Jessica Shields – Our second week of work at Fanshawe College

It’s hard to believe we’re already at the end of our second week, and yet here we are.

We started off the week by picking up where we left off on Friday in the garden beds of R3. With graduation and the Cuddy open house only weeks away there is still a lot of work to be done. It seems we’re finally starting to get the hang of things, from morning circle checks to greenhouse operations and some of us are starting to get a feel for what we really enjoy and what we’re good at. For example, Jeff is good at talking.

With spring here and our graduation and open house at Cuddy’s deadline only two short weeks away we must keep morale up as we power through rain or shine tackling weeds and mulching garden beds. However it is nice to see all those woody plants we studied in class are finally flowering and leafing out.

Cercis Canadensis in bloom behind L building

Primrose in the garden directly in front of F building

Come out and see the A.M. (Mac) Cuddy Garden tour on June 1 and 2, 2013 and view one of the greatest plant collections in Ontario maintained by the students of the Horticulture Technician Program. See you there!



Eric Abram - Our first week at Fanshawe College

Spring is warming up and the trees and shrubs are finally awake after a long, slow winter.  With them come the Fanshawe Student Gardeners, eager to begin their summer co-op terms.  We began our first day of employment on a damp grey morning in our familiar classroom (now much quieter), as Jeff and Lucas (needing no introduction even to us lowly first-years) ran through our employee handbooks and set up our schedules for weekends in the greenhouse and weeks out at the A.M. (Mac) Cuddy Gardens.  Following this we were taken on a tour of the campus, showing us the location of the tool room, fuel pumps, security office, and everything else we could need this summer. Ending at the tool room, we were introduced to the various garden implements which will no doubt become our closest friends as we weed, edge and mulch the garden beds around campus leading up to graduation. After marking the important difference between garden forks and mulch forks (confuse at your own peril) Lucas demonstrated proper weeding and edging technique for us. The war against dandelions has begun!

Forsythia ovata ‘Ottawa’ (Early Ottawa forsythia) already in full bloom on the northeast corner of M building

Our second day began a little less grey and much less damp, as we were all trained in the use of the John Deere hydrostatic tractor, use of the RTV, and practiced backing up with the Kubota and attached trailer. Luckily we’ll be getting plenty of practice! Afterwards we loaded up our wheelbarrows with tools and rolled over to R3 where we spent the rest of the day cleaning, raking and edging the beds there in preparation for mulching.

Hyacinthus orientalis ‘Pink Surprise’ (Pink Surprise hyacinth) on the south face of H building

Wednesday we were all out at the A.M. (Mac) Cuddy Gardens in Strathroy for another quick tour and more equipment training.

We were introduced to new equipment and reintroduced to old equipment as we practiced with the powered tools we will be using both at the gardens and back on campus.

Thursday began clear and sunny, just in time for our first transport trailer of mulch!

The truck was packed to the brim but we’re supposed to go through all this in just a few short weeks. We rolled up our sleeves for the first day of work in earnest, mulching the beds we’d cleaned and edged on Tuesday.

Another bright sunny day greeted us on the final day of our first week. Meeting up with Jeff in D courtyard, responsibilities for various sectors of the campus during our summer terms were assigned before we got back out to R3 to continue work into the beds around the side of the building and the tree collars there. There’s plenty of work to be done before graduation!

Prunus sargentii (Sargent Cherry) in bloom at the F bus stop