April 16, 2017 Weekend Duty

Brett Blakey

Ben Adams

Scott Pollock

Friday

On Friday, Tim showed up at 8 am to walk us through what we had to do. So, we started our maintenance on Residence Circle. To start the day Cassandra (who was making up a day) started to clean out the evergreen garden bed of garbage and weeds. After she was done she used a Dutch hoe and made an edge. Ben and Brett started pruning the Taxus along the wall and making sure they were all around the same size.  Scott cleaned up garbage and pulled weeds ahead of us. We also cleaned up around the trees taking weeds out and fluffing up the soil.          

Saturday

On Saturday Brett and Ben started by cutting back the Karl Forester grasses to about 6” in height. Scott continued to remove garbage and weeds from the gardens. From there we moved into G courtyard.  There we weeded and edged all the gardens to make them look nicer and have a defined edge. On our way out of the courtyard we pruned the Weeping Mulberry, removing dead wood and suckers.

Sunday       

We actually did all of our jobs on the list Tim gave to us so when we did our last compost run we saw that the wind from the day before had knocked over a tree in the compound. We decided to finish felling the free with tree saws.   

Weekend Maintenance Blog

April 7-9, 2017

Julian, James and Cassandra

April 7th:  Jeff and I went over what the tasks weekend had in store for the three of us. First hour was walking around the college as Jeff explained what had to be done. While James and Cassandra were taking their CLT testing, I had an orientation that morning at 9:00am – 11:00am for my new job. Then at 11:00am I rushed to the CLT testing that was being held at the Cuddy Gardens. James was first to be done his CLT and was back on campus at 1:00pm. He began cutting the Arundo donax as well as Sedums and other ornamental grasses. He tied them up and cut them by hand until I got back around 3:30. Once I got to the college we used the hedge trimmer instead of hand cutting all the grasses. This power hedge trimmer made this a much faster process.  Overall it was a very busy Friday.   

April 8^th: In the Cool misty morning, the three of us tied up all the giant grasses in preparation for shearing. Quite a bit of raking was required to clean out the garden. Tying up the grasses made it easier and more efficient to take to the compost area. About 4 trips to the compost were needed. We managed to clean out most of the Spirea plants lining the outside perimeter of the garden. During that time we made a couple of vole friends. The Spirea plants needed much attention. So much pruning was required to rid of all the crowded branches plus most of the branches were dead. Now the plants can breathe happy with all of the moldy plant leftovers gone.

April 9^th: In the early morning of Sunday, we all finished the rest of the Spirea plants. There are more snails than ever, crowded at the base of each plant. Before lunch our focus was on all the leaves in the surrounding area. There were pounds of them to clean. Most of them were soaked so they wouldn’t blow away as easily on this windy day. As a team we figured out a system to quickly get the job done on time for lunch. One person would handle the wheel barrels to dump in the trailer while we stuffed leaves in empty ones and the buckets. We were done an area in no time. After lunch we finished the rest of the area. Now it’s as if winter never happened. 

WEEKEND DUTY

FANSHAWE CAMPUS

    NICK  -  JORDAN  -  EASTON

MARCH 31^ST, APRIL 1^ST, APRIL 2^ND 2017

Friday, March 31, 2017

On Friday march 31^st at 8:00 we started our day out by doing a walk around of the areas on the front of the campus where were to do work that weekend. After the rounds were done we then began the first task at hand which was to clean and prep the ground which needed to be mulched. The front of the campus was in need of some spring cleaning.  To accomplish more we split the front campus tasks in to two and worked out way to meet in the center. We first gathered all of the equipment that was need for the day, and then we loaded up the RTV’s and the trailer for the dead foliage and debris. Once everything was ready we then started cleaning out the beds of any leafs, garbage and debris. The small trees and shrubs that needed to pruned received a pruning then from there the rest of the beds had leaves racked out to make room for the mulch that was to go in. After using the leaf blower to remove the needles from under the baled cypress Mr. Pascoe came by for a visit and asked us to divide the Yucca filamentosa ‘Golden Sword’ and then spread it in the bed. Later on we then had to tie up the grasses to make it easier for them to then be cut down. We tied up the grasses in the front garden beds and cut them using the hedge trimmer.  Once it was cut and in piles, they were loaded on to the trailer and brought out to the compost pile and this was repeated until the end of the day so we could start mulching right away the next morning.

  

Saturday, April 1, 2017

On Saturday April 1 we started the day by doing the greenhouse call to sign in for the day. Next we loaded up the RTV`s with some shovels and headed out to the Fanshawe sign. What we had to do at the Fanshawe sign was move 5 Beauty Berry`s from the front of the sign to the back because they were getting to big and blocking the spotlights that illuminated the Fanshawe logo. Once all of the beauty berries were moved to the right place and planted, we then proceeded to edge the garden beds in the front so that they will hold the mulch better without the mulch sliding out of the beds over time. Once the beds were edged the mulching began we went from the right hand side of the school and gradually moved along the school to the left side. We did this until the day was over.  

