Fanshawe College Weekend Maintenance Duty 

March 29-31, 2019

Lisa, Emily and Adam

The first maintenance duty of the New Year was under way this past weekend at Fanshawe College. Our objective was to complete a large portion of corrective pruning and remove dead wood from shrubs, sub shrubs and trees around M and H buildings. Earlier in the week, Tim and Jeff discussed proper pruning techniques with us and focused on following the ‘dead, dying and diseased’ rule as well as the 1/3rd rule, i.e. not removing more than 1/3rd of the plant. Tim gave us an extensive list of items that needed attention, thus we focused on those for the weekend. Each student was also assigned a specific shrub that only they were to prune.

Weekend duty began early Friday morning where we met with Jeff to discuss procedures for the three days. After parting ways, the three of us devised a plan on how we should accomplish our given tasks. We decided that the three of us would work together in a section and thoroughly complete each section before moving onto the next. We were lucky to experience some incredible Spring weather on Friday, allowing us to complete our tasks with ease. However, it would later turn out that were fortunate enough to experience not one, but all four seasons in three days. 

The first section contained Adam’s given plant, Forsythia ovata ‘Ottawa.’ He was instructed to remove 3 – 5 canes from these shrubs. This shrub proved difficult to prune as it had many interfering, dead/dying canes. This shrub is also known for its blooms thus it was imperative that flower buds were not pruned off. However, he tackled the task and cleaned the Forsythia up nicely, allowing the shrub to soon exhibit its golden yellow blooms in the Spring.

While Adam worked on his assigned shrubs, Emily and I focussed on cleaning up leaf debris by using the back pack blower and rakes. Once we were satisfied with general cleanup we shifted our focus to the pruning of the Pyrus calleryana ‘Chanticleer.’ Pruning on these trees was minimal, we simply removed a few interfering branches. We moved further alongside M building and focused on pruning the Berberis thungergii ‘Monry.’ This task was tricky due to the thorns on the plant. We took our time but were able to remove much of the dead wood and keep the new growth. We continued pruning all of Friday and focused on plants such as the Hydrangea quercifolia, Cotoneaster apiculatus and Amorpha canescens.

Saturday proved to be a very challenging day both physically and mentally as we were met with large amounts of rain all day long. Rain coupled with cooler temperatures made it difficult to get our to do list for the day complete. However, with quick breaks to warm up and dry out we managed to get quite a bit of work done. We began the day again with collecting leaf debris and pruning some Viburnum that had many epicormic shoots growing throughout the plants. Adam focused on cutting down all of the grasses, trying his best to make sure there were all equal heights and dome shaped. In this section was Emily’s plant, Callicarpa dichotoma ‘Early Amethyst’ also known as a Beautyberry. This sub shrub is known for its beautiful fall berries that typically overwinter, adding winter interest to the landscape. The many beautyberry’s that were in this section needed to have all dead wood removed but the flower stalks needed to remain in case an early frost occurred. While Emily diligently worked away, I focused my attention to pruning back the Fallopia japonica, Exochorda micrantha ‘The Bride,’ and helped with general cleanup of this area, removing leaf debris and some cut grass debris. Unfortunately, we did not have any pictures of our Saturday tasks due to the rainy weather.

Working in a Winter Wonderland

Sunday March 31st, 2019

Winters one last kick arrived this Sunday when all the precipitation left over from Saturday’s rain storm froze and turned everything into ice. Unfortunately for Lisa who had to continue to prune back deadwood around the H Building Loop, she was forced to manually prune each frozen branch. When done properly Pruning can be very time consuming, due to precise determination on which plants are viable and which are dead, dying or diseased.

Callicarpa dichotoma, commonly known as Beauty Berry is a sub-bush from the Lamiaceae family. Sub-bush means that it is a hardy woody perennial, with multiple shared traits. The berries are left for winter interest and are meant to stay on during the Spring until first bud break. My duties involved removing any dead wood and old shoots, in order to stimulate new development. There was so much snow I had to use a snow blower to get close to the ground shoots. It was difficult to collect all the brush and dead branches due to all the snow, but with thorough dedication the Beauty Bushes were looking fresh and ready for a new season of growth.


Ironically Adam’s job for the day included “de-winterizing” the Conifer garden in preparation for the warmer weather. Throughout the winter sensitive shrubs and trees are wrapped with burlap to protect themselves from frost damage and prevailing winds. Most of the trees are stakes and tied up, keeping the branches together to preserve natural thermal heat. If necessary, they can be wrapped in wire cages and layers of burlap. Once removed these were hung up to dry, tightly rolled up, and placed in rodent repellent bags.



                                             

                                                 


The Wisteria in the woodland garden was pruned back in order to create a safe walkway. This involved pruning the buds back from the parent branch to about three to five buds. Final weekend cleanup involved sweeping and organizing to tool room and tractor bay. With a new busy season around the corner it is important to remove leaf litter and leftover summer damages. The tools were organized and cleaned correctly and wheelbarrows removed to do a detailed job. The stakes, wire and burlap were neatly placed in the tool room to defrost until the outer storage area is ready to be opening and regularly used.