Weekend Duty September 23- 25

Friday, September 23- Today Julian and Scott arrived to Cuddy’s at 735 am. The day was started by Nate giving us a walkthrough around the property to explain us the tasks we would be in charge with for the weekend.  We started the day off by weeding some creeping vines beside the cedars near the hoop-house, these weeds can grow extremely deep roots and it was crucial we used weeding forks and took time to remove each weed with care. We used a whole bag of saw dust to re- establish the pathway in the woodland garden and picked up any large sticks throwing them back into the wooded area. After this we proceeded to the compost pits to take care of the squash crop that had been planted. We were in charge with cutting the squash from the plant leaving at least 1 inch of stem so the crop would not rot faster. Lastly we closed the 2^nd half of the day by signing out the RTV and heading to the iris garden for weeding and cultivating of the extremely dry and dense clay- heavy soil. The weeds in this garden were somewhat difficult at first because of the dryness of the soil, however using weeding forks for the bigger weeds and then coming through with a Dutch hoe made the task much more doo-able. To end the day we disposed of our compost and headed to the class to record the blog. Cheers

Saturday, September 24- Today Julian and I arrived to a rather chili Cuddy Gardens at around a quarter to 8. We started the day off by heading back to finish off the edging and remaining weeds in the Iris garden and bucketing up these piles to transport them to the compost. As we were making our way around the other side of the garden to complete that side we ran into Mike Pascoe, he asked us to walk him around the garden and show him our duty’s completed and still to come for the weekend. Mike showed us some coffee trees that needed to be tagged with red sold tags. We only had about 8 tags left so we used what we could to label them so come spring time when they have no leaves; people know not to remove them. Mike then showed us dead wood on several trees that needed pruning, this took some extra effort because we were unable to locate a pole saw (pole but no saw), requiring us to climb the tree by hand to get the job done. Just beside the road there was a tree (Serbian Spruce) that Mike asked us to remove because of its deathly looking condition (probably due to root-rot). Mike also pointed out the cotoneaster near the frog which needed cutting back, and also the corner stone wall which holds those plants beside the driveway. By day’s end we were able to start on the garden bed in front of Cuddys main building, we trimmed back the ornamental thistle and saved some of the seeds in an envelope for later plantings. Very productive day. Cheers     

 

Sunday, September 25- On our last day here at Cuddys we were in charge of weeding the front beds in front of the Cuddys building. Many weeds were removed from these beds and we were required to remove grass build up also (from the grass-mower shooting grass into the beds), we did so using Dutch hoes and garden forks, and were required to separate a clump of grass growing within plants it should not be. Once this was said and done we began cleaning debris off of the hardscape in front of the building, this was mostly a combination of keys off of the Acer Griseum and dirt from our weeding efforts. Mike Pascoe showed up showed up around this time to check up on us and walk him around the property to share the work we did. He walked us to the back of the property towards the greenhouses. Here he showed us the compost piles that he was in the process of flipping using the Skid steer and asked us to rake out the front of them once he was complete to tidy it up, as well as blow away large debris. Once this was completed we headed to the side of the large Cuddy building (between the front building and the back tool shed). Here we spent time removing annuals (as requested by Mike), weeds  (vine weeds, thistles, dandy lions etc.) From here we worked on blowing away all debris off of the hardscapes and patios, one of the leaf blowers was missing a boot for the spark plug ( Stihl blower) so while I was blowing debris Julian headed back to the greenhouse to complete watering that Mike pointed out during his walkthrough with us. Julian also took a pruning saw to the Serbian Spruce that was taken to the back of the property the day before, here he used the saw to cut down the limbs and transport it to the wood chipping pile (just past the Hosta garden). To finish the day we took after pictures of our work areas and finished up the final touches on the blog. Overall not a convenient weekend to work  when our first unit tests are this Monday… but at least we will have more opportunity to study for the future ones. Cheers.