Coming at you with my week 5 of Landscape Coach Tips. These tips are things you can do in your yard with the items you have at home. They are being shared daily over on instagram / facebook and weekly here.

LANDSCAPE COACH TIP 21:

If you live within the City of Albuquerque limits then this week is GREEN WASTE PICK UP WEEK. Spring Green Waste collection service takes place May 4-15. During these weeks, residents can place their Green Waste at the curb on their regular trash/recycle day by 7 a.m.

All Green Waste must be placed 5 feet from automated trash and recycling containers as well as any large items scheduled for pick-up.

Solid Waste customers must place their Green Waste (leaves, grass, and brush) in trash bags.
Each trash bag should not weigh more than 40 pounds.

Customers that have branches must cut them to four-foot lengths and bundle them securely.
The following items will not be picked up: dirt, construction debris, gravel, construction material or tree stumps.

LANDSCAPE COACH TIP 22:

Got Rocks? You may have noticed painted rocks on your neighborhood rocks. They might be part of The Kindness Rock Project. which is a viral trend where people, commonly children, paint pebbles or cobbles and leave them for others to find and collect.

The Kindness Rock Project was started by Megan Murphy in 2015 who wrote “You’ve got this” on a rock and left it on a beach on Cape Cod. After a friend found it, she started leaving more rocks with inspirational messages behind.

I recently ran across a poetry rock garden here in Albuquerque, called #abqcommunitypoetrygarden which are rocks painted with words you can arrange into poetry.

The ideas for painted rocks are endless, what will you paint on yours?

LANDSCAPE COACH TIP 23:

Make Sun tea in your garden! Grab some teabags from the stash in your cabinet you know you’ve forgotten about. Cut the strings and tabs off the teabags, add water to a clear container, then find a sunny spot outdoors. In a few hours you’ll have sun tea you can enjoy in your garden.

PRO TIP: grab fresh mint or lemon balm from a nearby container for the finishing touch. My favorite tea recipe is Luzianne black tea with Celestial seasonings Raspberry Zinger!

LANDSCAPE COACH TIP 24:

Take a moment to smell the flowers! Specifically the Chocolate Flower, Berlandiera lyrata. The yellow flower is a long summer bloomer with sweet cocoa smelling flowers especially in the morning hours. We go out every morning and smell these beauties. Very drought tolerant, it grows well in most soils in full sun. It’s just a great showy perennial for the NM garden that fills in nicely to create a great groundcover.

Next time you are out on your daily walk look around to see if you can find this beautiful chocolate flower. And if that’s not an option then just take a minute and smell all the blooming roses! 

LANDSCAPE COACH TIP 25:

We made it to the end of the week so it’s time for Happy Hour. Tip of the day: Get outdoors and enjoy your garden with your beverage of choice.
Regardless of your garden’s present state (flowering perennials or bare dirt) being outdoors is calming + a beverage = perfection. I’ve been documenting my evening beverages during quarantine (day 58) and I’m realizing I’ve found a LOT of places in my yard to drink. (not sure if that’s a good thing?)

And if you are interested in what cocktail I’m drinking in those pictures then you’ll want to check out the Facebook video recipe here. 

Can’t wait to see how you unearth your yard this week!