April 4-6, 2014 Jaimi and John

Congratulations Fanshawe Horticulture students for completing the first CLT testing ever to be incorporated into a college curriculum!

 Friday as a nerve wracking day as one by one, each student stepped in front of a judge to be tested on their chainsaw, backpack blower and pruning skills, in hopes to become a Certified Landscape Technician.  With the class being split into two groups for the CLT testing, morning and afternoon, my practical partner, John, spent the morning at A.M. Cuddy Gardens for testing while I (Jaimi) spent the morning at Fanshawe College preparing for the weekend and anxiously awaiting for the arrival of the afternoon and my turn to be tested.  With a quick briefing of weekend duties from Jeff, and a few piles of leaves raked, the morning went fast and it was time to head to Strathroy. Even with the nerves and rain, the CLT testing was a great success for both the students and Fanshawe College.  

 

 

The freezing temperatures of Saturday morning brought a slow start to the garden maintenance.  With the leaves still frozen in place, John and I sheered the grasses in front of the president’s office and gave the sun some time to warm the earth.  A few hours in, we were able to pick up the pace; raking out leaves, sand, salt, and garbage that had accumulated in the gardens over the long winter.  By the afternoon the weather was sunny and warm, and our piles of debris were plentiful.  Picking the debris up with the bucket of the John |Deer and dumping it into the Kubota pulled trailer made quick work of the large, heavy piles.  With the sun shining and the piles disappearing, the afternoon flew by and it was time to pack it in before we knew it.    

 

As Jaimi and I (John) arrived at the greenhouse on Sunday, the sun was already begging to come up. Once in the greenhouse we had a quick meeting with the other crew who were also working on the grounds this weekend.  With our plan set, we headed out for the day. After finishing all the circle checks on the equipment that we needed, Jaimi and I got to work. We first started by edging the two garden beds next to building M and H, making sure to leave a nice deep and straight edge. This was the final step to competing this area. Next we moved on to the garden beds that are along the wall of Building H and F. As Jaimi raked out and cut back any dead growth I continued to use the power paddle to remove the large amounts of salt and sand from the turf areas. By this time the sun was high in the sky and shining bright. We both agreed that today was a perfect day to be working outside. After lunch I brought the Kubota tractor and trailer over so that we could remove all of our piles of debris from the area. With everything now cleaned up we head back to the greenhouse to wash all the equipment and tools. Working together with the other crew we put everything away in its proper place. With all tools and equipment put away we headed home after a successful weekend of work on the Fanshawe College grounds.