The Final Countdown

August 23, 2012

Stacy here for our last week as summer student gardeners.

The Cuddy Open Garden was a huge success with 510 people attending the one day event.



Preparing the Perennial Garden



Our poinsettia crop has arrived and we had to inspect them for crown rot and root rot and then pot them up in the greenhouse.



Jack shows Sijia how to pinch poinsettias



Sijia, Phyllis and Holly pinch the poinsettias

Jack, Jeff and Lucas took us on a field trip to Saria to see DeGoots Nursery and Sipkins Greenhouse.

Sipkins Greenhouse

Thanks for the summer fun and working experience!

August 10, 2012

Hello, Miranda here reporting from Fanshawe College Greenhouse. It’s that time again… MULCH! Tuesday, July 31, we received a small mountain of mulch and spent the majority of the week making our campus planting beds look better than superb. The following week a group of students laid some new sod in the soccer field.  



Pedro, rockin the sod.



On Tuesday August 7, the day our lonely empty greenhouse had been waiting for, we received 1000 poinsettias. Every year the Fanshawe College students get to partake in practical learning, growing and selling a crop of poinsettias. Two teams of student gardeners tackled preparing our greenhouse for the crop. This year we have 7 different cultivars; Christmas Day Red; Christmas Feelings Merlot; Classic Red; Polar Bear; Pollys Pink; Winter Rose Early Red. Our greenhouse is proud to be pesticide free. The crop will be ready for sale in late November for those plant lovers out there who like to keep a little colour in the gloomy holiday season. Pet owners, be informed, that despite what you have heard about poinsettias being deadly poisonous to your small furry friends, this is in fact a myth. The level of toxicity in a poinsettia plant, will at most if ingested by your pet, give them an upset tummy. So come down to the Fanshawe College greenhouse this November and get your holiday cheer in the form of a poinsettia.

Cheers


Denise placing hormone sticky traps around the Poinsettia crop to help manage pests



Poinsettia



Phyllis meticulously recording poinsettia crop journal



Miranda Reichstein, July 27, 2012.

Good afternoon from Fanshawe Campus. Student gardener Miranda here, reporting on the week of July23-27. We had a great experience learning about live roofs this week; followed by weeding the living roof down at Z building. This was a new learning experience for all the student gardeners, and we hope to get back up there by the end of summer. Until next time, ciao.

 Aglaonema commutatum 'Emerald Beauty'

Emerald Beauty Aglaonema

Flowering on the campus’ interiorscape



Tamarix ramosissima ‘Pink Cascade’

Pink Cascade Tamarisk in bloom




A bumble bee chilling on the Tamarisk




Praying mantis we found on the live roof




Putting the finishing touches on the Live roof on Z building after weeding



Of heat and beetles

July 20, 2012

Stacy here and it’s officially midsummer here at Fanshawe College. Summer this year can be described in two words: hot and dry. This week saw 47 degrees Celsius with humidity, the hottest day in London’s recorded history. The gardens definitely need supplemental water to keep them going. There are a lot of Japanese Beetles on campus this year eating their way around. The student gardeners think that it’s because of the mild winter we had.

The Guilty Party Popillia japonica

Leaf Damage

Only a few leaves left

There was a group from Chicago Illinois who came to visit the garden and said they got new plant ideas from the gardens at Fanshawe. They loved the gardens!

The summer crew pruned the Wisteria sinensis (Chinese Wisteria) vines in the woodland garden, Weekes Garden and D courtyard. This is their second annual pruning to prune long whips back to 10-12 buds. This helps the development of new blooms in the spring instead of growing longer whips.



Sijia prunes the Wisteria sinensis



The Eryngium planum (Flat Sea Holly) is in bloom with a bluish tinge.  Looks like it should grow under the sea if you ask me.



Eryngium planum blooms



Eryngium planum Form

Echinops nitro (Blue Globe Thistle) is in bloom and looks great in D courtyard.

Echinops nitro blooms

Echinops nitro form



June 19 2012 – By Ashly

The crew continued weeding the campus.  It is a long task but the campus is looking great!

