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Fall Landscape Maintenance Best Practices

by 505 Outside | Oct 28, 2024 | Blog, Fall, Maintenance

Just as we take shelter when the weather turns colder, so do your plants. This time of year, plants store most of their nutrients in their roots and find shelter in the ground. We can support this transition to help plants thrive during the entire winter season.

Also, it is time to give your irrigation system a rest. To avoid damage to your irrigation system we recommend setting it to the OFF position. Your next step will be to wait for a warm day to water deeply one more time and then take steps to winterize your irrigation system.

Follow this advice to ensure landscape success:

Turn off your irrigation system.

If your irrigation system is attached to an outdoor spigot, you should disconnect it and cover your hose bib using a faucet cover.
If you have a below-ground irrigation system, locate your shut-off valve (often hidden in a 3” PVC pipe; often with a white or yellow cap, as shown in the photo). Turn it to the right to shut it off. Be careful when turning so you do not break the valve.
Drain the water from all pipes, valves, and sprinkler heads. Learn more about protecting your irrigation system here.
It’s important to make sure your landscape stays healthy in the winter during times of drought. If we don’t get snow or rain, find a warm day once a month and deeply water your plants. After watering, set your system to the OFF position again.

How much should I water this November?

1-2 more times this month
Skip watering if it rains or snows
Give individual trees 100 gallons to a depth of 24 inches at least one time this month
Water turf for 7-10 minutes, to a depth of ½ inch”
Your outdoor water usage should be 80% less than in the summer season

How can I keep my landscape healthy this winter?

Turf

Mow your lawn to 2-2.5 inches tall. Grass left too long over the winter can develop brown patches.
Aerate next time it is warm. Aerating your lawn will give it a chance to breathe before the grass goes completely dormant. This also provides relief from any compaction that has built up during the warmer months.
Rake or blow off the leaves that have fallen on your lawn. Leaves that are left on the lawn could become moldy, which invites disease.
Top dress with compost. Compost acts as a fertilizer, adds moisture retention capacity and improves overall turf health.

Trees

Apply a thin layer of compost, about ½ inch, to provide nutrients.
Add mulch away from the trunk base, about 2 inches thick. Mulch helps maintain your ground at a constant temperature and helps retain moisture.
Water your trees thoroughly once a month, if needed, to support winter hardiness. Withholding water will not help the tree acclimate to winter.

Shrubs

Leave your leaves. Every autumn, leaves fall to the ground, sheltering the soil and beneficial organisms, returning organic matter back to the ground, and perpetuating the nutrient cycling essential for good plant health. This year, think about leaving those leaves in your garden by tucking them in around your shrubs. When we allow leaves to follow their natural life cycle, we can enjoy a colorful tapestry on our landscape as well as all the benefits provided by an organic mulch.

How do I avoid irrigation and other plumbing system damage? To avoid costly repairs, we recommend that homeowners take the following steps:

Find the master shutoff valve
The master shutoff valve turns off the water to the entire house. If you have one, learn its location. This could be critical if a pipe bursts. Need an emergency turn-off? Call 842-WATR and select Option 1.
Insulate pipes and faucets in unheated areas
Wrap exposed water pipes in unheated areas (such as a garage, basement, crawl space or space beneath your mobile home) with insulation or heat tape. Be sure to follow the manufacturer’s instructions carefully.
Seal off access doors, air vents and cracks
Winter winds whistling through overlooked openings can quickly freeze exposed water pipes. DO NOT plug air vents used by your furnace or water heater.

Have a question about the article? AskAnExpert@abcwua.org

Xeriscape Conversions that use Wood Chip Mulch

by 505 Outside | Oct 1, 2024 | Blog, Design, Xeriscape

Desert friendly xeriscapes are a great way to replace high-water-use turf grass with something beautiful, low-water-use and wildlife-friendly. Many Albuquerque area homeowners are taking their conversion projects a step further and choosing wood chip mulch over gravel or other aggregate, which can get hot and allow weeds to pop up.

