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Vivid Color Out In The Gardens
Today started out with dark clouds and the promise of imminent rain. We did get some sprinkles but most of the heavier stuff went south of Janesville. We have a chance of rain over the next couple of...
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All Carts In Use
It was another nice day after some light showers over the previous evening. We continue to water as needed although there isn't the same anxiety that we had last year when there simply wasn't much...
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Nice To See Kids!
There were lots of kids around the gardens today including many that enjoyed the Story & Stroll program this morning. It's so nice to see them out in the gardens and I hope these kids will become...
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Pollinator's Paradise
It was another nice day with sunshine and a high around 80 degrees F. The mornings are quite cool and recent rains over the past couple of weeks (with some "irrigation augmentation") have kept the...
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Time To Plan Your Visit!
The gardens are really looking very good right now and I would say they are certainly at "summer peak". Of course, "summer peak" is an arbitrary term that refers to a variable time when the...
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Educational Hooky (For 6 of 9)
Today, most of the grounds staff had an offsite "retreat" to visit some horticultural treasures in the Chicago area. Larry and Cindy stayed behind to take care of the gardens which I'm sure included...
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It's A Small World
Awesome shot above with this hummingbird enjoying a red salvia (courtesy of Marsha M.). Thanks Marsha! In the gardens today, I unexpectedly saw one of my professors from the Landscape Architecture...
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Skull Found In Gardens
That blog title probably caught some attention. We didn't find an actual skull today but Pat found some huge puffball mushrooms out in the gardens as he was weeding. Everyone got a kick out of these...
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Another Busy Weekend
THIS IS TECHNICALLY THE POST FOR FRIDAY! Who says that red and pink can't go together! Above is cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis) with 'Gateway' Joe-pye weed (Eupatorium maculatum). I thought...
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Calm After The "Storm"
My blog title doesn't refer to any precipitation although we sure could use some now! The "storm" included a busy weekend with five weddings, the WIMGA (Wisconsin Master Gardener Association)...
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The Heat Wave - Welcome (Sort Of...)
We've had quite a cool season overall and not much really warm weather. I'm not sure we've even dabbled much over 90 degrees F yet this year. This week we'll see temperatures up near 90 degrees F...
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Hoping For Rain!
We have a 60% chance of rain tonight and I hope we get a nice soaking. We've been lucky all year with fairly consistent rainfall although we've had a recent, 2 week long dry spell that has resulted in...
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A Blog Milestone
Nice shot above of the entrance garden last evening with the setting sun hitting it nicely. When I started this blog 5.5 years ago, it was as an experiment and I wasn't sure it would "stick". I was...
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Blue Sky Friday
It was nice to have about 7/10" of rain yesterday which made our "Friday Scramble" less stressful. It was beautiful out in the gardens today with blue skies and temperatures right around 80 degrees F...
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Schedule A Visit To Olbrich
Olbrich Botanical Gardens (OBG) in Madison, WI is a must see botanic garden. There are 16 beautiful acres of outside gardens and the Bolz Conservatory is also a wonderful experience not to miss when...
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A Hot Week Looms
It looks like we'll have some hot days in the 90 degrees F with plenty of sunshine this week. I don't mind the heat and many of our tropicals which have been despising the recently cooler temperatures...
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Epping's Not Camera Shy
We had a great staff retreat to Olbrich Botanical Gardens (OBG) in Madison, WI today. While Sue, Kris, Larry and Jenny couldn't make it, twelve of us traveled north to this wonderful botanical garden...
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Mid-Week Clean-Up
With the start of Autumn still 24 days away, the gardens are seeing the transition to late summer with plenty of cottonwood (Populus deltoides) leaves fluttering down. The recent heat feels like July...
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Vital Volunteers
We had a crazy morning with lots going on around the gardens. A group from UW-Whitewater had a function at the Parker Education Center which made for a full parking lot and lots of visitors. We saw...
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Friday Humidity
An oppressive heat settled on the gardens today with a sticky feel to it. I was mostly inside today (no surprise to the grounds staff) but truly felt bad for our staff and volunteers that toughed it...
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