It is the week before the Victoria day long weekend, where Spring waves it's hand queenly to the rise of Summer, we put our hands on forks to dig deep in the beginning of the week on the hunt for the souls who relish in Cuddy Garden's vitality the most... Dandelions and Thistles.

Monday and Tuesday we tackled Cuddy's front entrance beds, subtle displays of the wonders that grow here. The weeds were ripped out right to the tips of their roots and even that wasn't enough for leading show stopper Yujing Ma, who dug twice as deep and eradicated the subterranean thistle root network as best as one hero can.

By the end of Tuesday the entrance beds was clear enough to apply mulch, and mulch we did. Trailers full, wheel barrows, and our hands filled with true grit we forked, tossed, and raked the mulch to a level of perfection that it will take Michael Pascoe at least a full minute to find something wrong with... ha ha. 

Wednesday we had had so much fun by this point that it was time for edging the garden beds on both sides of the road in front of the house instead, which went well.

Thursday, projected to become a day of drawl apathy saw us embracing safety practices in a competent and enthusiastic manner. We all battled for the best time during the fire extinguisher safety game. Nate McKim stole the gold with an astonishing 2.1 seconds and many lives saved.

Friday has been a day to prepare for Queen Victoria's long weekend celebrations. The lawn was mowed, the plants in the garden were tended to but now finally the A.M. Mac Cuddy collection of Tropical and non-hardy plants are ready to flourish outside for the summer months. Out from the pool house, kitchen, living room, and elsewhere and into the fresh air to be given a generous amount of water to last them the three day span till staff returns on Tuesday.

This Garden has a bold energy, the feeling of timelessness through every carefully placed foot step, and a vitality beyond blooms that embolden the depths of a calm spirit.

After the excitement and rush of the Shunpiker tour were over, the MAC Cuddy gardens were back in full swing preparing the ground for the upcoming June open gardens.  Over this week our staff tackled all different tasks to keep the grounds and garden beds looking their best, our staff started the week with cleaning up the beds in front of the Cuddys main buildings and their beds by the road. After the beds were cleaned up and weed free, we moved on to reseeding the area to the magnolia garden.  An irrigation line broke last year and flooded the area, this resulted in most of the grass being killed in that area. With the open garden only a few weeks away this gave us a chance to pot up some plant that will be sold at the plant sales in June. Towards the end of the week we focused our attentions on the Rose Garden and the Iris border, this two beds had new weeds popping up in them along with some edging mantance on the Rose Garden.

 

 If you were to take a stroll through the gardens right now you’ll find that it’s a shower of different blues, white, yellows and pinks. In the Rock garden the Gentiana angustifolia and the Polygala chamaebuxus both in bloom, inside our woodland garden its alive with the deep hues of pink from the Red Buds and around the ground with the truilis in bloom. There are many more exciting plants that are about to bloom such as the fern leaf peony, which was a huge hit last year at our plants sales. But a tree that steals the show is the bald cypress. The bald cypress is a semi decodies tree and looks like an evergreen with needle like foliage, the bark is a rusty colour with a pealing effected to it. At the June open gardens remember to take a walk down to the bald cypress which is located at the excited to the manigola gardens and the entranced to the Iris’s bordered area.

 

On the last day of the week our staff cleans all the tools so there ready for use on Monday and throung the new weeks.  This week our irrigation system was tested and approved for use, which is a very good thing .Finally four o clock on Friday rolled around, the beds were clean, tools away and hop houses were water. We looked around the gardens at all the work we’ve done over the week and smiled to ourselves as we closed the barn door, ending yet another amazing week at MAC Cuddy Gardens.Don’t forget to check the blog weekly for all sorts of updates about our amazing gardens and what you can find blooming right now in the gardens.

Preparation Pandemonium

It's been an exciting week here at the A.M. Cuddy Gardens. The birds are chirping, the bees are buzzing, and of course the dandelions (Taraxacum officinale) are popping up everywhere! Unfortunately dandelions do not happen to be part of our botanical collection here at the Cuddy Gardens and therefor must be promptly removed by student gardeners such as myself. Some other advantageous species which were subject to our early-spring purge include the Canada thistle, bitter-wort, and the lovely but opportunistic grape hyacinth.

grape hyacinth (Muscari armeniacum)
Photo Credit: Yujing Ma





Removal of undesirable species was not the only task required this week. Many other tasks were completed in order to prepare for our upcoming weekend event. This involved a full-out beautification and spring cleaning of the gardens. Many garden borders were tended to, and copious amounts of debris were added to the already large compost pile. by the middle of the week; things were really starting to come together in terms of tidiness.

