The A.M.Cuddy Garden

2016-10-31T07:07:00.000-07:00

Cuddy Weekend Duty Blog

Friday Oct 28^th

We began our chilly morning with going down to the hoop houses and cutting back and cleaning up a variety of perennials. We also received the job of putting away multiple boxes containing CLT materials, which we just took part in only a couple weeks back here at the Cuddy Garden’s. The compost pile was looking a little messy, so we decided to grab a couple pitch forks and push it all back so that it wasn’t overflowing. We then made our way to the indoor pool area where we started to clean, water, and cut back any plants that weren’t looking so well. We also ended up having to replace the odd small grass in the brand new labyrinth that was built by the students in the Horticulture program at Fanshawe College. We finished off the day by re-potting the grasses we had replaced and making sure our work areas were left clean.

Saturday Oct 29^th

Our morning began with the light task of re-staining the compost bins, but we could not find the can of stain. We later found out that the can of stain was locked up inside the Cuddy pick-up truck. Of course we didn’t let that slow our day down, we immediately headed over to the rose garden and began cutting down all the Peony’s on the Cuddy grounds. Our next job was to go down to the perennial gardens and begin to cut back plants as well as pull any weeds in sight. We were told not to use any heavy machinery over the weekend due to the wet ground, so we had to haul away everything the old fashion way, with a wheel barrel. We also had the pleasure of having Michael Pascoe visit us while we were cleaning up the perennial beds. He instructed us to cut back more perennials then originally instructed which led to finishing our day off in the perennial gardens.

Sunday Oct 30^th

The final day of our weekend duty started out with walking down to the tool shed and unlocking the side door only to realize we had forgot to disarm more than just the class room. We ran back up to the class room and properly disarmed the alarm and grabbed all of our tools we would need for the morning and began to work on the perennial garden where we left off yesterday. A light rain started falling as we continued to work away, until it started getting a little too heavy and we were both soaking wet. After the rain stopped we worked on the perennial garden which took a lot longer because of how wet everything was. Once the perennial garden was finished we then did some weeding in the rock garden and removed leafs that had fallen from the neighboring tree. The next task as to rake the gravel walk was in dry garden, after the gravel was raked we than finished off the day by cleaned all the tool that we had used and cleaned the class room.

2016-10-25T11:37:00.002-07:00

Ben and Mike’s Blog

October 21, 2016

Our weekend duty started off with a trip to Tim Hortons where Dobie purchased a steeped tea with 2 milk, 3 sugar and Ben bought a sausage biscuit. Dobie says that he needed the 3 sugar to keep him awake. As we entered the distinguished surroundings known as Cuddy Gardens, we were greeted by the active horticulturist Nate McKim. Nate thoroughly explained the duties in which were going to be granted to us on the weekend which included; setting the alarm, locking the doors and taking care of the keys. After that, he proceeded onwards to explain our jobs for the day. We started out by moving around the picnic tables in greenhouse 3. Although tempting to play a life size version of jenga, we got the job done and continued onto the next one. We then pruned a Caribbean coffee plant in greenhouse 1. After that we broke our backs some more by moving multiple metal pipes to the top of the barn with the help of Nate. Next we went on a scavenger hunt to find all of the plant stands around the gardens and preceded onto carry them into the top of the barn as well as piping and irrigation heads. From there we moved all of the daylily’s around the corner to make room for the skid steer for Thursday’s class. We also pruned back and moved all of the crocosmia’s. At lunch we wobbled on over to Burger King (insert picture 3) where Dobie purchased some gimmick deal where the burgers looked bigger in the picture than they actually were in real life. Ben went with the classic Whopper meal where you can’t go wrong. After we came back from lunch we transferred multiple tropical plants that were outside and moved them inside. Our final task for the day was to tear apart the 9 hanging baskets, replant some plants and preserve the baskets and moss.

October 22, 2016

Another day started off with a trip to Tim Hortons where we got the same things as the previous day. It continued to rain the whole entire day which slowed down our work. Our first job was to dig some dirt piles and make them flat, not too shabby. We then planted new plants into the gardens, and added the plants to the list, with the help of Michael Pascoe. As lunch time came around, we decided to go to McDonalds for some food. Dobie ordered two big mac's and Ben ordered a few chicken wraps. Next, we went on a trip around the garden to collect the green gator tree bags and metal stakes for winter storage in the barn. Our final project for the day was some woodworking in greenhouse 1. We took apart the top of the irrigation chamber, cut proper plastic pieces and then continued to screw them back on top. A day with less tasks but with time consuming tasks.

