Emily and Nick's Weekend Duty

A.M Cuddy Gardens Blog

Emily and Nick

Friday

Friday April 15th; what started out as a brisk morning turned out to be a beautiful day!

Nick, Buckley(my dog) and I began the day touring the property with Lucas and Nate to find out

what we would be doing for the weekend. Our tasks were to mulch the path through the hosta

garden, weed the roadside bed, unhill and prune a few roses, and soil and over seed a few bare or

damaged spots in the turf

First was to mulch the hosta garden path. Our hosta garden will be looking full and

spectacular in a few weeks when all the hostas are up. Right now the daffodils are beginning to

bloom, they are enjoying the wonderfully warm weather as much as we are. Lucas was telling us

about years ago when he first came to the A.M Cuddy Gardens, this hosta garden did not yet

exist. The area in which we were standing in was all turf. It was interesting to try and envision

what it was then compared to how it is now. Every year these gardens become even more

beautiful. Michael Pascoe came to visit us with B.D his dog. B.D and Buckley enjoyed running

around while we worked. After they left we went in the house for lunch, Buckley was

disappointed to find that B.D had thieved his bone.

After lunch Nate and I took the garden tractor and the loader tractor to the mulch pile across the

road. We had run out, so we got another trailer load which would hopefully be enough for what

we needed. We then put our mulching task on stand by, as Lucas needed our help to assemble the

panels for the cash tent. He and Nick had already started, by the time we had returned from

loading the trailer with mulch they had the roof of the cash tent almost on. We then started to tie

in the side panels. One by one, we zip tied each panel to the frame until it was complete. This

had brought us close to the end of our day. We loaded up the RTV, and returned the tractors to the

tool shed.

The last few minutes of our day, Nick and I explored the gardens to take photos of what

was in bloom. Many of the Scilla sibirica are popping up, some in the garden and some

throughout the turf near the dry garden. The bees are quite happy as this is one of their first

major food sources. While we walked through the dry garden you could hear them pleasantly

humming as they pollinated the flowers.

 

We then said our final farewells to Lucas and Nate; we would not see them again as our

last class was on Thursday April 14th. It was bitter sweet moment, but we knew we would see

them again in the future.

Saturday

Saturday April 16th another cool start to the day, but again temperatures reached above 20

degrees by the afternoon. We began the morning circle checking the equipment we would be

using and got our tools ready to finish mulching the path way. Unfortunately as we made our

way through the mulch pile, we discovered that we would not have enough to finish the path. So

we used all we had and moved on to our next task which was turf repair. During the winter the

plows will sometimes come too close to the edge of the turf and strip off pieces, leaving them

turned over. In the spring it is our task to turn the pieces back over and top dress the area with

soil and seed. There were a few places that required this, especially near the road. We had to be

extra careful when working near the road as it is very busy, even Buckley wore a vest to stay

safe!

This task took up much of the rest of our day. Michael and B.D visited us again while we were

working. He said he would return in the morning so that we could get the key for the gate to get

more mulch. Michael also made B.D return Buckley's bone she had taken on Friday. She was

reluctant to do so, but when Michael insisted she let her friend Buckley have it back.

There were also 3 Serbian Spruce trees that had died that needed to be dug out as they

had not survived the winter, the likely cause was root rot judging by the shallow weak roots.

As Nick finished some of the road side turf repair, I pruned and unhilled a few roses that had

been missed. In the late fall manure is used to hill up around the base of the rose to help keep it

warm in the winter. In the spring we unhill them, and prune the roses back so that there are only

5 to 7 canes with 5 to 7 buds on them (that is specific to this type of rose). As the end of the day

drew near, we spent the last few minutes cleaning up the shop and putting away the equipment.

Sunday

Sunday April 17th, weather wise this weekend couldn't get any better. Smells of flowers, grass

and mulch filled the Cuddy gardens, Spring really has arrived! As Nick loaded up the RTV with

more soil to use for top dressing the turned up turf spots. I watered the greenhouse and the trees

and shrubs outside. This took us to the time where Michael paid us another visit. Once we had

the keys to open the gate, we took the RTV to get more mulch so we could finally finish the

hosta garden path. Once we finished up mulching the path we moved onto the last bit of turf

repair, there was a lot more than we thought!

 

After lunch we cleaned up our left over soil, and got the tools we would need for

weeding. Luckily the soil we were pulling them from was deep and rich so many of them popped

up easy enough with a good garden fork. After a couple hours of weeding, it was time to call it a

day. We had the tool shed to clean, as well the RTV and all of our tools. As Nick washed the

RTV Buckley enjoyed getting sprayed with the water too! We then locked everything up, and did

a final walk around to ensure no tools were left behind. I double checked the water, as we had a

beautiful warm sunny day and some of the big trees needed an extra boost.

As we gathered our things and locked up the classroom, we said our final farewells to the

beautiful Cuddy house. We have enjoyed having a place such as the Cuddy gardens to call our

own for the last two years. Not every college can say that they have their own private botanical

garden. It has provided an enriching and educational environment for us and we are very

privileged to have it.

