Fanshawe Main Campus Blog

By: Meghan, Colby, and Brooke

Submitted: Sunday October 6th 2019

            As Autumn kicks off, maintenance duty is in its prime. Fall cleanup is a peak time for those who pursue landscape maintenance as a way to earn cash because of all the dropped leaves, pruning, planting, and harvesting that needs done before the frost does its damage. This weekend (October 4th, 5th, and 6th) our little ad hog group was assigned to perform various fall cleanup tasks on campus.

            Our adventure starts bright and early Friday morning at the greenhouse where we met with the all knowing overseer, Jeff Rowley, to discuss what our weekend will consist of. He gave us a list to complete in no particular order and also accompanied us around campus to explain his list in further detail. We finished our walk at Louise Weekes garden where Jeff asked us what we would suggest to a paying customer if she wanted to clean the garden up’ and how much we would quote labour at. He told us to think about it and start our work day, so that we did.

            We began working on the north east corner of R1 where there was a damaged bed due to a solar panel installation. The group was asked to plant 3 different species of plant in the bed with intention and finish the job off with mulch. We were not given an exact map of the layout that much was up to us. We weeded, edged, and cultivated the bed in preparation for new plantings. We decided on using the Hydrangea as the centerpiece as it has the most pop versus the The following pictures are the before and after of the bed we worked on.

             The self proclaimed beautiful bed took a good chunk of our day, so we filled the rest of the day with smaller tasks that we knew we would be able to finish. The first was to plant a Prunus laurocerasus TIITAN@ ‘Rentan’ that happened to be missed by other students when they were redoing a bed by H1033. This was immediately followed by us explaining the plan we had created for the Louise Weekes garden to Jeff Rowley. As a group we discussed the following points need to be addressed:

-edging

-weeding

-deadheading daylilies

-removing dead branches and foliage

-cutting back Wisteria and Sneezeweed

-filling in groundhog holes

-removing thistles

-replanting daylilies

-pruning branches obstructing bench

-removing old wooden stake

-removing leaf debris 

-gathering ginger for Cuddy’s

We decided that all these items would take about 7.5 hours each to complete which came out to about $450 for labour. Jeff Rowley was fairly pleased with our list and asked us to then complete all those items on the list we created by the end of the weekend.

We then finished the day off by planting an Acer palmatum 'Twombly's Red Sentinel’ beside the entrance of R2. We made sure to always stake our trees with the stakes perpendicular to the prevailing winds to allow for reactionary growth on the tree. Once both these specimens were in the ground, it was time to clean up and head home for the day.

Meghan digging for the Prunus laurocerasus TIITAN@ ‘Rentan’ R: The Acer palmatum 'Twombly's Red Sentinel’

            Saturday began just as early as Friday, except this time Rowley wasn’t there to greet us. The team got right to work in the Louise Weekes Garden and spent from 8 AM until 4 PM completing everything on our list above. The garden ended up looking much cleaner after our elbow grease and love went into the cleanup. There were a few challenges along the way such as a need to share the RTV with those who work on campus, but it all worked out in the end. Here are some before and afters of the most hectic spots:

After this we cleaned up and put all the tools away. Then we returned to the greenhouse to do a bit of paperwork before hometime.

            Finally the Sabbath arrived. Sunday was filled with similar tasks to Friday. We began at the entrance of R3 where a few Hypericum frondosum ‘Sunburst’ and a couple other yet to be identified, used to be shrubs needed to be removed so we could make room for some Thuja occindentalis ‘Fire Chief’ ‘Congabe’  and Miscanthus sinensis. We prepped the bed in the same way as we did on Friday and mulched afterwards also. Again, design was left up to the crew, so we went with a staggered look. We made sure to always research the plants we were putting in the ground to ensure that the distance between them was appropriate for how large each species would become. The final look was a nice pop of green against a brown mulch and a huge improvement from what was there before. 

This took just over half the day, so the rest we filled with jobs we could confidently finish before the end of the last day. We may collectively refer to this as the final countdown. The team started after break with planting a couple Cornus alternafolia in the Woodland garden near the outdoor storage area. Followed by ripping out two dead Cornus chinensis ‘kousa’ directly across from them. Then immediately after we headed just a few meters East where we planted 3 Spiraea japonica 'NCSX1’. We then moved just a few yards north to K building where a couple plants in a bed needed rearranged to complete that small task. By the time those tasks were completed, it was time to clean up, put everything away and return to the greenhouse to finish off paperwork and head home. 