October 23, 2016

Our final day started off with, you guessed it, a trip to Tim Hortons, where Dobie got the same thing three days in a row… and Ben didn’t get anything because he had a big breakfast at home. We first made chicken wire fences for newly planted trees. After that we backpack blew all hardscape surfaces. Then we raked the woodland path and the dry garden as well as the CLT testing pits. For lunch we went to Harveys because we are healthy kids and love to eat. The last project of the day was maintenance to the Perennial border, rock garden and the dry garden. Overall, it was a hell of ride Cuddy Gardens, but we finally made it through our weekend duty. Thanks, Ben & Mike.

2016-10-25T11:31:00.001-07:00

Weekend Blog Friday, October 14 – Sunday, October 16

Lexi Drenth and Brett Blakey

Friday, October 14^th, 2016:

Today was a big day for all the second year Horticulture students due to our first day of CLT Testing held at Cuddy Gardens. The students got separated into two different groups; morning and afternoon. Lexi and Brett were in the morning group so they could work in the gardens after they were done. Due to the testing held here and there were tests going on all day, we had to stay on one half of the house to not disturb the other students. The tests that we had to do were Tree Planting & Staking, Irrigation Repair &Adjustment, Basic Programming Control and the Plant I.D. test. We all got separated into smaller groups so we could be done with the time we had in the morning. For lunch, all students, judges and teachers attended a lunch donated by Landscape Ontario. After we had our lunch, Brett and Lexi were to meet Nate at the tool shed. Nate tried to go through all of our weekend duty and orientation stuff, but it was difficult. He usually has the classroom to show the students the alarm, but the afternoon students were in the classroom and Nate, Brett and Lexi were not allowed to intervene with the testing students. When they were done explaining, all three of them went to go to work. Lexi got assigned to clean all the dry dirt off of trays, while Brett and Nate brought the small succulents into the corner room of the house for the winter. . There was a plant stand for as many as the little ones that they could put on it. The trays that Lexi was cleaning were put under the rest of them since the floor in that room is hard wood. After that task was complete, Nate walked us through the dry garden to point out the tropical and cactus plants that we needed to bring in this weekend. Then Nate showed us the carport and patio plants that needed to be put in the pool room. Brett and Lexi had a little time to spare, so they started to cut back the annuals in the tropical planters by the carport. After they put all their tools away, they met Nate at the classroom and he went through the whole house with them to show everything that needs to be locked for setting the alarm. By the end, Brett and Lexi were confident with all the stuff that needed to be put away or locked up.

Saturday, October 15^th, 2016:

On a very cold morning, Brett and Lexi showed up at Cuddy Gardens at 7:40 A.M. Just after they got there, James showed up to work as well. He was there to cut the turf. James unlocked everything for all of them to enter the buildings. Brett and Lexi started off the day with making a game plan of what was going to happen. They both wanted to get the dry garden done as fast as possible. The dry garden had most cactus plants in it. The plants were still in the pots which were just buried into the ground with regular soil covering the pot. It was a difficult start to the day, the first plant did not have a pot around the root ball, the second plants pot was shattered when we dug into the soil around it and the third plant was just too heavy for Brett and Lexi to lift it up so they got James to come and help. None of them wanted to get any of the cactus needles poked at them, so they found an old card board box to wrap around the plants when transporting. Although, the box helped quite a bit, both Lexi and Brett got a couple puncture wounds. A cactus fell on Lexi and when we were transporting one into the cactus room, Brett backed up into one. There was one cactus that was really tall and heavy, as they brought it into the room, they were both just focusing on placing it properly and not dropping it, they forgot about the height. As they put it down, a piece of that cactus broke off. We cleaned the cactus milk from the plant. Then we decided that we did not want to waste it at all, so they decided to let it dry out, than plant it in a pot of sandy soil. That took up most of our day. We took the end of the day to clean up all our tools, and start to clean up the house.

