Day One of the Orr Trip to England

Posted by Hanna Pettus

All the second year public hort kids and three undergraduates (Britton Garrett, Savannah Duke, and Jennifer Derrow) made the trip to the UK and arrived early Sunday morning in Manchester. The less-than-comfortable 8 hour flight left us jet lagged but more than excited to begin our international journey. After the long wait to get through customs (made better by free WiFi!), we hit the ground running.

Our first stop was Levens Hall in Kendal. The Elizabethan style house was built around a 13th century Pele Tower and Great Hall. An expansion was made to the house in the 16th century, adding oak panelling, intricate plasterwork, leather wall hangings, tapestries, early furniture, paintings, and other historic and fine objects. What amazed us is that there are still people living there today and can be seen occasionally wandering around with the general public. Unfortunately, photography was not allowed inside the house.

The most important part of our stop at Levens Hall was, of course, the gardens. They were designed in 1694 by Monsieur Guillaume Beaumont, the gardener for King James II that worked at Hampton Court Palace. Levens Hall gardens is the only garden he designed that still remains today. The topiary garden is magnificent and is the oldest in the world. The property also had a rose garden, an orchard, a nuttery, a fountain garden, an herb garden, vegetable borders, a beech hedge walk, herbaceous borders, and a bowling green. There was even a local croquet club meeting on the bowling green during our visit!

One view of the topiary garden.

A ha-ha. These are used to keep sheep out of the gardens without being aesthetically unpleasing, meaning you can't see it until you about walk off of it. One side gently slopes in until it reaches a vertical drop, which is usually a stone wall about 4-6ft. It's called a ha-ha because of it's "amusing" nature when someone would stumble upon the sudden drop.

After Levens Hall, we stopped in the town of Kendal for lunch before making our way to the hotel. We stayed in The Belsfield, in Bowness-on-Windermere. This was in the Lake District, north of Manchester, and absolutely beautiful. The main highlights included lakes, rolling hills, lush green foliage everywhere, and sheep galore. Not to mention the town: picturesque, as if out of a movie.

The streets of Bowness-on-Windermere.

View of Lake Windermere from our hotel's restaurant.

A shot from the car as we drove through the Lake District.

More posts from our England trip are coming soon!

Last Post Until England!

Posted by Hanna Pettus

First, let me apologize for the lack of pictures in my post. I've never been much of a picture taker unless it's of baby animals or pretty flowers. So, sorry about that. 

Moving on...

This week was the annual First Ladies Campus Club plant sale. While there are many plant sales that happen around Auburn in the Spring, this one had particular importance to me because I had to coordinate volunteers to help load, transport and unload plants, as well as work the actual sale. This was a part of a project requirement for my practicum class. Finding the volunteers was actually easy, since there were students in the herbaceous ornamentals labs that needed "work hours" for a grade, so there were many that were willing to help out. We loaded up plants from the greenhouse complex on Monday, in the POURING rain. We were all soaked. April showers bring May flowers, though, right? That's what's I kept telling myself as water sloshed in my shoes... At least there were a lot of people to help so we had everything moved in about 45 minutes. The plant sale itself went much more smoothy because it was moved inside. I think in the end they made about $1850, which is good considering the weather and sudden change of plans. On Thursday we had a meeting about our upcoming trip. What trip you may ask? The one where we go to England for a week! The fab 5, along with three undergraduates and Dr. Eakes and Dr. Robinson, will leave May 3 on the annual Orr trip. We will be flying in to Manchester and working our way down to London and flying out of there on May 11. Be sure to check back then because we will be blogging from across the pond! Soon we will also be adding another cohort to our midst, so there will be four new bloggers to hear from.

We can't wait to share our UK travels with you!  

Until then,

Hanna P. 

Colorado and a Camel

Hello readers -- Kira Chaloupka, here!

Well, as usual, I'm a week late, but not a word short. I've got plenty to share from the past few weeks in my Dean's Office Update!

I guess I'll start with spring break. It tends to be one of the best times in Auburn because the sun starts to warm things up outside, flowers start blooming and students are gone. This was a wonderful week to get things done with less distraction and spend a little time outdoors.

But as that week came to an end, the travel began! I had the opportunity to attend PLANET's Student Career Days, which Hilary talks about in her post. The main goal was to conduct some research and research I conducted. With the assistance of Amanda and Hilary, we had over 220 students visit our "Make Your Mark" booth at the career fair. With the terrific turnout I am looking forward to analyzing the data and figuring out what makes a horticulture student tick. Besides all the work, we did have a little fun... Amanda and I drove the roads of Colorado, visited several towns and enjoyed some of the best food I've ever tasted. We visited Golden, home of the Coors Brewery, climbed the peaks of Rocky Mountain National Park, explored the shops of Boulder and navigated our way through Fort Collins. All of this was done with the help of Sally the Subaru. She was a trooper. While our time was well spent in Colorado, we had much to look forward to in return to the Plains.