Our featured homeowner replaced 2,000 square feet of high-water-use grass lawn with a xeriscape filled with a variety of local native plants. Their lawn had become too high maintenance to keep up, and they were interested in a more water efficient yard that was pollinator friendly and low maintenance. The shrubs they chose include chamisa, cherry sage and catmint. Flowering plants include Mexican primrose, dwarf plumbago, desert marigold, creeping germander and penstemon. A mix of ornamental grasses such as Karl Forester, blue avena and muhly grass as well as a native desert willow tree round out the landscape.

Additional Facts on Mulches:

Wood chip mulch insulates plant roots from both heat and cold, reducing moisture loss from the soil by evaporation, feeding beneficial soil microorganisms that enhance plant growth and improving soil health. This makes the soil more sponge-like and better able to hold water. By installing 3-4 inches of mulch over bare dirt, weeds are reduced, the soil is enriched and new plants retain more moisture.

Another benefit of organic mulches is that they can visually accommodate a little bit of leaf litter, reducing the need for constant raking and clean-up. A thin top dressing of mulch added every two to three years keeps the landscape looking fresh and replaces the material that has broken down to sustain the soil. Organic mulches are lightweight, making them easy to transport in a wheelbarrow and spread with a rake.

Mulches are available in bags from most local garden centers (avoid the dyed ones as the colors will fade) and in bulk from several retailers in the Albuquerque area. When you buy from local bulk retailers, you are supporting the recycling of local organic materials that may otherwise end up in a landfill and contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. Buying in bulk also means less plastic! Mulch is sometimes available at no cost from local tree trimming companies. In addition, Bernalillo County offers free mulch to residents who load it themselves at the East Mountain Transfer Station. County staff can load the mulch in your vehicle with a tractor for a $5 charge. The county also will deliver 30 cubic yards of mulch for $60, plus $2 a round trip mile for delivery. Mulches are a renewable resource that will improve landscape health and conserve water.

In areas of higher wind exposure or periodic inundation with water, use a wood chip mulch that is irregularly shaped and sized as the pieces will knit together better. This type of mulch can include recycled yard waste and tree trimmings as well as commercially available, locally processed wood products.

Property Data:

Grass converted to desert friendly xeriscape: 2,150 square feet

Total gallons saved in one year since conversion: 10,000 gallons.

Total rebate received: $2,250 (extra $100 bonus for using organic mulch)

Thinking about converting your yard from high-water-use grass to xeriscape? Check out the Desert Friendly Xeriscape Rebate page to learn more about the qualifications, requirements and process to apply for this generous rebate. Additionally, xeriscape rebate participants get 25% off the cost of installing bulk organic mulch, up to $100. If you want to top dress mulch around your trees, take advantage of our Treebates. You are welcome to contact our xeriscape specialist, Carl Christensen, at cwchristensen@abcwua.org or 505-289-3026.

Learn more about mulches here:

4 Common Myths about Organic Mulch

Types of Mulches

Mulching

How to Make a Tree Watering System for Your Established and Mature Trees

**Authors:** Amos Arber, Xeriscape Rebate Inspector with the Water Resources Conservation Department for the Water Authority, and landscape architect Jill Brown, ASLA, MyLandscapeCoach.com. Have a question about the article? AskAnExpert@abcwua.or

The Benefit of Trees

by 505 Outside | Oct 1, 2024 | Blog, Tree Care, Water Conservation

What is urban heat? Dark surfaces like concrete, asphalt and brick absorb and retain heat from the sun. Little spaces between buildings can create heat canyons that trap this heat, forming “islands” that are warmer than rural or suburban areas.

Urban heat can affect us in many ways, such as increasing heat stroke, heart and lung diseases, energy costs, general discomfort, hyperthermia, and poor air quality. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency projects that by 2040 Albuquerque will see four times the current annual number of days with temperatures of over 100 degrees.

