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

Quercus News: Celebrate Fall

Good evening!

Early IREM meeting tomorrow so I wanted to get Quercus News out tonight – you

Serviceberry in Fall

can check it out before it is sent to our clients! This Quercus News has a little different feel than our last few newsletters. It is a tad more laid back echoing the fall season.

Quercus News: Celebrate Fall

Let me know what you think and have a great day!

Brad

Hearts & Hammers 2009 Success!

Can you believe how much we lucked out on the weather this year? Friday was wet and Sunday was blustery while Saturday was perfect!

Thank you very much to everyone who helped make Hearts & Hammers possible for ourhomeowners. They are going to be so happy when they get home and see all we did for them. Here are some of our pictures from the day – click here for our gallery.

A special thank you to few people: Pat Haggerty from Marsden for all of her work as co-chair, Dennis Meadows for stepping in as our ‘Construction Guy’ on short notice, Wendy Madsen for her great leadership of the Community Outreach Committee, Ron Vantine for taking all of his pictures and to Kim Ihle, IREM President, for her continued support of Hearts & Hammers.

Thank you very much for volunteering and I look forward to seeing you next year for a great day of service for a family in need.

Best regards,

Brad Tabke, CLP

Hearts and Hammers This Saturday!

Hi all,

Hearts and Hammers has come up quickly! Here is a little video of this year’s home and also a sheet with directions and details. Have a great week!

Click picture to download detail and directions sheet.

Brad

Extra Vegetables?

Many of our clients planted vegetable gardens at their homes and even some at their businesses. This is the time of year when the tomatoes, zucchini, peppers andpotatoes to get out of control (along with some weeds) with an amazingly satisfying amount of harvest.

Minnesota’s food shelf use is up dramatically this year. A WCCO report says use has grown by an astounding 28% over 2008. What can you do? Donate your leftover vegetables to your local food shelf!

Check out Minnesota Foodshare‘s website. They are a great resource for where you can donate, what to donate and what the needs are for Minnesota.

Here are a couple of tips for getting the most out of your vegetable garden during harvest season:

1) Harvest often. Don’t let your vegetables go bad in the garden. You know the phrase ‘One bad apple…’ It is very true – when fruits and vegetables start on their slide, they release a chemical called ethylene that signals the other produce around them to join the fun of the curly slide of squishiness. If you remove those questionable suspects before they go bad your produce will stay happier longer.

2) Cut back your herbs. In summer, many herbs such as basil and cilantro throw up seed heads that signal their growing time is done – so they think. If you cut them back you will force more growth out of the little time we have left before frost and get one last cutting.

3) Pick the green too. When you are picking vegetables like green beans, tomatoes and peas, be sure to pull off the green ‘hat’ along with your vegetable when youharvest. The ‘hat’ is really called a sepal and is the leafy green part on top of the fruit or vegetable where it connects to the stem. When you remove this with the produce, this signals to the plant to create more flowers and then more to eat. If you don’t remove it, the plant thinks it has done its job and doesn’t realize it needs to create more flowers. This same process gets you more blooms for your annual flowers!

I hope this helps everyone get some more vegetables so you can help your local food shelf feed our community members in need.

Have a wonderful day!

Brad

PS I will be out of the office today heading to Iowa to see my little sister after her first baby is born. I will be back tomorrow.

2009 Quercus 4H Scholarship

A few weekends ago, my family traveled to the Iowa State Fair to meet our Quercus 4H Scholarship recipient, Brett Seelman. He seemed like a great guy with a wonderful future ahead.

Quercus awards a $500 scholarship to a junior or senior attending an Iowa or Minnesota school in a horticultural field for whom 4H played a role in their life. It is important for Quercus to give back to the 4H community because growing up on a farm in northwest Iowa, 4H was a huge part of my life. I learned many of the leadership, communication, citizenship and life skills that help me now in life and running a small business.

You can learn more about 4H in Minnesota here and about Iowa 4H here.

Congratulations again to Brett and we wish you the best of luck!

Have a great day!

Brad

Hearts & Hammers 2009 House Details

Good morning –

Last week was a big week for our Hearts & Hammers home! We got to meet the homeowners and see what work we will be doing for them.

Kenneth and Linda’s home is in great shape – they just need help with painting, some small construction projects and a little bit of lawn renovation. Seems like we will be in and out in record time.

Here is some shaky video I took while on site last week.

IREM members – don’t forget to sign up before August 21 (this Friday already!!) by clicking here and sending in your form.

Have a great day!

Brad

IREM – Special Olympics

Last Thursday I volunteered at the MN Special Olympics for IREM’s Pot-a-Plant organized by the intrepid Jennifer

IREM Pot-a-Plant

Johnson of McCaren Designs. It was a great time and the athletes seemed to enjoy themselves.

We had two different indoor plants they potted up and took home with them.

Here are couple of photos I took of the day:

Flickr Special Olympics Photos