{"id":6010,"date":"2022-05-27T15:58:03","date_gmt":"2022-05-27T19:58:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/commencement\/?p=6010"},"modified":"2022-05-27T15:58:39","modified_gmt":"2022-05-27T19:58:39","slug":"its-commencement-time-for-the-annual-annual-plantings-around-campus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/commencement\/2022\/05\/27\/its-commencement-time-for-the-annual-annual-plantings-around-campus\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s Commencement, time for the annual annual plantings around campus"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cMany hands make light work,\u201d they say, and as the countdown to Commencement hits its final hours, the handiwork of the Facility Services grounds crew \u2014 a team bolstered by the addition of student helpers during Short Term \u2014 is seen everywhere on campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like in front of Coram Library, where springtime color now encircles the base of the Class of 1932 Sundial thanks to two newly planted annuals, white euphorbia and vibrant red calibrachoa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Charlotte Collins, a senior from Woolwich, Maine, helped Jeremy Lavertu, the horticulture lead for Grounds and Maintenance, plant the flowers. In a couple days, Collins will be able to see how they\u2019re doing: She and her classmates walk right by the sundial as they take their seats at Commencement, on Sunday, May 29, and they’ll recess past it afterward. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Grounds
Jeremy Lavertu and landscape assistant Charlotte Collins \u201922 of Woolwich, Maine, are heads down as they plant white euphorbia and red calibrachoa around the base of the Class of 1932 Sundial on May 12, 2022. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Among the student workers, it\u2019s a point of pride, says Collins, to help make the campus look great for everyone. For the seniors on the crew, which numbers about a dozen, \u201cI think it feels wonderful to make the campus look beautiful for our own Commencement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She and Lavertu have planted hundreds of flowers all over campus. The new flowers weren\u2019t snapped up at the local big box store, but grown from seedling plugs by the grounds crew and their student workers in a campus greenhouse located a few paces from Cutten Maintenance Center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Step into the greenhouse, and you\u2019re greeted with green as far as can be seen, splashes of bright floral colors everywhere thanks to the assortment of petunias, begonias, German ivy, calibrachoa, cleome, and angelonia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The begonias are Collins\u2019 favorites: She likes their dark green leaves and deep pink blossoms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Grounds
Student landscape assistant Taylor Alexander \u201922 of Bethesda, Md., and Jeremy Lavertu, horticulture lead for Grounds and Maintenance, go over the work at hand in the college greenhouse on May 16, 2022, as they prepare to distribute and plant annuals around campus. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While winter does wipe away the previous seasons\u2019 annuals, it doesn\u2019t take away Lavertu\u2019s  memory of what goes where. He worked with Bill Bergevin, who oversaw campus greenery for years<\/a> before his retirement in 2018, and paid attention to locations of all the traditional spring plantings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Transplanting the flowers is a whole process: the flats of plants have to be loaded onto a golf cart trailer and taken to the chosen spot. This day it\u2019s the sundial. Other high-visibility spots include pathways taken by Admission tours. Lavertu likes the idea that visitors will see the blooms. \u201cThey make people happy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Grounds
From left, Charlotte Collins \u201922 of Woolwich, Maine, Taylor Alexander \u201922 of Bethesda, Md., Clay Hundertmark \u201922 of Portsmouth, N.H., Grounds and Maintenance Worker Jon-Michael Foley, and Grounds and Maintenance Lead Jeremy Lavertu. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Before putting their 40-plus flowers in the ground, Lavertu and Collins talk about the ratio of red to white. Once the pattern is decided, they dig holes and place the plants. They take turns sprinkling tiny light brown pellets, about the size of peppercorns, from a plastic shaker, then give the flowers a good soaking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fertilizer is Osmocote, says Lavertu, a brand of slow-release fertilizer that releases nutrients gradually over six months. \u201cIt\u2019s slow,\u201d he says, \u201cbut it\u2019ll do its magic eventually.\u201d The nutrient pills are activated by water, and then they release their nutrients in reaction to changes in temperature. This makes the fertilizer very beneficial during the hotter summer months, says Lavertu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Grounds
Charlotte Collins ’22 hands Jeremy Lavertu a canister of fertilizer as they finish the planting annuals around the Class of 1932 Sundial on May 12, 2022. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Once the sundial is surrounded by a riot of red and white, Lavertu brings out a tub of black mulch, and he and Collins spread it out. \u201cMulch makes everything prettier,\u201d she says. \u201cSome people don\u2019t like the smell, but honestly I love it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Collins grew up on a family-run organic farm in Woolwich, which provides a community supported agriculture garden, or CSA. \u201cWe had about 25 families coming in every weekend to pick up vegetables, and we had sheep and chickens, too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She misses the farm, but most of all, she misses the sheep, and more specifically, lambing season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Grounds
Charlotte Collins ’22, with a sprig of lily of the valley behind the ear, in the campus greenhouse on May 16, 2022. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Lambing season is in April, \u201caround the same time you\u2019d be getting your chicks from the tractor store,\u201d says Collins. \u201cAnd it was right around my birthday, so it was always exciting. I\u2019d try to get up earlier than all my sisters, so I could be the first one out to the barn to see if there was a new lamb. Sometimes the lamb would have squeezed under the fence into the pasture, to be with its momma, and then I\u2019d get to \u2018rescue\u2019 it,\u201d she says, laughing. \u201cIt\u2019d be all wet and covered in placenta and all sorts of gross stuff, but it was so fun.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So Collins is not afraid to get her hands dirty \u2014 in fact, she relishes it. \u201cGrowing up, weeding was the worst punishment. But now that I\u2019m an adult, I could honestly spend hours doing just that. My dad laughed at me and told me, \u2018I told you so!\u2019\u201d She smiles. \u201cReally, the best feeling is dirt between your toes and fingers.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this point, she glances at Lavertu, recalling what he taught her, and what his own college teachers taught him: Dirt gets on your hands and clothes, while soil is rich with nutrients and decomposing organic matter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSoil, not dirt,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Grounds
Collins and Lavertu share a laugh as they plant annuals around the Class of 1932 Sundial on May 12, 2022. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aided by seniors keen on making the campus look great for their graduation, the Bates grounds crew plants annuals here and there, including an iconic Commencement location.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1422,"featured_media":6013,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commencement-2022"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/commencement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/commencement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/commencement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/commencement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1422"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/commencement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6010"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/commencement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6010\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6014,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/commencement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6010\/revisions\/6014"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/commencement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/commencement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/commencement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/commencement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}