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

As we get closer and closer to The A.M Cuddy Open Gardens weekend on June 4th and 5th, the team is working together to make the gardens looks as pristine as possible. Due to the Victorian day weekend we didn't start the work week until Tuesday when we used all our forces to tackle the garden beds at the front of the house. There was weeding and edging to be done to make the area feel tidy and welcoming, and the final result is exactly that.

Newly edged border

On Wednesday, we moved into the Magnolia garden for continued weeding and edging along the outside border As well as tackling some ivy that creeped it's way up the fence that separates that Magnolia garden from the perennial border. As an added bonus, the Cucumber Magnolia (Magnolia acuminata, also Canada's only native Magnolia) was in bloom.

Cucumber Magnolia flower

After lunch we were tasked with digging up some ferns that were growing outside of their group, then potted them up and placed them into the greenhouse #2. One all the ferns were potted up, I took some time to spot water greenhouse #2 and water in the plants we had just potted. Once I was finished with that task, I went to meet up with everyone else and we spent the end of the day pulling some particularly vigorous weeds out of the rose garden border.
Thursday started out with a couple of us going out to the front of the property to change the sign so it advertised our big event, The A.M Cuddy Open Gardens which includes a plant sale, tours, and other horticulture related activities. Once finished we moved onto weeding and pulling hundreds of tiny tree seedlings that planted themselves underneath a large tree. After lunch, we moved but into the Magnolia garden, but this time we weeded and edged the inner borders of the beds and spent the rest of the day there.


Cucumber Magnolia and some new borders

Friday morning was spent planting new plants along the road border at the front of the property. We planted a few different species such as: Hypericum (St John's Wort), four different cultivars of Physocarpus (Ninebark), Spiraea, Viburnum and a single new Butterfly Magnolia. Once finished we needed to accession them so we can keep a record of all plants on the property. As soon as the new plantings were recorded, I went and helped in the Woodland Garden by weeding and raking the path smooth and removing any debris. The time after lunch was spent setting up a unique feature, our antique tool collection has been placed in one of the rooms of the house for the visitors of the open gardens to explore. Once we were done with the tool display, we spent the remaining time of Friday writing out the accessioning tags for the new plants that were planted earlier in the day.

Clair de Lune Peony

Once the open garden weekend rolls around, everyone who visits will be in awe of it's spectacular beauty and diverse collection.


Iris

 

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.