By Kim Sullivan, Anoka County Master Gardener
What’s it like to have a Lawn Water Conservation Educator participate in your neighborhood event (Figure 1)? Based on the responses of people who visited with us this summer, it’s a great way to learn about low-input lawns and how to conserve water when irrigating. Funded by the Metropolitan Council, our Irrigation Efficiency Educational materials and educator can also come to your event within the seven-county metropolitan area!
Throughout the summer of 2022, UMN Turfgrass Science team representatives visited many neighborhoods, fairs, garden tours, and events to share best lawn care practices. We heard many of the same questions and concerns that were tracked in 2021 at the Minnesota State Fair. While the top questions varied by venue, selection of lawn seed, timing of seeding with an emphasis on dormant seeding, watering practices and drought, low maintenance and bee lawns were often the top interests.
Here are some of the successful educational events from this past summer:
- Watershed Cleanup and Earth Day Celebration - Lakeville, MN
- Environmental Fun Fair - Fridley, MN
- Trista Day - Minnetrista, MN
- LakeFest - Eagan, MN
- Summer Neighbor Meetings - Coon Rapids, MN
- Learn and Grow With Us Garden Tour - Washington County, MN
- Longfellow Garden Club - Minneapolis, MN
- The Sunday Markets at Dancing Bear Chocolate - Minneapolis, MN
- Blue Heron Days - Lino Lakes, MN
- Community event at Brown's Creek Park - Stillwater, MN
- Operations and Maintenance Open House - Brooklyn Park, MN
Overall, people seem to love that we were able to make the time to talk specifically about their individual lawn care needs. We found a substantial number of residents in all locations had a high level of awareness about lower maintenance lawns, the need to use best watering practices and a desire to support best lawn care practices. The signage emphasizing best watering practices was a great hit - more than once we heard spouses coaching each other about how much deficit watering helped the root length of grasses and how they should abandon the every-other-day watering practices for watering deeply once a week. Handouts about selecting the best grass seed as well as the lawn calendar and cheat sheet were very popular.
If you’re an organizer planning any of these kinds of events and activities, connect with our Turfgrass Team here at the University of Minnesota by consulting our Reserving our Irrigation Efficiency Educational Trailer webpage (Figure 2). Gary Deters is the newly hired Lawn Water Conservation educator who leads these outreach efforts. If you have questions about this program, he can be reached by email at [email protected]. We’re here to help care for the environment and build better communities right alongside you.