By BECKY KISER
Hays Post
A Hays couple and the employees of a state office building have been honored with the 2019 Water$mart Landscape Award by the city of Hays.
Since 2016, one residential and one commercial property have been chosen for the recognition.
The goal of the award program is to increase awareness of the importance of water conservation in the landscape and to recognize those in the community who have made great strides towards that effort.
Holly Dickman, water conservation specialist, introduced the winners and showed pictures of their landscaping during Thursday’s Hays city commission meeting.
Winners of the residential award are Theresa and Patrick Trapp.
Their yard on Holmes Road “exemplifies what it means to be water smart,” said Dickman.
The entire yard is landscape plantings of drought-tolerant perennials, including lavender and hens and chicks. They use mulch and and compost from the free sites maintained by the city.
“There’s no turf grass, just a little bit of buffalo grass here and there.”
The front yard is designed to keep as much rainfall as possible on the property without runoff. The couple also uses three rain barrels to capture rain for watering the plants.
The Trapp back yard is also a Certified Wildlife Habitat – a designation by the National Wildlife Federation – which provides water and shelter for animals raising their young.
The commercial award winner is the Kansas Department of Children and Families on East 22nd Street, represented by their director Armando Orozco.
Organic mulch surrounds the plantings, which include ornamental grasses and shrubs along with drought-tolerant perennials, including catmint and Rose of Sharon.
“Even the islands in the parking lot have organic wood-type mulch with plantings,” Dickman pointed out.
The parking lot is also part of the water-conserving design.
“It completely drains into a buffalo grass low spot. The rain is all going into that nice deep-rooted buffalo grass which is what we like to see. It’s not escaping the property.”
“A watersmart landscape is more than just watering those plants correctly,” she explained.
“It’s a combination of several different gardening practices that together create a beautiful, water conserving landscape.”
Those practices include planning and design, soil preparation, right plants in the right places, practical turf areas, efficient irrigation, proper mulch and proper maintenance.
(Editor’s note: Theresa Trapp is an employee of Eagle Communications, the parent company of Hays Post.)