Sunday, October 16^th, 2016:

On a cloudy morning, they both arrived early to work. With that short time, they decided how the day was going to go since they were expecting rain in the early afternoon. They started off at getting all the tools they needed out, than they went over to the greenhouses and dug out those two cactus plants. While Brett was blowing off the back patio and walk ways, Lexi started to put away the tropical plants into the pool room. After Brett was finished, both Brett and Lexi went out and raked the gravel and woodland paths (Figure 6). When they completed that, Mr. Pascoe came in on the Saturday, and asked us if we could move all the clay pots right up to the brick wall where a bench was. Mr. Pascoe asked us to put the table, chairs and bench into the fire place room with the tropical plants. After completing that, they both were putting away plants into the pool room. It started to rain as they were just starting their lunch, so after lunch they decided to stay inside and clean all the pots and floors and write their blog. They knew the rain was not going to last for more than a couple hours so it worked to their benefit to work on stuff inside while the weather was gross. After the rain quit, they had two hours to try to put away the rest of the tropical plants into the tool room.

2016-10-25T11:19:00.001-07:00

Weekend Blog Oct 7^th- 9^th

Caitlin and Easton

Friday October 7^th

We arrived to the gardens bright and early ready for a full day’s work. When we arrived, Nate the resident Horticulturalist gave us a grand tour of the gardens we would be working in. We began by grabbing our equipment needed for our jobs and proceeded to soils bin, we loaded the trailer with top soil and dumped piles in the beautiful rose garden. We took a break for a hearty lunch and recouped our energy. After break we had some maintenance in the lower Hosta garden, we pulled some weeds and moved some hoses and put them in their rightful place for the winter season. After a visit from Michael Pascoe, we cleaned our tools and put them away for the next day’s work.

Saturday October 8^th

Saturday was a beautiful sunny day, we arrived in the morning had some coffee and got to work. We started working in the roadside garden, weeding, deadheading Day Lilies. We then cut a Spiraea bush out of the garden following Michael’s orders. Next we edged the back of the roadside garden attempting to create a straighter/deeper edge. We cleaned up our tools and went for lunch. After a meal we then began cleaning up the Prairie garden by weeding, dead heading and removing dead foliage. We then cleaned up and cutback the English Ivey that was overgrowing and surrounding the front drive way. We locked up at 5 and headed on our way.

Sunday October 9^th

We arrived Sunday early, coldest of the mornings we could see our breath, WE started to right away. First we dug out a trench using the backhoe for the Hosta and Day Lilys.(figure 4) We then proceeded to remove the plants from the garden bed and transported them to the trench. These will be used for Wednesday’s greenhouse class. After that was complete, we moved on to the removal of two trees located near the house and rose garden (Mike’s Request). Then two other removals of a cotoneaster and dead evergreen tree near the roadside garden. After the main labor of the day was finished, we began to clean up the property by backpack blowing the hardscapes(Figure 6) and raking the paths(figure 7)and rock garden. We then brought all the tools and equipment back into the tool room and cleaned them to standards. All the vehicles were washed and put back to respective areas. After that was all done, there was watering that had to be done around the greenhouses and in the planters around the property(figure 8). Thankfully, we had some rain in the afternoon that helped us get the spots wet that couldn’t be reached. After all this, we began and finished our blog until 5! It was a great experience working here this weekend and would come back to do it anytime(figure 9).

2016-10-03T08:59:00.002-07:00

Friday September 30^, 2016

After a breathtaking and berry eating field trip to Hawk Ridge Cliff thanks in part to our friends at the Thames Talbot Land Trust who have recently purchased the area, we arrived to the farm at 2:00 we assembled a few carts and organized hoop house three, by clearing off and organizing many different varieties of hostas into Nate’s said pattern. We than took apart some of the metal tables to move in the wooden benches for the upcoming CLT examinations. We finished off the day by cleaning up and preparing for the work of the weekend.

Saturday October 1, 2016

We arrived to a misty overcast early morning start at 7:50. This day had one grueling task for the proud members of the Core (Horticulture Technicians), we were playing with compost mud in the rain, general’s orders. The rain held off most of the day, but the compost was already wet. We pushed Kubota technology to our limits as we dug all 4 wheels into the mud to dig our compost, making great friends with the wasps who live there. Towards the end of the day the Kubota tractor didn’t want to drive more than two feet at a time this made us finish a little bit later than anticipated. As we slowly came across the laneway we came to conclusion that the seat wasn’t completely going down - a slight adjustment to the seat, it ran excellent. Although we didn’t fully accomplish our task today we will try to finish the last corner tomorrow weather depending we finished the long day off by hosing off the equipment and tools.

