Annual Report 2018: Landscaping and Pools

We’ve learned lessons from having lived with our desertscape for four years. We’ve learned that while saving water, the removal of lawns raises the ambient temperature around our homes and plants. In at least three cases, our landscape contractor Ismael has had to install multiple rings of soaker hoses around suffering citrus trees that had been in the lawn but now have surrounding desertscape. Pyracantha hedges also have suffered until additional water supplies were brought to them.

This past summer was so hot that more shade screens had to be built just to keep plants alive. We are used to shading such as the Sago Palms, but this past summer we had to drape burlap over the Mexican fencepost cacti to protect them on the south and west exposures. Next month, our landscapers will begin an aggressive treatment of all the agave in our complex. The stress of heat has made them more susceptible to boring-type worms and we have lost several this past year.  We will use both liquid and granular poisons to control these pests.

During the ungodly hot part of the summer, Ismael and an expanded crew spread ten tons of fresh decomposed granite on the thin spots over the entire desertscape area. If you’ve been near the east pool recently, you probably noticed that the landscaping has been updated. New bougainvillea and lantana were planted as well as a new pyracantha hedge around the pool to hide the pool equipment. Some cobblestone mulch was installed along with annual geraniums.

Pools and Spas:

We got a break this year from pool and spa tile and plaster renovation, but some of our supporting pool and spa equipment needed replacement. The east spa got a new filter, new pump and new heater this past summer. The center spa also got a new pump for a total cost of almost $7,000. The main entry handrails of all pools and spas have been covered with blue insulating sleeves. No longer do we have to drape a towel over the rail or risk burning our hands.

The center pool is, for February and March, being heated to the standard temperature of 84 degrees. All spas are always programmed at 101 degrees.

—Carl Toland

Landscaping plans set for fall 2017

From the HOA board’s landscape subcommittee:

September and the end of summer is at hand, at least calendar-wise, and our snowbirds are setting their sights on getting back to the desert for “the season.” Our landscape maintenance personnel are also making plans that might interest our year-round residents as well as part-timers.

During September, each week will see a dialing back of irrigation to as little as two minutes per application (Monday thru Saturday). The decrease will help the Bermuda grass go dormant, so some increased browning-out will be apparent. In concert with water reduction will be a mowing schedule that removes an additional 1/2 inch or so of the lawn thickness each week. By the end of September, we will be ready for an easy scalping of the lawn areas in preparation for over-seeding in early October.

The water that we have saved in September will be used to germinate and nourish the annual ryegrass that will be sown during early October.

Our bottle brush trees have grown unfettered for two years now so the time has come to prune them to prevent storm damage this winter. These are weak and brittle trees full of sucker-growth resulting from having been “poodled” during their early years of growth. Our landscaper rescued them from the poodle shape but the damage had been done. The bottle brush pruning will start at the east pool and move west from there.

Our citrus trees will be pruned in November and the old fruit removed long before then.

— Carl Toland

Report on landscaping, pools and other property maintenance

For those who were not here to experience last summer’s heat and humidity, it was a bad one.

Our desertscape had just been installed last year as summer arrived. Plants in the desertscape did pretty well, but we have lost some pyracantha hedge plants due to lack of irrigation quantity. When our landscaper realized that there was too little irrigation to the pyracantha hedges and one large pine tree, he got busy adding emitter hose to both sides of the hedges. Five Red Yucca were planted in the exterior desertscape where ocotillo of the original planting did not take root and live. The five pyracantha were used to fill in hedges where plants died over the hot summer. One entire L-shaped hedge was replaced this fall as the existing one was old and declining.

Sagging Patio Ceilings

Over the years, Canyon South 1 has had a history of repairing sagging patio ceilings. Our investigation this past fall, determined that one unit had priority for repair. A trusted contractor was consulted for a cheaper and less invasive solution to this repair — plus two board members put their best engineering thinking to work. Their suggestions were not followed — for the better we’re sure. This repair went well, looks very good and is affordable, so other patio ceilings will be repaired in this manner at a rate of one or two a year on priority units.

Pool and Spa Heating Schedule

Pool schedule 2016-17We return to our normal pool heating this next season, beginning in October when the Center Pool will be heated first for two months. December and January will see the East and West pools heated, then back to the Center pool for February and March, finishing with the East and West pools for April and May.

Spas at all pools will continue to be heated year-round.

Pool and Spa Re-plastering and Lighting

New waterline tile at Center Pool
New waterline tile at Center Pool

The East Pool and Spa are our only remaining pools to be re-plastered in this cycle and they are planned for updating this fall. New tile, plaster and auto-fill devices will be installed, probably September and October.

Jackhammering out the old plaster
Jackhammering out the old plaster

Rammell Construction was awarded the bid to re-plaster the Center pool. Work began on Sept. 10, 2015, and they finished the startup for that pool as of Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2015. Other items of construction remained to be done, but the pool was open for use.  There was a 3-week delay in construction while waiting for the Health Department inspection.

About 3 years ago, Canyon South 1 installed seven new LED pool and spa lights as they were supposed to be longer-lived and use less electricity.  These fixtures began failing about a year and a half after installation and thus far four have failed.  Two of our contractors, JSR Pools and Horizon Electric lobbied the supplier/manufacturer of these fixtures so that we have been able to replace them for only the labor to install. In the future we will take better care to manage these fixtures during pool and spa re-plastering.

Groundskeeping

In keeping with state and local water agencies’ rules and recommendations and bowing to the general consensus in the Valley, CS1 Board decided to forgo the normal overseeding with annual ryegrass this fall. Therefore we went through the winter season complying with the irrigation schedule of Mon-Wed-Fri only and only during nighttime hours, morning and night. The Bermuda grass did its biological thing and went dormant – no one died because of it!  Without the competition from the annual ryegrass, various weed species acquired a strong foothold in the dormant Bermuda. This required us to apply pre-emergence and post-emergence weed killer to combat these weeds.

Palm pruning is on schedule to begin during the first two weeks of June this late spring, 2016.

— Carl Toland