Rocks With Soul

The twelve best days of summer are here, in my opinion. The Minnesota State Fair is in full swing, with rides and barkers, livestock and everything-on-a-stick. Part of the fun of the fair, for me, has always been seeing what’s new.

The entrance to the Minnesota State Fair Eco Experience

This year’s Eco Experience delights me by showing not only what’s new in sustainable building, landscaping, energy and transportation, it brings it together at the community level. Solar energy for groups of neighbors, for example. Rainwater collection to service a group of homes. Whether you look at implementing some of these ideas on an individual or group basis, the Eco Experience gets you thinking.

I’ve been in that building more hours than most people spend walking the whole Fair. Hedberg helped build the Green Street display and our employees are staffing it from 9-5 every day to answer questions. It’s really fun to share our knowledge with folks who are curious about improving their impact on the environment. We installed the permeable paver walkways and the 1,000 gallon RainXchange rainwater harvesting display next to the raingarden display. We also pulled together a couple short videos that explain the technologies behind the beautiful landscape features. You can see them here if you’re not going to the great Minnesota get together.

When you go to the Fair, look for someone in an orange Hedberg shirt - that’s us. Ask where the 1,000 gallons of stored water is hiding and how RainXchange, permeable paver and raingardens will save the planet. Check out the rest of Green Street, and the whole Eco Experience, too. I hope that in addition to your bucket of Sweet Martha cookies, pickle hat and stuffed whatever prize from the Midway, you’ll take home a few ideas for greening your lifestyle. I’d love to hear what you learned – leave a comment here and let me know.

By the way, that recycled rubber mulch that’s everywhere – you can buy it at Hedberg.

According to the most widely accepted account, the modern game of golf originated in Scotland around the 12th century, with shepherds knocking stones into rabbit holes on the current site of the Old Course at St Andrews. Now we use highly engineered balls and clubs, keep score and pay for the privilege. Last week I played on a course where stone is stunning design element.

The Eagle Lake Mini Golf course features tricky greens and stone landscaping.

Situated on the site of two old farmsteads, Eagle Lake Regional Park features three golf courses that are perfect for beginner golfers to learn the game or more experienced golfers to take in a social round. The new mini golf course features 18 holes that are fun and challenging. No windmills or clowns here, instead you’ll test your skills reading tricky greens studded with chunks of stone. Limestone is the dominant design feature of this mini golf course. Limestone edging borders each hole, and limestone outcroppings serve as accents, seats and obstacles. Chilton slabs and glacial boulders create dry creek beds that wind throughout the course. Native plants and slender river birch grace the course. It’s so beautiful you may want to take a seat and listen to the birds for a while before you squint at the next tricky green and try for a hole-in-one.

This stone-lined course is a fun challenge for golfers of all abilities!

The cost for adults is $6, and $5 for kids. Play a second round for $2, or purchase a 10-play pass for $40. Visit their website for more information and directions.

If you want to create a piece of this in your backyard, Hedberg Landscape & Masonry Supplies sells all the materials you need, including putting green supplies, limestone outcroppings, chilton slabs, boulders, trees and native plants! We can also refer you to contractors who specialize in building backyard putting greens. Ask us for help, we’ll be glad to help you create something amazing.

Today’s guest blog is provided by Angie Hong, one of our Blue Thumb colleagues.  You can read her bio at the end of this post.

“National Geographic just called,” read the email subject line from Rice Creek Watershed District educator Dawn Pape, “and I’m so excited I could Scream!” Reading her email, I began my own little chair boogie and immediately interrupted the two colleagues I was meeting with to share the news. It’s not every day that we Minnesotans brush with fame and when Pape first picked up the phone, she was understandably skeptical. “I almost hung up on him, thinking he was a telemarketer!” she exclaimed, “Then when he said why he was calling, I was like ‘Wait! Tell me more.’” As she soon learned, National Geographic’s Blue Legacy team was planning their Expedition Blue Planet 2010 and they had selected Minnesota as the first step on their itinerary.

Expedition Blue Planet is an innovative 138-day, 14,500-mile exploration of water issues across the U.S. and Canada, led by Alexandra Cousteau, the granddaughter of legendary French explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau. Combining live production of stories in the field with social media engagement, a coordinated local and national press tour, curriculum-aligned classroom materials, and a significant catalog of online information, the 2010 Expedition hopes to engage a mainstream audience in a meaningful discussion on critical water issues. The expedition is also connecting with local community events along the tour route and helping to organize celebrity performances, fundraisers for local watershed projects and opportunities for families to get involved in restoring and protecting watersheds.

