Hi All,
We’ve once again had an excellent week at the Project GREEN Gardens. Volunteers began their work early to miss the heat coming for our Monday morning work session. By 9 a.m. it was 82 degrees and rising. The 11 a.m. temperature was 86 degrees. Our air quality was 59, which was described as “moderate.” The June rainfall for Iowa City was 1.17 inches. I’ve found a new website to check rain totals. Check out mesonet.agron.iastate.edu. On the right side of the page, click “IEM GIS Rainfall” and next page type in any address with the city, click return. Voila, you should see a 2025 chart showing dates beginning January 1 then it will continue through the year. It seems to be accurate for my house and hopefully yours, too.
Our goals for week 8 were: WATER our thirsty plants, prepare each flowerbed to its prettiest for Open Gardens Weekend (OGW) visitors to see, remove daffodils’ leaves if yellow, help Pat with labels, sign-up for OGW PGG greeters Saturday (4 – 8 p.m.) and/or Sunday (10 a.m. – 2 p.m.), fill the Little Free Library with books, and clear sidewalks and driveway. Big list, easy for volunteers.
Since last Monday morning’s session, volunteers accumulated 4 1/2 hours of extra time spent at the Gardens. This week’s volunteers were: Diane Allen, Nick Goergen, Rina Sjolund, Linda Bergquist, Susan Ahrens, Mary Laughlin, Evelyn Frey, Chris Ostrander, Monica Hoherz, Lisa Haverkamp, Erin Buscher, Sue Mullins, Pat Yeggy, and Cindy Parsons. 37 hours were spent caring for the beautiful gardens. There were lots of people coming and going as the OGW hosts were dropping by to collect their yard sign and directions for Saturday and Sunday. It’s possible I missed volunteers arrival/departure times. Let’s talk about this next Monday. Volunteer time spent caring for 2025 PGG is important data and I’d like to make it simpler collecting individual hours.
I plan to have a sign-in sheet Saturday and Sunday for volunteers to record their personal time spent as a GREEN Greeter. Saturday’s volunteers are: Diane Allen, Nick Goergen, Rina Sjolund, and Evelyn Frey. Sunday’s volunteers are: Diane Allen, Nick Goergen, Jim Peters (10 a.m. to noon), Dhyana Kaufman (noon to 2 p.m.), Monica Hoherz (noon to 2 p.m.), and Lisa Haverkamp. The PGG are the headquarters for the OGW, so please stop by if you can.
I took only one picture for week 8. Here it is. Every work session we collect LOTS of debris as we weed the beds. Tarps are placed at the end of the long driveway and in front of Herky located on the west side of the parking lot. Faithfully, Parks and Recreation Staff headed by Steve Erickson collect our debris, fold the tarps and place them back in the garage to use the following week. Looking at the tarps as we finished our week 8 work tells quite a story! Busy volunteers: pulling weeds, raking leaves, and once again making the PGG neat and tidy and welcoming. Well done each of you!
Here are the numbers after 8 weeks together at the PGG. Weeks 1 – 7 + Week 8 = 395 hours + 41 1/2 hours….
= 436 1/2 hours for Project GREEN 2025 volunteers! Congratulations and bravo to each of you.
Hoping to seeing lots of Project GREEN volunteers during OGW! Our week 9 work session will be Monday, June 30, from 9 – 11 a.m. Happy gardening! Diane