This weekend was packed full of learning opportunities and hard work. Our group found it very rewarding to be able to put all of the knowledge we have gained over the last year and a bit to the test and see where we stand in terms of being able to lead a crew in landscape maintenance. 

Fanshawe College Greenhouse Weekend Duty Blog

By: Jared T, Jed H, Julia R.

It is always refreshing to walk in from the crisp - and rather cool - late September air into
the beautiful Fanshawe greenhouse, the poinsettia crop is looking refreshed having just been woken up from their 16 hour photoperiod (simulated 16 hour nights) and eagerly waiting for the sun to grace our beautiful campus. We, started this weekend off strong and dove right into the work we were given, completing the usual list of essential tasks to do when you first enter the greenhouse we noticed that the crop was looking a little dim, some bench’s seemed the be drooping and others weren’t looking as tip top as they could, we decided to give the plants an hour or so and see if
they would require watering that day, or the following, when we returned the sun was shining and the fans were running, it was time to water them, we took to the Dosatron, making sure it was set to the
right fertilizer (20-20-20 @ 250 ppm) and opened the flood gates, we let the water run for approximately 26 minutes, during this process we filtered in and out of benches to check on both dripper locations (within the pots) and overall saturation, we figured it best to let it run for a few extra minutes as assurance that everything was properly watered. Over the course of our first day we found endless opportunities to entertain ourselves, from collecting begonia cuttings and propagating them to potting up cuttings from the previous greenhouse weekend duty crews to make room for our own and then we had a quick meeting with Jeff R about an integrated pest management project he wanted us to do beyond just the usual. This rounded up our first day in the greenhouse.

Saturday the 28th was a special day in the greenhouse since we could just tell that there was some
sort of party going on, people were walking around drinking when we were just getting to campus at
around 7:30, we came to find upwards of 10 beer cans in the garden beds and strewn upon the grass
around the greenhouse, while Fanshawe and Western students alike were partying, we were spot watering some poinsettias that needed it and taking care of the succulents that also looked like they could use some water, we mutually decided we were in the right place after hearing in on various conversations from people passing the greenhouse, where ever they were going was brimming with police, unsurprisingly. Our second day went by just as fast as the first one, after some extra
cleaning in the tractor bay and outdoor greenhouse nursery marked that we had finished up all the tasks on our general list of things to do and went on to a couple tasks given to us by Jeff R., this involved taking to the sidewalk and hunting for acorns from a specific Oak tree, and when we came back we started our IPM research assignment, this involved a lot of counting tiny bugs under a microscope and recording there populations! At least we only had to do half the greenhouse, each time we took one down we put a fresh sticky sheet up, and then we started up our closing checklist and headed home ready for our next day in the greenhouse.

                                       One of the sticky sheets we were counting insects on


Our last day in the greenhouse, Sunday September 29th, started out a little choppy, a few more beer cans, and we seemed to have lost a member of our crew to what we can only assume was the
aforementioned party, but we wont know till we see her again, she was out of reach. So we just took to the day hoping she would appear and started with what we had planned on the day prior and hopped right into the PH and EC readings. unaware of what the readings were supposed to be, about halfway through we found the sheet indicating what it should be and discovered our readings to fall quite a bit short of the specifications EC-wise, unsure of whether it’s a problem on our part or not we made note of it and moved on the next task, break. Once we got back we hopped into cleaning, we took another look at the tractor bay and moved some plants around and made sure everything had plenty of water and moved inside to clean the greenhouse floor. A sweep and a quick weed to the outdoor garden beds had the place shining when we started our closing checklist and headed on home, bringing a nice close to our weekend at the Fanshawe Greenhouse.

                                            Just a nice picture of our amazing greenhouse

We all had a good time at the greenhouse and were looking forward to our next weekend duties around campus and at Fanshawe’s satellite campus, The Cuddy Gardens, until next time!

Weekend Maintenance Blog

September 27-29, 2019

William, Hayden and Robert

Day 1:

An important part of college is the hands on aspect, especially when it comes to greenhouse and landscape work. Luckily for us, we have an amazing program that gives us the first hand experience of work, while also learning new skills on our beautiful college campus.

The start of the work weekend starts off with a small refresher on how to work the radios and how to properly sign in and out of work duties. Afterwards the jobs began; William on the tractor, Robert on the RTV and I on plant duty. Since Fanshawe College is a registered botanical garden, I was to write information on the plants before we planted them as to keep proper records. Once the proper plants had been found, we got to work.

 We dug up and transplanted Irises in the proper garden. Once done, we transplanted hydrangeas into the proper garden bed. Then we moved outside of K building and began planting some more. Robert was able to prune the Norway maple shading the area we wished to plant. Another garden done leads to another in desperate need of weeding and new plants.