Sunday October 2, 2016

Today we arrived at 7:50 The sun wanted to peak out but then changed to rain for the most part of the day we we’re planning on finishing top dressing the hosta garden from Saturday but the wet ground made it impossible to drive across the turf without leaving some large ruts. We then chose our next important task of weeding in front of the Cuddy hatchery which was loaded with weeds, it did look 100 times better once we finished up. Next Mr. Pascoe dropped by to give us some tasks he would like to be done. Starting we began to weed the pots in the hoop houses removing any dead wilted plants that didn’t quite make it. One large batch of day lilies was then cut down to an inch in length to encourage a stronger plant. We smoothed the pathways of the Woodland garden and Rock garden as well as some of the ruts caused by our big tires at the compost pile. We toured the premises looking for fallen limbs from the high winds and storm that blew through overnight there was quite a few down hopefully this will give James an easier time on Monday when the turf gets cut. Towards the end of the day the sun finally started to peak out but didn’t quite dry much out for us. We finished off the day by cleaning off our tools and equipment then nicely placing each piece in its place in the tool shed.

** notes for Nate** black dump trailer one of the pins sheared off we flipped the tailgate around so we could still use it for the day. Kubota RTV park brake is finicky may need some attention. We left the tags of the wilted plants on the table beside the tractor keys.

2016-09-26T08:39:00.001-07:00

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.

2016-09-19T07:00:00.000-07:00

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)

2016-07-15T12:46:00.001-07:00

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

2016-06-24T13:12:00.000-07:00

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)

2016-06-20T10:34:00.000-07:00

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

2016-06-10T12:57:00.001-07:00

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

2016-05-27T13:02:00.000-07:00

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

2016-05-20T13:00:00.000-07:00

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.

2016-05-20T11:47:00.001-07:00

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.

2016-05-06T13:12:00.000-07:00

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

2016-04-18T06:25:00.000-07:00

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

2016-04-11T07:23:00.000-07:00

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

2016-04-06T10:11:00.000-07:00

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

2016-03-21T10:16:00.000-07:00

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.

Josh and Todd's weekend

2015-10-19T11:13:00.000-07:00

3 Days in the Life of Josh Durdle & Todd Neerhof

MTNC-1017-15F

On Friday, October 9, 2015 Todd and Josh began their weekend duty at the A.M. Cuddy Gardens in Strathroy. To start their weekend of work they received instructions from the technician (Lucas Michelsen) about what to do and how to lock and unlock the house. After the list of weekend tasks was given out, the two young men got right to work! Josh was a summer student at the school and Todd had not yet driven the RTV so he was lucky to be partnered up with someone who had experience, someone who could show him how to execute a circle check and the proper procedures for operating the vehicle. They moved some perennials that were not hardy, from the outdoors into the safety of the pool room. When this was complete they worked together at weeding and cutting back the prairie garden. Using tools such as a backpack blower, weed whacker, and hedge trimmer they were able to transform the garden and accentuate the beauty that was shrouded beneath the vail of cold weather dieback and weeds. Both Todd and Josh were happy with the experiences they had gained on the first day of their weekend duty.

When Josh and Todd rose on Saturday, October 10, 2015 the sun had not, yet. Bright and early they were, to start their next educational and exciting day at the A.M. Cuddy Gardens in Strathroy. Along with the sunrise rose their spirits as it was a bitter cold day. Right away Josh and Todd started to put the Cannas and Elephant Ears into crates so they could be sent back to the Fanshawe College main campus. This was an extremely important task because they had to be in the greenhouse on the Fanshawe main campus before the first frost. They skillfully, and with full PPE, used the line trimmer to tidy up borders of the plant beds and clean up the edges of grassed areas. In the afternoon Josh and Todd found more Cannas that needed to be put into crates so they too, could be sent to the main campus so they can survive the winter in the greenhouse. They also cleaned did some cutbacks, weeding, and lifting in the dry garden. They very carefully weeded the pathway in the dry garden and leveled it out with rakes. They were sure to let no soil into the pea stone path because they did not want weed to come back in the future. They spot watered the plants in the greenhouse to make sure everything was thriving and healthy. After the second day of work they left with similar feelings that they had after the first day of work. They felt like they learned valuable lessons regarding landscaping and landscape maintenance and felt much more prepared to enter the work force as soon as they receive their diplomas.

