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.

 

 

Friday, September 16^th : We started our Friday morning receiving a tour of the areas we would be working this weekend. Each of us then went to work on our own. One of us aerated all of the green turf around Cuddy Gardens while the other harvested some squash to be sold at Fanshawe. Some general weeding was completed along a gravel path to our greenhouse. The fence for our compost material was in great need of a new coat of paint, so we all worked together to paint it a fresh new black. The plants within and around our greenhouses needed a watering before we completed our day.

 

 

 

 

Saturday, September 17^th: Saturday was quite a rainy one. The rain has worked to our advantage though. A couple of gardens had to be weeded, Shaped and smoothed. The moist soil made it easier for us to remove all the sneaky weeds such as Convolvulus (bindweed), Taraxacum (dandelions) and clover. And the rain helped to shape the soil in the gardens better. We stared cleaning out the rose garden. Each of us had two beds of roses in our care. In the end we completed the edging and now the rose garden is looking fabulous again. The perennial garden has also been weeded. We did find one lily beetle insect though. We hope to deal with them soon.

 

 

 

 

Sunday, September 18^th : Today, our final day, we cleaned the rock garden out and the dry garden. Again we needed to remove all or as many of the weeds as we could. We raked some of falls first dropped leaves off of the rock garden and pebble paths. We finished our final day by recycling a huge plastic sheet, cleaning returning all of the tools and returning them to their rightful spot. We have noticed some reversion in some of our plants. Our ‘Curly Tops’ cypress (Chamaecyparis pisifera) has started to revert but we have removed the problematic part. Reversion happens when the traits of the parent plant start to show on the specimen, resulting in part of the plant appearing different. The reversion must be removed or else it will continue to get larger and out compete the rest of the plant! One group of plants notorious for reverting are the variegated euonymus, which will revert back to a green foliage nearly constantly. Since we took out the reverted segment, our cypress will continue to be curly!

 

(Insert photo 3,4,5)

Daylily border along Hatchery

The Daylilies (Hemerocallis) are in bloom and add a spectacular array of colour to the gardens. This week has been a week of detailed maintenance. On Monday Yujing and I set out to the road borders both on our property and the hatchery's property. Our task was to remove the thistles that always appear in those beds. This took up the extent of Monday, even with the help we received from the dual credit students that had been taking a horticulture course for the past week. Yujing taught them the proper way to weed out the thistles and get all the roots.
On Tuesday, with a heat warning in effect, James and I tackled the Daylily border along the hatchery (pictured above). We had more help from dual credit students and finished before lunch. After lunch I had the job of spreading the mulch piles that had been made by a cut down tree and some branches that fell as a result of a strong storm that blew through the gardens on Saturday. There were three piles, by the parking lot, and in the Hosta garden.

Mulch pile in the lower Hosta garden.

Wednesday began with yet another heat warning. But we started the day off with a field trip to Hillens Nursery with the dual credit students so they could see how a large scale operation like Hillens is run. Once we returned to the gardens, Yujing and I got to weeding the sand pits where the CLT testing takes place in the fall for the 2nd year students. After lunch we still had a bit to do with the sand pits, but once that was finished, we were forced to move into shady areas by the sun since it was just too hot to be anywhere else. So we just simply weeded until the day was done.
Thursday was another hot day with a heat warning. The day began with myself and Yujing weeding the borders that run along the main driveway into the property. Once finished we made our way over to the area were the Cacti and Succulent collection is kept and weeded all the tall weeds from between the stones, but made sure to keep the moss.

Around 10:30, Jeff Hicks from Landscape Ontario came by to talk with the dual credit students about his career and their aspirations going forward since the course was ending that day.


 

After lunch, Yujing and I returned to weeding between the stones and then focused on removing the various dandelions from the lawns.
On Friday we finally had some relief from the extreme heat of the last three days. The morning task was to weeds and organize the courtyard between the hoop houses.

Once that task was completed, I went on to deal with some particularly persistent bindweed in the beds across from the CLT sand pits while James and Yujing did the weekly mowing on the property.

Another great week has passed at the Cuddy Gardens with many exciting things happening. I look forward to the next time I come back to these gardens.



Blooming Daylily

Blooming Daylily

                                                                Shifting to Summer

Another week; another blog. This week of June 20 – June 24 I was once again present for the gardens event preparation. All week we have been hustling and bustling about in order to dress-up the garden for the “Twilight in the garden” event on Saturday.
I am very happy to be working at Cuddy’s at this transitional time. As the last traces of spring fade away, the summer-scape of the garden is beginning to emerge. Opuntias are flowering, pawpaw’s (Asimina triloba) are fruiting, and bees are nosily making their way through a variety of delicacies contained in the rose garden. It’s always a melancholy moment when a flowers time has run out, and it must wilt as the peonies are currently in the process of doing. However one must enjoy the flowers which still remain and look forward to those which are still in the form of a bud.

 

A great variety of tasks were undertaken by myself as well as the Cuddy’s “home team” throughout this week. Many of these tasks did involve the removal of undesirable species once again; however the species profile has changed slightly since my last visit. No longer do dandelions (Taraxicum offinale) create an endless sea of yellow. The species mainly seen about are English plantain (Plantago lanceolata), purslane (Portulaca oleracea), bindweed (Convolvulus ssp.), and excess numbers of desirable plants such as sweet woodruff and echinops.

