As week three rolled around I worked alongside Cody (other intern) to tidy up the first landscape around the office building that we had originally designed and implemented, cleaned up excess gravel and soil and used it to level out several low spots within the vicinity. I then Spread out Bermuda Grass seed and laid compost over it within patches where grass was not growing and recently filled in holes. Throughout the week I helped Service new Sprayer tractor by replacing the old sprayer nozzles and adjusting each nozzle to spray uniform and horizontally, along with greasing pivot points and spraying oil where needed. Cody and I worked on the removal of dead brush within the bushes around the main office and removed a tree leaning over the fence close to the main entrance of the farm using a chainsaw. We also trimmed several trees on the farm property close to the main barns, office and Farm Manager Residence. Used pole saws, clippers and hand saws, as well as the Nissan Frontier (Farm Vehicle) to haul over the branches to the brush pile to tidy up the main headquarters to get it ready for Field day which would be held on June 18th. I discussed implementing a landscape around the main entrance sign to Stiles Farm to my Boss and was given a budget. Later in the week I was able to Visit with a good friend of Ryan Collett (Boss) who happened to be a Horticulture Consultant by the name of Aryn Buttler. Aryn gave me several types about her current job as a consultant and how she would go about the process of picking and choosing what variety of plants would do best with each other depending on what the person wants and ensure that the landscape will survive. Aryn and I visited at a local nursery in Austin where we talked about the identification of several forms of landscaping plants. I learned which plants would be best in the nursery to look for, how to tell when plants are lacking growth due to disease and much more. Aryn gave me several tips about budgeting for a landscape as well as her own ideas of what she thought would do best and look good around the landscape around the main sign of Stiles Farm. After being given a tour of the nursery in detail we then visited a job site in Austin that she was currently working on to get an idea of the tree spacing of the soon to be 20 palm trees were to be implemented, a few burr oaks and several more. Aryn has taught me a lot about being a consultant in this field and what it entails.
Week 3 blog
Parker Benavides Summer Horticulture-Farm Intern