Sunday, October 11, 2015 was the final day of Todd and Josh’s weekend duty. The air was tainted with a bitter sweet feeling. Todd and Josh were both happy and unhappy that their time at the A.M. Cuddy Gardens in Strathroy, was coming to an end. They had both enjoyed their time doing the weekend duty that was required of them but, at the same time, they were both looking forward to be able to finally go home and be with their families for thanksgiving weekend. I digress! There is still a full day of challenges and work ahead! Josh and Todd started their day with driving around using the RTV and cutting back any branches or leaves that were hanging over walkways or onto paths. They then moved on to the Rose Garden to clean up the beds by taking out any weeds and raking out the soil, and trimming around the grass edges. They were instructed to leave the roses the way they are because it will be done as a class project in the near future. Once again they ended their day with a trip to the hoop houses to check the plants to see if any of them needed watering. This weekend was an extremely educational weekend for Josh and Todd. They both got chances to learn and practice new abilities and to strengthen old ones.

2015-10-19T10:31:00.001-07:00

Solanum pyracanthum (Porcupine Tomato)

Thomas’ Opinion

Native to Madagascar, at first glance you might not believe that this is a real plant, or that it’s related to the Tomato. Having long thin bright orange thorns both a drawback and an incentive to owning such an unusual plant. Like many other plants in the Solanaceae family the leaves and stems contain highly toxic tropane alkaloids. Though the plant favors warm conditions it has been known to grow as a perennial in places where winters are below freezing.

Type: Tender perennial /Fall Interest.

Family: Solanaceae

USDA Hardiness Zone: 9-11.

Flowering Period: Year round.

Height: 91 cm - 152 cm.

Spread: 60 cm - 91 cm.

Growth: Fast

General Description: Known for its unusual appearance, the Porcupine Tomato presents year round interest with its lavender coloured flowers and the eye-catching orange spines dominating the tops of the soft fragmented leaves.

ID Characteristics: An interesting ornamental with lobed blue green leaves having many prominent orange spines or thorns along the midrib of the leaf with orange fuzzy stems.

Shape: Upright.

Landscape: Specimen, masses.

Propagation: This plant self seeds and propagation can be done from seeds: Germinate with bottom heat.

Cultivation: This plant thrives in sun or light shade with well drained soil with a bit of compost added before planting in the ground. Protect from frost. It will succeed in acidic and alkaline soils. Water porcupine plants often enough to keep the soil moist.

Pests: Flea beetles. Deer and rabbit resistant. Drought tolerant.

Notable Specimens: A.M. (Mac) Cuddy Gardens, Strathroy, Ontario.

Habitat: Native to Madagascar, this plant would be found in damp and warm soils with rich sandy soils. The terrain of Madagascar is a narrow coastal plain, high plateau and mountains in center.

Bark Description: The stems are fuzzy with orange thorns all over.

Bud Description: Buds are green, very small with orange spikes circling them.

Leaf Description: The fuzzy bluish-green pinnately lobed leaves are 6 - 21 cm in length with dramatic prickly upright orange spines down the mid ribs.

Flower Description: The plant blooms year round in clusters of small 1 inch star shaped lavender, papery thin flowers with a yellow central beak. The back of each petal has a white stripe running from the tip to the base.

Fruit Description: The plant produces miniature, marble sized yellow-green coloured fruit.

Colour Description: This unique plant emits a visually striking appearance with straight orange thorns on the tops of the leaves as well as the slight orange fuzz on the stems. The orange colour stands out when against the green leaves. Small purple blooms have a yellow center and the foliage is consistent throughout the seasons.

Texture Description: The stems are covered with orange fuzz and velvety soft leaves. Texture is consistent throughout the seasons.

Ethnobotanical Uses: Not usually because the leaves, flowers and fruit are poisonous.

