The Beauty Unfolds at Wake Forest

by Stephen Kelly, regional editor

The beauty of the Wake Forest University campus in Winston-Salem, N.C. is inspiring. The Professional Grounds Management Society (PGMS) has honored the grounds maintenance at Wake Forest three times: the Honor Award in 1993 and 1996, and its highest tribute, the Green Star Grand Award, in 2004. In 2001 the campus received the ?EUR??,,????'??Classic Award?EUR??,,????'?? from the Community Appearance Commission of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County and the Flower Bed Program Corporate Award from Keep Winston-Salem Beautiful.

Wake Forest University, located in Winston-Salem, N.C., is on the red clay farm lands formerly the property and estate of R.J. (Richard Joshua) Reynolds, who in 1875 at age 25 founded the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. The school was founded in 1834 in the small town of Wake Forest near Raleigh but moved to the current site, about 100 miles west, in 1946, when the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation (established in 1936 as a memorial to R.J. Reynolds?EUR??,,????'??? youngest son) offered room for growth in Winston-Salem and endowment/operating monies.

Construction on the college began in 1952 and the first class held in 1956. Wake Forest attained university status in 1967. Today, Wake Forest is considered a top liberal arts university and noted for its business, law, management, medicine, arts and sciences and divinity schools.

Mike Fulk, the mechanic for the landscape department, keeps the equipment clean and running smoothly. With all wings of the Jacobsen HR-5111 mower in play an 11-foot swath can be mowed. ?EUR??,,????'??When we bought this mower it was like adding two more members to the team. The bigger mower and one man covers more space and saves me time and money,?EUR??,,????'?? Coffey says. This is a 51 horse power diesel, but Coffey also uses Walker mowers, which he likes because of their mulching decks, 9 cubic ft. hopper and vacuum capabilities. They fit into tighter spaces, are easy to operate and maintain. He uses them for leaf collection and for the high-quality manicured cut. The Walkers mowers are always used on the high profile lawns. For secondary lawns he uses a Scag mowers, which are easy to operate and maintain, give a nice cut, have optional hoppers and vacuum systems (also used for leaf collection).

David Davis, assistant landscape manager, and helpers situate boulders unearthed during the installation of a new waterline to create a waterfall in creek bed near the pool.

Jim Coffey, manager, landscaping services, facilities management department, Wake Forest University. Coffey earned a B.S. in agriculture/horticulture from Berea College in Kentucky and has been with the university for 21 years.

Award-Winning Landscape

When the Professional Grounds Management Society (PGMS) awarded Wake Forest the Green Star Grand Award in 2004, Jim Coffey, manager of landscaping services at Wake Forest, noted the portfolio submitted to PGMS represented 18 years of landscape work on a campus that for the previous 30 years basically had no landscaping. In those 18 years, Coffey?EUR??,,????'???s landscaping plan went into motion. His crew of 35 planted 100,000 daffodils, 400 new trees, thousands of shrubs and spent about 1,500 man hours per week maintaining the grounds. There were landscapes for 18 new buildings and five major additions. In 1998, the North Carolina Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects presented the Merit Award to Wake Forest for the Reynolds Gardens restoration. In 1999, the American Society of Landscape Architects recognized the Reynolds Gardens with a Centennial Medallion Award as one of 362 sites in the U.S. that inspire communities with a sense of serenity and culture.

Thomas Hearn, president of the university from 1983 to 2004, was also instrumental in the landscape plan. Knowing the president was leaving the school in 2004 motivated Coffey to submit Wake Forest for PGMS award consideration.

 

London plane (Platanus xacerifolia) trees (aka sycamores) are known for their flaking bark. The arbor crewman is ?EUR??,,????'??pollarding?EUR??,,????'?? (the early removal of the leading stems to promote growth of new sprouts). This yearly pruning of the 20 planes at the entrance to Reynolds Village takes the crew about two weeks. The trees are over 70 years old and a bit frail. Pruning cuts must be exact and correct. London planes can live to be 350 years old. There is a certified arborist and crew of four to handle such tasks. Larger jobs are farmed out

Impeccable

People speak about the impeccably matched and maintained trees (purple ash) and ornamental shrubs (azaleas and boxwoods) on the three-acre Quad, the center of the campus. Here are the large lawn areas of warm season grasses in the summer and cool season grasses in the colder months. Students and visitors note how each day ground crews police trash and debris, replace failing plants and edge lawns for that manicured appearance.

