'Tis the season (to start planting)

hen winter weather settles in, most people think Landscape Services crews slow down.

The reality, however, is quite the opposite.

"We are about as busy in winter as any other time of the year," said Tom Flood, superintendent of Landscape Services. "We always try to balance the importance of horticultural activity against the workload. Because of that we have to set our priorities accordingly. If weather gets bad we just have to prioritize what we have to do."

To follow through on priorities, Landscape Services is divided into two groups - maintenance and construction. Maintenance crews perform critical fertilizing, pruning and leaf removal, while construction personnel follow the construction projects on campus, repairing damage left behind by heavy equipment.

Planting: the cold, hard facts

With $140 million in building projects in 1997, MU began an unprecedented period of growth. Invariably, construction work requires heavy machinery that tears up the campus landscape. That's where the construction branch of Landscape Services enters the fray to restore and beautify the site.

"Construction," as defined by Flood, is "anything that is not purely maintenance," including planting, seeding and repairs.

"We repair and plant all winter long, except when the ground is frozen," says Landscape Services supervisor Charles Paxton.

For this winter's planting, Landscape Services bought 195 trees and 2,302 shrubs. Ideally, plants find their way into the earth between late October and mid-December. However, this "ideal" situation rarely occurs.

"Once we've bought (the trees and shrubs) we need to plant them," Paxton said. "It's hard on the guys to plant in the wintery conditions, and it's not ideal for the plants. The reality is that we need to get them planted, even if it doesn't meet the horticultural ideal."

Once plants are in the ground, the area is mulched. Without mulch, the plants could get heaved out of the soil by freezing conditions. Even with winter's precarious conditions, Landscape Services loses only about 5 percent of what is planted.

A little winter cleaning

While landscape construction workers shadow building projects, landscape maintenance personnel take care of unfinished business from the spring, summer and fall.

Winter is the one time of the year when maintenance personnel have the time to perform such tasks as pruning the campus' shrub beds, bed clean-up, mulching and fertilizing.

"Most people don't realize that the winter is the best time to fertilize," Flood said. "On the other hand, winter is not the best time to prune flower and shrub beds. But this is the one time of the year we have to do those things."

Even with eight people working daily with gasoline hedge trimmers, it takes about three weeks to prune and thin the shrubs on campus.

Branching out

Maintenance crews also treat specific problems during the winter, such as trees suffering from iron chlorosis.

"We go through and single out trees in high-profile areas such as the Francis Quadrangle, to check on their condition," Flood said. "If we find a health problem, we apply fertilizer by drilling holes in the soil under the canopy of trees."

Cleaning up after trees goes hand in hand with treating them. Although beautiful during the fall, come winter, leaves constitute a major problem.

Once they've fallen from the 5,000-plus trees around campus, the leaves then are removed by landscape maintenance crews.

"Sometimes a pile of leaves will build up around an entrance and could create safety hazards," says Paxton.

Though it may be fun to jump into a pile of leaves, a single cigarette thrown into that pile can cause serious damage.

So far, so good

With the mild temperatures and lack of substantial snow for most of this winter, cleaning up the leaves and doing most horticultural tasks has been relatively easy. The only real obstacle for Flood's group has been mud, which makes regrading construction sites nearly impossible.

Even with too much mud, Flood is pleased with the weather. After all, Landscape Services is also in charge of snow removal.