14 / EDUCATION
ASHTOWN INVESTMENT
P U T TO T H E T E S T John Mulhern explains how students and staff had to take extreme action to save the significant landscape investment made at Ashtown
O
ver the last 18 months the landscape of Ashtown campus has been transformed with the planting of over 170 trees, complemented by drifts of perennials, shrubs, grasses and seasonal bulbs. Students from level 5 to level 7 were at the forefront of this great work, where they got to combine the knowledge learned in the classroom with practical skills training. Their hard work was tested when Mother Nature decided to show us who’s in control by providing one of the worst spring seasons on record, coupled with a summer of prolonged drought. These conditions are anything but favourable to young vulnerable plants trying to establish. Watering was carried out only when required and kept to a minimum. The effects from these adverse conditions were minimised by ensuring that best planting practices were implemented. While planting the larger trees throughout Ashtown, perforated pipe was placed under and around the
rootball of each tree with an inlet located just above ground level. This allowed for water to make direct contact with the rootball in a more efficient and effective manner, providing deep watering over the entire root system as opposed to surface watering. As the soil moisture levels were extremely low, surface watering would have resulted in runoff, with water penetration being minimal and insignificant to the trees. Drip irrigation systems were installed on the smaller trees to ensure water was applied efficiently when required. A thick layer of mulch was also placed around the trees to retain moisture by reducing evaporation. Having implemented and demonstrated these best practices to our students, 170 trees are now displaying amazing autumn colour. Reseeding of new lawn areas took place in early summer and as Sod’s law would have it, the drought followed. There was no major inconvenience as the seed just lay there until the conditions were favourable and eventually when the rain did fall, the seed germinated and lawns appeared. Over 10,000 Nepeta racemosa 'Walker's Low' and Molinia ‘Edith Dudszus’ were planted by students along the main avenue of the campus which was an enormous task. A thick layer of bark mulch was applied over the entire planted area in early spring to a depth of approximately 15cm which undoubtedly saved the plants as they were not watered throughout the prolonged dry period or indeed at any stage since planting. Nepeta is a very forgiving plant in an array of conditions so our choice of planting worked well in terms of coping with what was thrown at it. By carrying out
Autumn/Winter 2018 / www.horticultureconnected.ie / HORTICULTURECONNECTED
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