Thomas and Blayne

2015-10-07T10:32:00.004-07:00

Weekend Duty Blog – Cuddy Gardens

Thomas Lauzon; Blayne Dunham

Weekend duty at cuddy gardens was 3 days full of showers and succulents. After the extremely long drive from London we arrived in Strathroy to a gloomy sky and wet grass. As we waited for Lucas we watched as the fog dissipated enough for us to see the beautiful gardens. After we got our assignments for the weekend we went off to work.

Friday morning turned out to be sunny and warm with a few unexpected guests. After we had finished moving a few giant potted trees into the house we were just starting on composting/repotting planters when both Mr. Pascoe and Mr. D visited the gardens. The afternoon and evening was spent mainly in the dry gardens taking the many, many cacti and other potted succulents and hauling them to a safe sunny location inside the house. This was easier said than done however; if you don’t know most cacti have spines that happen to stick into your skin when you touch them. After putting half of the succulents either inside the house, into the pool room or beside the car port ready to take to the school it was time to take lunch.

Afterwards we finished up moving everything inside that was in pots inside and gave all the transplants a drink. We then took the RTV to the hoop houses to water and check for anything peculiar. After tidying the house we turned off the water locked up the house and drove home.

Saturdays work day was only 4 hours long, we checked to make sure nothing needed water when we arrived then continued finishing up jobs from the day before. Many succulent planters had to be dismantled and put in trays before being put into the house. When this was done it had started raining so we decided to start tearing apart the hanging baskets underneath the pergola.

Sunday was a drizzly affair. The sun was determined to hide from us all day but we worked nonetheless. When we arrived we decided to trim and mow before the weather got too bad. We were able to run the mower and finish the work however the trimmer was almost empty and the shop happened to be out of mixed fuel. While Blayne was mowing the lawn I started on weeding the two front beds of the Cuddy hatchery. Which were mostly weeds with a few grasses thrown in here and there. After Blayne was done with the push mower she joined me and we spent the rest of the day weeding, hoeing, raking and making the garden look much better than before.

Travis and Jeff's Plant profile

2015-10-02T09:44:00.002-07:00

Colchicum autumnale

Jeff Bates, Travis Madill

Family: Colchicaceae

Genus: Colchicum

Species: autumnale

Category: Perennial Bulb

Origin: Central Europe, West Europe, and North Western Europe

Ethnobotanical Uses: Its used today as a remedy from some slight sicknesses, but doses to high can kill.

USDA Hardiness Zone: Zone 4 – 8

Canadian Hardiness Zone: Zone 2 – 9

Royal Horticultural Society Hardiness Zone: H4 - H8

Temperature Celsius: -15 – 20

Temperature Fahrenheit: -25 - 30

Height: 10 – 50cm

Growth Rate: Very fast

Spread: 10 – 70cm

Flowering Period: Mid-September, all the way to mid-October

General Description: Colchicum autumnale is a perennial bulb that has large spectacular pink or purple flowers. The autumnale crocus a great filler plant and has a spectacular fall show when it comes to colour. The autumnale Crocus contains a toxic poison that can cause death. The plants toxic chemicals are found within the plant itself and requires a ingestion to become toxic.

Cultivation: Requires a very well-draining soil, and require lots of nutrients.

Pest issues: Slugs and snails seem to snack on it quite often

Leaf construction. Long dark green leaves.

Flower description: Five petals surrounding the stamen or pistil creating a star like configuration.

Color Description: It has pink stems emerging from the ground proceeding to produce pink-white flowers.

Texture description: It has a smooth texture. The petals and stems are very smooth not indents or out dents from them.

References.

http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?taxonid=263009&isprofile=1&gen=Colchicum

https://www.rhs.org.uk/Plants/4190/i-Colchicum-autumnale-i/Details?returnurl=%2Fplants%2Fbulbs%3Faliaspath%3D%252fplants%252fbulbs

http://homeoint.org/books/boericmm/c/colch.htm

http://www.pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Colchicum+autumnale

http://www.inchem.org/documents/pims/plant/pim142.htm

http://abchomeopathy.com/r.php/Colch

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/3323786/How-to-grow-colchicum.html

http://www.lloydlibrary.org/colchicum_autumnale.html

Kate and Yujing's Plant profile

2015-10-02T09:33:00.002-07:00

Lamium maculatum 'Purple Dragon' Research

Yujing Ma

Fanshawe College

Author Note

This research is related to Lamium maculatum 'Purple Dragon'.