With their giant biodiesel tour bus pointed north to Minnesota, the Blue Planet folks began calling around to learn what new and innovative efforts might be underway to protect watersheds in the Land of 10,000 Lakes. Time and again the expedition team was referred to Blue Thumb – Planting for Clean Water, a regional partnership started by Rice Creek Watershed District that promotes the use of native plants, raingardens, and shoreline plantings to prevent stormwater runoff from polluting lakes, rivers and streams. There are nearly 60 Blue Thumb partner organizations in and around Minnesota, including local governmental units, non-profit and community organizations, and nursery and landscape professionals, and in just three years, the partnership has launched thousands of individual and community projects.

Blue Thumb partners leapt at the opportunity to join Expedition Blue Planet, and three weeks later, the big blue bus arrived at Powderhorn Park in Minneapolis, just in time for the 4^th of July festivities. This “blue team” worked together to distribute 3000 native plants to event attendees, coordinate fun and educational children’s activities and talk to area residents about preventing stormwater pollution with water-friendly landscaping. They also showcased the efforts of one Blue Thumb partner, Metro Blooms, a non-profit organization working with community members to install 100 – 150 raingardens as part of an effort to improve water quality in Powderhorn Lake (http://metroblooms.org/neighborhood-of-gardens.php).

The next day, while the scent of fireworks still hung in the air, the Blue Planet Expedition team started up their bus with a hum and headed west to Colorado, the next stop on their tour. Although, our brush with fame was fleeting, this National Geographic moment has energized local Blue Thumb partners and we feel honored to be a part of such a big time event. If you are interested in following the expedition team as they continue on their journey, go to www.nationalgeographic.com/water. An image gallery and video blog will feature footage from their stop in Minnesota and there is also a Twitter feed to keep followers up to date. To find a Blue Thumb partner near you, visit www.BlueThumb.org. 

Angie Hong is an educator for the East Metro Water Resource Education Program, which includes Brown’s Creek, Carnelian Marine – St. Croix, Comfort Lake – Forest Lake, Middle St. Croix, Ramsey Washington-Metro, Rice Creek, South Washington and Valley Branch Watersheds, Cottage Grove, Dellwood, Forest Lake, Lake Elmo, Stillwater, West Lakeland and Willernie, Washington County and the Washington Conservation District. Contact her at 651-275-1136 x.35 or angie.hong@mnwcd.org.

Hedberg is proud to be a Blue Thumb Partner, providing native plants at Hedberg Nursery in Stillwater and other raingarden materials, such as mulch, rock, edging and drainage products at Hedberg Landscape & Masonry Supplies locations throughout the metro. Hedberg supports sustainable landscaping and planting for clean water.

Hedberg Landscape & Masonry Supplies is pleased to be involved in a hundred residential landscaping projects in south Minneapolis that will reduce stormwater runoff and help improve the quality of Diamond Lake. Projects include raingardens, permeable paver driveways, RainXchange rainwater harvesting systems, rain barrels, trees and native plantings. The goal is to stop raindrops where they fall, capture the water for reuse later or allow it to soak into the soil, rather than run off driveways and lawns and into the streets. When stormwater hits the streets, it picks up pollution like automotive fluids, road salt and garbage, channels all of it into storm sewers and dumps it into Diamond Lake. The lake currenly has an “F” water quality rating. 

It also has an active group of residents who care about it. Area residents want to reverse the damage and asked Hedberg for help lining up the products, technologies and installation resources to help them “Go Blue!” Together, two neighborhood organizations (Friends of Diamond Lake and Hale Page Diamond Lake), the Minnehaha Creek Watershed District and Hedberg Landscape & Masonry Supplies applied for and won competitive grant funding to help residents offset part of their project costs. 

Planning for the Blue Community Makeover started in November 2009 and continued throughout the winter. Stormwater plans were developed by Metro Blooms for all sites this spring and ten contractors attended a mandatory meeting in May to learn the specific requirements of the project. Work began on June 8, 2010 with the installation of a dozen raingardens and will continue through the summer. Major projects are also planned at Diamond Lake Lutheran Church and Pearl Park, both of which currently contribute runoff directly into the lake. 

As more projects are installed in the neighborhood, word is getting around about the citizen-led initiative. “I have had lots of conversations with my neighbors who are learning about raingardens as well as the clean water grant to help clean up Diamond Lake.” Sally Hoover, Minneapolis resident and Blue Community Makeover Participant. 

If you’re interested in learning more about the Blue Community Makeover(TM) and how you can become part of the movement in your neighborhood, please contact Tina Plant at tplant@hedbergaggregates.com. 

“I have had lots of conversations with my neighbors who are learning about raingardens as well as the clean water grant to help clean up Diamond Lake.” Sally Hoover, Minneapolis resident and Blue Community Makeover Participant.

Local Renegade Gardener™ Don Engebretson calls containers “the throw pillows of exterior design.” Don will be giving a thorough and illuminating hands-on demonstration when he teaches “Crafting Cool & Creative Containers Seminar” at the Hedberg Nursery near Stillwater on Saturday, May 15, from 9 am to 11 am. The seminar is free and open to the public. We’ll have coffee and treats while we unlock the secrets to designing beautiful container arrangements.

