Weekend Maintenance Blog – November 24^th – November 26^th, 2017

During this weekends maintenance duty session, there was an excessive amount of grasses that needed to be trimmed down and domed. Many other perennials including; Rudbeckia triloba, Bergenia cordifolia, Iris sibirica, Hemerocallis, and Hylotelephium telephium, needed to be cut down for the winter months.

Day 1

We first started alongside the H building, removed leaf litter, also pruned any dead limbs and interfering branches off of the surrounding shrubs within the area adjacent to H, F and M buildings. After removing most of the grasses, weeded the beds, and cleaning up after ourselves, it was then time for lunch. 

   

After lunch we removed any weeds that were visible and growing within the yews along the wall of H building. Noticeably there were significant numbers of Atropa belladonna (Deadly nightshade) weeds within the hedge of yews. Any garbage found within the gardens was disposed of and all pathways were cleared off alongside F building (where students wait for the #27 bus).  Once we had conquered the gardens bordering H and F building, it was time for our last break.

The crew picked out the dead foliage within the patches of Bergenia cordifolia that are located alongside H and M building. While in that area we removed the leaf litter from the drainage basin that is located across the walkway, opposite the Taxodium distichum’s (Bald Cypress). When we finished the job, it was time to clean up, pack away tools, and lock up all tools and equipment.

        

 NOTE: While James was trimming the grasses, he accidentally hit a sign within the grass and doing so snapped a blade on the hedge trimmer. James went to Jeff and informed him of the mistake and explained what damage had been made. Also, all jobs were completed together and as a team, all crew member participated.

Day 2

The maintenance crew trimmed the Rudbeckia trilobal Black Eyed Susan’s along the East wall of M building. We also pruned the Cotoneaster within the M building garden.

There was a Bergenia cordifolia patch within the garden alongside the south side of M building and needed to be rid of dead foliage.

We then moved onto the next assignment, which was to tackle the woodland garden. First the crew trimmed the Miscanthus sinensis and made sure to leave the Saccharum ravennae Plume Grass and Arundo donax Giant Cane Grasses to leave a winter interest element within the garden.

We then trimmed down the dead material from the Black-Eyed Susan’s, Siberian Iris and sedums.

We removed the dead material and foliage from the Stachys byzantina lamb’s ear that was over creeping onto the walkway. There was a small 20 ft x 5 ft Cotoneaster shrub that was then trimmed, tidied up and had all garbage removed from within and surrounding areas.

Jeff had mentioned to remove a small tree that was growing next and basically within the fence (South side), that surrounded the woodland garden, later to be identified as buckthorn.

The backpack blower was used to remove the excess of leaves that were built up within the red current hedge that is on the north side of the woodland garden. Any weeds including; thistles, dandelions and even a large patch of mint was removed from the gardens.

Day 3

We still had a few jobs to finish up within the woodland garden and decided to begin with removing the Hostas and daylilies from the north side of the gate, into the woodland garden. There was a single variegated Miscanthus grass located within the conifer garden and needed to be removed.

While looking over the work that had been completed within the gardens, we noticed that the fence alongside the East side of the woodland garden was leaning over and onto a mature Spirea shrub, on the East side of the fence. We collected multiple T bars and pounded them into the ground adjacent to the fence, in order to stabilize the fence for the time being.  

We had to make a few corrections to our trimming jobs on the grasses, and simply domed them to a more aesthetic shape.

Nearing the end of the day, the crew began to clean up all areas with a blow-over with the backpack blower and cleared off all benches and pathways within the required areas. We then washed off all tools that were used for the weekend and cleaned the tool room floor as well as the tractor bay.

We then came back to the greenhouse and noticed the greenhouse crew had some compost to dispose of, so we then collected the compost and drove around the working areas and had one last look over the jobs that had been completed over the weekend.