Correspondence concerning this research should be addressed to Yujing Ma, Co-op

Horticulture Program, H building, Room 1033, Fanshawe College, 1001 Fanshawe

College Blvd, London, ON, Email: y_ma9@fanshaweonline.ca

Lamium maculatum 'Purple Dragon' (Purple Dragon Creeping Lamium or Purple Dragon Dead Nettle)

For those people who love the contrasting foliage plants, the 'Purple Dragon' should be in your Top 10 Must-see plant list. Needless to say, the extraordinarily beautiful silvered foliage with lovely green edges is a blessing from heaven. Its deep purple flower clusters continually bloom from the spring to late summer. It is a vigorously fast-growing plant for groundcover, hanging baskets, rock walls, containers and so on. It is a fabulous perennial plant with shade and cold-tolerance characteristics.

Botanical Information

Family	Lamiaceae
Genus	Lamium
Species	Maculatum
Cultivar	'Purple Dragon'
Category	Perennials
Type	Herbaceous
References	Phillips, R., & Rix, M. (2002). Perennials: The definitive reference with over 2500 photographs (p. 75). Willowdale, Ontario: Firefly Books; Kellum, J. (2008). Southern shade: A plant selection guide (p. 122). Jackson, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi.
Origin	This plant was first discovered by John Vansanden a man from the state of Michigan and introduced in 2005. Patent number: USPP #15890.
Ethnobotanical Uses Disclaimer	‘Purple Dragon’ comes from a branch mutation called Lamium maculatum‘White Nancy’. It reproduced asexually in the general environment. After that, many north American nurseries introduced this plant. New plants are always the sacred cash cow for our industry.

Details

USDA Hardiness Zone	3-9
USDA Hardiness Ref.
Canadian Hardiness Zone	1a – Requires cool season protection under glass
Canada Hardiness Ref.
RHS Hardiness Zone	H3 – H7
RHS Hardiness Ref.
Temperature (°C)	-40° - (-1°)
Temperature (°F)	-40° - 30°
Height	15-20 cm
Spread	45-60 cm
Growth	Fast
Flowering Period	April – September

Description and Growing Information

General Description	This robust plant will be very sizeable when it grows and self-propagates. Snapdragon-like purple flowers are showy among the spotted leaves. A natural weed killer and an excellent ground cover are its best uses.
ID Characteristic	Square stem, oval- shaped leaves, distinguishably rich purple flowers.
Shape	It is a prostrate, clumping, dense, spreading understory plant.
Landscape	Ground cover, mass planting, naturalizing, shade, border edging, container planting. This is an ultra-low-maintenance plant, but it has a high value for the basic landscape design.
Propagation	Layering stem tips near the ground: pin a stem, and then wait for rooting. After it is completely rooted, cut it and move it to the container; division in spring or fall; stem cutting: In early summer, find a non-flowering shoot and then put it into the premix media. It is a fast-rooting plant. However, seeding will need at least 2 years to grow up.
Cultivation	It prefers cooler weather in the sun or partial shade. It will survive above zone 9, but the plant will struggle; good for almost all kinds of soil even slightly alkaline soil. This cultivar also prefers well-drained, moist soil, but it is also good when the land is dry. The plant needs to be cut back after flowering for maintaining a compact appearance.
Pests	Slugs and snails. Leaf scorch, root rot.
Notable Specimens	The A.M. Cuddy Gardens, Strathroy, Ontario, Canada.
Habitat	Horticultural origin.
Bark Description	Stems are light green in young and grey-purple in adult with branches at their nodes, square in cross-section, 0.5 cm across, sprawl horizontally. Bark- not applicable.
Leaf Description	Leaves silver with rich green edges around, unifoliate opposite, slightly wide obovate to cordate, apparently serrated, 5-6 cm long, 3-4 cm width. The midribs are not prominent.
Flower Description	Verticillasters may produce about 30 bisexual flowers, zygomorphic. Flowers are bilabiate, rich purple, The middle upper lip convex is white, 1–1.5 mm long.
Fruit Description	Grouped in 4, green nutlet, 0.33 cm long, 1.6 cm width, not obvious.
Colour Description	In mild climates, the foliages are always consider as evergreen. The stunning purple flowers adorn among them. Strong colour contrast ignites a light decoration in the shady areas.
Texture Description	It is a fine mounding cover like a soft carpet.

