April 6^th, 2014

Move Over HBO’s Game of Thrones, Because Spring is Coming

By Eric Abram

It’s been a long harsh winter, but temperatures are finally rising, the birds are singing, the rain is falling, and the bulbs are sprouting! Chad and I began our greenhouse duties on an auspicious day: both the hydrangea sale and the CLT finals were on April 4^th. This meant that each of us would only be in the greenhouse half a day; Chad in the morning, me in the afternoon.  Chad took care of opening the greenhouse and carefully checking the crop for any issues or inconsistencies requiring attention, which today included watering and potting up some moss hanging baskets. As soon as the day began, so did the customers! The hydrangea sale started fast and maintained momentum all morning. After finishing my CLT exams, I made my way back to campus as Chad drove out to Strathroy to join the afternoon group. The sale continued unabated the rest of the day, with only five remaining by closing time!

 

I finished the remaining hanging baskets and gave the Alocasia a soap treatment to control aphids. Chad graciously returned after finishing his CLT exams and immediately got to work processing stick labels until finally some equipment returned from the Cuddy Gardens and we were able to lock up for the night.

 

Winter wasn’t quite finished with us it seemed because we awoke to a chilly Saturday morning with flurries predicted. After a walk of the crop, Chad worked on transplanting Antirrhinum (snapdragons) while I fretted over the label machine, both of us happy to be working in the warm greenhouse as our fellow students on maintenance bundled up and dealt with snow. After working out the label situation I started seeding veggies and annuals while Chad continued the painstaking work of processing stick labels, which carried us through lunch. In the afternoon the sun finally came out and things finally started warming up.

 

 

 

 

 

I set the Morning Glory seeds to soak for the next 24 hours for the seeds to soften and allow them to germinate. Giving the crop a second look, we discovered that some of the stock hanging baskets drip onto the seed trays, a problem that could cause damping off or washing away of seedlings and media, so we did some rearranging. It always pays to keep checking! I moved on to painting the metal signs while Chad pulled more hanging baskets out of storage and filled them with media for eventual planting and sale, as well as cleaning the greenhouse and processing even more pots. Ending the day, my hands were tacky with paint but gripping a lovely hydrangea to take home.

 

My final day of greenhouse practical was consumed with finishing the jobs I’d started the day prior; more seeding and more painting. Chad struck out on an odyssey to track down all the new plantings, of which we had an exhaustive and extensive list. With only the small aquamate in action he was running back and forth to the greenhouse to refill it and making roundabout trips searching for unlocked doors. Only three hydrangeas remained, but stubbornly refused to sell. Maybe I need to work on my marketing technique…

 

 

 

Before the day was finished we had just enough time to pull some racks out of storage and assemble them in preparation for the cuttings arriving next week. Only two weeks left in class! The greenhouse is getting ever more full by the day, and it’ll be nice to see it full again after the last nine months.

 

That’s all from Chad and I this week. See you at Cuddy Gardens next Friday!