 

Areas which I personally tackled in our beautification endeavor were the compost pile, the rose garden, the perennial border, the hatchery border, and the paths which encircle the Cuddy properties. Some areas had “lost” their carefully sculpted edges and so those had need to be re-established. The gravel paths of the Mediterranean garden and the alpine garden were also raked smooth. Debris was removed from the boxwoods which were expertly clipped by a co-worker.

Monday, the 20^th was a particularly hot day, and so all employees were to follow the action plan for this event. Much water was ingested and duties indoors and in the shade were undertaken. The classroom (our HQ) is now very clean.

A large part of my duties Friday morning was the watering of the cacti and succulent collection, as well as other potted plants around the property. Each plant received a good soaking, and by the afternoon one could see a remarkable difference in the vigor of quite a few of the specimens. I enjoy caring for contained plants; which is good as they would quickly parish without care. Being contained disallows the roots to search out life-giving water and nutrients and so their provision is of the upmost importance.

 

In conclusion, this has been a fantastic week at Cuddy’s, and once again I am looking forward to my next time here in August. It is exciting and very interesting to watch this garden develop with thyme but I am so impatiens…..  

(Clematis pictured, not impatiens)

 

Monday

Just a week after the annual Cuddy Open Garden, Yujing, James and I were back working at the cuddy gardens once again together. I started the day off by watering the hoop houses and the courtyard of trees. Spot watering was done to make sure every plant was well watered after the weekend. After that was completed I joined Yujing to edge behind the woodland garden and tree wells. to redefine the lost edges of… Acer?? While Yujing and I were kept busy for the entire day, James was hard at working digging a trench to extend the wifi closer to the hoop houses for our new debit machine.

 

Tuesday

Yujing and I headed off to weed the front entrance to the Cuddy gardens/farms. We loaded up the RTV with the proper tools and began weeding for the rest of the day.

Wednesday

We finished up the weeding from Tuesday then I went around the gardens watering a few pots that needed more attention. Yujing was in the Dry Garden weeding and I was working up at the hoop houses organizing and cleaning up.

Thursday

It was a rainy day all morning and into the afternoon Yujing helped me finish up the remaining work that needed to be done at the hoop houses and then we gave James and Nate a hand to fill in the trench once everything was put in. By that point the rain came down even harder and we all headed to the tool shed to do much needed cleaning and organizing. While Yujjing was doing a thorough sweep of the whole shed, James focused on organizing tools back to their proper place while I was also cleaning and organizing some shelves until lunch time. After lunch Yujing and I worked near the hoop houses to organize the cash tent by stacking and moving carts, sweeping and back in the hoop houses we organized flats and pots to make more space by condensing everything. Once that was completed we washed down tarps used to dig the trench back at the tool shed to prep them for storage.

Friday

Today is the last day for my week up at Cuddy's, it has been fun and very diverse. Working with Yujing everyday has been a pleasure.

 

Week of June 7-10th

Our new work week started on a Tuesday after a very long and successful Open Garden weekend. After everyone's hard work and determination Friday afternoon at 4pm the gardens were ready for the visitors to show up and be thrilled. A total of just over 2000 guests showed up to tour the A.M Cuddy Gardens with great proceeds raised towards the Fanshawe Horticultural Tech. Program and the gardens itself. With fantastic results we all had a blast at the plant sale with awesome weather on Saturday and a disappointing thunderstorm on Sunday but that did not stop us. Bad weather doesn't stop us horticulturalists!!

Tuesday morning was a slow start with Nate off property back at the London Campus. We proceeded with the clean up that included taking signs down, removing the historical antique garden tool display, putting tents and tables away. The afternoon began with .... no way you'll never guess, weeding! The weeds in the gardens are never ending. As the day neared Nate and Mike placed out new Hosta's, perennials and a few trees in the new Hosta garden. A interesting maple tree (Acer mono - Painted maple) was also an additive to this new garden.

Onto Wednesday, A surprising very cold and windy morning. We started out finishing off with the planting of the new Hostas, Trees and perennials. Later in the day the accessioning had begun for all of the new additions. To end off the day we began weeding the gardens that aren't seen by many, but still a nice addition to Cuddy gardens. The gardens down by tool shed was much deserving of a make over with weeding, pruning, trimming and edging.

Thursday June 9th, we had to complete the make over to the gardens down by the tool shed. Planting out of the annuals had begun throughout the gardens.  After lunch Yujing and myself began watering and fertilizing the hoop houses where a nest of new born robins were found. New life is never ending here at Cuddys, flowers or animals!

Finally we have reached the end of our work week. We began the day out taking out the never ending thistles at the road border. In bloom gorgeous pink Peonies. While James started on the weed whacking and Lawn cutting throughout the entire day. Next we tackled dutch hoeing the rose gardens and the perennial boarder. To finish off the afternoon, the watering must be done before we leave for the weekend!

By: Alison Meeuse