  We began planting different trees like the Eastern Redbud, Cedar and Spruce. Then near the end of the day we helped Matt unload some school uniforms into the main classroom in H1033. It was not a part of the weekend duty, but it was still a nice thing to do. Especially for our program coordinator! From there, we ended our first day of weekend duty and cleaned up.

Day 2:

This day we were more prepared as we used the knowledge we learned the previous day and got straight to work: circle checks on equipment and vehicles, plant checks, and off to the gardens. It was a relatively nice morning, despite the spitting rain. Even if the plants were not completely watered the day before, they were on Saturday as it continued to rain throughout the day.

   We did some work in the front of the school planting  and staking three Catalpa trees. With the skills we learned from Arboriculture and from the assistance of google we put our skills to the test. There was plenty of sun and space for the Catalpa to grow, and I have high hopes for them in the future.

With that out of the way, we got started on the garden beds in the front of the school. Here we planted some Berberis and some Echinacea. The soil was incredibly compacted as it was mostly made from clay, and was used as a walkway for quite some time. We hope the garden beds will stay nice out in front with all the smokers, but we have our doubts. We are not entirely sure that the plants will be okay with growing in such harsh soil conditions, but the Berberis will sure keep students from stepping on the garden with its incredible pointed spines on each branch.

 We got them planted and ventured across the road to the other garden. It was mostly finished, and only  needed help with mulching. We headed over to the other side to help the school employees finishing raking the mulch. Unfortunately we weren't able to finish the other side.

Day 3:

          On the third day we started it off as the previous two days but without the assistance of Jeff. We started the day by doing the circle checks to the machines we were going to use through the day. It was a cold morning, but it helped us get moving. We started finishing the mulching that we didn't get to finish the day before. After we finished the mulching for the garden, we put mulch mountain in the back if the trailer. The day before, we asked Jeff why he had so much of it and he replied with “because it was free”. The mulch was especially heavy from the rain the day before. Eventually after a few minutes of using the forks to start lifting the mulch into the back of the trailer Robert came up with the great idea to take the trailer off the tractor and use the tractor to lift the mulch into the trailer which saved us a lot of time. After successfully filling the trailer to the top with mulch we took our lunch. Right when we got done our lunch, we started the plantings of the Russian peonies around some ornamental grass in front of F building. While we were planting the peonies, Robert went around cleaning up the extra mulch and soil left with a backpack blower. Making sure nothing is a mess while also putting away tools and staying organized are essential parts of landscaping. Robert came back 20 minutes later with the Dublin peonies. Hayden and I started planting the newly dropped of peonies as Robert headed over to R2 building to weed eastern garden bed. Before we knew it, the day was over and we started to get everything p

cleaned up and all the equipment checked back in. We actually stayed a little extra time to make sure everything was in its proper place before we left. 

Weekend Greenhouse Blog

By: Meghan, Suzy, and Brooke

Submitted: Sunday September 21st 2019

Just as starting first year can be a daunting experience, second year comes with its very own anxieties, stressors, and unknowns. The idea that all of our knowledge gained in our last year is going to be put to the test in a more practical setting can make one worry about just how much information we truly retained; turns out it was a lot.

As it is near the beginning of the year, my team was amongst the first group of our class to
complete a greenhouse weekend duty. This gave a couple of us some anxiety as we didn’t know what to expect, however, things went well so the stress was for nothing. We were well prepared if we paid
attention to both our last year and the lectures leading up to greenhouse duty.

On Thursday after our classes, we had a(n extremely) brief meeting with Jeff Hicks to discuss
some things that would need to be accomplished during our 3 days in the greenhouse. He mentioned
the propagation that needed done and reminded us of what we had learned in our last greenhouse
class.

Friday morning we all arrived to the greenhouse bright and early to start our adventure. After
Meghan unlocked the greenhouse, we did our opening checklist. This is comprised of a basic walk
through to ensure the crop is still there and healthy and the greenhouse isn’t damaged or experiencing
any emergencies. During our walk through, we noticed that the poinsettia crop could use some
attention. We watered the crop using 20-20-20 @ 250 PPM and applied biological insect management
sheets that contained E. formosa and E. eremicus to help with the white fly population.

                                                                  Biological Card


Immediately after our water party with poinsettias, we received a shipment of various plants
that we were asked to sign for check for any problems. We looked at the quantity on the invoice and
compared it to what was in front of us along with checking for pests and diseases like root rot. This is a super important part of ordering plants as any issues found after 24 HRS are considered caused by the buyer and won’t be resolved by the seller.

