2019 Calendar of Events

May 1-16

Enter Central Coast’s Beautification Awards 2019!

Have you entered Beautification Awards 2019 yet?
Here’s the link to join in the fun, download the entry form, and enter the Beautification Awards 2019.

May 16, Thursday

Spring Mixer and Drop Off Beautification Packets

Join us for our Spring Mixer from 5:30 to 8 p.m. at Beer 30 Pour House & Bottle Shop, 2504 South Main Street, Soquel, CA. Come and share a brew and drop off your entry packets at the same time. Please register for the Spring Mixer here.

Entry Deadline for Beautification

Drop off your entries at the Spring Mixer, or at Ewing Irrigation in Santa Cruz by May 16. For Monterey entries or more info contact: Katia at katia.velasquez@netafim.com or (831) 331-1874. Judging will take place: May 22 & 23, 2019.

June 21, Friday

2019 Beautification Awards Banquet

Time: 6:00 to 10:00 pm
Location: The Dream Inn in Santa Cruz 

Mark your calendars and join us for a wonderful night of fun at our Beautification Awards Banquet! We’ll be showcasing outstanding work in the green industry and celebrating 2019’s Central Coast Winners.

Link to event here!

May 2019 President’s Message

by Justin White, Chapter President, K&D Landscaping Company

spring has sprung!

Spring has sprung! The warm weather and sunshine bring with it good vibes and growth for the landscape community. In the spirit of growth, we have some great events coming up in the next two months. The first being an insurance “talk & learn.” As contractors, our exposure and risk factors are much higher than other sectors of our economy. It is crucial we stay up to date with changing laws to mitigate our risks as much as possible. The CLCA is working hard to ensure you stay informed and supplied with the tools to run your business and protect what you have built. On May 30th we have an educational dinner sponsored by CLCA Insurance Solutions—come learn about the changes in landscape insurance and what you can do to save money while keeping your business and employees safe. This dinner will be held in south county, at Graniterock, 1755 Del Monte Blvd, in Seaside. Hope to see you there!

The next big event is our annual Beautification Awards Dinner & Banquet on June 22nd. This is a great opportunity to show off the projects you have been working so hard to complete. You can also use this event to bring your team out for a night of employee appreciation; let them see their hard work on display and potentially accept an award! This year’s event will be held at the Dream Inn in Santa Cruz, with a theme of “In Honor of the Redwoods.” I hope to see you all there!

I recently sat in on a speaker who talked about the Chinese Bamboo Tree. For those who haven’t heard the story, it’s one of those that stays with you after you hear it. The Chinese Bamboo Tree teaches us success lessons on patience, faith, determination, and growth. Like any plant, the Chinese Bamboo Tree requires the right amount of water, fertilizer and proper soil to thrive. The difference is that the Chinese Bamboo Tree shows no sign of visible growth during the first year, or the second, or even the third or fourth! But in year five the tree emerges from the soil and within six weeks grows over 80' tall! When I heard this, I immediately thought of our CLCA family. It is such a great parable that relates to so much in our lives. The tree was watered daily for over five years without the gardener giving up. Even though there were no signs of growth, she continued to faithfully fertilize and water the ground until she was eventually rewarded with an amazingly beautiful tree. This story can teach us many lessons and each of us will take something different away from it. So what does this teach to you? How can you take the determination and patience from the gardener and apply it to your life? Or better yet, share this story with someone who is working hard towards a goal and they aren’t yet seeing results. I leave you with one last quote: “People are rewarded in public for what they practice in private.”

Have you checked out our new website yet? If not, I encourage you to take a minute to go explore the site and peek at the calendar to stay current on upcoming events!

Thank yous to everyone who volunteered for our the community projects, Grange in Live Oak and the Animal Shelter of Santa Cruz County.

The Grange orchard irrigation project volunteers included: Chris Elliot—Aqua Green Landscape Irrigation, Ewing Irrigation, Netafim, and California H2orticulture Services who generously donated all irrigation materials. K&D also volunteered for this project. Thank you Cabrillo College and Michael Johnson for organizing this venture. It was a huge success and will provide efficient water to trees and plants in the Live Oak Garden!

