Local landscaping class helps residents with planting techniques

The South Platte Natural Resources District offered a free landscaping class at its office in Sidney on Saturday. The workshop is an annual event that is structured to benefit homeowners on landscaping and water management best practices.

Participants were given information on home gardening techniques including gathering soil pH, utilizing compost, working the soil and watering.

A session led by Lucinda Mays from Chadron State College gave local gardeners several suggestions in managing the alkaline soil, windy conditions and short growing season in the Sidney area.

"The Garden of Eden wasn't anything like 7.6 ," which is the approximate pH level in one garden sample in Sidney, explained Mays.

Adding organic materials that create compost adds acidity to the soil, which is a good thing for growing healthy plants. Gardeners were advised to add compost and mulch plants every year. Compost can include grass clippings, pine needles or other organic materials. The gardeners agreed that although on a gardening geographical map we are zoned as 5, our gardens are more realistically zone 4.

"We live in the middle of a continent where the wind blows and wind takes water with it, so we have to learn to manage our water," Maysa said.

She suggested drip irrigation with soaker hoses placed next to the roots of plants to ensure plants receive water.

Cost share programs for residents in Kimball, Cheyenne and Deuel counties were explained by Ryan Riesdorff of South Platte NRD.

There are monetary incentives of up to $500 for rain garden construction and installation, $150 for buffalo grass seeds or plugs and $50 toward a maximum of two rain barrels. Residents interested in these programs can contact the SPNRD office in Sidney at (308) 254-2377 or (877) 800-1030.