Trees – The City of Plano Urban Forester (Angela Kralik) and I assessed the trees in the corner gardens and at the main entrance off Victoria & 15th. Angela provided recommendations. The Live Oak tree at Rio Grande and Park has been removed. A Vitex tree was planted early March.
Gardens – the major expense this year will be the Rio Grande Garden. A summary of each garden:
- Rio Grande & Park – the Live Oak has been removed. A 45-gallon Vitex tree was planted early March. Red Tip Photinias have been removed; it was discovered they had cotton root rot which leads to plant death. New plant material from Covington’s Nursey at wholesale price was planted in late March. New plants included: Sunshine Ligustrum, Kaleidoscope Abelia, Flirt Nandina, May Night Salvia.
- Columbia & Park – the Live Oak in this garden is in poor condition and is scheduled to be removed late 2019 or early 2020. The branches are touching the wires and there’s not much left of the tree to be pruned for safety. The garden was cleaned up in early December 2018. No expenses on this garden are foreseen until the Live Oak comes out.
- Columbia & Sacramento – this garden is in overall good shape. The shrubs in that garden are boxwood and Dwarf Yaupon Holly. Those are NOT suitable plants for the garden as the Boxwood can reach a height of 10 feet and the Dwarf Yaupon Holly can reach a height of 4 feet. These shrubs will require constant pruning to no more than 30 inches in height. Long term recommendation – replace Boxwood and Dwarf Yaupon Holly shrubs with Kaleidoscope Abelia and Flirt Nandinas which will provide color year-round and maximum height of 24 inches. No expenses on this garden are foreseen in 2019.
- Columbia & Brazos – this garden is in overall good shape. Light pruning of Yuccas to keep them from exceeding 30” in height. No major expense required 2019.
- Columbia & 15th – this garden is in overall good shape. Bradford Pear tree will need a light pruning in December 2019, no later than mid-February 2020. The City may prune this if the funds are in the budget. Possible expense in 2019-early 2020 is pruning of the Bradford Pear tree.
- Gardens at Entrance of 15th & Victoria – these gardens are in pretty good shape. Live Oaks are healthy and are not in need of pruning. Some flowers may be added this year, no major expense predicted for 2019.
Sprinkler Systems – an assessment of all gardens that have sprinkler systems was performed in conjunction with Aqua Max.
- Rio Grande & Park – some sprinkler heads are broken, possibly due to when the city came out a 2nd time to do additional sidewalk construction. Additional sprinkler heads and drip irrigation were installed since the garden is a “sun” garden instead of a “shade garden”.
- Annually – in March – evaluate all garden areas with Aqua Max. Replace batteries every March in the controllers.
Lawn mowing service – current contract is with College Fund Landscaping, including lawn mowing, shrub & tree trimming services.
- PCN will renew contract with College Fund Landscaping for lawn mowing services only. The services will commence April 2019 and end in November 2019. Areas will be mowed twice monthly and fertilized 3 times a year. Received a copy of their liability insurance.
Fertilizing – Fertilizing of the gardens will need to be done 3 times yearly: March; end of June or 1st of July; and end of September or 1st of October. Fertilizer will be applied by volunteers.
Karen Smith
Landscape Chair