Weekend Practical

Fanshawe Gardens

Reese Kowalik & Rob Rochon

March 20th – 22nd

We arrived at the Fanshawe Greenhouse to get all prepared and ready to go for 8 A.M. After we went through a quick overview of our weekend with Jeff, we were ready to go out. Our most important Task for the weekend was tying down a Wisteria Vine to the top of a few pergolas. This was a tricky and a dangerous task. Ladders and lots of string were needed for this job. It was a real pain trying to tie knots and keep the Wisteria vine down. Some much needed pruning was done as well. We want to keep the Wisteria tied down so that when it flowers, the flowers will droop through the pergola and make it look a lot better than flowers sticking up high and going everywhere.

The Wisteria project took us past lunch and even a few hours after that, to end off the day we started our second biggest project with was cutting down grasses? We had to break out a hedge trimmer for this job. Cutting down these tall grasses, putting the brush into the back of the RTV was the process. We could only get a little done because we needed to leave time to clean up and put all our tools away.

Back at it Saturday morning at 8 A.M. continuing with cutting back grasses. After many trips out to the compost we were done. The gardens were still a mess though. We were focusing on the gardens around H building and M building. Raking out all the dead leaves, picking up garbage, and of course picking out many empty beer cans. We cleaned up these gardens to the best of our abilities, and they do look a heck of a lot better. 

We ended off the day pruning back a wisteria tree as well as any trees or shrubs that had suckers sticking up from the bottom. We also found a girls pair of American Eagle shorts in one of the gardens, must have been a good night. 

After we filled up with RTV with Diesel fuel, we were ready to get started with our day. We started off finishing with our general garden cleanup on a chilly Sunday morning. We were teased by good weather on Friday, but Saturday and Sunday were cold and windy, making it tougher for us so work. Taking loads to the compost again and again, after that we had to clean up the parking lot medians just outside M building. They were disgusting. 

We also lent a helping hand to our friends working in the greenhouse by taking loads of compost and dirt and dumping it back where the compost is kept.

Overall, it was a very busy but good weekend. We got a lot accomplished and you will definitely be able to tell a difference if you saw!

Reese Kowalik & Rob Rochon