Week two summer blog

Chris M.

All week with the exception of Wednesday was rainy and cold but we pushed through as a team and got our tasks done for the week. Monday we kept cleaning, weeding and picking up the garbage in front of T and B buildings. Tuesday we finished up in front of B building and worked our down London Lane towards the front of D courtyard. Wednesday and Thursday we got the tractor and trailer out and parked it in D courtyard and worked at picking up garbage, cleaning up the beds by pulling out dead foliage so we can mulch it. Friday we were split up into groups of two for the morning so we could hit more gardens around College. The tasks involved were pruning, weeding, garbage clean up and organic matter removal. Friday afternoon Tawny and Chris were in the greenhouse helping out Jenn and learning what they had to on their weekend duty.

Summer Maintenance Blog

Week One by Nicole M.

Our week began with some training going over our employee manuals, touching on the requirements of our positions. We then were refreshed and re-trained on circle checks on the RTV and the tractor.

Day two was very fun and exciting. We started our day by transplanting plugs of Portulaca and taking root cuttings of Candy Corn plant (Manettia luteorubra). During this process we learned how to use tools such as the plug popper which pushes the plugs out of the plug trays without damaging them to transplant them in to a larger container. We also took herbaceous cuttings and placed them in our misting chamber which provides the cuttings a gentle mist without over watering and keeps them at a temperature that stimulates the plants’ root growth. This is something I really enjoyed doing as it is not only fun but educational too. It helped us learn and memorize the names of the plants we are working with and the tools we used.

Day three we were split into two groups, half remained in the greenhouse and the rest went to compound area to do RTV, tractor and trailer training. I was one of the few that remained in the greenhouse in the morning. We worked on transplanting cuttings that were previously taken from students during the school year. We had cleared a whole shelf and put them into bigger pots with fresh soil. This time transplanting, we also learned how to use the label maker and printer. I found this part very interesting as I had never used this type of software before and it ended up being very simple and straight forward. Before our lunch break we took a walk around the campus and were each assigned a garden area or building. During our walk we were told which tasks needed to be completed over the summer in our individualized gardens. After lunch the greenhouse group was taken to the compound to complete the RTV, tractor and trailer training. There was a series of obstacle courses we had to complete with both vehicles. We learned how to drive forwards and in reverse with a trailer attached to the vehicle. I found the RTV more challenging than meets the eye!

Day four we began work. All of us were very excited to get outside and do what we love. With our luck it ended up being very warm outside, so we began with weeding the Fanshawe College Boulevard entrance. There were a lot of weeds to be taken care of here as well as clearing all of the brush from the ground. After lunch we learned how to use the power shears and leaf blower. We completed circle checks and began cutting down the long grasses from the entrance to make room for new growth. During this we found a duck with its nest and learned how to handle this type of situation. Once the work day came to an end we then learned how to clean, take inventory of and store all of the tools that were used that day. We finished of our day by walking the interior plantscape route. We were shown which plants we were responsible for maintaining and watering each week as well as how to use the Aquamate, which is a large watering device.

Day five our morning started continuing our outdoor work in the gardens. This time we were shown how to properly edge a garden and the right tools that are used to complete this process. I loved doing this as I was earlier taught a different way of edging the garden and this method was a much cleaner and visually pleasing image. Just before lunch I was responsible for maintaining the interiorscapes with the Aquamate. After lunch I spent the afternoon in the greenhouse taking cuttings and learning the duties for my weekend shift. We went over watering techniques and fertilizing requirements for the crop. I also learned how to use the Priva monitoring system and about greenhouse maintenance.