The 40 autumn purple ash trees in the main Quad have bacterial leaf scorch. The trees are injected with oxytelracycline to keep the bacterial infection under control.

The Wake Forest Landscape Services Department workers comprises 35 full-timers, 13 summer assistants and four federal work-study students.

The crew unloads shredded hardwood mulch to make ?EUR??,,????'??tree rings.?EUR??,,????'?? Wood chips around the base of the trees reduce soil compacting, keep weeds down, holds moisture in and add nutrients to the soil as they decompose.

Equipment Considerations

Maintaining grounds means maintaining equipment. Jim Coffey?EUR??,,????'???s maintenance crew keeps a weekly and seasonal report. The weekly equipment check includes lubrication, checking the oil, coolants, examining air filters, tires, blades, belts and hoses. The seasonal maintenance generally involves oil changes, shop repairs, tune-ups and winterizing. When buying new equipment he advocates asking the sales rep. for a free tool kit to help maintain the equipment; training and maintenance guidelines for his operator and mechanic and extra parts (belts, for example).

As the landscape manager it is his duty to establish training programs for the equipment operators and support and guarantee any training the mechanic may need. He advises that equipment operators be certified for a particular piece of equipment and that there be only a primary and secondary operator for each piece of equipment. The head mechanic is responsible for such certification. Coffey asserts it is vital to have a mechanic exclusively dedicated to his operation.

The fall leaf collecting can extend to four months. At the beginning and very end of leaf fall the crew mulches the leaves with rotary mowers to add back the good organic matter to the turf. However, when leaf fall is heavy, it is necessary to collect them to keep the manicured look. For safety reasons, leaves must also be kept off the paved areas. The bulk of the leaves go to local farmers and a small amount is retained for the campus composting area to mulch the planting beds.

The minimum needs of the maintenance shop include pneumatic tools (wrenches, ratchets, grease guns), tire changers and gauges, standard and metric hand tools and the equipment needed to maintain special equipment.

His shop keeps the basic parts on hand, also: hydraulic filters and fluids; points and plugs; gear oils; air and oil filters; belts and hoses; clamps and safety switches.

Jim Coffey advises superintendents to write snow removal plans with the worst-case scenario in mind. He details manpower, equipment, materials and supply requirements and schedules time as early as Sept. for crews to check the condition of the winter equipment to make the necessary repairs and to assure replacement parts are on hand. He finds it cost effective to lay on bulk supplies of salt and sand. Five-foot blades are added to the Kubota RTV 900 transport vehicles for snow removal.

Other Matters

The beautiful arbors keep the crew leaf collecting for four months, although there is some mulching during lighter leaf fall.

Wake Forest is in the transition zone. Coffey battles the problems of warm-season vs. cool season turf, but comes out the winner.

Tony Goad mows the cool-season fescue at the main Quad. Wake Forest is in the transition zone and battles the problems of warm-season vs. cool season turf. Jim Coffey explains: ?EUR??,,????'??In the spring we force feed our cool season fescue program as that is the look we want. In the spring we also do some overseeding of high profile lawns with a tall fescue blend. We do have to live with the invasion of the warm season grasses during the hot summer months. In the early fall we overseed the high profile lawns with perennial rye to keep them green throughout the winter. Our mowing, fertility and weed control practices support a cool season lawn. We do nothing to promote warm season grasses on the campus lawns?EUR??,,????'??+a very different story from my athletic counterpart who promotes only warm season athletic fields.?EUR??,,????'??

A room in the front office serves as a command headquarters from which management can coordinate responses to heavy snows, ice storms (pictured), tornadoes, power outages or flooding.

Pesticide application is not done by the landscape crew, but outsourced. Coffey may bring in as many as 20 pesticide applicators. He prefers the safety of his crews not handling pesticides, plus they do not have to be stored on campus. Aliette and Manicure fungicides are used on the annual plantings to control fungus and Kill-Zall (glyphosate, same active ingredient as Round-up) for weed control. Snap Shot is his pre-emergent weed control for planting beds and Brushmaster controls the more aggressive woody weeds. Carbaryl (same as Sevin) and Merit control the occasional outbreaks of aphids, Japanese beetles, bagworms and mealy bugs, and Talstar miticide controls the spider mites.