More Irrigation Irritation

No pictures today. I spent the better part of the day troubleshooting the irrigation in the amphitheater. Dan from Munro pumps came down and looked at the impeller, the last thing to check before ruling out the pump as the problem. The pump is no problem. However, someone turned off the electricity to the controller and that was a problem. Also, the programs were kind of screwy and then the all the zones came on at once and also zone two wouldn't ever turn off while the rest of the zones were running. Grrr. I was cussing out the so and so who changed my programming and all kinds of things. When I got home I looked up on rain bird's site to see if they had any help. It seems like maybe I just need to "reboot" the controller. Unplug it, take out the battery and the fuse and let it sit for a minute or so and then start all over. I'll try that in the morning. I sure hope it works.

Paul and I transplanted a witch hazel a couple of weeks ago and it has been looking droopy so I thought I'd do a little research on it. It looks like it is probably in transplant shock and will perk up soon. However I found this little tidbit on the Floridata website:

WARNING
If you bring flowering witchhazel branches indoors, be careful to remove the seed capsules from the previous year. Otherwise, the warm indoor air will cause them to split open with alarming popping noises and spew seeds out across the room.

Doesn't that sound great? I so want to try it!

Metal in the Gardens

I was getting things ready for the concert Saturday night and I thought I'd check the graffiti that David painted over on Friday. It looks great but look what I saw in Ernie's Cactus Garden.

It seems he is a friend of Don Cambell, from the Cactus and Succulent Club.

Saturday was a big day down at the Gardens. There was a wedding in the rose garden and then the concert that night. Heavy metal music. Not quite our usual folks but they were a good crowd.

Here is our board president, Bob, selling wine, water and sodas.

And the beer guys.

The pizza vendors.

And our faithful box office folks, Wilma, Chris and Jim. I missed getting the crowd from Cumulus, they sponsored the show and were a big help.

The river is really running.

Pretty Flowers

I noticed a lot of beautiful flowers in the Gardens on Friday. Probably because I was running around all over the place. Friday was pretty busy. The lights had to get put up for the concert on Friday night. Weeds, always weeds and Elsie did some cleaning up in the amphitheater garden. There was graffiti to be removed. There was lots of activity in Celebration Plaza not to mention about 150 kids touring the greenhouses and gardens. Plus, we thought one of our fish was sick. And paperwork and irrigation irritations. Drop in visitors. Somehow, just about everything got done. All in all a busy day that I was glad to have over. But just look at the great flowers below.

I don't know what this is but it is flowering in the herb garden.

Look at these gorgeous irises in the international garden.

Don knew what the yellow roses were: Persian Yellow. They go along with the Austrian Copper so well because they have the same spore, so sometimes you get an Austrian Copper that also is a Persian Yellow, like you see here. Isn't it beautiful?

Pretty pinks in Ernie's Cactus Garden.

And of course, Friday's river pictures.

It is flowing faster and faster.

And here is our poor "sick" fish. It is the little white one hiding under the philodendrum leaf. Richard noticed a red spot on it and since we didn't know what it was we freaked thinking it was a bacteria or fungus or something. I got on the phone and started calling around. Marine Tech came to our rescue. They looked at our poor little fishie and determined that it was a scrape due to courtship. Our orange goldfish has been pursuing our white goldfish and it seems that she got a little scrape but nothing serious. We didn't need to quarantine her or treat the water or anything. They also said that the water looked good and so did she. They released her back to me the same day saying that the best place for her to recover was in her own pond. They also said there is a possibility that there may be baby goldfish one of these days. I'll definitely let you know if that happens.

Thursday, a day late because of Technical Difficulties

Today is the last day that the students from the Career Center to come out to help. They come out once a week for an hour to volunteer. I know that doesn't sound like a lot of time but you get a group of people working for an hour and an awful lot can get done. I am really going to miss them. They have been a huge help. Plus they are a bunch of really cool kids. Thank You!

This is first period, my muscle men. They did a great job with the heavy work, digging holes, clearing weeds, that kind of stuff.

Not everyone from second period made it today but they did a really good job at the more detailed work, like getting the beds ready for winter and spring and helping with transplants.

