Ben and Mike’s Blog

October 21, 2016

 

            Our weekend duty started off with a trip to Tim Hortons where Dobie purchased a steeped tea with 2 milk, 3 sugar and Ben bought a sausage biscuit.  Dobie says that he needed the 3 sugar to keep him awake.  As we entered the distinguished surroundings known as Cuddy Gardens, we were greeted by the active horticulturist Nate McKim.  Nate thoroughly explained the duties in which were going to be granted to us on the weekend which included; setting the alarm, locking the doors and taking care of the keys.  After that, he proceeded onwards to explain our jobs for the day.  We started out by moving around the picnic tables in greenhouse 3.  Although tempting to play a life size version of jenga, we got the job done and continued onto the next one.  We then pruned a Caribbean coffee plant in greenhouse 1.  After that we broke our backs some more by moving multiple metal pipes to the top of the barn with the help of Nate.  Next we went on a scavenger hunt to find all of the plant stands around the gardens and preceded onto carry them into the top of the barn as well as piping and irrigation heads.  From there we moved all of the daylily’s around the corner to make room for the skid steer for Thursday’s class.  We also pruned back and moved all of the crocosmia’s.  At lunch we wobbled on over to Burger King (insert picture 3) where Dobie purchased some gimmick deal where the burgers looked bigger in the picture than they actually were in real life.  Ben went with the classic Whopper meal where you can’t go wrong.  After we came back from lunch we transferred multiple tropical plants that were outside and moved them inside.  Our final task for the day was to tear apart the 9 hanging baskets, replant some plants and preserve the baskets and moss.

 

October 22, 2016

 

            Another day started off with a trip to Tim Hortons where we got the same things as the previous day.  It continued to rain the whole entire day which slowed down our work.  Our first job was to dig some dirt piles and make them flat, not too shabby.  We then planted new plants into the gardens, and added the plants to the list, with the help of Michael Pascoe.  As lunch time came around, we decided to go to McDonalds for some food.  Dobie ordered two big mac's and Ben ordered a few chicken wraps.  Next, we went on a trip around the garden to collect the green gator tree bags and metal stakes for winter storage in the barn. Our final project for the day was some woodworking in greenhouse 1.  We took apart the top of the irrigation chamber, cut proper plastic pieces and then continued to screw them back on top.  A day with less tasks but with time consuming tasks.

 

October 23, 2016

 

            Our final day started off with, you guessed it, a trip to Tim Hortons, where Dobie got the same thing three days in a row… and Ben didn’t get anything because he had a big breakfast at home.  We first made chicken wire fences for newly planted trees.  After that we backpack blew all hardscape surfaces.  Then we raked the woodland path and the dry garden as well as the CLT testing pits.  For lunch we went to Harveys because we are healthy kids and love to eat. The last project of the day was maintenance to the Perennial border, rock garden and the dry garden.  Overall, it was a hell of ride Cuddy Gardens, but we finally made it through our weekend duty.  Thanks, Ben & Mike.