E-Team weekend practical, April 8-10

Weekend Duty Blog

 

Friday April 8, 2016

Friday was a busy day beginning with the CLT certification tests taking place at Cuddy Gardens throughout the morning and afternoon. With all the practical modules being tested the grounds were abuzz with students as well as Landscape Ontario personnel. After the CLT’s were completed we received our orientation and assignments for the weekend duty and set out to work. Along with collecting some debris for one of the backpack blower test sites we helped clean up the pruning sites by removing the cut branches and returning the test trees and shrubs back by the greenhouse. The day came to an end with us working in the dry garden weeding and cleaning up leaves. All in all it was a great start to the weekend with some near freezing in the morning that got nice and sunny as the day rolled on.

 

Saturday April 9, 2016

This morning’s weather started very similar to yesterdays, very cold morning and the ground is frozen. We had some flurries in the afternoon and very little sunshine. Eric removed the old plastic labels from the beds and replaced them with new sturdy zinc labels and metal posts to ensure they would be visible for a long time. In the rock garden, taller posts were exchanged with shorter ones to provide a more uniform look. Elizabeth pruned out the dead wood from the boxwoods providing them with better air circulation and light penetration. Pruning was also done to the wisteria leaving one leader stem that will grow along the trellises and provide beautiful flower panicles. Last year’s spent lilac blooms were also pruned off to make way for the fresh new blooms that will be coming in. Older branches in the Redleaf Rose were removed to make space for new growth and provide that stunning red colour. The iris crowns and grasses were cleaned up and dead leaves were removed. We finished the weeding in the dry garden and lightly cultivated the beds. Then, any low spots left in the garden were topped up with soil. Finally, the gravel walkway was raked to remove debris. Despite the snow, spring is still pushing blooms.

 

Sunday April 10, 2016

Today the weather did not co-operate at all.  When we arrived this morning the ground was frozen with no sun in sight to thaw it out.  With the snow and ice storm looming all the backpack blowing was done as early as possible.  All the walkways and driveways were cleared of debris, nice and pristine. An attempt was made to re-mulch the pathways in the hosta garden but to no avail, the freezing was too much.  Given the weather predicament we set to pruning the three Smokebush shrubs, as these shrubs will regrow quickly.  Along with all the branches that had been pruned out a dead tree was also added to our growing brush pile.  With the bushes pruned up and the mess cleaned we set off to work in the hoop houses.  This proved more difficult than anticipated due to weather, once again.  Pots that needed to be refilled with media were frozen in place and could not be lifted and fixed and tags were so cold they would snap if moved.  In the end cleaning and fertilizing was completed and all the pots arranged in an aesthetically pleasing manner with tags facing front.  Last, the final touch on the lower garden was placed when the bench was moved back into its rightful spot.  Minus the freezing weather it was another successful day at Cuddy Gardens!

 

Elizabeth Lazear and Eric Patterson

 

Cuddy Garden Weekend Duty April 1-3

Chris Potten and Nik Rogers

April 1

 The turf at Cuddy’s was very moist and we were careful not to tread on it. The temperature is 7 Degrees and cloudy today. We thought it wise to start the task of removing the woody perennials out of the hoop house.  There was weeding to be done in the sales yard and this was a tedious task. We grabbed the hoes and had a hoedown, leveling and raking out the weeds from the rocks and putting the refuse in the compost bin. The plants in the hoop house had various water saturations, so spot watering was completed. Metal tables were moved and set up in the potting area where we will soon start to use.  It should not be too far away as the weather long term is becoming more moderate. The perennial plants were watered and organized by Genus in the sales area.       

 

April 2

We continued to empty the greenhouse today, and did a heavy weed cleanup in the greenhouse. We removed a lot of the fallen leaf debris, and cleaned up the pots to make them look better. We cut some perennials back.  We topped up some of the pots which were low on soil. The sign was put out with our coordinator who gave us some additional tasks.  We unwrapped some new hoses. At 2pm we were hit by a snow squall and the temperatures dropped.  We were unable to do any work outside as it was blinding snow and humongous flakes.  We cleaned up some bait traps and were working diligently on the tasks to be completed as per our weekend duty list. The pots behind the potting house were organized, and we placed some of the pots under the tables in the potting house.   

 

April 3

At arrival today there was snow falling and the temperatures were quite a bit colder than the two previous days. The picnic table was moved outside today as the Certified Landscape Technician training would begin next week. There was a huge windstorm which knocked many branches down and we picked some of them up around the property.  At close it is snowing heavily and the ground is covered.  The tools and equipment were placed back in the shed.  

 

 

 

 

Final thoughts:

We were unable to move the mulch off the magnolia garden because it was frozen solid.  The area to seed was too wet and muddy as it had been raining. Then it was frozen solid again and the soil was unworkable. The water line froze up on us so we had a little difficulty watering in some plants, frozen solid the whole third day.