Don Engebretson is quite a character. In his words, “I gardened for years before it occurred to me to grow plants in containers. I was a man, damn it, and grew my plants in the ground – where they belonged. I wasn’t going to fool around growing pansies in a pot. But now ……. I’ve become an absolute “container junkie.” Don’s a home-grown lad turned national authority on landscaping and garden design. He’ll teach us how to use containers as singles and in groups, demonstrate the design secrets to creating artistic, long-lasting container arrangements, and share his tips on creative ways to use containers throughout the landscape.

Another person everyone loves at Hedberg Nursery is Mike Philion, the branch manager. He’s looking forward to hosting Don’s seminar. “We’ve recently taken on an exquisite line of handmade Asian Clay Pots and we’re excited to see how Don decorates them,” Mike said. “Our full service nursery–including annuals, perennials, native plants, shrubs and trees plus eco-friendly fertilizers and soils–will be available for Don’s use. We hope people have fun and get a ton of ideas of what they can do in their own backyards.”

Hedberg Nursery is located off Highway 36, about one mile east of I-694. Look for the Hedberg billboards and orange flag on the north side frontage road.

It’s definitely worth a Saturday morning drive out to Stillwater. If you’re in the area, please drop in. This is sure to be a popular class so we’re asking folks to register online at www.hedbergrocks.com/doityourself/SeminarsAndEvents or call Hedberg Nursery at (651) 748-3158 to reserve your spot. Mr. Philion and his team will have special discounts for seminar attendees – and it’s the perfect time to shop for plants.

Hedberg Nursery features specialty perennials, native plants, raingarden materials, trees and other eco-friendly supplies. And, of course, containers. I hope to see you at Hedberg Nursery on May 15th!

For more information visit www.hedbergrocks.com.

I was going to was poetic about how much I love my 75 gallon rain barrel, but I’ll spare you the superlatives and give you a list and a short anecdote instead.

1. Rainwater is the best thing to use for plants, much better than treated tap water.*
2. Rainwater is free. A rain barrel will pay for itself!
3. You can water your gardens from a rain barrel, even on restricted watering days.
4. It gives you a source of water outdoors before/after the outdoor water supply is turned on/off.
5. You get to reuse our planet’s most important resource slowly and allow it to soak back into the soil.
6. You can reduce stormwater runoff, 55 or 75 gallons at a time. Urban runoff is the number one cause of pollution in our lakes, rivers and streams.

I installed my rain barrel last summer and used it throughout the season to water my nearby gardens. In October, after we winterized the irrigation system and turned off the outdoor water supply, my beloved dog went for a joy run in the marsh and returned coated with stinky mud. He’s large and bathing him indoors isn’t an option. Think of any comedy film you’ve seen with a big dog being bathed, shaking and running around and I guarantee you it has happened at our house. He loves getting hosed down in the yard, but with no outdoor water, what to do? Rain barrel to the rescue! We still had 40 plus gallons stored up. Bathing the dog hardly put a dent in that supply.

The same thing happened last week. I know, I should keep better tabs on our large, mischievous dog. It’s just that he has big brown eyes and he pretends to be good – until he gets to the edge of the yard. This time he rolled in something so fiendishly vile that ignoring it wasn’t an option. Our outdoor water isn’t on yet (it’s Minnesota – it could still snow). Thank goodness we had a half barrel of collected rainwater from recent rain events with which to bathe him. Now he’s clean and smells good (for a dog) and he feels extra soft, to boot.

With our early – and mostly dry – spring I’ve needed to water my April flowers. The rain barrel is coming in more handy than I expected!

If you’re interested in getting a rain barrel, there are several options at different price points. Make sure the rain barrel you select has an outlet for overflow so that excess water doesn’t pool around your home’s foundation and that it has a screened lid to prevent mosquito breeding. Other than that, go with the style and color you like. My rain barrel pictured above is available at Hedberg Landscape & Masonry Supplies for around $249. It’s made of heavy duty plastic, contains recycled material and holds 75 gallons. It has a planting groove in the lid to add some beautiful flowers and vines. You can get a recycled oak wine cast rain barrel at Hedberg for about $220. It holds 55 gallons and has a rustic look. They smell great, too.

Finally, you can find inexpensive plastic rain barrels in various colors around town that hold 55 gallons. Hedberg is offering beige and green plastic whiskey barrel style containers for only $65 when you preorder online at www.hedbergrainbarrel.com now through Memorial Day, for pick up June 12 and 19.

*Some experts recommend you do not water vegetables with water that has run off an asphalt shingle roof.