Newly Cleaned Edge Near the House
Photo Credit: Yujing Ma

A View of the Tidy Lawn
Photo Credit Yujing Ma

On Wednesday morning, all nine student gardeners had a very educational experience participating in equipment training. It's important to make sure you and your crew are safety conscious on the job and equipment training is an important aspect of that. We wouldn't want anyone using a leaf blower inappropriately now; would we‽
On  the same afternoon, we began our planting endeavor which would require the remainder of the week to finish. We potted-up a variety of species mainly for the commercial greenhouse. This is excellent news for whomever may be reading this as now you (the reader) are aware that Cuddys is your next stop for hostas, peonys, anamones, echinacea and so very much more. 

 

Although the work needed to be completed in a timely manner (as all garden projects seem to require) this week went by much too fast. I look forward to my next week of work here at Cuddys, and I can not wait to see how the garden has transformed when I return in June.


 

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.   

Cuddy Garden Weekend Duty March 18-20

Cuddy Garden Weekend Duty March 18-20

Spring has finally arrived, and with the coming of spring begins the busiest times for most horticulturists. The Fanshawe College horticulture students are no exception either, we start our maintenance weekend duty schedules. Taking care of the cuddy gardens for a weekend is pretty exciting, we gain skills toward ground maintenance and making our own executive decisions about tasks. The Cuddy gardens will soon be busy in the next couple weeks with the third and final round of the second years Certified Landscape Technician exams that begin in April. Our goal for our weekend duty was to help clean up a part of the Cuddy gardens to break away from fall and winter into the wonderful season of spring.

 

Our weekend duty starts out with a familiar routine, we arrive Friday morning to meet the head technician of Cuddy gardens. Then we go on a walk through the gardens while receiving instructions and tasks to complete over the weekend. We then went over locking and alarming procedures of the Cuddy garden facilities and contact methods in case of emergencies. Once we had an understanding of everything, we grabbed our tools together and began our assigned tasks. Our first task at hand was to weed and remove small twigs from the Alpine rock garden, this took up a good chunk of time since the removal of twigs had to be done by hand. Once completed we headed over to a garden bed by the house to prune back some perennial shrubs while removing the dead stems and flower heads. We then proceeded to remove large branches from the garden that had fallen from the trees during the winter and cleaned out the rose shrubs. We closed up our day with many trips to the compost along with forming our own stick/ branch pile to be used in the chipper later in the week.

 

We arrived Saturday morning excited to be on our own for the first time, usual morning routine of signing in and disarming the facilities. The morning was brisk and chilly with most of the garden still semi frozen from the night before. Not wanting to damage any plant material we started our work day with the removal of burlap from the alpine garden and the surrounding area that protected some evergreen shrubs through the winter, we also quickly tied up some vines to a beautiful wooden arbor. Once the sun started to shine and the gardens thawed out, we started back on the task of cutting back hydrangeas, cotoneasters, and bamboo. Our next task ahead was to remove walnuts from the garden beside the walnut tree, this task was tad tedious since these walnuts had to be removed by hand. We then ventured toward the greenhouses to pick up even more large branches to add to our growing pile. We then re-entered the alpine gardens to clean up some dead plant material, adjust the botanical tags to their right position, and then raked the garden over lightly to finish it off. We then completed a few small tasks of putting tools and pots away with many more trips to the compost and stick pile. We ended our day in sunny but cool weather raking pruned hydrangeas before heading for the compost for the last time that day.  

 

 

Sunday morning met us with warmer weather and the exciting joy of knowing we were in the last stretch of our weekend duty. Our morning started off with the usual routine of signing in and disarming the facilities, we then headed over the tool shed for the Kubota, wheelbarrow, and garden tools. We started of with cutting back some spiraea and removing the dead material, we then moved on to cleaning out dead hostas. Our next portion of our day was to rake up the dried up bean pods that covered the side turf area of the house. After another trip to the ever growing compost pile we began measuring out a part of the cuddy gardens for a maintenance assignment to complete later that day. We used a sweet and interesting tool for this assignment called the road runner, its basically a measuring tape and a calculator combined onto a rolling wheel. The rest of our Sunday was spent raking up and removing dead plant material before heading back to the tool room to clean our tools and the Kubota that was used during our weekend duty. We closed our Sunday up with taking pictures for this blog and making sure everything was left as it was before we arrived.

 

Overall this weekend duty taught us some great skills and what we can accomplish on our own as professionals. As second years in our last semester, it’s a bit sad seeing this weekend come to an end. With already completing our greenhouse weekend duty it just shows how close we are to finishing this program and ending our two-year journey with the Fanshawe Horticulture Technician program. We first arrived at Cuddy gardens as first years for the hort fest and continued to visit these grounds for arboriculture, greenhouse, maintenance, and construction classes. Over these past two years we have gained plenty of knowledge and memories at Cuddy gardens, and we understand why it plays such a big role in this program. Even though we will be returning in these last three weeks, there is a sentimental feeling in finishing this weekend.