Kate and Yujing's weekend

2015-09-28T06:28:00.002-07:00

Weekend at Cuddy’s
September 25 – 27, 2015

Kate Deml and Yujing Ma

I had never been to Cuddy’s until last year when I was a fresh first year and recently as a (hopefully) wiser second year. Both times I was here for Hortfest, (our ritual gathering of the Fanshawe College, Horticulture enthusiasts) meaning that I spent more time doing activities, socializing with first and second years, and trying on clothes, (for our fabulous uniforms). When I was a first year we did get a small tour from our program coordinator, Michael Pascoe, but unfortunately since then I haven’t had much time to come back and look at the gardens. The opportunity weekend duty presented me, not only gave me a chance to see the gardens again, but also allowed me to get some hands on experience.

On the first day of duty my partner Yujing and I watered the plants on the patio. This included all the hanging baskets, the potted plants, and two trees that I believe were recently planted. We then worked on watering the hoop house plants, which I continued to work on while Yujing went to get the RTV and start work on pruning the perennial garden. During my time watering I found a Pinus strobus ‘Pendula’ (Weeping Eastern White Pine) which is one of my favourite evergreens (both the weeping form and straight species) as well as a cultivar called Pinus strobus ‘Louie.’ I had never heard of the cultivar ‘Louie’ it was quite fetching and a new plant to add to my plant I.D cards.
When I was finished with watering I headed over to the perennial garden and took over pruning from Yujing so she could go and mow the lawn. I had never used a push mow before, so it was for the best that Yujing did this task since she had experience from working at Cuddy’s over the summer. Pruning the perennials was an entertaining experience as I got to witness the bees at work pollinating and I got to feel like a professional working in my field for the first time. Once that was finished I headed over to the rose garden to get started on weeding the rose garden, while Yujing finished up mowing the lawn and began cutting back the Pennisetums, and pulling out some of the Nicotiana since it was starting to take over the dry garden.

The next day, we started our morning by digging out plants that were to be brought inside in preparation for the upcoming frost. These plants included, Pennistums, Canna Lilies, Euphorbia cotinifolia (Caribbean Copper Plant), Phormiums (Flax) and a cactus (I’m sorry I am unaware what type of cactus). Once we finished digging the plants out we took them over to where the soil was and repotted them, then we transferred them over to one of the hoop houses and gave them a much needed drink of water.

Afterwards we started working on placing some of the potted succulents and cacti into bulb crates; then transported them over to the garage via the RTV. I got to drive the RTV which was quite exciting since I only ever got to drive an RTV during maintenance class and only for a few minutes. It was a lot of fun and I hope to do more of it in the future. We then spent the rest of the day working on weeding more of the rose garden, which took up the rest of our day.
For our final day of weekend duty at Cuddy’s, Yujing and I watered the patio plants again, including hanging baskets and pots. We then proceeded in finishing weeding the rose garden as there were quite a few weeds, some of them particularly stubborn to pull out. Our next task was then to weed the perennial garden, which also had accumulated quite a batch of weeds. While I was working on uprooting a particularly nasty weed, I heard a scream emit from Yujing. I was of course concerned for her well-being since her shout was quite loud, but thankfully it had only been a frog that landed on her arm. She had been so intent on weeding that when the frog jumped on her she was completely startled from the impact. Needless to say I had a good laugh and the frog and Yujing were unharmed, and that event was the highlight of my day.

Weeding the perennial garden took quite a bit of time, but we persevered and conquered those blights to society. We then got a little break from weeding as we worked on throwing apples from the apple tree into the woodland area to be used as fertilizer, and swept the pathways. Next was checking the plants at the hoop house and watering them, before heading over to the hatchery barn to do some more weeding. As the final hour descended upon us we cleaned the RTV, put back all the equipment, locked the tool shed and said goodbye (for now) to the Cuddy Gardens.

In conclusion, our weekend at the gardens was valuable experience as weeding is important to reduce unsightly, unwanted plants that deprive wanted plants of nutrients and water. Watering is needed to promote growth and a healthy, happy plant, and transplanting helps protect plants from the cold weather of winter. This also includes the cacti and succulents.