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Thursday, March 11, 2010

New 'Starts' for the Garden--PART TWO

Yesterday members from the UC Davis Grounds and Landscape Services staff managed to plant all the new starts we received from Kelly's Color Nursery in Davis the day before. (For more information on this story click here.)

It was truly an efficient operation. Arlene Kennedy, Gardener for the UC Davis Good Life Garden, had the ground prepared and soil amended. (For more information on how to amend your soil click here.) The day before she lightly watered the soil so it would easy to plant in the next morning. Then, the morning of the planting, Arlene, Ed Norstrom, Grounds Supervisor, and Elias Mbvukuta, Groundskeeper matched the starts to the exact area where they would be planted. (See detail of rhubard chard below.)


Next, a small and very capable crew moved from one end of the garden to the other, and within a half hour, all the starts were planted! See the photos below.

Below, Pat Stoffel, Groundskeeper, loosens up some of the bound roots with her fingers prior to planting.


From left to right, Jose Aguayo, Lorenzo Guzman, Felipe Olivares, Elias Mbvukuta, and Arlene Kennedy plant flower starts in the UC Davis Good Life Garden wine aroma bed.


Jessie Flores, Groundkeeper, finishes planting the leek starts and prepares to move on to the next job.


Depending on the size of the start and the condition of the soil, our groundskeeper will use typical garden trowels, hoematics, or simply their hands to plant the new starts into the beds. Here Felipe Olivares employs the use of a hoematic to plant a row of celery starts. Hoematics are a great tool for any gardener. One side is a small hoe the other side is a garden hand rake.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I use a "hoematic" all the time; great for hacking weeds, never knew what it was called.

I also like the yellow waterproof pants, esp useful this time of year when the knees of your jeans would be mud-soaked in a minute.

Looks so nice out there. Lynn