground.  Carefully dig up and lift the bulb or clumps.  Dust the soil from the bulb.  We will keep rhizomes and bulbs separate, so they will have their own tarp.  

I will take the cannas and elephant ears home for drying on our driveway and wintering in our association’s well house.  We will plant these again next May, 2025.  Ah, the circle of life!  Anyone with extra cardboard boxes please bring them tomorrow. I don’t like to pile the rhizomes or elephant ears on top of each other, so a short height of box is preferred.  

Here are the numbers from week 24 at the Project GREEN Gardens.  

Weeks 1 – 23 + Week 24 = 907 1/2 hours + 33 hours = 940 1/2 hours

for 2024’s Project GREEN volunteers! OMG!! We have two more weeks to work at the Gardens and our brunch yet to add to 2024’s total.  It’s no wonder there is such of long list of beds to visit at the PGG!  As always, Project GREEN’s gardeners’ battlecry is …

Wait until next year!

 

Looking forward to seeing Project GREEN’s volunteers tomorrow for week 25 on Monday, October 21 from 9 – 11 a.m. Until then, happy gardening! Diane

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *