Knecht’s

For those of you who watch the Northfield News for Leif’s articles and haven’t found them the past three weeks - they have been re-directed to the Saturday Northfield News and are located in the Real Estate Ad section. We have suggested to the News that this section should probably be renamed, however, we’ll have to see what they do. The articles are still there.

Please keep in mind that they are posted here as PDFs on our website in the Library as well, and we’ll probably be making them available a little quicker! We welcome any feedback you have concerning Leif’s articles.

The two most recent: last week’s August 21 article on the control of various pests; and the upcoming one for Saturday, August 28 on landscaping improvements to your property.

Here’s the latest e-coupon - good through the end of August.

(Click here for a printer-friendly page)

(Click here for a printer-friendly page)

Yesterday we held our end of summer picnic since some of our high school and college staff are heading off to school. We have had several great young adults working for us this year - and sad to say that alot of them have headed their separate ways now with fall sports starting and their respective colleges beginning the new school year. We all enjoyed a potluck - which is really the best way to have a picnic! Before heading back to work - we captured the fun with a couple of pictures!

We’d like to thank all of our employees - the ones who are leaving and the ones that will be here through Thanksgiving! You’re a super bunch!

We have just started a great new feature on our website - a Photo Gallery. It’s going to be a wonderful feature (as long as I keep on taking the photos!) Take a few minutes and go through the album(s) as they are added. Any thoughts would be appreciated!

It’s been a few weeks since we have published an e-coupon. Getting ready for Crazy Daze, and then vacation, we fell a little bit behind. We are now going to feature the same special in our e-coupon as we are currently running in the Northfield News and Shopper. This will enable those customers who live beyond the radius of the local paper to also receive these specials as we have them.

(Click here for a printer-friendly page)

(Click here for a printer-friendly page)

Today we just received shipment on our first order of hardy Mums. We have a great selection of Yoder and University of Minnesota mums in several different colors. We also have “Bushels of Mums” for a real impact of color to your doorstep or deck. Stop in soon while the supplies are still good! Fall color can also be achieved with Asters, Ornamental Grasses, and Sedums to name a few.

In a few short weeks, we’ll have our spring bulbs in. They should arrive the last week of August. Even though bulbs should be planted in late September, gardeners like to shop early so they are assured of the varieties they want. We’ll have all kinds of tulips, daffodils, allium, crocus, and more.

Leif and I had our little grandson Jordan with us for a couple of days this week and thoroughly enjoyed having him. He is such a good little boy (all grandparents say that don’t they?) Yesterday afternoon he sat out on the porch in the office, in Grandma’s hammock and had a good time!

Today, we celebrated Heidi’s birthday. Heidi is our retail manager and since her favorite treat is S’mores, we had a birthday cake made with S’mores! The crew all came over and sang Happy Birthday to her at lunch! Happy Birthday Heidi!!!!

Leif and I got away to the Boundary Waters and Quetico last week. We spent a week in Canada with Leif’s two cousins, Matt & Mary. We had perfect weather, the fishing was exceptionally good, and I was able to get alot of really good pictures! This was the first time in Quetico that we caught our limits of nice-sized walleye each day in the middle of summer. We got a tip on a lake - way in the middle of Quetico -and after many hours of portaging and paddling - got there. It wasn’t the prettiest lake that we have camped on, but it was by far the lake with the best fishing.

The above picture is at our campsite above Curtain Falls on the last morning - the mist is rising above the water just as the sun is coming up. Nice to get away - nice to be home.

I like apple trees in home landscapes because they offer lovely spring blossoms and delicious fruit from late August into November. Dwarf and semi-dwarf trees will not overwhelm a landscape and I think it’s really nice for children to grow up seeing that food crops actually must be planted, nurtured, harvested and processed. This will provide a more realistic understanding of the challenges and burdens our growing human population is placing on the environment in which we and our descendants must live. It’s a small lesson but a good one for us all.

See our complete listing of fruit trees for more options.

Leif has a new article posted in the library. Here are the first paragraphs:

During this warm period of the year set your lawn mower to cut the grass just a little bit longer. The grass will do better in the heat when allowed to stay a little longer rather than being cut back to a very short length.

Over the last few weeks have you noticed perennial flowers with lacy powdery blue flowers on stalks 3-4 feet tall? If you have, and are not sure what they are, you have probably been admiring Russian Sage. Check at your favorite nursery to verify, and make plans to use this plant in a very sunny area of your landscape. Since Russian Sage is fairly tall, it will probably work best as a background plant that will compliment somewhat shorter yellow, gold or pink flowering perennials placed in the middle or edge of the planting bed.

Leif’s articles appear in the Saturday edition of the Northfield News, in the Farm and Garden section, just behind the sports page. All his previous articles are archived in our web library, going back to 2001.