Michael Walsh develops and installs research soil plot on Campus Drive.
Image Credit: Edwin Remsberg
Recent IAA graduate Michael Walsh is serious about soils. In fact, the landscape management major read Professor Ray Weil’s scholarly articles about improving soils with cover crops just for personal use. When he took a written communication course taught by IAA director Glori Hyman last spring, Walsh seized the chance to show his love for the land.
“One of our assignments was to write a proposal for something you’d hopefully do for your career,” said Walsh. “Most guys picked stuff related to improving golf courses, but I chose to work with soils.”
Armed with a shovel—and a burning desire to dig deeply into the dirt, Walsh presented a formal proposal to Karen Petroff, Manager of Operations, Landscape Services, and Facilities Management at UMD. Petroff realized that Walsh would be the perfect candidate to work on a soil plot of native herbaceous plant matter located on Campus Drive.
“We’ve been working on that plot for three years,” said Petroff. “We tried to introduce the concept of plant material naturally occurring in PG County, like spotted mountain mint, and black-eyed Susans. The first year it did well, and then the second year it declined.”
Petroff and her crew decided to test the soil plot and found that rather than having a nutrient deficiency, the soil had a multitude of nematodes that jeopardized the health of the plants.
“Nematodes are tiny little worms that burrow into the root and feed on it,” said Petroff, who was faced with either using pesticide to kill the pesky critters or to abandon the project altogether. “But when I found out that Mike had experience using kale that created a wonderful opportunity for us, because kale releases toxins that naturally kill the nematode population.”
Together with IAA peers Mike Burriss and Steve Jones (as well as his favorite instructor, Ken Ingram), Walsh prepared the plots, did after care, and conveyed instructions on what will be a multi-year treatment.
“I’m excited to see what results we’ll see in the spring,” he said.
But in the meantime, Petroff is pleased that other students, particularly those in soils classes, can learn from the seed Walsh has sown.
“I’m incredibly excited,” Petroff said. “Projects like this give us the chance to showcase the real-world applicability of research they’re doing in the classroom. We can wait for slow results as long as it provides an education for students in the meantime.”
After graduating from the IAA in December, Walsh accepted the job of Horticulturist with Chevy Chase Golf Club. He really enjoys his new job, but says that sometime in the future, he'd like to own his own business. He adds, “It’s always something I wanted to do in my life.”