Whilst Meghan fought the new propagation chamber that we just bought over the summer and
installed over time (there were a few issues with the electrical units being made of plastic instead of
metal and this did not meet Canadian standards so we had to postpone many times), Suzy and Brooke
started taking cutting from the annual bed outside of H building. The plants that we were propagating
included Impatiens walleriana ‘Variegata’, Justicia carnea, Pelargonium ‘Variegata’, Plectranthus
amboinicus, Plectranthus argentatus, Solenostemon scutellarioides ‘Big Chief’, Solenostemon
scutellarioides ‘Electric Lime’, Solenostemon scutellarioides ‘Wasabi’, Solenostemon scutellarioides
‘Chocolate Covered Cherry’, Tradescanthis sillamontana, Plectranthus coleoides ‘Variegata’ and Justicia brandegeena. Propagation is a favourite of the tasks amongst students in the Horticulture Technician program as it is a task that is applicable to all student’s futures where as some tasks like building a fence may not be needed across the board. The process for taking cuttings was simple enough; cut a portion of the mother plant big enough for at least 24 3” cuttings and bring it inside. Next separate the big cutting you took into individual 3 inch pieces, ensuring that you are making cuts at the nodes and removing any foliage that will touch the growing media. Next, we dip the cuttings into 'STIM ROOT' which is a rooting hormone to help encourage root growth and place them in pre-moistened media in 2401 trays. We then place the trays in the propagation chamber which has heat mats and automatic misters to provide the perfect environment to encourage root growth without high levels of evapotranspiration. Finally, all the trays are labelled and counted in inventory and left alone to grow. When cutting were finished it was time to clean up and head home and sleep for our next shift.

                                                  Cuttings in the propagation chamber


The next morning went smoothly. The opening checklist took way less time as the poinsettias
had already been watered and we had done the checklist once before. After the checklist was done,
Brooke went off to water the Chrysanthemums. She did this with 20-20-20 at 200 ppm without a head
on the wand because Chrysanthemums don't like wet foliage. Whilst Brooke was watering away, Suzy and Meghan took this time to cut back the Blood Grasses that are overcrowding the RTV bay to one inch above the growing media line. We did this to help establish a better root system in the grasses. When we cut the foliage back, it allows more energy to be focused on root development. Brooke was still watering the 'mums' and the nursery stocked (which was so full you couldn't even walk in there) so Suzy and Meghan moved on to 'overwintering' the Cannas. This consisted of taking the crates of Cannas that had been removed from planters around campus. cutting them all the way back to their bulb, and placing said bulb in a newspaper lined crate filled with moist media. We then covered the bulbs up with more moist media, labelled them, and placed them underneath the south side bench against the window. We placed them on top of upside down crates to allow any excess moisture to dry from underneath the crates after watering.


Next, the three musketeers (that would be Meghan, Brooke, and Suzy) took on the quest of IPM
monitoring. To do so, we took down the sticky traps that were hanging above any of the even numbered benches, put them under a microscope, identified which pests were on the sticky trap, and then counted how many of each insect was there. We tallied all of this information into an excel spreadsheet and replaced the sticky cards we took down so that next weekend a similar task can be done and we will have a comprehensive set of numbers to compare pest populations. This task was fairly time consuming and took us the rest of Saturday right into Sunday morning. We really enjoyed this task as it was a great way to learn about pests in the greenhouse in a very hands on way.

                   
                                                                 Yellow sticky trap

                                                              Pests on the sticky trap


Sunday morning checklist was completed by the group and we noticed that the poinsettias were
dry again. Meghan was hesitant to water the crop again as we just did it on Friday and Jeff Rowley had mentioned that root rot and fungus gnats an be a problem when overwatering, but the crop was
showing signs of drought stress so we went ahead and watered. As previously mentioned, a good part of the morning was spent finishing up with our sticky traps and IPM monitoring.

After lunch, we started measuring the Electrical Conductivity (EC) and potential Hydrogen (pH)
of the crop. We took 3 samples of each cultivar from different locations on the benches to get an
accurate range of what the EC and pH were. we then poured 75 ml of distilled water through each pot
and measured the runoff water for EC and pH. We recorded these findings in another Excel spreadsheet and uploaded it to FOL. This task got a little frustrating a few times as we spilled the neutral solutions more than once, but we made it through and got an average EC and pH for each cultivar that we had in the greenhouse. As it turns out, our readings were not optimal and this was mentioned in our report.