                              

Sunday shift today has been a very busy day as there was so much to be done! I started my day off by completing a circle check of the greenhouse facility and making sure everything is up to par. I then began watering the crops with the appropriate cultural requirements. I really enjoyed this task. The crop was very dry in the morning so I did realize the importance of watering the crops regularly. While I was doing this I also watered the plants that are newly added to the storage area outdoors. Each plant was watered for 10 minutes with a slow drip. Once the watering was completed I then began spreading Osmocote 15-9-12 slow-release fertilizer into the 4” pots and followed with pinching the white petunias to produce more lateral growth. After lunch I started maintaining the interior plants inside the campus until I was out of water. Once I returned to the greenhouse I began cleaning up by sweeping all of the floors, cleaning pots, cleaning under the rolling tables in the green house as well as inside the drains. I enjoyed my shift in the greenhouse, it was a great learning experience and I feel I will be ready for my next greenhouse shift! 

April 16, 2017 Weekend Duty

Brett Blakey

Ben Adams

Scott Pollock

Friday

On Friday, Tim showed up at 8 am to walk us through what we had to do. So, we started our maintenance on Residence Circle. To start the day Cassandra (who was making up a day) started to clean out the evergreen garden bed of garbage and weeds. After she was done she used a Dutch hoe and made an edge. Ben and Brett started pruning the Taxus along the wall and making sure they were all around the same size.  Scott cleaned up garbage and pulled weeds ahead of us. We also cleaned up around the trees taking weeds out and fluffing up the soil.          

Saturday

On Saturday Brett and Ben started by cutting back the Karl Forester grasses to about 6” in height. Scott continued to remove garbage and weeds from the gardens. From there we moved into G courtyard.  There we weeded and edged all the gardens to make them look nicer and have a defined edge. On our way out of the courtyard we pruned the Weeping Mulberry, removing dead wood and suckers.

Sunday       

We actually did all of our jobs on the list Tim gave to us so when we did our last compost run we saw that the wind from the day before had knocked over a tree in the compound. We decided to finish felling the free with tree saws.   

Weekend Maintenance Blog

April 7-9, 2017

Julian, James and Cassandra

April 7th:  Jeff and I went over what the tasks weekend had in store for the three of us. First hour was walking around the college as Jeff explained what had to be done. While James and Cassandra were taking their CLT testing, I had an orientation that morning at 9:00am – 11:00am for my new job. Then at 11:00am I rushed to the CLT testing that was being held at the Cuddy Gardens. James was first to be done his CLT and was back on campus at 1:00pm. He began cutting the Arundo donax as well as Sedums and other ornamental grasses. He tied them up and cut them by hand until I got back around 3:30. Once I got to the college we used the hedge trimmer instead of hand cutting all the grasses. This power hedge trimmer made this a much faster process.  Overall it was a very busy Friday.   

April 8^th: In the Cool misty morning, the three of us tied up all the giant grasses in preparation for shearing. Quite a bit of raking was required to clean out the garden. Tying up the grasses made it easier and more efficient to take to the compost area. About 4 trips to the compost were needed. We managed to clean out most of the Spirea plants lining the outside perimeter of the garden. During that time we made a couple of vole friends. The Spirea plants needed much attention. So much pruning was required to rid of all the crowded branches plus most of the branches were dead. Now the plants can breathe happy with all of the moldy plant leftovers gone.

April 9^th: In the early morning of Sunday, we all finished the rest of the Spirea plants. There are more snails than ever, crowded at the base of each plant. Before lunch our focus was on all the leaves in the surrounding area. There were pounds of them to clean. Most of them were soaked so they wouldn’t blow away as easily on this windy day. As a team we figured out a system to quickly get the job done on time for lunch. One person would handle the wheel barrels to dump in the trailer while we stuffed leaves in empty ones and the buckets. We were done an area in no time. After lunch we finished the rest of the area. Now it’s as if winter never happened. 

