Summer Groundskeeping
included Topics
- Weekly Lawn Mowing: Schedule and clear personal items*
- Turf Management Chemical Applications
- Apartment Garden Bed/Outdoor Planter Policy*
- Clutter and Debris Policy*: Keep yards and garden beds tidy year-round
- Yard Inspections*: Starting May 1-October
- Claiming Tagged Items*: If anything of yours has a tag, claim it before deadline
*Community requirements
Weekly Lawn Mowing
Scheduled for Tuesdays & Wednesdays (Weather Dependent)
Mowing will be done on Tuesdays and Wednesdays throughout the summer starting on the North end of property. Mowing is scheduled for Tuesdays and Wednesdays yet is weather dependent, in which it may continue later into the week as needed.
Clear Items Prior to Mowing
Community Requirement: Remove all yard items (bikes, toys, tables, etc.) for mowing days, allowing UMN Landcare to mow the full yard and CTC property.
- Help Save Money: Clearing your yard items reduces UMN Landcare’s time to remove these items and, thus, saves the co-op money, keeping more money in residents’ pockets! Keeping the co-op’s expenses low, such as landcare costs, is how our co-op can sustain the low rental rates for our residents.
- At minimum, move all your household’s yard items to cement or garden bed areas for weekly mowing.
All items in your yard need to be properly stored and of the grass for mowing on Tuesdays/Wednesdays:
- Collect children’s belongings across property. Items can be removed and thrown
- All items (including outdoor furniture) need to be put on concrete
- All planted pots need to be in garden bed or on personal sidewalk
- All items need to be the storage unit provided
- All hoses need to be rolled up neatly
Having items left in grass requires CTC lawn care contractors to pick up after you and complete more week whipping which takes longer, ultimately charging more.
Turf Management Chemical Applications
Herbicide-Free Turf Management Program (Green):
MID TO LATE MAY APPLICATION
The Herbicide-Free Turf Management Program will be applied to the green area on the map. This application is a slow release fertilizer (no pre-emergent), in which fertilizer pellets will be visible on the grass and dissolve over time (soil temp dependent) in the upcoming months. Signs will be posted when complete.
Herbicide Turf Management Program (Blue):
COMPLETED THROUGHOUT SUMMER
A pre-emergent and post-emergent application will be applied to the blue areas on the map starting soon and throughout the summer. Signs will be applied during this application indicating to stay off the area 'until dry'. The signs will be in place for 48 hours. Please be aware of these signs and inform your children to not remove the signs, as they cost money to replace and can be reused.
Grass Seed Blankets
Apartment Garden Bed/Outdoor Planter Policy
Specific to all units, review CTC's planting policy, implemented in 2020 by our Operations Committee to accommodate growing veggies + herbs outside of your apartment.
Continuously Keep Outdoor Spaces Tidy
RESPONSIBILITY FOR ALL UNITS + ALL YEAR
Eliminating all yard and outdoor clutter is an on-going requirement for all residents to fulfill year-round, per CTC's Clutter + Debris Policy. In which case, Yard Inspections and Item "Tagging" can occur at any time throughout the season without notice; thus, continuously keep yard spaces neat and tidy to avoid incurring violation fees.
Yard Inspections
Community Requirement
May 1, 2023 - October 15, 2023
Yard inspections will start the week following the bi-annual clean-up. The inspection will check to ensure all residents are keeping their household yard/garden beds neat and weed-free. Maintaining clean and clear yards/gardens is on-going requirement to fulfill throughout growing season, typically April to October.
Please follow the guidelines below to ensure you do not receive a yard fee (of the Clutter and Debris Responsibility) during the inspection, which can apply to each infraction (such a fee per each unmaintained garden bed of your unit).
Check front and back door for notification, provided after your yard inspection if your there was something found needing correction.
1. Remove all weeds from your front and back gardens
All 2 bedroom and 3 bedroom units must keep their gardens maintained in a neat and weed free manner. This also applies to one-bedroom units, which share the responsibility with the building.
- Borrow tools, such as hoes and rakes, from the office or a Community Garden Plot site.
- Fast and Easy Weeding Tips
- Is this plant a weed?
- Remove weeds that are on Minnesota Noxious Weed List.
- Additional weed identification: U of MN Extension.
2. Collect weeds in preparation for disposal
- Bags makes it easier to dispose of the weeds later, as well as to avoid the weeds re-rooting themselves again in your garden.
NO bags can be put into the compost; bags or other containers only used as carriers to dump the weeds into the compost bins, as outlined in next step.
3. Drop weeds into the compost bins located at the community garden sites
- Dump bag in compost bin at one of five community garden plot locations.
- Do not place bag or carrying device into the compost bin
- What can be put into CTC's compost? What cannot?
CTC Compost Bin Reminder:Our co-op’s compost bins are closed until further notice. During this time, the bins are only accepting plant debris/trimmings (grass, garden weeds, leaves, small twigs). Please do not discard anything other than plant trimmings into the bins while closed (especially NO household food scraps!). Visit umnctc.org/compost for full details and updates. |
4. Clear and organize the remainder of your yard
In addition to removing and properly disposing all the weeds in your gardens, complete the following to ensure you fully pass the inspection:
- Organize storage shed: place all items inside, remove items from top of shed
- Remove and/or dispose of non-yard items (i.e. indoor chairs, sofas, microwaves, T.V.s, interior tables etc.)
- Pick up trash: clean yard area free of garbage
- Clear lawn area for mowers: be sure to move unused yard items (bikes, tables, chairs, grills) free of the lawn area for the mowers to pass all grass areas front and back
Claim "Tagged" Items
Tagging for "Claim Day"
Historically in the late summer or fall, there will be a "Claim Day" throughout the co-op grounds as a way for CTC to determine which outdoor items belong to individuals that no longer live at CTC/or are no longer desired by current CTC residents. CTC Maintenance will tag personal belongings in public spaces with a tie tag. Items that will be tagged include bikes, grills and toys near or on bike racks around one bedroom buildings and near the Phase IV buildings. No items directly behind two bedroom splits or phase IV will be tagged.
If anything you own has a tag on it, go write your name and address on the tag and leave the tag on until the provided deadline (announced with event). If no tag is placed on any of your possessions at all within the claiming period, then your object is safe and will not be removed.
Year-Round
While there is a "Claim Day" event, typically in the Fall, items can be tagged at any time throughout the year calling for the owner's action.