                                                          Pour Thru method in action

                                             Brooke and Meghan measuring EC and pH


When this was complete, the group moved on to their final task for the weekend. We took
some of the plants that were delivered on Friday and planted them with the Hoyas and Ficus' outside of the bookstore and watered them in. We were glad to do this task because we had been told about
planting in 3's in class and the planters were looking bare before. They had a "thriller" and a "spiller" but no "filler" so it looks much better after being filled in. It was then back to the greenhouse to clean, finish our last checklist, and close up, bringing our weekend duty to an end.


Weekend duty is a good way to find out if greenhouse is truly your thing. Putting everything we
learned to the test with the knowledge that if we mess up its thousands of dollars out the window puts
the pressure on in just the right way. It was a long weekend, but full of many learning opportunities we wouldn’t have if an instructor was around to show us step by step what we should do. It helps shine light on your strengths and weaknesses as both a horticulturalist, and a problem-solving team member. We are grateful for the experience and hope you learned something reading about our weekend

Weekend Duty Blog - September 20-22, 2019

 Avery & Quinn  

                After being trained on how to drive and operate vehicles such as the RTV and Tractor with a trailer or counter weight attached, we were all set for our weekend duties around the Fanshawe campus. After meeting up with Jeff early Friday morning, a tour took place of the gardens and areas which were to be maintained for the weekend. After carefully listening to and consulting with Jeff we were on our own. No one left to fall back on but each other. Off to C block to fetch the RTV and Tractor trailer, which will aid us in transporting equipment and plant matter. Once we had the automobiles we could finally grab the required tools for the day which consisted of hand saws, shovels, garden hoes, metal stakes, twine, rakes and more. To start off the day we took a journey to the corner of a building near the bus stops. This area was in need of a combination of plants and shrubs to fill in its gaps and empty spaces. A second garden bed was also needing to be created on the opposite side of the walk way to the building. Using Sand Cherries, Golden Birch and Rino Rose we effectively gave to garden a fuller look.

After dealing with the A building garden bed a tree was needed to give an empty garden life at the opposite side of the bus stop area. We calculated which way the wind would blow the most frequently and staked the tree accordingly.

                Now that the tree had been set and centered, an area behind the R2 residence had to be mulched, so we headed over with the trailer!

                A section of garden near D building courtyard area needed to be altered heavily due to the possibility of a hiding spot for criminal activity. We removed several Taxus and a handful of dead spruce from the lower part of the garden. After that we pruned the above tree so the foliage was about shoulder height giving it a nice open concept

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Now that our list of duties had been completed, we head back to the green house to fill out accession sheets of all the plants we had planted during or time at the school. Overall this was a great hands on experience of what it is like in the real world work force.

Greenhouse weekend duty - September 13-15, 2019

For our greenhouse duties on the weekend of Sept 13 to Sept 15, we had 3 main tasks to do. On Friday, we decided to collect cuttings from the stock plants around the greenhouse area. We propagated approximately 6 full trays of cuttings from plants including Geraniums and many different types of Coleus. Cuttings were planted in a mix of Pro Mix HP and perlite. This mixture has more pores for water and air to get trapped in, providing a nice moist atmosphere for new root growth.

On Saturday we collected the sticky traps above the odd numbered benches in the greenhouse to monitor for pests that could be damaging our crop of poinsettias. We do this as part of an IPM (integrated pest management) strategy which aims to reduce the number of pests affecting the crop. Poinsettias are known for being attacked by White Fly which damage the plant by sucking out sap in order to continue to grow from the larva stage to the adult stage. In order to deal with White Fly we use parasitic wasps that hunt and attack the larva, laying eggs in their stomachs to kill the larva upon birth. Another pest we had noticed was a Sciarid Fly which can be damaging as its larva will feed on roots. They cannot find anything else such as decaying matter. We believe this issue may be related to inconsistent watering cycles.

We also measured the pH (parts of Hydrogen) and EC (electrical conductivity). Measuring the pH allows us to see how available each element is to the plant, as different pH values can essentially “lock out” nutrients in certain ranges. This measurement was completed using the pour through test. In this test, we will pour completely neutral distilled water through each plant to be tested. Once that is done, we collect the water that drains out the plant and we test it using a pH meter. Our crop tested at an average of 6.7, which is outside of our ideal range for this crop. At the same time, we also measure each plant for soluble salts. These salts accumulate in the soilless media as we fertilize the crop. Nutrients are bound to salt molecules, so as we increase the fertilizer amounts, the more salts that will build up in the media. Excess salt is flushed every 5^th watering. The crop had been flushed at some point before our duties for the weekend commenced, so our EC readings were well below our goal, most of them being around 0.5 or lower.