WEEKEND DUTY

FANSHAWE CAMPUS

    NICK  -  JORDAN  -  EASTON

MARCH 31^ST, APRIL 1^ST, APRIL 2^ND 2017

Friday, March 31, 2017

On Friday march 31^st at 8:00 we started our day out by doing a walk around of the areas on the front of the campus where were to do work that weekend. After the rounds were done we then began the first task at hand which was to clean and prep the ground which needed to be mulched. The front of the campus was in need of some spring cleaning.  To accomplish more we split the front campus tasks in to two and worked out way to meet in the center. We first gathered all of the equipment that was need for the day, and then we loaded up the RTV’s and the trailer for the dead foliage and debris. Once everything was ready we then started cleaning out the beds of any leafs, garbage and debris. The small trees and shrubs that needed to pruned received a pruning then from there the rest of the beds had leaves racked out to make room for the mulch that was to go in. After using the leaf blower to remove the needles from under the baled cypress Mr. Pascoe came by for a visit and asked us to divide the Yucca filamentosa ‘Golden Sword’ and then spread it in the bed. Later on we then had to tie up the grasses to make it easier for them to then be cut down. We tied up the grasses in the front garden beds and cut them using the hedge trimmer.  Once it was cut and in piles, they were loaded on to the trailer and brought out to the compost pile and this was repeated until the end of the day so we could start mulching right away the next morning.

  

Saturday, April 1, 2017

On Saturday April 1 we started the day by doing the greenhouse call to sign in for the day. Next we loaded up the RTV`s with some shovels and headed out to the Fanshawe sign. What we had to do at the Fanshawe sign was move 5 Beauty Berry`s from the front of the sign to the back because they were getting to big and blocking the spotlights that illuminated the Fanshawe logo. Once all of the beauty berries were moved to the right place and planted, we then proceeded to edge the garden beds in the front so that they will hold the mulch better without the mulch sliding out of the beds over time. Once the beds were edged the mulching began we went from the right hand side of the school and gradually moved along the school to the left side. We did this until the day was over.  

Sunday, April 2, 2017

On the final day, Sunday April 2, 2017, the team started by heading out to complete the mulching from the day before. We moved the mulch and spread it throughout the garden beds located by the main door and also the freshly planted tulip bed. Sean brought the mulch by tractor/trailer and the rest of us helped move the mulch to the inside of the gardens. There were lots to do so it took the fair portion of the day to complete all the garden beds. We worked hard so it gave us some time to clean up  the pathways of mulch and also to do some detailing in some of the beds. Easton also took the chainsaw out and cut some Viburnum stubs that needed to be cut back. We made sure to clean all the tools so they were in the same condition as we found them. We then made sure the tractors, RTV, and trailers were clean and ready to be put away. We locked up everything then proceeded to the greenhouse to finish the last task of the weekend… The Blog.  Overall a great weekend of hard work, lots accomplished!

Weekend Duty

March 24^th – 26^th, 2017

Lexi Drenth, Mike Dobie & Dakota Stephens

            Friday morning, Dakota and Lexi met with greenhouse Jeff to review our duties for the weekend. Jeff wanted to walk around with the greenhouse crew first so he sent Lexi and Dakota to go get the tractor and trailer and perform a circle check on both. After they completed that we went back to the greenhouse to see Jeff. We were just starting to walk around with Jeff when Mike Dobie came out and joined us after his plant identification class. Jeff showed us our area, what needed pruning and how to properly do it. We got assigned the gardens that wrap around the building starting at the corner of M building and all the way to the Registrar’s Office. We also got assigned one plant to prune on our own which we would be graded on how we did. We all started by getting the proper tools they needed. Dakota got started on a separate garden from Lexi and Mike but we were all within close proximity. Mike and Lexi were tying up grasses that were going to be cut back. Dakota was working on cleaning debris out of a garden and sidewalks first and then he was going to start pruning his shrub. We worked for about an hour and a half then they broke off for lunch. After lunch, Lexi, Mike and Dakota got split up into different jobs in preparation for the College's open house tomorrow. Dakota cleaned out the tractor bay, Mike cleaned out the tool room and Lexi took the Kubota trailer around the school property and took out all of the squirrel covers in the planters. That took us to the end of the day. We put our tools away and cleaned up any messes and then signed out for the day.

            Saturday morning was really busy due to the open house for the College. We pruned for part of the day and worked away in the beds. Mike Pascoe came out and walked with us through the gardens at M building.  Some of the plants that they had to prune were Oakleaf Hydrangeas, dead branches off trees, Forsythias and Malus trees. We were all working closely together so everybody had an idea of how to prune things properly. 

