By Louise Caudle, Chair

 

The Landscape Committee is working with a sign vendor who is in the process of getting a permit from the city of Durham for a Courtyards at Southpoint subdivision entrance marker that would be erected at the Fenwick Parkway entrance to our neighborhood. The permitting process with the city is more complicated than with many other municipalities, according to the sign vendor, and the process is taking longer than we expected. We look forward to sharing updates on the project in the future.

 

The committee also is in the process of getting estimates from several vendors for installing a drip irrigation system for the plants and trees around the pavilion, pickleball court and lap pool. As we await those estimates to determine the costs, we want to give a round of applause to Joanne Adney and those of you who have pitched in to help her keep those plants and trees alive by hand watering them with a hose. It takes at least an hour and a half for one person to water all those plants and trees, so it is a big task. I’m sure Joanne would appreciate any help other volunteers can offer!

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The drought continues to affect the growth of our Bermuda grass, and some of you remain concerned about the number of weeds in our turf. I checked with Boyco, our landscaping contractor, for an update to prepare this report. They are continuing to attack the weeds with a post-emergent herbicide, which typically kills the weeds in four to seven days. The rain we had recently was sufficient to flush all the pre-emergent into the soil, and that will help battle the new weeds. The fertilizer Boyco recently spread needs another good rain to feed the turf and thicken the grass to choke out the summer weeds.

 

We as homeowners can considering doing two things to make our lawns more beautiful right now:  A rain dance never hurts, and watering our grass can really make a difference!

 

It is important to point out that Durham residents are subject to a mandatory year-round odd/even outdoor watering schedule:

• Watering with spray irrigation systems is not allowed on Mondays.

• Odd-numbered addresses may water on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, either before 10 a.m. or after 6 p.m.

• Even-numbered addresses may water on Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays either before 10 a.m. or after 6 p.m.

• Hand watering and drip irrigation are not restricted and can be used on any day.

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For more details about Durham’s restrictions, please visit the city of Durham website by clicking here. 

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Rebekah Burchard with Epcon is continuing her one-year landscaping warranty walkthroughs in the new section of the neighborhood. She invites Landscape Committee members to join her as she documents dead plants and trees, areas where turf needs to be replaced and other improvements that need to be made before the close of the warranty period. If Epcon replaces plants or sod in your yard, please water the new plants and sod diligently until they are established to help them survive the drought and the heat ahead this summer. Epcon will only replace plants and sod one time as part of the one-year warranty. After that, the homeowner is responsible for replacing all dead plants and sod.

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As a reminder, homeowners are responsible for cleaning the debris out of pop-up drains for gutters. It is important to keep the pop-up drains open so that rainwater from roofs can be discharged safely away from a home’s foundation and over the lawn instead.

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The city of Durham’s Urban Forestry team will be in our neighborhood again to remove the street trees in the original section of our neighborhood that were possibly alive when they made their first pass but are now definitely dead. The Urban Forestry manager informed us he hopes to be in our neighborhood as soon as possible, but he acknowledged that with their workload, it might not be as soon as we would like. Homeowners may remove dead street trees in front of their homes, if they wish, before Urban Forestry comes through again. As was noted previously, the city plans to replace the trees that did not survive.

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Landscape Committee members include Debbie Bell, Kathleen Cirillo, MaryKay Doane, Leigh Garmhausen and Bob Williams, with me as chair.