Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service’s Healthy Lawns and Healthy Waters Program will host a residential rainwater harvesting and turf management training June 22 for residents of Collin, Fannin, Grayson and Hunt counties.
The free event is offered in collaboration with the Lavon Lake Watershed Partnership. It will be a hybrid event, with in-person attendance being limited to the first 30 registrants. The in-person portion of the event will be in the North Texas Municipal Water District’s main Training Room at 505 E. Brown St., Wylie. All others can attend online via Zoom. The event will be held from 1-5 p.m. Online registration is required.
Attendees who RSVP to the event will receive updates, instructions to join the online version of the meeting and materials related to the meeting via email. They can RSVP online or by contacting John Smith, AgriLife Extension program specialist, Bryan-College Station, at johnwsmith@tamu.edu or 979-204-0573.
“The Healthy Lawns and Healthy Waters Program aims to improve and protect surface water quality by enhancing awareness and knowledge of best management practices for residential landscapes,” Smith said.
Rainwater harvesting systems
Becky Bowling, Ph.D., AgriLife Extension urban water specialist, Dallas, said attendees will learn about the design and installation of residential rainwater harvesting systems, appropriate turf and landscape species based on local conditions, and other practices.
“Management practices such as using irrigation delivery equipment, interpreting soil test results and understanding nutrient applications can help reduce runoff and make efficient use of applied landscape irrigation water,” Bowling said.
Diane Boellstorff, Ph.D., AgriLife Extension water resource specialist in the Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, Bryan-College Station, said proper fertilizer application and efficient water irrigation can protect and improve water quality in area creeks, and collecting rainwater for lawn and landscape needs reduces stormwater runoff.
Davis Cowan, the watershed coordinator for the Lavon Lake Watershed, will also discuss updates on watershed protection plan activities to improve and protect water quality in this watershed during the event.
Free soil testing for event participants
Participants can have their soil tested as part of the training. The soil sample bag and analysis are free to Healthy Lawns and Healthy Waters Program participants.
A soil sample bag with sampling instructions and the Urban and Homeowner Soil Sample Information Form are available at the at the AgriLife Extension offices in Collin County, 825 N. McDonald St., McKinney; Fannin County, 2505 N. Center St., Bonham; Hunt County, 2217 Washington St., Greenville; or at the Grayson County Courthouse, 100 W. Houston St., Sherman.
Bags containing residents’ soil samples should be returned to the location where they were obtained prior to or by one week after the meeting. Samples will be grouped into one submission and sent to the AgriLife Extension Soil, Water and Forage Testing Lab in College Station for routine analysis, including micronutrients, pH, conductivity, nitrate-nitrogen and other parameters.
The training will include information on how to understand soil test results and nutrient recommendations so residents can interpret results once the analysis is mailed to them.
For more information, contact: Smith, 979-204-0573, johnwsmith@tamu.edu; Bowling, 972-952-9673 bgrubbs@tamu.edu; Boellstorff, 979-458-3562, dboellstorff@tamu.edu; or Dean Minchillo, AgriLife Extension program specialist, Dallas, 972-231-5362, dean.minchillo@ag.tamu.edu
Funding for the Healthy Lawns and Healthy Waters Program is provided in part by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. The project is managed by the Texas Water Resources Institute, part of Texas A&M AgriLife Research, AgriLife Extension and the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Texas A&M University.
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