Frost/Freeze Tonight

And it begins…

Snowy Bridge at Memorial Park in Shakopee, MN

National Weather Service is calling for freezing weather across much of Minnesota tonight with lows in the low 30s in the Twin Cities. However, they have added the nice little fact of accumulation up to 1″ in spots for Friday night/Saturday! I can’t imagine it will stay on any hard surfaces but we are at that time of year when crazier things have happened.

With all the rain we have gotten, plants should be in decent shape but be sure to water your evergreens well before the ground freezes solid. Evergreens (pines, spruce, yews, rhododendrons, etc.) use water all winter long and need a good supply of groundwater going to come out still green and not all brown and crispy.

Don’t forget to brave the cold for Shakopee Chamber along with Shakopee Park and Rec’s annual Pumpkins in the Park on Saturday at Memorial Park starting at 4:00 pm. Hope to see you there!

Have a great night!

Brad

Landscaping for Water Quality

Good morning!

Today I am giving a presentation titled “Designing and Maintaining Your Landscape to Protect our Lakes and Rivers” for Ryan Companies at their Brown Bag seminars. They use these seminars on different topics to promote Work/Life Balance and I am happy to help out.

I hope to post the presentation on here in the near future, so stay tuned. In the meantime, here are the slideshow notes.

Brown Bag Seminar

Also, visit our knowledge base for more resources on landscape for water quality.

Have a great day!

Brad

Great Mississippi Watershed Management Organization Booklet

Good Fall afternoon! (bums me out to say that)

Tomorrow I am giving a presentation at Ryan Companies at their Brown Bag Seminars (promoting work/life balance. Ryan is great!) about how to improve water quality with your own landscape and ran across this wonderful booklet from the Mississippi Watershed Management Organization (MWMO) called “Green Spaces, Clean Waters. Landscaping ideas to improve water quality along the Mississippi River.”

It has ideas for your commercial sites, home and neighborhood. Check the booklet cover below (opens as pdf) and have a great day!

Brad

Water (and Cash) Conservation with Smart Irrigation Controllers

Good afternoon all!

I am studying the numbers from a smart irrigation controller we installed in the beginning of August with wonderful results. I will send it out in our Quercus News tomorrow – but here is a little preview. We saved over 88,000 gallons of water on a fairly small retail site over what would have normally run in August. It has amazed me.

Have a great day and look for our newsletter tomorrow.

Brad

PS: If you don’t receive our newsletter, sign up here.

Trees need some lovin’ too!

The dog-days of summer have officially arrived in Minnesota – except this year they are a bit different. We have been having cool and dry weather. Luckily the cooler weather is helping our plants but they still need a lot of water to stay healthy.

Just this past week, we have had a couple of weaker trees die on properties due to drought stress.

Trees are on irrigated properties, they should be receiving plenty of water with the irrigation system. Trees on unirrigated properties need to start watering their trees and taking a few corrective

Urban trees have a tough time in drought and need some extra lovin.

actions:

1) Put a hose out near the trunk and let water trickle at low level for an 1/2 hour or so. Don’t let water run off, just enough to introduce it into the root zone.

2) Mulch the trees. Installing mulched tree rings reduces the tree’s competition for water with the turf, keeps the soil cooler and returns nutrients to the root zone as the mulch breaks down.

3) Monitor your trees for stress. Younger trees and trees where the soil has been disturbed in recent years have the most difficult time navigating droughts – give them some love.

Have a great day!

Bad

A New Era of Conservation: Minnesota’s Water Conservation Rates

Starting January 1, 2010, Minnesota is mandating water conservation by requiring public water suppliers adopt a Conservation Rate Structure.

How will this affect you? Read on…

History

Beginning in the early 1990’s, municipalities throughout Minnesota enacted water restrictions to curb water usage – especially during summer months when incredible amounts of water are used for keeping lawns green.

The Minnesota DNR released an informational paper in 2000 regarding Minnesota’s Water Supply. It informs, “Water conservation plays an important role in balancing management objectives including both development and protection of Minnesota’s water resources.”

Conservation Water Rates

The 2008 Minnesota Legislature amended statutes to adopt Conservation Water Rate structures that encourage conservation as opposed to bulk water usage. Simply put, the more water you use, the more you will pay per gallon. This will greatly affect the cost to irrigation many commercial buildings.

Rate structures must fall into one or more of these rate categories:

* Increasing Block – Rate per unit increases within specified blocks. The increase should encourage conservation.