And here we have third period. They can do anything that needs to be done. As the last group in every week they often have to do the "clean-up" so that we can finish whatever project we've started.

I want to say a special thank you to Horticulture Instructor Carol Ann Popp. She has done a tremendous job in getting the kids to the Gardens every week and keeping them focused and motivated. She has also been a huge help to me not only because of her vast knowledge of gardening and horticulture but also of organic and sustainable practices, two things that I am trying to incorporate into the way we maintain the Gardens. Thank you Carol Ann for all your help.

And speaking of thank yous, these folks deserve a huge Thanks. The guy in the light blue shirt? That is our new Executive Director, David Brown. I've been wanting to post a picture of him on the blog but I didn't want it to look like a posed studio shot. So here he is in the wild. He was talking with a group of folks from High Noon Solar. Why is that exciting? Because we are getting solar panels. YAY! It is kind of a long story but the condensed version is that a class at West Junior High (my alma mater) figured out this amazing solar design and won a contest sponsored by High Noon Solar for a solar set-up. Unfortunately, they were unable to utilize the system. High Noon came up with a list of Grand Junction non-profits that they could donate the system to and it was decided that the Gardens should get the system. The installation will begin in a couple of weeks and there are some neat things planned for the West Junior High Students as well. I'll keep you posted as things develop.

Who are these two handsome men? On the right is John from GJ Pipe (I love GJ Pipe) and Sean with Painted Desert Landscaping. They are helping not only with the installation of the new Celebration Plaza but also with my general irrigation irritations. Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou.

Oh and here isn't a picture of Beverly weeding. She comes on Thursday to weed the gardens. Thanks to Beverly for keeping the weeds from completely taking over our beds!

There is one more thing for today that I am super excited about. The Community Gardening Group met. I was a little discouraged because only two people besides me showed up, then one had to leave. However, what transpired has truly gotten me excited about our little Community Garden. I'm not going to say anything more than that until I get our plan down on paper, but it is going to be really cool.

Danger!

Yesterday was kind of a cold and rainy day so once again I stayed in and worked on paperwork. I did get a little break to show some school kids around the greenhouses. I noticed that the fishtail palm (caryota mitis) not only is flowering but it has fruit ripening so I took a picture so you could see both.

Everyone keeps asking if the fruit is edible and I didn't know so I finally looked it up. It seems the fruit is toxic. Some sources say that not only is the fruit poisonous but just handling the fruit is harmful because of the oxalic acid. Some sites leave that part out altogether. Sometimes finding accurate information on the internet is a challenge. I found more sites that listed it as poisonous than not so I'm erring on the side of caution and saying that "No, you cannot safely eat the fruit from the fishtail palm."

And speaking of danger, here are today's river photos.

I've been focusing a lot of attention in the last couple of months on the gardens in the amphitheater. There have been a lot of plants transplanted down to the amphitheater gardens. There have been a lot of donated plants put in as well. I know this picture doesn't do it justice but if any of you remember what it looked like last year you'll notice that there are a lot more plants in the garden than before.

Yes, I know this looks like a big weed patch but there are actually some nice yucca, grasses and spireas in there too.

You can see them better here. There is still a lot to do in terms of weeding and cleaning and primping but the bulk of the planting is finished. It took a lot of work and the effort of a lot of volunteers to make it happen. Which is why it makes me so mad that some jerk had to drive over a part of the garden and kill some of the plants. I know it is one of the hazards of gardening in a public space but it ticks me off just the same.

Monday

The most important thing that happened today and I didn't get a picture! Our new director David Brown started today. Here is the link to the article in the Daily Sentinel if you didn't get a chance to read it. We are all really happy that David is here, even the plants. Look, the cactus are just ready to burst into bloom with joy. ;)


I was walking down by the North Channel with Dan from WD Yards and we were discussing irrigation when I saw this bush full of blossoms. I have no idea what it is except those flowers sure are cute. Anybody out there recognize it?

The austrian copper roses are just starting too bloom. I really love the color and shape of those blooms.

And here is its compatriot. The name of this rose escapes me for the moment. I'll update it when I remember. It is really similar to the austrian copper and they make a great duo.

Sunday

Doesn't the wisteria look great now that it is leafing out?