Sunday, April 2, 2017

On the final day, Sunday April 2, 2017, the team started by heading out to complete the mulching from the day before. We moved the mulch and spread it throughout the garden beds located by the main door and also the freshly planted tulip bed. Sean brought the mulch by tractor/trailer and the rest of us helped move the mulch to the inside of the gardens. There were lots to do so it took the fair portion of the day to complete all the garden beds. We worked hard so it gave us some time to clean up  the pathways of mulch and also to do some detailing in some of the beds. Easton also took the chainsaw out and cut some Viburnum stubs that needed to be cut back. We made sure to clean all the tools so they were in the same condition as we found them. We then made sure the tractors, RTV, and trailers were clean and ready to be put away. We locked up everything then proceeded to the greenhouse to finish the last task of the weekend… The Blog.  Overall a great weekend of hard work, lots accomplished!

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. 

Weekend Duty Blog

March 31^st-April 2^nd 

Caitlin McPhee and Sean Fitzpatrick

Friday March 31^st

Sean and I arrived at the Fanshawe college greenhouse bright and early ready for the beginning of weekend duty, where we met Jeff Rowley, the resident greenhouse technician. We began by going for tour of the campus to see what tasks we would be assigned for the weekend. Unfortunately the weather was not very pleasant out, as the rain fell when we walked through campus with Jeff and another weekend duty crew, Easton, Jordan and Nick who also were being debriefed on what tasks they would be working on and even though the rain fell our spirits were high with excitement . Sean and I started by the Office of the Registrar where we started tying up ornamental grasses so they could be cut back later that day. We broke for a quick healthy break back at the greenhouse with our classmates and then began to work on the same garden. The day was going by fast and before we knew it we had pruned the beautiful Redbud, the Dwarf Lilacs and cut all of the grasses back to 6" in height. We had the opportunity to help Lucas, the Cuddy Gardens Farms technician and Jeff unload the new potting machine from the trailer and into the greenhouse tractor bay. After lunch Sean and I moved on to cut back the tall grasses. Sedums and Salvias were also cut back and we pruned the Hydrangea paniculata 'Limelights'. We finished the day by weeding the gardens of dead foliage and cleaned up any debris so we would be ready for mulching and edging on Saturday morning.

Saturday April 1^st

Sean and I arrived for an early cold and wet start to the day. We met up with the rest of the crew, did our equipment circle checks, clocked in with Jeff and then grabbed our equipment needed for the day. First we relocated the Calicarpa dichotomas at the front of the sign by the Fanshawe College Boulevard entrance to the back side of the sign as they were blocking the College logo on the concrete pillar. Following that we mulched and edged for the rest of the afternoon in our areas. We also put a snow fence up out front to prevent foot traffic through the garden as people were crushing the emerging tulips. Sean pulled the trailer on to the sidewalks and dumped loads of mulch while the rest of the crew used buckets and wheel barrows to disperse it in the beds. By the time the mulch pile was spread another load was coming. We did one last load before calling it a day so we had a full load of mulch when we arrived the next morning. All our tools and equipment were put away as we signed out and took off.

Sunday April 2^nd

We arrived on Sunday to some beautiful sunshine and warm temperatures. The horticulture squad was ready to begin mulching because this was the only task we had to finish. Not much was different from Saturday as loads of mulch were dumped and spread across the many gardens in the H-M-F-E loop. We finished mulching everything in the loop including the boulevard trees after our last break. We than dedicated the last few hours of our shift to clean all the pathways and fluff up the grass and mulch throughout our work site. We used backpack blowers and rounded up all the plant debris into the dump trailer. Sean than did a final compost run and cleaned out the tractor and trailer. Caitlin and Sean took the two tractors back to the C building and locked everything up. We then cleaned all the tools and put them away in their respected positions. That wrapped up our weekend.

Weekend Duty Blog

By Easton Klaudi and Dakota Stephens

Friday April 7^th 2017

On Friday our entire class was completing our practical CLT exams as part of the new and improved industry standards. We were busy that morning preparing the greenhouse work before the events of the day.  We filled 2000 4” pots with media in one hour and thirty minutes by hand. We have the brand new potting machine up and running but innate human spirit drives us to beat the machine. We now know the machine has to beat an hour and that we feel we can too! We also set three different sticky traps in attempt to monitor pest levels in the greenhouse. We then headed off to Cuddys in Strathroy for our final Certified Exams.  The CLT exams were a great experience for most of us; there had been snow in the morning but the day ended in pure sunshine. We filled our bellies and returned for one final hour of power in the greenhouse for the day. We filled more 4” pots with media and did some afternoon watering and maintenance. We closed the greenhouse for the night.

                                                                              

Saturday April 8^th 2017

On Saturday morning, we arrived at the greenhouse ready to work during a beautiful day. We began by opening up the greenhouse and going through the opening checklist. Temperatures were optimal and there were no signs of major problems. We then performed the required watering (Seedlings, Petunias, geraniums etc.) We fertilized all the annuals in the greenhouse. We then finished preparing the rest of the 4” pots for Wednesday’s class. Easton also pinched the chlorotic leaves of the Petunia baskets to improve the aesthetics and to obviously keep the foliage color as uniform as possible.  We then moved on to planting the vegetable seeds that Lucas brought in to sell at the Cuddy’s Open Garden in June.  We watered them and covered with plastic domes to help retain moisture during germination.  We decided to begin moving cuttings from the propagation chamber to 4” pots. Dakota began to do some cleaning around the Greenhouse to help decrease the possibility of pests and diseases as fungus gnats were found flying in the main instruction area. We then worked on some stock basket cuttings, moving them from trays to 4” pots. Some of them did not have enough root growth so they remained in the propagation chamber until they are ready. We also had to water the seedlings in the greenhouse again because it was so sunny out and they began to dry from the increased rate of transpiration.

