Coming at you with my week 6 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 26:

Repurpose old tools. This old rake became a useful hook. An old bike from a bike wreck my husband was in was painted and turned into sculpture in our yard. An old shovel is now used as a compost turning shovel. What do you have lying around that can be repurposed?

LANDSCAPE COACH TIP 27:

Swap and Share. With schools closed and families looking for more ways to entertain their kids it’s a great time to swap and share when your kid tires of their toys. You’d be surprised by how many different outdoor activities families have in their possession. All you do is offer up a cool outdoor toy, activity, or wheeled object you have for something another family has. We have an outdoor jenga set so I texted my mom friends looking for a swap and share buddy. Voila. We ended up with these super cool scooters in exchange for the jenga. They’ve been providing entertainment for weeks. Once they tire of the scooters we’ll trade back!

Sooooooo…..anyone else want to play Jenga? We’ll trade ya!

LANDSCAPE COACH TIP 28:

Wondering what that plant is on your walk or in your own yard? There’s three plant identification apps you should try out! .
iNaturalist: Pop in a photo to the app and it’ll find plants that match the photo. After you’ve identified the plant you can save the image and tag it for others to find in the neighborhood.

Pl@ntNet: Upload a photo and the app provides a long list of possible matches from its database.

New Mexico Wildflowers. This app is like an online field guide that works with or without internet. Select a plant type, flower color, flower size, leaf arrangement and habitat. It then provides a list of plants that meet the criteria. 

LANDSCAPE COACH TIP 29:

Collect seeds. You may have noticed a lot more wildflowers popping up this year in landscapes and sidewalk cracks. Turns out our winter rains were perfectly timed for germination of the common poppy, larkspur and many other flowers that are easily re-seeded. The poppies are drying up and now is the perfect time to harvest those seeds. The images show you how. Once the seed is collected, disperse in your garden or share with a neighbor and friend.

LANDSCAPE COACH TIP 30:

Keep your plants cool with mulch. Every plant should be surrounded by some type of mulch. Shredded wood mulch is my favorite but anything will work like dried leaves, straw, pecan shells. Mulch reduces evaporation, suppresses weeds if installed 3-4″ depth, and makes the soil better as it decomposes. Put mulch on your plants today.