Maintenance Weekend Practical

Stacey Kirkbride & Anina Frick

October 17-19 2014

The leaves are falling, temperatures dropping and the plants are starting their hibernation at Fanshawe College. It was evident that there was much to be done before winter sets in as we made our way around campus last week. Throughout the week, wesoon noticed that Mike, Jeff, and Tim had the same mindset, as their duty instructions piled up quickly.

As Friday came along we practically dove right into our tasks. Jeff who took us through a quick run-through of our weekend as well as adding some extra tasks. With that, we headed to the tractor bay to retrieve the Kubota and trailer. When completing our circle check on the Kubota we discovered that the fuel was low. It was a new learning experience for us both as we hadn’t fueled up before. Then we made our way to R1 to clean the beds around the buildings. Hostas were cut back, shrubs were pruned, tree wells were re-edged and weeds were pulled. Our compost piled up, and our driving skills improved as we maneuvered our way through traffic and into tight spaces.

 

 

 

As our day came to a close, we quickly made a trip to E building to the grass seed site for our maintenance class. We squared off the site with some stakes and caution taped, in order to minimize any foot traffic that may cause compaction.

Our Saturday started wet. The rain began around the same time we did; however that didn't prevent a productive day. We did have a slight hiccup with the Kubota, realizing that our transmission fluid was low. Uncertain of the effects, we decided against using it and returned to the greenhouse, signing out the RTV and trailer instead.

The conifer garden was our focus of the day. We dug some holes for some new trees. As well, we pulled out a euonymus and did some transplanting of junipers, false cypress and pines. As the trees are growing, some of the had to be re-spaced to allow them their maximum growth.

 

 

 

Of course our moods were slightly dulled with the weather but as we got going with our tasks, we soon learned that even the rain can have its own benefits. Weeding for one, was more effective as the ground was softened which made it easier and less time consuming to pull them. Our biggest challenge though, was literally to reduce our footprint as best we could. As the soil got heavier, so did our feet, and we tried to step in gardens as little as possible. All the better for compaction minimization as well, we supposed.

Sunday went smoothly as our routine wore in. We were back at the conifer garden, finishing up where we left off from the previous day. As we were weeding, we made the most of our time turning on the sprinklers to water our evergreens. We were slightly uncertain about watering techniques of the evergreens in the fall. Taking into account what we had learned in first year,we knew that evergreen survival was heightened if they received regular watering throughout the summer months. The water would be stored in the plant’s root system and as winter would set in and the ground would freeze--limiting the plant’s water uptake—water loss through transpiration would occur. As well, lowered air moisture and strong persisting winds would contribute to water loss essentially causing desiccation and potential death of the tree. Doing some additional research, we discovered that watering the evergreens this late in the season was advantageous as well. If watering was slowed in September, the evergreen would go through the “hardening off” process were new growth would stop. However, watering again in October is crucial as the tree receives its final tissue hydration before the ground freezes completely.

We were pleasantly surprised when Eric Abram visited the conifer garden that afternoon. Though we were wary about his presence at first as we thought he was sent to critique our work, he was very helpful giving us tips and tricks which added quality to our responsibilities. In the afternoon we headed back to R1 to continue making our way around the beds lining to buildings.

 

 

Seeing bed by bed being cleared out was both enlightening and motivating. However, considering our time constraint, we decided to move through the basic goal at top speed cutting back the remaining hostas and clearing out garbage The rest would have to wait for a further date. As we evaluated our work and did some critical thinking we remembered the our goal involving tasks: see a job to completion. At that, we headed back to the conifer garden one last time, to do some leaf blowing and touching up some edges with the vertical edger. Our time was closing in quickly and as 4:30 came, we finished up our mental checklists of emptying our compost and leaving our tool room in top shape as though we had never even been there.