But trees can help! Trees provide shade to keep us and the ground cool, as well as cooling the air through water loss, or evapotranspiration. Increasing the urban canopy can lower city temperatures.

Let’s Plant Albuquerque is a broad community alliance dedicated to planting 100,000 new trees in the city by 2030. The alliance represents a broad range of civic, government and community organizations dedicated to this goal.

The initiative brings together Tree New Mexico, the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority, New Mexico State University Cooperative Extension Service, the Dakota Tree Project, New Mexico State Forestry Division, and the City of Albuquerque Parks and Recreation Department. Each organization works on its own tree planting and outreach projects, but all are joining forces to make their collaborative efforts more effective.

DEVELOP, a NASA Applied Sciences Program, studied Albuquerque’s urban heat. DEVELOP conducts feasibility studies that bridge the gap between Earth science information and society and works with communities and organizations to address environmental and policy concerns.

NASA DEVELOP found that a 30% increase in tree shade can help offset rising temperatures and allow neighborhoods to be cooler. Trees can also increase your body’s “thermal comfort,” how cool and comfortable you feel on hot days.

The city’s parks canopy alone provides many benefits, including energy savings, air quality improvements and increased property values. The nearly 30,000 trees in the city’s public spaces provide:

$1.7 million in carbon monetary benefit
$624,000 in stormwater monetary benefit
$3.6 million in (overall monetary benefit

The Water Authority would like to encourage you to help cool our city by planting trees. The Tree-Bate program helps offset the cost of planting and maintaining trees.

When you buy a new tree, you can receive a rebate equal to 25% of the purchase price up to $100 a year. To help customers narrow down their purchasing decisions, the Water Authority assembled a list of 20 trees that are proven to thrive in our area, are commonly available for purchase, fit a variety of situations and provide numerous environmental benefits. A broader list of more than 160 qualifying trees is in the Water Authority’s Xeriscaping Guide. They include:

Mesquite (honey and screwbean)

Oak (escarpment, live and Chinquapin)

Chinese pistache

Netleaf hackberry

Kentucky coffee tree

Chaste tree or vitex

Cedar (atlas and deodar)

Elm (alcolade and frontier)

Apricot

Crape myrtle

Russian hawthorn

Oklahoma redbud

New Mexico olive or privet

Afghan pine

Desert willow

What can you do next? Take the pledge to plant!

Learn more below:

Planting Trees in the Fall

How to Plant a Tree

How to Make a Tree Watering System

**Author:** Have a question about the article? AskAnExpert@abcwua.org

Mesa Glow® Bigtooth Maple, Acer saccharum v grandidentatum

by 505 Outside | Oct 1, 2024 | Deciduous Trees, Trees

Type: Deciduous Tree

Exposure: Full Sun

Water Use: Medium

Mature Size: 25’ x 25’

Description: The vibrant bright red fall color of this maple is a showstopper in gardens. Mesa Glow®, a cultivar of the native bigtooth maple, was developed by Rolston St. Hilaire at New Mexico State University. It is an upright, oval-shaped tree with dark green leaves that has been cultivated to be drought tolerant, resistant to fungal disease and fast growing as well as to display a bigger red color than other bigtooth maple cultivars.

Winecups, Callirhoe involucrata

by 505 Outside | Sep 6, 2024 | Flowering Plants

Type: Flowering Plant / Deciduous

Exposure: Full Sun

Water Use: Low

Mature Size: 1’ x 3’

This plant is used as a groundcover, and its beautiful 2-inch wine-colored, cup-shaped flowers grace the garden. The flowers hang on long cord-like stems that weave into the plants around them, almost looking like they are floating around other plants in garden beds. Also known as purple poppy mallow, they are great in sandy soil, rock gardens and cascading over walls. Winecups will go dormant in winter, shrinking to just a few leaves above the ground. But beware, rabbits find this plant delicious.

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