Stacy and I removed a Blue Spruce from Technology Drive that had canker.  It was the first time for both of us using a chainsaw. After Jeff explained the safety procedures we were able to begin.  It was replaced with an Acer palmatum Katsura. The stump of the spruce was removed with the tractor which was also very exciting.

June 20 2012

The crew worked on watering both the interior and annual beds outside. We also pruned hedges on Technology drive and in the conifer garden.

June 21 2012

It was a hot one today. The crew weeded the woodland garden and then moved indoors to the interiorscape.



Pedro doing interiorscape



June 22 2012

Half the crew mulched and weeded the garden beds west of “M”, while the other half watered the annuals beds and filled the Treegators (slow release watering bags).

June 26 2012



fire department at the greenhouse



What an exciting day in the greenhouse. Miranda set off the emergency alarm system while power washing the greenhouse. Campus Security came to the rescue (and to create a solution so the alarm was not triggered by accident again). The London fire department arrived very quickly. However, in all that THE GREENHOUSE IS EMPTY!! It is cleaned and ready for our poinsettia crops.



Empty greenhouse



June 27 2012

The crew at both Fanshawe Campus and Cuddy Gardens gathered indoors for some very important Heat Stress Training. It was very informative and helpful as the temperature outside rises.

June 28 2012

Stacy, Holly, Jeff and I created a natural stone wall for the new Saffron’s sign being erected in front of “A” building. It was very hot out, but with our Heat Stress Training we were all able to avoid heat stress and completed the job. It was a lot of hard work but it was worth it. It looks incredible!



natural stone wall completed by Stacy, Holly, Jeff and Ashly



June 14, 2012. By: Miranda Reichstein

Graduation Week is a busy week for the Fanshawe Student Gardeners. Weeding, weeding, weeding, and more weeding! The student gardeners started at one side of the campus and re-weeded all of the garden beds to leave the campus looking spectacular for all the wonderful graduation photographs.

The remaining contract orders were picked up from our greenhouse leaving it very empty and ready to be hosed down from top to bottom! If you look around the city of London you will find our plants in various garden beds; such as St Joseph’s Hospital, London Free Press building and many more.



Hosta in bloom



A personal favorite of mine. This tree is wonderfully fragrant and looks spectacular while it's in bloom.

Syringa reticulata

Japanese Lilac Tree



Lychins chalcedonica

Jerusalem Cress or Maltese Cross



Rosa rugosa

Rugosa Rose



May 28^th – June 3^rd, 2012

Avery busy and tiring week and weekend….

Monday, May 28^th, 2012.

We removed several dozen ornamental grasses out from T building and heeled them in at the front of the greenhouse. Next, we laid down geo-textile and mulched the planting beds to smother out the bind weed.

1.      Tuesday, May 29^th, 2012.

Because of the heavy rain and thunderstorms we did some light work such as repotting perennial divisions and the College’s interior plantscape.

2.      Wednesday, May 30^th, 2012.

We kept installing the mulch and geo-textile in front of T Building.

 Thursday, May 31th, 2012.

Preparations for Cuddy’s Open Garden! The intensive work needs to be accomplished, like weeding, edging of the planting beds, mulching, and planting new trees. We also had a lunch with everyone where we communicated with each other about what we like and dislike about working in the Gardens of Fanshawe College. After the great lunch, each of the staff signed a card for Lucas’ newborn baby.

Friday, June 1^st, 2012.

It was a rainy day but we worked outside all day long from 8:00am to 6:30pm to prepare for the open house. Some were at the greenhouse helping Jack sort out the plants for the plant sale while others worked in the beds. We were finally ready for the Open Garden!

3.      Saturday, June 2^nd, 2012.

The open garden starts today! Plant sales were doing very well since we had some awesome weather and the beginning of the day We found that Acer griseum were popular since it is hard to get them. The Hostas were attractive and people really appreciated the prices! In conclusion, everything went on the right track!

4.      Sunday, June 3^rd, 2012.

It was the last day of the Open Garden. Plants sales team and parking team switched their jobs. Before we knew it the day was over and another successful open garden tour was done!