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.