Birch Bed

20-05-09

ACTIVITIES: Remulch birch bed. Over the next 3 days it was decided that we should remulch the birch bed in front of the carpark. The first task was to pull out most of the existing weeds.

Any of the weeds containing seed heads were bagged so the seeds would not spread.

The weeds then taken up to the top area to be mulched. They were placed on the ground and run over with the lawn mower and then placed on the mulch pile.

Any weeds that were left were flattened down. The existing border around the bed was also redifined to give it a new shape and look. The bed was the raked and smoothed out as much as possible. The next step was to add gypsom over the entire bed to increase the pH. Approx 195 grams per square metre of soil was sprinkled over the bed. We then placed flattened out cardboard over the whole bed, this would stop most new and existing weeds from coming up through the garden bed.

The final step was to place down mulch over the bed aprrox 100mm thick.

The final result looked fantastic and gave the birch bed a new lease of life.

TOOLS: Spades, wheelbarrows, hoes, rakes, buckets, mattocks.

PPE: Safety boots, gloves, long pants and sleeves.

OH&S: Muscular, mattocks, eyes

Secateure sharpening

21-5-09

ACTIVITIES: Roy showed us the how to sharpen our secateurs. We took apart our secateurs so we could sharpen the main cutting blade. This was done using a sharpening stone. Once the blade was sharpened the secateurs were put back together.

TOOLS: Secateurs, sharpening stone, screw driver.

PPE:

OH&S: Sharp blade from secateurs.

Pruning

21-5-09

ACTIVITIES: Roy went through some interesting pruning and cutting techniques. Firstly he showed us how to do a 3 way cut on some pine tree branches (see photo). Next we did some corrective prunning on eucylptus trees. The idea was to take the weight off some of the branches so the canopy would rise up a little. This would then make it easier of people to walk under the trees without walking into over hanging leaves and branches (see photo).

TOOLS: secateurs

PPE: Long sleeves, long pants, gloves.

OH&S: Branches poking eyes, secateurs.

Root Cuttings

19-5-09

ACTIVITIES: Today we did root cuttings. It is great to see how all the different types of cuttings are used in propagation. I took the roots from a well established Westeria plant. The idea was to dig down and find the roots of the plant and cut several pencil size roots. These roots were then taken back to the prop room and washed. A prop mix made up of 15L pasturised sand, 15L cocopeat, 15L perlite, 45g trichodry and 100g of mini osmocote was placed into small punnets (see photo). The roots were then cut into approx 5cm lengths. The top cut was on a 45 degree angle and the bottom cut was straight. The base of the root was dipped into a semi hardwood gel and placed into the punnet.

TOOLS USED: Secuteres, spade.

PPE: Long sleeves, long pants, gloves.

OH&S:

IRRIGATION Part 2 pipes and solonoid

12-05-09

ACTIVITIES: Today we continued on with the irrigation up in the vegie garden. Irrigation pipe and the solonoid cable had already been placed into the trench a couple of days earlier. One of our jobs was to place sand under the pipe and cable. We also taped the cable to the underside of the pipe. Along the western side trench we set up 3 solonoid outlets. This involved seperating 3 different coloured wires from the main cable and attaching them to the solonoids. Each solonoid had a different coloured wire. Also attatched to each solonoid was a common wire. After this was done the pipe and cable had about 20cm of sand placed on top. The sand was tampered down with a rake. The next step was to back fill the trench with soil. This also had be tampered down with a rake or your boot. So far the job has not been finished.

PPE: Long sleeves, long pants, saftey boots, gloves.

TOOLS: Crow bar, rakes, spades, wheel barrows.

OH&S: Muscular.

Leaf bud cuttings PROPAGATION

11-05-09

ACTIVITIES: Today we did leaf bud cuttings for the first time. I am finding propagation really enjoyable and interesting. I took 3 cuttings off a Camellia Japonica plant. The cuttings were approx 15cm long (see attatched photo). The next step was to cut these into small stem and 1 leaf cuttings (see attatched photo). A lateral cut was made right above the bud. The angle of the cut should be the same as the width of the stem. 12 cuttings were prepared and the ends of the stems dipped into a semi hardwood purple gel. The cuttings were then placed into a punnet full of prop mix. Prop mix was made up of 15L pasturised sand, 15l coco peat, 15L perlite, 45g trichodry and 100g of mini osmocote. 12 cutting were then placed in the punett with all leaves facing out in the same direction.

PPE:

TOOLS: Secueteres.

OH&S:

IRRIGATION part 1 Ditch Witch

29-4-09

ACTIVITIES: In the afternoon I finally managed to get to use the Ditch Witch. This was a machine we hired so we could dig a trench around the vegie garden area. There was irrigation pipe that was going to be laid in the trench. Also a wire for the solonoid was going into the trench. The machine was fairly easy to use. The main thing was to keep it going straight and to make the sure the depth of the trench was the same. With the Ditch Witch it would have taken a few days for all of us to dig it out by hand. Instead we had the entire site dug out in 1 full day.

TOOLS: Ditch Witch, wheel barrows, rakes, spades, crow bar, mattocks.

PPE: Long sleeves, long pants, gloves.

OH&S: Ditch Witch.