Weekend Blog Oct 7^th- 9^th

Caitlin and Easton

Friday October 7^th

We arrived to the gardens bright and early ready for a full day’s work. When we arrived, Nate the resident Horticulturalist gave us a grand tour of the gardens we would be working in. We began by grabbing our equipment needed for our jobs and proceeded to soils bin, we loaded the trailer with top soil and dumped piles in the beautiful  rose garden. We took a break for a hearty lunch and recouped our energy. After break we had some maintenance in the lower Hosta garden, we pulled some weeds and moved some hoses and put them in their rightful place for the winter season. After a visit from Michael Pascoe, we cleaned our tools and put them away for the next day’s work.

 

 

 
 

 
 
Saturday October 8^th

Saturday was a beautiful sunny day, we arrived in the morning had some coffee and got to work. We started working in the roadside garden, weeding, deadheading Day Lilies. We then cut a Spiraea bush out of the garden following Michael’s orders. Next we edged the back of the roadside garden attempting to create a straighter/deeper edge. We cleaned up our tools and went for lunch. After a meal we then began cleaning up the Prairie garden by weeding, dead heading and removing dead foliage. We then cleaned up and cutback the English Ivey that was overgrowing and surrounding the front drive way. We locked up at 5 and headed on our way.

 

Sunday October 9^th

We arrived Sunday early, coldest of the mornings we could see our breath, WE started to right away. First we dug out a trench using the backhoe for the Hosta and Day Lilys.(figure 4) We then proceeded to remove the plants from the garden bed and transported them to the trench. These will be used for Wednesday’s greenhouse class. After that was complete, we moved on to the removal of two trees located near the house and rose garden (Mike’s Request). Then two other removals of a cotoneaster and dead evergreen tree near the roadside garden. After the main labor of the day was finished, we began to clean up the property by backpack blowing the hardscapes(Figure 6) and raking the paths(figure 7)and rock garden. We then brought all the tools and equipment back into the tool room and cleaned them to standards. All the vehicles were washed and put back to respective areas. After that was all done, there was watering that had to be done around the greenhouses and in the planters around the property(figure 8). Thankfully, we had some rain in the afternoon that helped us get the spots wet that couldn’t be reached. After all this, we began and finished our blog until 5! It was a great experience working here this weekend and would come back to do it anytime(figure 9).