Since it was the open house the College bought lunch for the volunteers that were helping with the open house so all three of us got a free lunch. After lunch Mike took care of all the Oakleaf Hydrangeas, Dakota pruned the trees and Lexi edged garden beds so the mulch would stay in the gardens when it rained. As we moved along, all the debris was brought back to the compost pile. We were told to leave the leaves in the garden beds but we raked the leaves out of the middle of the Junipers and spread them elsewhere in the beds. The rest of the day went by really fast. 

            Sunday morning, everyone got to work right away. We were ready to have a full days worth of work when they realized that they were missing a key to operate the tractor, so there was more running back and forth before we got started on our day. Once we got started, Dakota was in charge of getting mulch with the two tractors. We mulched all morning making the beds looking finished. 

After finishing the first garden bed at M building we cut back the grasses in front of the bookstore. At the end of the day we blew off the areas we worked on and made sure all the tools and equipment were cleaned along with the tool room. After everything was done and cleaned properly, everyone signed out and went home for rest before class on Monday. 

Weekend Duty Blog

March 31^st-April 2^nd 

Caitlin McPhee and Sean Fitzpatrick

Friday March 31^st

Sean and I arrived at the Fanshawe college greenhouse bright and early ready for the beginning of weekend duty, where we met Jeff Rowley, the resident greenhouse technician. We began by going for tour of the campus to see what tasks we would be assigned for the weekend. Unfortunately the weather was not very pleasant out, as the rain fell when we walked through campus with Jeff and another weekend duty crew, Easton, Jordan and Nick who also were being debriefed on what tasks they would be working on and even though the rain fell our spirits were high with excitement . Sean and I started by the Office of the Registrar where we started tying up ornamental grasses so they could be cut back later that day. We broke for a quick healthy break back at the greenhouse with our classmates and then began to work on the same garden. The day was going by fast and before we knew it we had pruned the beautiful Redbud, the Dwarf Lilacs and cut all of the grasses back to 6" in height. We had the opportunity to help Lucas, the Cuddy Gardens Farms technician and Jeff unload the new potting machine from the trailer and into the greenhouse tractor bay. After lunch Sean and I moved on to cut back the tall grasses. Sedums and Salvias were also cut back and we pruned the Hydrangea paniculata 'Limelights'. We finished the day by weeding the gardens of dead foliage and cleaned up any debris so we would be ready for mulching and edging on Saturday morning.

Saturday April 1^st

Sean and I arrived for an early cold and wet start to the day. We met up with the rest of the crew, did our equipment circle checks, clocked in with Jeff and then grabbed our equipment needed for the day. First we relocated the Calicarpa dichotomas at the front of the sign by the Fanshawe College Boulevard entrance to the back side of the sign as they were blocking the College logo on the concrete pillar. Following that we mulched and edged for the rest of the afternoon in our areas. We also put a snow fence up out front to prevent foot traffic through the garden as people were crushing the emerging tulips. Sean pulled the trailer on to the sidewalks and dumped loads of mulch while the rest of the crew used buckets and wheel barrows to disperse it in the beds. By the time the mulch pile was spread another load was coming. We did one last load before calling it a day so we had a full load of mulch when we arrived the next morning. All our tools and equipment were put away as we signed out and took off.

Sunday April 2^nd

We arrived on Sunday to some beautiful sunshine and warm temperatures. The horticulture squad was ready to begin mulching because this was the only task we had to finish. Not much was different from Saturday as loads of mulch were dumped and spread across the many gardens in the H-M-F-E loop. We finished mulching everything in the loop including the boulevard trees after our last break. We than dedicated the last few hours of our shift to clean all the pathways and fluff up the grass and mulch throughout our work site. We used backpack blowers and rounded up all the plant debris into the dump trailer. Sean than did a final compost run and cleaned out the tractor and trailer. Caitlin and Sean took the two tractors back to the C building and locked everything up. We then cleaned all the tools and put them away in their respected positions. That wrapped up our weekend.