Thursday, May 11, 2017 – Women’s Gdn, Two Dozen Volunteers, Weeding & Cleaning, Richard’s Helpers, Emilie’s Flower Bed, Banana Plant

Wow, what a great group of volunteers we had to help plant in the Women’s Garden this morning. About two dozen Senior missionaries arrived and it was all hands on deck for work. Unfortunately the flowerbeds weren’t ready yet. 

The flowerbeds were going to take twenty minutes to be ready to plant so with the extra time everyone picked up a shovel, a trowel, a rake or a kneeling pad and they all went to work. Our volunteer missionaries are enthusiastic and tireless. They went right to work cleaning flowerbeds, Leveling flowerbeds, pulling weeds, raking and trimming.

 When the potted plants were laid out on the first flowerbed everyone was on the job planting. The work went fast. Many hands make a big jog easy.

While the first flower bed was being planted the next one was being prepped and had its potted plants laid out. This time Richard, our Horticulturalist and flowerbed designer let the interns and a few others help him lay out the potted plants according to his design and patterns. In fact the beautiful plant displays and the way they are arranged in the flowerbeds is no accident.

Richard explained to us that he uses a pattern similar to the ones used by other Fm (Facilities Management) sites in Utah. They call it the “Mountain Meadow Design Philosophy” and Richard uses it but with a “Nauvoo Flare!”  He says it starts with the large “Wow Factor” flowers, and then adds other plants like building a structure. The height and pattern of plants builds up then ebbs and flows to the smaller fillers and ground cover. He says the other name for this type of pattern is “The Thriller, The Filler and The Spiller!” Richard really knows his stuff. His flowerbeds are always beautiful.

One of our interns, Emilie Roper is a BYUI student and as part of her intern training she was allowed to design the layout of the next flowerbed we planted. Under the tutelage of Richard, Emilie did a great job too.