Rocky Mountain National Park

Make Your Mark booth with Amanda and Hilary

I wasn't a fan of the cold.

What was the last week of March this year? Nothing less than Ag Week! A celebration of Agriculture by the College of Agriculture body through various events hosted for students by students. The week started off with a lecture, featuring a representative from Hormel Foods Monday and an outreach to the University student body was done through Tea & Tie-dye on Tuesday. Wednesday, also known as Hump Day, was the Annual Ag Hill Picnic, with special guest Clyde the Comer Camel. Feasting on fish and chicken or photo op with Clyde, students, faculty, staff and community members had a great time fellowshipping on Comer Lawn. Thursday was a busy one with a breakfast starting at 7:30am (a wakeup call of 4:30am) on the Green Space, which included Alabama products like Poultry Science eggs, Conecuh sausage, and Mary B's biscuits. That evening the second annual Ag Island Games were hosted with competitive games and a chance to hold the title of Ag Island Champions. From Slip-n-slide sponge relays to inch-worm crawls and barn sweeps, the students had good clean fun and it's quite entertaining from the sidelines. Friday has become a day dedicated to youth education and this year the Boys and Girls Clubs were the audience of agriculture education. Saturday wrapped the celebration up with Ag in the Park, a prospective student event revolving around the baseball game. The week may have included early mornings and lots of hard work, it came with the feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction because if one person learned anything about agriculture, then the week was a success.

This is a great depiction of us -- Amanda, Sarah and myself

The Student Services staff with Clyde!

We've slowed down a good bit since then, but as I look toward the summer and even farther into the fall I see much more travel... There are five conferences scheduled to be attended this summer and at least four road trips planned for the fall. I will be sure to include those in my updates as my turn rolls around to post. Stay tuned...

KLC

Auburn Shade Garden!

     It's been very busy in Funchess lately, as we begin to wrap up the semester and continue our research! This semester all of the public horticulture students are taking Practicum. Over the past few months, Dr. Williams has lead us in developing a Shade Garden for Auburn's campus. We've pruned trees, removed stumps, weeded, and worked together as a class to design the garden. The Shade Garden's plant collections will be used for horticulture classes and appreciated by students walking to campus from nearby parking lots.

     March 31st was a major work day for the Shade Garden. We had the daunting task of preparing the soil, planting the first phase of the garden, and spreading mulch. When we arrived Heath had already placed mounds of pine bark all around the site. We began leveling the bark out with rakes first. I never could have imagined what we accomplished in only a few short hours; it was hard work! Luckily I was able to catch some pictures of the progress!

Plants and mounds of pine bark on our empty canvas.

We were lucky to have Heath and the skid steer (left) help with the labor. He pulled a tree stump out of the ground with no problem! The skid steer couldn't reach every area, so we did some leg work to fill in gaps of pine bark. Hanna and Leah (right) took a break from loading wheelbarrows to pose glamorously with their shovels.

The pine bark was spread to a depth of about 3 inches, to be mixed in as a soil amendment. Jay (left), Jayne (middle), and Hanna (right) all pitched in on the work!

Monte helped Kira (left) and several of us mix in the soil amendment using a rototiller. It was a quite learning experience! After a little while, Brent (right) stepped in to finish tilling the rest of the space. His landscaping experience really sped up the process!

Once the soil was tilled and weeded, we began the fun part: planting! Leah and Kira (left) planted a bush while John and Michael (right) dug holes for perennials. We were only able to install a portion of all the plants in the design. But don't worry! The garden will grow over the years, as more specimens are added to the collection!

Monte showed off his mastery of drip irrigation systems by installing hoses through the entire garden in less than an hour. Drip irrigation systems are much more efficient than traditional sprinklers. While traditional sprinklers lose a lot of water to evaporation, drip irrigation systems apply water directly to the soil through perforated hoses, minimizing evaporative water loss.

 Our next step was to spread pine straw mulch. A decent layer of mulch can make all the difference in a garden: fewer weeds, better water retention in the soil (great for hot summer days!), and less soil erosion during heavy rains. Not to mention that nice, clean look it gives a garden!

Dr. Williams and Seth admiring all the work we accomplished; the Shade Garden finally looks like a garden!

     After the long day, I couldn't wait to go home and relax! Instead, I had to study and grade papers. Being a part of Auburn's Department of Horticulture is never dull. Through projects like this we are able to leave our mark on campus for people to enjoy for years to come. The work never ends, but I love it!

