Greenhouse Weekend Duty Blog

November 30 - December 2, 2018

Rob and Adam

Friday:

It was a cool cloudy morning, as we pulled up to the Fanshawe Greenhouse, we felt very nervous for our first day, as we wanted more than anything in the world to leave the greenhouse better than when we arrived, and to impress Sue with our talented efforts. When we arrived, Jeff Rowley greeted us and gave us the low down on what we had to do and the protocols to follow for the weekend. We had a list for the weekend, and many other task we wanted to get done. After Jeff walked us through our stuff Rob did the open checklist, and I reconfigured the poinsettias and cleaned up most of the leaves.

Throughout the day we had a slow but steady stream of customers requesting a variety of things from Christmas planters to succulents. After we reconfigured the poinsettias, we hung up the Asparagus Ferns in the pots along the roof above the main aisle way in the greenhouse. I then did a hard pinch on the first bench, took cutting off of the succulents, and really cleaned off the benches. I cleaned out the dead plants from bench one and transplanted 6 plants out of the propagation house to 4 inch pots. Afterwards we cleaned up, and Jeff showed us how to shut down the cash register, and how to properly count up the money. At the end of our first day of the weekend duty we had accomplished a lot, and felt quite accomplished with what we had got done. We had sold around $500 dollars in poinsettias, and had got done many of the task Sue had given us prior to our weekend duty.

Saturday:

It was yet another cool cloudy morning as we began the second day of our weekend duty. Rob performed the opening checklist while I opened the blackout curtains and continued to reconfigure poinsettias. I decided to thoroughly reconfigure the poinsettias which ended up clearing off two benches entirely. We than took all the emitters off of one of the benches and thoroughly cleaned them through.

Today we still had a flow of customers, but much less than on the Friday. After the emitters got cleaned I made up two Christmas baskets as a request from yesterday.

In the afternoon we helped out some customers, hand watered everything in the greenhouse, put the emitters back, than packed up, and cleaned up the greenhouse. I closed the cash register which became quite the process, while Rob closed the blackout curtains. We earned roughly $250 in sales today, and completed a number of tasks that needed doing. We than headed home after another successful day at the greenhouse.

Sunday:

Finally a sunny morning, smiled upon us as me and Rob happily pulled up to the greenhouse for our final day of weekend duty. Another work day never felt so good, as the sun shined down on our beautiful faces. We rolled into the greenhouse amped up as we did our opening routine. I performed the opening check list whilst Rob flew through the Greenhouse opening up the shade curtains, and cash register. Once we opened up the greenhouse we took a look at our list and felt that we didn’t have much left to do, so we decided to go above and beyond the call of duty and do more than what was on our list so we can make the greenhouse the best it has ever been. I walked around the greenhouse, and not only picked up the bottles and garbage around but also weeded the front, and the nursery area in the back. Rob and I than thoroughly cleaned out the greenhouse from top to bottom. We wiped down everything in the main room, cleaned the greenhouse floor until it was spotless, washed down the RTV, and even washed down the floor in the RTV room. With all this cleaning being performed, we began to panic as we felt our efforts were becoming meaningless. Rob decided he’d create the culture chart, and take pH/E.C readings for every cultivar. I also cleaned out another table of emitters.

During the afternoon we re-configured the poinsettias, cleaned off every bench, further inspected the crop for pests, and then did our typical closing procedures.

 When 5 o'clock struck we looked at each other with dread in our eyes, the fact that we weren’t coming on Monday for another full work day broke our hearts. My hope is that when everyone else comes back to the Greenhouse, they well be thoroughly impressed by the work we accomplished, and the improved atmosphere will be a better place for everyone to work in continuing forward.