City Gardener

The temperature outside was 94F degrees, and very muggy, as I cycled home from the GH. But, while riding a bicycle there is a natural, built-in breeze which made me feel cooler. The mugginess was  notable at the GH too, where the rainforest rooms were especially warm and muggy. Surprisingly, the desert rooms felt cooler and drier than the outside air!  My first task was to repot a climbing clematis vine in room C1, it had become completely root-bound in its small 9-inch pot. I replaced the pot with a 12-inch deep pot to give the expanding roots extra room. We used arid soil mix to provide good drainage. The vine had been growing up one of the I-beams which support the roof of the GH. I couldn’t take down the vine, so I had to repot the plant in situ. To complete the task, B found an eight-foot ladder from the maintenance crew, which I used to train the vine along a stainless steel cable - which had been installed for that purpose.  Since I had the ladder already, I also t...

Again I was able to cycle to the GH today, as the weather was lovely: partly cloudy, 66 degrees, with a fair breeze at my back. On the ride to the GH, I passed the Huntington Bank stadium on the east bank campus. I was amazed to see 25 private coaches all lining the streets around the stadium. The near-by parking lot was full of a similar number of large semi trailers. Clearly something big was about to happen at the stadium, but what? On the ride home I recalled the singer Beyonce (Queen Bey) and her husband JayZ are in town for a couple of concerts. I had no idea they required such a large entourage of people and equipment. I strongly suspect, Beyonce and JayZ do not travel on the roads with the whole convoy. They’ll be jetting around in their private plane(s),  On arriving at the greenhouse, B... was there to assign my first tasks: to repot some of the small bushy plants in C1 and C2. These particular plants had plastic pots which were bursting open at the bottom indicating the ...

  The weather is glorious today, so of course, I cycled to the greenhouse. Student T... was given instructions from B... that I should clean the water plant reservoirs in room C2. In preparation for the job I tried without success to decouple the hose between the upper and lower reservoirs. I don’t think it is possible without cutting the hoses, so I just let them dangle while I drained and lifted the large upper reservoir/tank - I estimate it measures 4 x 10 feet, and 1.5 feet deep (about 150 gallons). The lower reservoir is 40 gallons, and holds R/O water which is pumped to the upper chamber constantly to provide waterflow and aeration to the plants. Both chambers needed emptying and cleaning. I first removed the plants from the upper chamber, setting the small plants on a cart, and the large plants on the floor. I opened the valve of the upper chamber to allow the dirty water to flow onto the floor and into the nearby floor drain.  I then tilted the now-empty large chamber ...

After a three-week absence (trip to Kyushu, Japan), I returned to the greenhouse on a sunny day with mild conditions. It was a joy to walk through the campus from the parking lot, then to pick up a coffee from the cafe on the edge of campus, and then on to the greenhouse. The garden plantings were filling out the flower beds, and the trees in full leaf. With most of the students away on summer holiday, the campus was very peaceful and quiet.  My tasks this week involved the vine bench in room C2 (tropical rainforest). Curator J... has moved some of the vine plants to another table since the current vine table is overstuffed with vines. Many of the plants didn’t have sufficient support or metal cables for crawling up. The new additional table has an overhead cable to which we can attach support cables. I used a bag of hardware from the cabinets in the workroom to crimp together 7 stainless steel cables. I hung each of the cables to one of the newly-moved pots. Then I attached the vi...

  Today, June 8th, was a relatively simple day at the greenhouse. I spent the first hour watering plants in room C1. I captured the images above from some of the many flowering plants in that “cloud forest” room. The two stacked photos are, of course, orchids. The other is a rhododendron, very fragrant. Since it is summer, and quite warm outside, many of the plants can use extra water, I was generous with it. The second part of the 3-hour shift was spent helping B... and Curator J... to clean the water-plant trays and tanks in room C3. I have cleaned these two tanks in the past, and the job is quite a chore. The reservoir tanks below the table trays are quite heavy, and they do not have drain holes. So, they must be pulled out and emptied of 100-200 gallons (or so). B and I slid one of the reservoirs full of water just enough so I could tip it up a bit to drain the old dirty water. In the process of helping me, B injured the skin on two of her fingers (requiring bandages to stop th...

I rode my bicycle to the greenhouse today. The plan is to continue this practice until it gets too cold in the Fall to be comfortable on a bike. On arrival I could see several of the outdoor native cacti had already bloomed. Several more were starting to bud out with flowers. There was only one small native cactus with an active yellow blossom.  I began the day watering the plants in room C1. This is the “cloud forest” room, with quite a wide variety of plants including the Hawaiian Brighamia and several species of cymbidium plants, and a few cool-hardy cacti too. My favorite flower of the day was an impatiens plant with dark rusty red leaves and a blossom that looked like a small white lady slipper. Next, Curator J..., B... and I walked over to the Cargill Building to place the large Agave americana into a plastic saucer. We  had to coax the plant pot off of the small wooden dolly into the saucer sitting on the floor. Luckily, we got it placed into the saucer with a minimum o...

 I rode my bike to the greenhouse today. The weather was dry and the temps were in the acceptably low 60s. However, there was an annoying breeze from the east, directly in front of me as I pedaled - slightly uphill -  to the St. Paul campus. I felt tired already as I dismounted to lock up the bike outside the Student Center. I walked the remainder of the distance to the greenhouse enjoying the quiet of the campus, the magnificent old trees now in full leaf. Before entering the greenhouse I took a detour to the Cargill Building (plant genetics) to view the large Agave americana that Curator J has lent to the lobby. It looks grand in the setting surrounded by slate gray panels and large windows facing southwest (see photo above). The wounds on my arms from repotting the beast last week are only now starting to fade. I arrived in the greenhouse on time (Yea!). Curator J... was in the workroom introducing a new student (T) to the grease board with its list of duties. Briefly we ex...