Fluffing up a few properties

Guillerme and I started to work on this property yesterday, but we were only there for a few hours. Today I have Guillerme and Fabio to help me out. Fabio is another guy who is turning out to be a very good "detail" worker, again they are hard to find.

As we were about 2 hours into the job of wedding and fluffing up the beds, the mowing crew showed up and mowed the property. They also mow 5 other properties that are off campus but used by Babson higher ups.

Here as in the other properties we are starting the process of dead heading the flowers and removing the yellow leaves, especially from the Lilly's and Iris's. Some of the annuals here needed to be completely removed, especially from the planters.

The Presidents wife wanted new Chrysanthemums, planted for some upcoming gatherings, that are going to be held at the property. This part of the project was handed over to Rob, who seems to be the pot planter this season.

Late Season Trim Job

The season is starting to wind down. The leaves on the Chestnut Trees are curling up, the Swamp Maples are starting to turn red and orange. I think we are in for a early fall this season.

We went to this property to trim the bushes and weed and make it look nice. The property had nothing done to it since the beginning of the season when it was cleaned up and mulched.

Guillerme helped me out on this and he is turning into a very good "detail" worker which is hard to find.

As we went along doing our work, we started the process of dead heading all of the flower blooms and removing the yellow branches from the flowers. The season is coming to an end and the flowers and tress are telling us that. Most everything, lawns, bushes, trees and flowers are starting to look lifeless and a bit yellow.

We finished this up around 2:30 PM and then headed over to to the same type of work at the property used by the President of Babson College

Finish the trim job in Southboro

I went with Guillerme and Kessio to finish up the trim job we started a week ago, but due to the rain we have not had a chance to get back to it. I had to train Guillerme on how to trim using the power shears we have. My patience is tested to the limit during these period, as mistakes will happen. I just have to be calm and use the mistakes as tools to teach what is the correct way and what is not.

We just had to trim up the bushes in the front of the house and the one way out back. The picture shows our finished work there. Guillerme did a pretty decent job for his first time shearing. He needs practice and it will soon be trimming season and he will get a LOT of practice.

When we finished there, we headed over to the home occupied by the President of Babson College to do some weeding as, we had not been there for awhile due to the rain. As I was working in one perennial flower bed, something moved, I thought it was a snake, but it turned out to be a baby bunny, which I took a picture of. I did not bother him and continued weeding and then I came across his 2 other siblings. Well that was it, I stopped my work because we never bother animals we find out in nature. They were just so little and so cute, and the other guys took pics with their camera phones.

Babson project

Today, I went with Guillerme and Rich to work on a project for Babson College, by one of the dormitories. It was a large brick building and on the backside of the building was an entrance area that had just gotten old in appearance and function. This happens quite a bit in landscaping, bushes and trees outgrow the area the have been in after awhile and we have to remove the old and plant some new to freshen up the appearance of the area.

The first thing we did was to remove about 18 old Juniper bushes, that were planted in the front of some PJM's. We first cut off all of the branches, then used a chainsaw to cut the stumps down a bit, leaving about 6 inches above ground. Guillerme and Rich then dug up the stump's. We loaded all of this onto a dump truck and Rich took off to dump the brush at a place in Framingham, where we can dump stuff and he also brought back 2 yards of very wet loam. The place in Framingham, recycles brush into mulch, any composted material is turned into compost, nothing much is left for dumps, it is always recycled, even the pavement, concrete, blue stone, brick and pallets, that we return there.

Rich made 2 more trips to that place, in Framingham, for a total of 6 yards of loam, which for the most part Guillerme and I spread in the area's that will be planted with Rhody,s 40 or so Stella Dora Lilly's, some hosta's and assorted plants to fill in the new area. I thought I was going to come back the next day and would take picture's of the completed project but it rained the next day.

So I will leave you with some more pictures of flowers. A pink Mountain Laurel and a very red geranium.

Fungicide and Holly Tone...

These pictures are of the various colors of the Rhododendron's that are all around the property.
I really like these bushes and the are a very popular here in New England.

Today, I went with Rich to the home used by the President of Babson College. We had to weed all of the beds, as this home, has to always look "Presidential", for all of it's visitors.

Nick, the guy in charge of the grounds for the campus had, called Rob, and wanted us to put down a fungicide, on the lawn because it had "red thread". This usually goes away by itself if you lighten up on the water you are applying to the lawn. Red Thread, is caused by a lack of Nitrogen and because it has more moisture than it needs. We have been in a rainy stretch here and that is more than likely what caused it. We will be doing our second application of fertilizer next week.

Rich and I spent the morning weeding and in the afternoon, Rich put down 20 pounds of Holly Tone on a bed that has pachysandra, that had a hard time recovering from this past winter. The Holly Tone will bring it back to life and will get it to fill out the bed.