War Eagle!
-Jeremiah DeVore

PLANET Student Career Days!

Hello fellow bloggers and followers! I hope all of you are doing well and staying tuned to AU's Public Horticulture blog. We have had quite an eventful spring semester. Last week was my week to post for the blog; however, I was way out west in the majestic state of Colorado, cheering on and supporting our undergraduates in horticulture as they competed against 64 schools in the annual PLANET Student Career Days event hosted by Colorado State University in Fort Collins.

Here is a brief re-cap of our adventurous trip to Fort Collins to show off and apply our awesome horticulture skills at the 2014 Student Career Days.

On a warm, rainy Monday morning, 22 horticulture undergrads, 2 grad students, 3 professors, and 5-6 faculty and staff departed for the Atlanta airport. We made our way across the country, in groups or alone, to meet and gather with our fearless AU leaders, comprised of professors, faculty, and graduate students, in the Denver airport. Our army of AU horties amounted to a total of 32 Auburnites! We had come to Colorado prepared to divide and conquer this industry-wide annual competition, which began at Mississippi State University, I might add!

The sun was still vibrant and shining as we exited the Denver airport, walking out into the cool, blustery Colorado wind, lugging our bags onto the transit, which would take us to our fleet of Chrysler vans, which were stationed in the airport car rental lot. As we loaded up our vans, driven by our fearless leaders and one valiant undergraduate, Dalton Sconyer, we traveled across the wide open spaces of the great state of Colorado, driving towards the one thing that could sustain our tired, travel worn bodies, Mexican food! Once we fueled up after our Western meal, we caravan-ed to our warm, lovely, Hilton hotel, that exhibited a lobby and restaurant filled with hideous and noticeably fake silk botanicals-AKA fake flowers. We checked into our rooms, counseled before bed, as we did every evening to prep for the next day, and  then gladly got into our warm beds.

Tuesday morning we were up and ready to hit the slopes, y'all! After a free buffet Hilton breakfast- woot, woot!- we packed up our crew and headed to Eldora ski resort for an entire day of skiing on the slopes! It was my first time skiing, as well as a few others, and I would like to say that I skied down the bunny slopes twice without falling! We headed back to the hotel for the evening and then made it over to Old Town, basically downtown, in Fort Collins for a nice, local dinner.

Wednesday we congregated in the hotel lobby around 9 AM and geared up for our adventure up the mountain to Rocky Mountain National Park! Fun fact, this park was established in 1915; I know this fact because the souvenir magnet I bought outside of the park gates says so. Most of the students went sledding and playing in the snow in a ski and snow play area called Hidden Valley (like the dressing Paul Newman makes for your salad) in an area of the park. After we left the park, I was fortunate enough to have dinner with my aunt and uncle, and my cousin, whom I had not seen in almost ten years!  

Thursday was the preparation day for the battle against 64 other schools. This day... was workshop day! Each student attended the available workshops specific to their competition events, which basically prepared students for their competitions. I attended a 3 hour workshop called Environmental Sustainability, which pretty much discussed the importance of water-use and turf. After our workshops, all of the faculty, students, and whoever had a free lunch ticket piled into Durell, CSU's student union, for a yummy lunch! After lunch, the students returned to their workshops, if they had another, or met up back in the hotel next to the campus.

Friday was the Student Career Fair Day! What is that? Well, it's the day where landscape companies, designers, and architects, botanical gardens and sponsors set up booths to acquire and get to know the future of the green industry, the undergraduate students competing in the competitions.This is the day where students choose and get to know companies and professionals in the industry through interviews and well, just saying hello! What did I do? I helped one of my fabulous co-horts, Kira Chaloupka, collect data for her research by advertising and asking students to complete her survey during the student career fair event. AU had a rather large booth, you couldn't miss us, and we had several Ipad's and computers waiting to be used by students for Kira's data collection survey. Her survey basically consisted of collecting data on what draws students into the field horticulture and why. Kira's survey and results from the survey will help the green industry to recruit more students and figure out why our industry is lagging in respect to low college enrollment rates nation wide and the lack of awareness of the wonderful career opportunities in our field.

And since I am getting long winded on this post, I will just say that our AU undergrad hort students worked hard on Friday night's competition events, and worked even harder by battling and competing against other schools on Saturday in continuous snow and cold weather conditions outside! We made it through the cold, snowy, breezy conditions Saturday, and placed 24th in the 38th Student Career Days! Our students also placed first in two events and even received the $1,000 dollar prize from STIHL! We had a great time, represented our school splendidly, and left our mark on the green industry. By Sunday evening and early into the morning, our Auburn tigers were finally back in the plains. Great job to our horticulture undergrads on a great Student Career Days event!