The Animal Shelter of Santa Cruz project was lead by Tish O’Reilly of Mountain Horticulture. She was joined by John Kern of Monterey Peninsula College Horticulture, Phil Dundas of The Landscape Company and Regan Barry of Coastal Evergreen Company, and K&D Landscaping. They brought the tools and spruced up the grounds. More awesome volunteerism by Central Coast!

Scroll down to see photos and read more about these projects. Big thanks to the CLCA family!

To our success,
Justin White
CEO, K&D Landscaping Inc.
justin@kndkandscaping.com

Link to Partner’s Feature: Katia Velasquez of Netafim

This month Katia Velasquez, Central Coast Event Director, is featured in our “Partner’s Corner.” This article appears on the website and you can find it HERE (scroll down the page.)

Community Projects: Central Coast Volunteerism

April 10, 2019 –
santA Cruz Animal Shelter

Tish O’Reilly and some other awesome volunteers banded together to do a clean up of the Santa Cruz Animal Shelter. Everyone brought shovels, rakes, brooms/blowers, weed whackers, and loppers and got the job done.

“Volunteering is the ultimate exercise in democracy.
You vote in elections once a year, but when you volunteer,
you vote every day about the kind of community you want to live in.”
—author unknown

Above left: Pam Lowry, head volunteer gardener for the puppies at Santa Cruz County Animal Shelter, with John Kern of Monterey Peninsula College Horticulture Department, middle: The Crew, right: John Kern tackling the debris.

Above left to right: John Kern from Monterey Peninsula College, Phil Dundas of The Landscape Company, Regan Barry of Coastal Evergreen Company
Not Shown but volunteering time and resources: K&D Landscaping.

Photographer Tish O’Reilly of Pacific Mountain Horticulture

April 20, 2019 –
santA Cruz live oak grange

On Saturday, April 20 Cabrillo College Horticulture students and CLCA Central Coast installed a drip irrigation system at the heritage demonstration orchard at the Santa Cruz Live Oak Grange (1900 17th Avenue, entrance is pictured to the right). Chris Elliot, Aqua Green Landscape Irrigation, helped students install a flow meter and two drip valves while K&D Landscaping staff provided heavy lifting by trenching for the mainline and lateral pipes. The students then assembled the pipe system and the Techline drip tree rings per their design. The students were excited to work on this project and we all appreciate the support of the CLCA on this project. It was a valuable learning experience for them to participate in all phases of an irrigation system design and installation project. Ewing Irrigation, Netafim, and California H2orticulture Services generously donated all irrigation materials. Next, the students will create a climate-appropriate, efficient irrigation schedule to help the trees thrive and provide delicious fruit for many years. This was a great collaborative project that benefits a 60+ year old agricultural fraternity that maintains a beautiful orchard and community garden in the heart of Live Oak.

Michael Johnson, California H2orticulture Services
(831) 325-3376

Thank you to everyone who helped to make these community events happen!

Board Meeting Minutes

Central Coast Chapter CLCA November Board Meeting

By Phil Dundas, Secretary

March 7, 2019, present: Justin White, Katia Velasquez, Craig Stenehjem, Tish O’Reilly, Phil Dundas, Elise Huffman, Michael Johnson, Chris Elliot, John Kern

Call to order by Justin White at 12:05 p.m.

1. Meeting

It was moved and 2nd to approve the minutes of the March meeting.  All voted in favor.

2. Committee Updates

a. Communication/website/newsletter-Elise reported all is well
b. Membership: Tish reported things are going well
c. Golf Committee: Matt is working on the next tournament

3. Beautification Awards

a. Changes for submission and entry were discussed including a possible increase in entrance fees.  
b. Membership: Tish is making calls and collecting applications  
c. It was moved and 2nd to approve a $10 increase 

4. Community Project

a. Michael discussed the Live Oak Grange and the 4/20 date
b. Tish asked for contributions for the SPCA cleanup 4/10

5. Education Dinner

Education Dinner–CLCA Insurance Solutions will be asked to present for a dinner meeting.  Justin to reach out for dates and, Katia is working on a location perhaps in Monterey.

Adjournment 
The meeting was adjourned at 1:29 p.m.