Homeowners Guide to EAB Insecticide Selection, Use and Environmental Impact

Good morning –

The Minnesota Nursery and Landscape Association is disseminating a GREAT publication from the MN Dept of Ag about Emerald Ash Borer treatments and their environmental impacts.

It explains when treatments should be done and which are more likely to affect groundwater and aquatic life. Be sure to read this before you do any EAB treatments.

Click on the photo to the right or the link below to download.

Homeowners Guide to EAB Insecticide Selection, Use and Environmental Impact

Have a great day!

Brad

PLANET Day of Service 2010 Recap

Good morning!

The Professional Landcare Network (PLANET) introduced a great program in 2009 celebrating Earth Day called PLANET Day of Service. Volunteerism and service to our community is an important part of why Quercus is successful and a huge part of our philosophy.

This year PLANET Day of Service completed over 200 projects with 3,000 volunteers throughout the US. Three of those projects were in Minnesota with Landscape Renovations completing a project at Central Park in Woodbury, we planted shrubs, trimmed trees and cleaned beds at the Scott County Historical Museum and Wild Ways to Garden cleaned up the shoreline of Lake John in Annandale, MN.

Our project went great this year. Our employees volunteered their time and we made a big difference in the gardens around the Stans House at the Scott County Historical Museum. Here is a video with some photos from our day. You can also see more photos on our Flickr page.

I hope everyone had a great Earth Day and keep it in mind every day of the year. I will soon be posting about what Quercus does on an ongoing basis for a better world.

Have a wonderful day!

Brad

Earth Day & PLANET Day of Service

Good morning!

The Professional Landcare Network (PLANET) began a wonderful program last year called PLANET Day of Service. Landcare companies from all over the country perform service projects in their local communities on Earth Day.

Last year we planted a bed around a new park sign at Tahpah Neighborhood Park in Shakopee and now maintain the area. Here is a little video of what we did.

This year we are installing plant material and cleaning up the gardens around the Historic Stans House at the Scott County Historical Society here in Shakopee. We are very excited to work with Kathy Klehr, the Director, and help make the world a better place for Earth Day.

I’ll post pictures on here and you can follow us on Twitter as @quercusinc or follow all the PLANET Day of Service projects at #2010PDOS on Twitter.

Have a wonderful day!

Brad

Uninformed Emerald Ash Borer Article in TC Daily Planet

A friend from Chicago (chicagotreemd) tweeted earlier today about an article in the Twin Cities Daily Planet, Ash trees will go in St. Paul, Minneapolis from November 24 by Sheila Regan.

This melodramatic article has some good general information about Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) but seems written by someone who has no idea what they are talking about. Trees are not destined to death because of EAB. Left untreated, they will eventually die. However, there are preventative treatments that will keep EAB from “infecting” (EAB is an insect that kills the tree, not a disease that infects as it is referred to in the article) your trees that have proven successful in areas infested with EAB.

Here is our previous post about how Quercus, Inc. is handling EAB. Basically, if you have trees that you want to keep, you can save them by treating the tree each year. It is expensive, but it works.

You can find solid information about Emerald Ash Borer with these links:

Minnesota Nursery and Landscape Association

U of M

emeraldashborer.info

Sorry for the rant, but misinformation is troubling when we are dealing with such a big issue where information is the most important tool for battling this insect.

Have a great day!

Brad

Sustainability Commissions

Good afternoon!

Fall at the Minnesota Arboretum

I ran into this post on Conservation Minnesota earlier today and it really stuck with me. Many cities throughout the country are starting Sustainability Commissions to evaluate and promote sustainable practices through their towns. This is a great idea!

http://www.conservationminnesota.org/news/?subsec=205&id=4181

We at Quercus evaluate our processes and procedures on an ongoing basis to be sure we are working in the most sustainable and responsible manner.

Have a great day!

Brad

MinnPost – Boreal forest and curbing climate change

I thought this was very interesting.

MinnPost – Boreal forest and curbing climate change.

Fresh Podcast – How to Save Money on Your Landscape Budget: Reduce Turf Area

Subscribe to “The Property Manager’s One Minute Landscape Tip” in iTunes (Link opens in iTunes)

Property Manager’s Landscape Tip Podcast Presented by Quercus, Inc.

Holy Cow – We have been talking about it for a long time and it is finally here; Quercus, Inc. has a podcast!

I subscribe and listen to a lot of different podcasts via the iTunes store (link opens iTunes) ranging from “Wall Street Journal on Small Business” to “Washington Week” to “ESPN: PTI.” Now I can add to my list “Property Manager’s One Minute Landscape Tip!”

The “Property Manager’s One Minute Landscape Tip” podcast has great information for property managers. We talk about responsible and sustainable ways to save money in your landscape, best practices for your landscape and great plant materials to make your property shine.

There are many ways you can watch the Property Manager’s Landscape Tip podcast:

• Subscribe in iTunes (recommended!)
• Check us out on YouTube
• Subscribe to our blog to be alerted when a new podcast appears. (Here is a little video on RSS Feeds)

Da da daaaaa – here is our first podcast: How to Save Money on Your Landscape Budget: Reduce Turf Area. I hope you like it and please share if you do!

Please comment below if you have any ideas to make it better or topics to cover on the podcast. Thank you very much and have a great day!

Brad