Until next time, please continue to keep up with me and my fellow public horticulture graduate students as we show you and tell you about all of the wonderful news that the field of horticulture consists of!

-Hilary H. :)

FFA Spring Judging Clinics

Welcome back to the Auburn Public Horticulture Blog! I'm Leah Rogers and this week I will be writing about the FFA clinics.

A couple of weeks ago, Auburn University had the privilege of hosting the 2 day Spring Judging Clinics for around 700 high school students who will compete in both FFA state and then national events this upcoming summer. Hilary Heath and I had the task of coordinating the clinics for the Nursery and Landscape competition and the Floriculture competition respectively.  We had been working on this project for a couple of months and I know that we were both so excited to see it all come together and go so well!!

The graduate students in our program, both the Public Horticulture and not, were invaluable in making sure these clinics went off without a hitch! Seth taught the potting and propagation clinics for both Nursery and Landscape and Floriculture. Hanna taught customer assistance for Nursery and Landscape and plant identification for Floriculture. Monte and I taught landscape estimating for Nursery and Landscape. Monte and Kira taught interview skills for Floriculture. Hilary taught plant identification for Nursery and Landscape. And, Hilary and I taught Floral Design for Floriculture.  I think we all found the experience rewarding: we were able to share our love of horticulture with younger kids and hopefully help some figure out that this is also the field for them.

We have pictures of all of us teaching for you to enjoy! I hope you check in again soon to hear more about what is going on in Public Horticulture!

Flashback Friday to the Gulf States Horticultural Expo

Posted by Hanna Pettus

Let's take a trip down memory lane... To the week of January 27-31, or as some like to call it, the week of "snowmageddon"or the "snowpocalypse." I like to think of it as the week that I learned how to talk on the phone, and I mean REALLY talk on the phone. Unlike my cohorts who got three days out of school because Auburn got a white blanket of snow, I was in Mobile, AL, where it did something rare, it iced. As Seth posted earlier on the blog, a weather event such as the one that took place in January is one that only happens every 30 years or so. Great timing Mother Nature, great timing, since this was the week that the Gulf States Horticultural Expo (GSHE) was set to take place. Just to give you a little background information, the GSHE is an annual trade show open to people in the horticultural industry and other allied industries. Approximately 3000 people attend the show and there are about 380 companies who exhibit. So, to say the least, ice and snow covering the gulf states area on the travel days of Tuesday and Wednesday was not good. 

My assistantship is through the Alabama Nursery and Landscape Association who "put on" the trade show each year, so I had to go to Mobile to work the show. I got to Mobile on Monday of that week, and as soon as I got to the convention center, there was work to be done. We had to prepare like the show was going to happen like normal, but boy was this year the furthest from that that you could get. We found out Monday afternoon that the city of Mobile was going to be closed on Tuesday, therefore the convention center would be closed. Begin freakout. Set-up was supposed to be happening, what were we going to do?! Mr. Harwell being the calm man that he is, talked to the convention center folks and worked it out so that we could have access to the building regardless of it being closed. No food, no convention center employees to clean and monitor things, but we would make it work. Tuesday came and around noon the mayor of Mobile decided that the city would be closed again on Wednesday. Turns out that was the smartest decision that he could have made because around 2 pm it began to rain, and did not stop until about 9 pm. With the temps at about 28 degrees and dropping lower that night, everything froze... SOLID. 

This is a picture of the crosswalk over the highway connecting the hotel and the convention center. There was about an inch of ice covering everything.

This is outside of the hotel. Looks like snow, but was solid ice.

So the phone part... I'll get to that now. As part of my job, I was responsible for checking the phone messages and calling people back. As you might have guessed, there were a lot of people wondering if the trade show would even happen. We had the slogan "the show will go on" and had to reiterate that to all those who were concerned. I was a meteorologist, highway patrol worker,  and people-calming super hero! You may be wondering, why didn't you just postpone? Well, there was no way that was going to happen. Try getting in contact with 3000 people in just a few short hours and making sure that they all get word not to come into town. It wasn't going to happen. So we went on as we would in normal circumstances. I estimate that I made over 200 phone calls in three days. The ALNLA board members joked that I should put on my resume that I am now an expert in crisis management. An expert? I don't know about that, but I am definitely more confident making phone calls now.

This blog post may be a little boring... I don't have many pictures from the GSHE because we were SO BUSY that week. Oh, did I mention that the city was closed again on Thursday? Yeah, that happened. The convention center was technically closed the first day of the show but we still went on anyways. Harrell's fertilizer company graciously donated lunch for the exhibitors and attendees to have that day. And for that, everyone was grateful.

Until next time, adios amigos! And thanks for following our blog!

Hanna P.