Sunday April 9^th 2017

      Sunday morning saw us return for the third and final day of our greenhouse duty. We opened the doors and made our phone call to Jeff Rowley to let him know we were getting ready for action. Our red and white Petunias growing in baskets (to celebrate Canada’s 150^th anniversary) are preparing themselves vigorously to bloom for the historic celebrations. For 150 years we have developed and reshaped this nation. Canada has a rich history both in peace keeping globally as well as the trade of our natural resources and of course our world renowned maple syrup from Canadian Sugar Maple trees. When it comes to our waving flag and our blooming flowers we want the white and the red to glow in honor of our heritage. We used two types of fertilizer this weekend, 350ppm formula, for our petunias to grow, as well as 200ppm 20-20-20 stock basket solution for stock plants and the Alocasia plants. Quickly we went inside the school with our watering tanker to care for the plants in front of the book store and the library. We checked our propagation chamber to find a few of our specimens were well rooted and ready for a 4” pot. We mixed in our standard Pro mix HP mycorrhizae with just some good clean water and made sure to transfer the numbers in our records from the propagation chamber quantities to the 4” pot quantities. Plants can easily get lost, stolen or damaged so proper tracking keeps proper records and our program coordinators happy. We used our E.C. and pH reading technology (pH- 6.4, E.C= 2.1) to ensure the petunias were being cared for properly and we cleaned the leak out of the container it all came in… people need to be a little more careful when putting things away, but we all need to finish the work we find before stopping the day. We have to look after each other, care about each other and we have to bloom together.

 

The Horticultural Technician program was a great experience; people taught each other how to stand together and how to chase dreams. In my early twenties with a joyful tear in my eye we finished our final Fanshawe horticulture blog post and see the future in front of me. Thank you all.

Greenhouse duty

Liam and Ben

March 31, 2017

It was a gloomy spring morning when Ben and I entered the greenhouse. We began our duties by completing our daily check list and walking the crop. We spot watered all plants and used both 200 ppm and 350 ppm fertilizer for petunias, stock baskets, Alocasias and annual Geraniums. We then took a walk through the greenhouse where Jeff pointed out tasks that we could add to our list. After our break we began to sow all sorts of vegetable seeds as well as make labels for plants. 

After lunch we got right back at it and we had the task of helping Mike Pascoe and Lucas bring in some soil as well as take down horticulture displays for the apprenticeship graduation that happened today.

We also set out bug traps for our pest monitoring report. We continued our day by walking around the school observing the interior plants that we needed to maintain during the weekend. We also trimmed back olive trees and changed the sign outside. Other small tasks that we completed were organizing stock plant baskets, opening and closing the POS system and watering seedlings.

April 1, 2017

As we woke up and headed to our weekend greenhouse duty we knew today was going to be a good day as the sun was shining and the birds were singing. We began our weekend duty by completing our daily check list as well as a thorough walk of the crop where we noticed that we needed to water the seedlings in the greenhouse.  We then decided it was time to deal with the interior plant tasks that Jeff had left for us. This included planting up some Pothos and Ficus as well as watering with the Aquamate. 

We made our way to T building to plant Pothos in the common area then on our way back we stopped at M building to plant more Pothos. After break we were able to do EC readings and Ph readings. Shortly after, we began selecting plant from the stock baskets to cut back. After lunch we selected all baskets and trimmed them back. Then we watered the crop (seedlings) and did a walk through. To finish off the day we washed pots and did a walk of the crop, cleaned and washed all surfaces, watered seedlings and checked the propagation chamber.

April 2, 2017

Today was a good day. It was forecasted that it would be sunny so we were ready for a great day. We started out morning with our usual check list. Shortly after that we did our walk of the crop where we spot watered seedlings and stock baskets. We also watered the hanging stock baskets with 200 ppm fertilizer using the irrigation system. There were also some baskets that needed to be cut back as we missed them yesterday. Then we began to clean the tractor bay which included organizing pots and tools, cleaning the floor and organizing the letters associated with the sign.

We also vacuumed off all surface and shelves. After break we did another walk of the crop and cleaned out the drains. At this time we also had to water seedlings again.

After lunch we decided it was a good idea to also clean the pots located in the hallway in the loft shelf and organize them. There were also a lot of large clumps in the media that had to be broken up. We then checked the mist system and gathered our pests for our pest monitoring report. After completing a thorough monitoring report we then did another walk of the crop to ensure things were good and everything was watered. After filling the propagation chamber with water we then began to wrap our weekend at the greenhouse by cleaning all surfaces and putting away all tools that we used.