Home features, like fashion, change over time. With the move toward smaller homes with more cost effective architecture, what was “in” a few years ago isn’t hot anymore. Casual living, entertaining and flexible spaces are key to what today’s home buyers want. You can read a full article on this topic provided by Marketwatch on Yahoo Finance.

At this year’s International Builders Show in Las Vegas, Lavender Design Group presented an analysis of AVID Ratings most recent survey of home buyer preferences, reporting the following ten “must have” features in new homes:
1. Large kitchens with islands

2. Energy efficient appliances, high-efficiency insulation and high window efficiency

3. Home office/study

4. Main floor master suite

5. Outdoor Living Room

6. Ceiling fans

7. Master suite soaker tubs

8. Stone and Brick Exteriors

9. Community Landscaping with Walking Paths and Playgrounds

10. Two plus car garages

Desirability of features varies according to a buyer’s stage in life – first time buyers vs. relocating vs. empty nester – but overall the move is toward features that promote economy of space and family togetherness.

What’s important to you in home design?

Happy New Year! 2010 got off to a great start in the Twin Cities with sunshine, below zero temps and no wind. It looked so wonderful through my porch window that I decided to take the dog outside and play. I zipped up my hooded parka, pulled on my moon boots and fleece gloves, put on sunglasses and headed into the cold brilliance. The dog bounded across the patio and dove shoulder first into a snowbank to roll with doggy abandon. I’ve heard animals align their spines by rolling on the ground. I like that he’s giving himself a snow bath.

We set off across the yard, and within a few paces I realized this was going to be much more of a workout than I’d bargained for. Freezing rain last week had created a six-inch deep crust over a foot and a half of snow. The crust was strong enough to hold the bunnies that scamper across our yard, but not me or the dog. Every stride I took involved stepping up onto the ice crust, pausing atop it for a brief instant, then crashing through and sinking into the snow. A snow step aerobics routine worthy of significant Wii Fit points.

The dog was struggling with the same problem, flying around the yard in a leap-sink-leap motion. It was too nice to go back indoors, but the crusty snow was no fun to walk around in. It was too cold and crumbly to make snowballs or snowmen. I love making things out of snow. Here’s a snowman I built in October 2009 during a ridiculously early snowfall.

What could be done with this hard crusted snow?

I built a dry stack garden wall. I broke up random chunks and fit them together. Granted, I didn’t base it properly and the construction technique is crude, but I like the way the sun shines through the chinks.

It was slow going at first because the dog kept trying to eat the wall, but I distracted him with icicles and work continued apace. Note the detail at the top of the wall. I think if a person took time to cut rectangles out of the crusty snow it could be made into an amazing fort or igloo.

After the wall was done we sat in the snow, soaked up the low sunshine and listened to the chatter of chickadees visiting a bird feeder in a nearby tree. It was a perfect way to start the new year.

Have you built a snow fort? Comment on this post with a link to a picture so we can see it. How did you spend your first day of the new year?

Today I attended a seminar about trees. Evergreens, shade trees and ornamental trees. In 2010 Hedberg will be reselling top quality Minnesota-grown trees to landscape installers and to the public at our nursery in Stillwater.

We all know trees absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen, so they’re important for our air quality. Until a few weeks ago I didn’t realize how important they are for our local water quality as well. It’s true. I was working with Julie Westerlund from the Minnehaha Creek Watershed District on a grant application to help a south Minneapolis neighborhood reduce and clean up stormwater run off and learned that trees are highly effecitve at doing just that.

Trees help manage stormwater flow by intercepting rainfall on leaves and branches and slowing the rate at which water runs over the surface of the land so it can seep into the ground. Trees draw water down into the soil and use it. A study by Center for Urban Forest Research reported that a typical medium-sized tree can intercept as much as 2380 gallons of rainfall per year. Trees are also natural pollution filters. Their canopies, trunks, roots, and associated soil and other natural elements of the landscape filter out polluted particulate before the runoff reaches storm sewers. Trees use nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium byproducts of urban living that can pollute our waterways.

Now I get it, they’re great for critters and will help save the plant, but what’s this about my bank account? Properly placed deciduous trees can reduce the summer heat load on a house by 10% to 30%, cutting air-conditioning costs. Well-placed evergreens can reduce winter heating requirements by a similar percentage, acting as a break against cold winter winds. And as the trees grow and mature, so do the savings. And get this. The Council of Tree & Landscape Appraisers (CTLA) estimates that a mature tree in a residential landscape can have a value of from $1,000 to $10,000.

Good for the planet, blossoming heralds of spring, pleasant to sit beneath in the summer, lovely colors to behold in the fall, sign of hope in the winter and a great return on investment. Hmm, maybe we should all plant a tree or two this spring.

I can direct you to top quality trees. Call me at 763-392-5909 or visit our Stillwater location this spring. Here’s a link if you want to browse tree selections online.