The Open Garden is fast approaching!

May 19-22 at the Beautiful A.M. Cuddy Gardens

It has been a short week with the holiday Monday but busy and productive none the less. We are quite excited for the Open Garden June 6^th and 7^th as it is fast approaching.

Lucas has been working away in the patio garden. The pond has been leaking so he drained it, cleaned it, figured where the leak has been coming and fixed it by shifting rocks and resealing. Lucas also worked on putting a splitter in so where the water comes up from the pump it will go in multiple directions.  

 

The iris border was tackled this week.  As iris like conditions more on the dry side and prefer their rhizomes close to the surface we do not add any mulch to this bed. Unfortunately that means more weeds, however, they are easily taken care of with a dutch hoe and rototiller.  Within the Iris border is a collection of Lilac, Kentucky Coffee Trees and even Rhubarb. We cut out the flower stalks on the rhubarb to keep an upright shape. If the flowers were to be left on the plant would become very floppy.  I harvested some small shoots of the rhubarb and made a delicious apple rhubarb crisp!

 

In preparation of the open gardens plants have been added to the dry garden, the alpine garden and the woodland garden. Some are annuals and fillers, others replacements and required paper work to be filled out and plant labels made as we are a botanical garden.  Within the woodland garden a lot is happening. Many native plants are blooming such as trillium, jack in the pulpit and May apple. Many ferns and hostas are growing on nicely.

 

 

 

We have been working  hard to have the grounds in tip top shape for the open gardens and are excited to share our passion with you.

Second Week of May at A.M. Cuddy Gardens

We had another busy and productive week out here at A.M. Cuddy Gardens.  Our week started off with the finishing touches of the pot-in-pot nursery which included bringing out our big trees, setting in the drip lines, grading the soil and seeding.

We installed a strip of ledge rock around the testing station for irrigation. This rock edge will make mowing the lawn around the test station easier. The rock edge also holds the mulch in around the station.

The ever famous rose garden was attended to this week. This included weeding, fixing bed edges and pruning out dead/diseased stems.  Many sub shrubs, such as calicarpia, have broken bud, started growth, and require their yearly pruning. The perennial border has had some attention this week as well. There has been a lot of garden editing taking place, as well as divisions for more plants for the upcoming open gardens and plant sale.

 

Wednesday we made the call to bring in all tropical plants that we had just placed outdoors due to the risk of frost and low overnight temperatures. It was a sure good thing we did as Thursday morning there was frost. 

 

 

It's amazing to see so many plants in bloom and the different layers of the gardens here. Hope you can join us for the open gardens June 6 & 7. Other than the shock of frost and cooler temperatures by the end of the week, it was another lovely one in paradise!  

 

 

 

First Full Week of Work at A.M. Cuddy Gardens (May 4th- May 8th)

 

 

Monday started of the week with ripping out Boxwoods that have been suffering extensive damage from the Boxwood leaf miner for many years. We used the back hoe on the Kubota tractor to lift them out roots and all. We carried on applying a thick layer of mulch to the garden bed known as the prairie border. In the patio there was euonymus growing, we also ripped those out. The decision to remove the euonymus was made to make room for espaliered apple trees from Hillen Nursery. These apple trees have been grafted onto dwarf root stock and have three different kinds of apples on one tree. In order for cross pollination to occur and fruits to be borne on apple trees you need to have different varieties.  There will be a few of these apple trees available at the annual plant sale in June. Tropical plants and bulbs that have spent the winter indoors are being brought out to enjoy the lovely weather we've had this past week.

 

We continued the mulch around to the gardens by the classroom. The turf stone that was installed in the Autumn required more top soil so a few bucket fulls were added and raked through.  The flagstone pathway leading to the classroom needed some repair. It was a great experience to lift and re-set a flagstone pathway.

 

Throughout the week work has been done to level out the lawn area between the house and greenhouses. Removal of large twigs and soil preparation for seeding, the grass seed was sown with the Kubota tractor and power seeder.

 

 

A lot of irrigation work has occurred this week. The smaller greenhouse was hooked up to an existing lateral line and we installed overhead irrigation in the house. 

 

For a few days we worked at setting up the pot-in-pot nursery production. We marked out the holes to be 4 feet apart on center. Used the back hoe to dig the initial holes. We then placed pots in, ensuring there were all level and inline with one another. Trenches have been dug along the pots to install a drip irrigation system. This irrigation system has a valve on every row so we can isolate areas that may not require a lot of water. The pot-in-pot production is a great asset to our nursery. Over wintering is very simple as the roots are below grade and wont freeze. Trees are put under less stress when sold, no digging out root balls. Pot-in-pot production can grow tress in fields where the soil may be less than desirable for growing. It has been a lot of work, however, worth it for all the bonuses.

 

Shade curtains have been installed onto the hoop houses as it has already become to hot in them. The young seedlings we grow prefer and perform better under the shade curtain.

 

 

 

All in all a fabulous first week. A lot is in bloom and buds are bursting! The Magnolia trees are spectacular! We have learned a lot about many different aspects of the industry and had great weather for it too!