After, that I put down the fungicide and sprayed the weeds in the lawn with SPEED ZONE. As I was doing this, Rich was going around with a bag of grass seed and throwing some down in any weak parts of the lawn. When we had everything packed up and we were not going to be on the lawn any more I went around to the walks and patio and sprayed Round up on the weeds in the cracks.

Doctor visit and more Rain

I had a Doctor's appointment this morning and it was just as well, because it was pouring rain again this morning. I called Rob and at first he said to come in and go and put some fungicide down at the home used by the President of Babson college, but then he changed his mind and told me to come in on Saturday and we would do it then.

So it was back home to work to have some CRAVE energy drink and get going on my home biz some more. Did a lot on Facebook and Entrecard again.

Loam and seeding

Rich and I are at a condo complex in Medfield, Massachusetts today. We have to repair a damaged lawn area in front of 2 of the units because they are selling the condo's and want to have the front look better.

Rich had to make 2 trips over to Lovell's nursery in Medfield for the loam. We used 3 yards and our truck will only hold 2 at a time.

After we finished, we were off to Wellesley to Babson College, to put down some loam in areas that had been washed away by rain. These were in areas where there were going to be a lot of traffic later in the week at the graduation ceremonies.

More "Odds and Ends"

Friday, Rich, Guillerme and I went back to the property in Needham, where we had started the large cleanup and trim job before it rained. We finished the cleanup and trimming and finally got around to edging the beds and putting down 10 yards of brown mulch. It was not enough to finish the yard so we will be back on Saturday to finish up and then next week, we will "slice seed the entire front lawn.

Saturday, my plans changed and I had to go with Guillerme, to mow the lawn at the property that is in the above picture. (Those are the wolf tree's, I spoke about in a prior post, you can see how their size, just dwarfs the Dogwood that is in full bloom.) Rich and another guy went back to finish the mulch job.

Guillerme and I, then headed over to the home that is used by the President of Babson College. We had to mow the lawn and go through all of the beds and weed and trim so everything looked very nice for this week's activities. This is a big week at Babson, and there is going to be a large tent, in the area of the blue stone patio, which is in the first picture on the left.

Sod and overseed at Babson College property.

I had a new kid helping me today, Guillerme, at the Babson College property that is used by the President of the college.

We are going to be sodding an area along the front driveway, along the back driveway and the section between the 2 perenial beds which you can see in the pic at the left. We will also be spreading loam and seed behind the perenial gardens.

Hopefully this seed will be up and growing by May 15th. That is, when the graduation party is held, at this home. There will be a large outdoor tent, put over the blue stone patio area, for refreshments for the graduating class. This is a yearly project for us.

Wellesley and Needham Fertilizing

Today, we will be in Wellesley and Needham fertilizing our customer's properties. We will be doing all of the off-campus properties of Babson College and Olin College.

Here is a pic of Rich, using the power spreader to take care of a Babson House. You can see that spring, has not yet come around and there are no leaves on the trees. But in about 3-4 weeks it will be a completely different view. May is my favorite time of year, all of the ornamental tree's are in full bloom, and the other deciduous trees have there new leaves out.

The cool spring time weather, has had my back aching a bit, good thing I had some SUNJING with me today. All I have to do is rub it on my lower back and in a few minutes the ache is gone, amazing stuff and it is so easy to carry around with me.

Tomorrow, we will be continuing on the fertilization route, in Dover, Holliston and Sherborn, Massachusetts. I will not be finished but close to it.

Repairing Winter Plow Damage

I am going to be repairing, more properties, that have had damage done to them by the snowplows during the winter. Two of the properties belong to Babson College, they are homes owned by the college, and we are hired to do the landscape maintenance on them. Rich, will be helping me with this chore today.

We do this early in the season to take advantage of the spring rains, and of course to make the properties look better. However, the ground is not warm enough for the seed to germinate quickly and this year we are having a very cool spring. The seed will not germinate until the ground temperature is around 55 degrees, so we have a few weeks to go before we will see any growth. We are using Lovell's New England seed, (34.3% Creeping Red Fescue, 29.4% Laredo Perenial Rye, 24.5% AllaireII Perenial Rye and 9.8% Ken-Blue Kentucky Bluegrass) which is a very good seed and we have a lot of success using it.

Clean up of the, Babson College, Presidents Residence

Today I went with 3 other guys to do a spring cleanup at the home of the President of Babson College, in Wellesley, Massachusetts. This is a very nice, older property, with a great landscape.

This is a large property with a lot of mulched beds that have to be raked out, the flowers cut back, and the beds edged, before we can mulch. We have to also make sure that we use backpacks and clean off the lawn area. We have to do an excellent job here, as Babson has many catered events at this home. So we always have to do our best work here.

This will take all four of us, working until 5:30 pm today to clean it up, and there will be another crew, spending another day, just mulching the property. Good thing I have my daily, afternoon CRAVE energy drink for this one.