Hi folks, It’s Courtney checking in with you again back out at Cuddys for the week! As most of you know by now (from following our always entertaining yet educational blog!) each Student Gardener from our main Fanshawe College campus gets the opportunity to work two separate weeks out here. Unfortunately for me, this is my second and final week! Of course I will be coming back to Strathroy with all of the Student Gardeners on August 17^th for the last A.M. Mac Cuddy Gardens Open House for the season and we’re hoping to see everyone out again! If you didn’t come to the one in June be sure to come out for this one you don’t want to miss out! (And yes…there are still plenty of plants to be sold!)

Now let’s discuss the week we just had! Dave and I started Monday morning out in front of the Cuddy offices weeding the perennial grasses. A problem we’re having out here as well as back at Fanshawe in London is Bind Weed. A nasty weed that is next to impossible to remove from your plants! Bind Weed also has a root system that is next to impossible to completely remove each time. It’s a never ending battle that we intend to win. Dave and I removed as much as we could but unfortunately had to remove several clumps of the perennial grass to take back to the hoop house to clean up. Now what I thought would only take half of the day ended up taking the entire day but those gardens have been restored to their previous weed-free state!

On Tuesday we had our co-worker Jaimi here at Cuddys to help out for the day. Jaimi and I had the opportunity to help Lucas set up the propagation chamber in the hoop house for the beginning of our Annual cuttings and a few Perennial cuttings. For our propagation chamber we used a foam board for the bottom, 1 layer of poly, a heating mat, another layer of poly, and then a final black poly mat for the bottom of the chamber. We also had to set up the misting system inside the propagation chamber and Lucas was nice enough to show both of us how it worked.

 The top portion of our propagation chamber

 

Jaimi showing off her muscles!

 

 Placing the top of the chamber on the bottom portion we made just minutes earlier

 

We then had to set up the water source for our misting system. Lucas did the final testing to make sure all of the nozzles were working correctly. Some of them weren’t up to snuff so we replaced them.

 Lucas inspecting the misting nozzles

 

 Jaimi and Lucas replacing the misting nozzles that were not working correctly

 

Next was the incredibly fun part, we actually got to propagate! Lucas walked Jaimi and I around and had us collect at least 10 samples from as many annuals as we could. Our propagation collection included Wizard Mix Coleus, Plectranthus, Solenostemon, etc. With bulb crates in hand we spread out and took our cuttings. Then we headed back to the hoop house to pot them up in our 50/50 Perlite and ProMix media. The propagation chamber is looking fairly colourful now that we have it stocked with all sorts of cuttings!

 Good old propagation!

 

 

Wednesday and Thursday seemed to fly by with a combination of weeding and even more propagation. We had another co-worker come from Fanshawe on Thursday! Jess Shields joined us for more propagation and some Rose dead heading. When we take our cuttings we fill out paperwork for the BG data base that includes information such as when we took the cuttings, how many cuttings we took, the media we used as well as monitoring the cuttings and later filling out the success rate.

  Having some fun while filling out our BG database paperwork

 

  Jess Shields taking cuttings from Heptacodium miconioides (Seven-Son Flower)

 

The week has come to an end and here we are at Friday. Oh, by the way, Happy August everyone! Dave and I are finishing up odds and ends left over from Thursday . There's a ton of line trimming, The Alpine Garden needs some weeding , as well as some dead heading! So this is Courtney, your Cuddy Gardens correspondent for the week, signing off! To all of our readers enjoy your long weekends and stay safe! Until next time….